The best way to find definitions and discussions of most any term is to type in define "term" in Google --- http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
For example, suppose you want the definition of a cantango:

· Bob Jensen's dictionary bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries

· The easiest way to find definitions is to go to Google Define --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#define
Simply go to Google at http://www.google.com/ or http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
In the search box type define and insert the phrase you want defined in quotations.
For example, suppose you want to define “Grid Computing”
Simply type in define “Grid Computing” in the search box and hit the search button

· Another way to possibly find useful definitions is Wikipedia --- http://www.wikipedia.org/

· File Extension Listings
Filename Extensions --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_extensions
Learn more about file extensions (those three letters at the end of computer file names) --- http://www.filezed.com/

http://www.dotwhat.net/

http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/fileextensionsm.asp

http://www.file-extensions.org/

http://www.jerryjm.host.sk/ext/

http://www.icdatamaster.com/d.html

http://filext.com/

·                How Web Pages Work --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-page3.htm

·                How Internet Infrastructure Works --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm

·                How Computer Things Work (including buying guides) --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/

Personal technology reviews by Walter Mossberg --- http://ptech.wsj.com/

· Click Here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Glossary and Transcriptions of Experts Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities (SFAS 133 and IAS 39)

· A listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

· Acronym Search --- http://www.acronymsearch.com/

· Yahoo's links to Acronyms and Abbreviations --- http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Acronyms_and_Abbreviations/

· www.computer-acronyms.com
This Web site offers visitors short definitions for technical terminology such as, for example, cable modem. Also users can find brief explanations of acronyms for high-speed Internet concepts such as DSL—digital subscriber line.

· A long listing of accounting, finance and business glossaries

"What's the Best Q&A Site?" by Wade Roush, MIT's Technology Review, December 22, 2006 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/17932/

Magellan Metasearch --- http://sourceforge.net/projects/magellan2/

Google is a great search engine, but it's also more than that. Google has tons of hidden features, some of which are quite fun and most of which are extremely useful— if you know about them. How do you discover all these hidden features within the Google site?
See http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=675528&rl=1

Google Is a Calculator
Google Knows Mathematical Constants
Google Converts Units of Measure
Google Is a Dictionary
Google Is a Glossary
Google Lists All the Facts
Google Displays Weather Reports
Google Knows Current Airport Conditions
Google Tracks Flight Status
Google Tracks Packages
Google Is a Giant Phone Directory
Google Knows Area Codes
Google Has Movie Information
Google Loves Music
Google Knows the Answer to the Ultimate Question
Google Advanced Search
Language Tools --- http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
Web Images Video News Maps Desktop more --- http://www.google.com/
Books, Froogle, Groups, Scholar even more --- Click on "More" at http://www.google.com/
Google Maps --- http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl&q=

· October 8, 2005 message from Per Christensson

Here is a good glossary to add to your site at: www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm

The Sharpened Computer Glossary http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/

Also, FileInfo.net is a great file extensions reference to consider adding as well. http://www.fileinfo.net/

Hope you find this helpful!

Thanks, -
Per Christensson

· e-Learning Glossary compiled by Eva Kaplan-Leiserson --- http://www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html

· Bob Jensen's threads on assurance services and security --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/assurance.htm

· Personality theories glossary --- http://college.hmco.com/psychology/engler/personality_theories/6e/students/glossary.html

· The Glossarist --- http://www.glossarist.com/
My minor disappointment is that under the category "Business" there is no sub-category for accounting. My major disappointment is that The Glossarist misses many of our most important Business glossaries. But credit must be given where credit is due. The Glossarist links us to thousands of excellent glossaries.

Links to Nearly 5,000 Glossaries

o Arts & Culture

o Business

o Careers & Employment

o Computers & Internet

o Economy & Finance

o Education

o Entertainment

o Family & Relationships

o Government, Politics & Military

o Health, Medicine & Fitness

o Humanities & Social Sciences

o Media

o Science

o Sports & Recreation

o Technology

o Transport

o World, Regions, Countries & Travel

· Also see Glossaries at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm

· Do you ever search for the spelling of an English word that you just cannot find in an English language dictionary? Try http://www.mathcs.carleton.edu/faculty/jondich/CSTI/words.txt

· Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy --- http://plato.stanford.edu/

· An enormous listing of online glossaries in English, French, and Italian

· LibrarySpot: Your gateway to knowledge --- http://www.libraryspot.com/
Many links to free encyclopedias, dictionaries, statistics, and much more

Real humans will also help you find what your looking for at Ask an Expert http://www.libraryspot.com/askanexpert.htm

December 30, 2006 message from TranslationDirectory.com mailto:%5bonoshko@mail.uar.net]

Dear Robert,

We are sorry we are coming back to you so late - please forgive us the delay.

This is to let you know we have published your glossary at

www.TranslationDirectory.com/glossaries/glossary017.htm

Category: www.TranslationDirectory.com/glossaries.htm

Please verify if everything is fine for you.

If you have other glossaries, please don't hesitate to submit them to us.

Have a prosperous Year of 2007!

Sincerely,

Serhiy Onoshko
CEO

The online version at Jensen’s Website is shown below.

Click on a Navigation Pointer Below for Jensen's Technology Glossary

Click Here For Terms Commencing With Numbers

GLOSSARY TERMS COMMENCING WITH LETTERS

( Click on Any Letter Below)

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Numbered First Letter Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

2-bit video adapter / 2-D / 3-D / 3DO / 4-bit computer / 4-bit video adapter / 4GL Database Languages /16:9 TV / 24-bit video adapter / 32-bit computer

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

The easiest way to find definitions is to go to Google Define --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#define
Simply go to Google at http://www.google.com/ or http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
In the search box type define and insert the phrase you want defined in quotations.
For example, suppose you want to define “Grid Computing”
Simply type in define “Grid Computing” in the search box and hit the search button

2-bit video adapter= (See Video adapter)

2-D= Two dimensional graphics images and animated images. Software options for 2-D scanning and authoring are reviewed in the NewMedia 1995 Tool Guide, pp. 33-43. (See also Paintbrush software)

3-D= Three dimensional graphics images and animated images. Images in 3-D, especially 3-D photographs, are sometimes called "holograms." Biedney (1994) provides a technical discussion and a comparison of alternative software options for rendering 3-D images on desktop computers. Software options for 3-D rendering on the web are reviewed in the NewMedia, May 5 1998, pp. 52-64. The NewMedia web site is at http://www.newmedia.com/ Those authoring packages rated as "Awesome" include Live Picture Reality Studio at http://www.livepicture.com/ (800-724-7900) and Platinum Technology VRCreator at http://www.platinum.com/ (800-442-6861). There are many other options rated as "Thumbs Up" or "Does the Job." (See also Rendering)

3DO= (See CD-3DO)

4-bit computer= (See Bus)

4-bit video adapter= (See Video adapter)

4GL Database Languages = Fourth Generation Languages for databases. The first three generations were developed fairly quickly, but these were painfully slow and complex for certain kinds of tasks such as report generation and database queries. Many of the 4GLs are: database query languages (e.g. SQL; Focus, Metafont, PostScript, RPG-II, S, IDL-PV/WAVE, Gauss, Mathematica and data-stream languages such as AVS, APE, Iris Explorer.) See GainMomentum and Relational database management.

16:9 TV= (See Wide-screen TV)

24-bit video adapter= (See Video adapter)

32-bit computer= (See Bus)

Return to Top of Document

A-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

AB roll editing / AB style switches / ABKY / Accelerated/Advanced Graphics Port / Accelerator board / Account boot disk / Acrobat / Active video / ActiveX / ADAM / ADC / ADO and RDS /ADPCM / AERO / Agent / AGP / AIF / AIX / Alpha processor / ALT / America Online / Amiga / Amiga DOS / AMPS /Analog / Anchor / Anchor color / ALN / ANet / Animation / Annotations / ANSI / Anti-Blur / API / Apple AV / Apple Corporation / Apple QuickTime / Archie / ARPANet / Arrays / Artificial Intelligence (AI) / ASCII / Ask Jeeves / ASP (two meanings) /Aspect ratio / Assessment / Asynchronous / Asynchronous connection / Asynchronous Learning Networks/ AT / ATG / ATM / AU / AU sounds / Audio / Audio board / Audio card / Audio Conversion to Text / Audio on the Internet / Audio streaming / Authenticated Payment Program / Authoring / Authoring software / Authorware / Autodesk / A/V / AV / Avatar / AVI

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

AB roll editing= The transfer of portions of two video sources into one master videotape. For example, one source may be a VCR and the other source a video camera. (See also Video)

AB style switches = analog switchers that are designed to be used in applications whenever multiple computer sources must be connected to a single display device such as a monitor, projector, or LCD panel. For example, multiple VGA or SVGA PCs may be connected to a single data projector or PCs and Macs may be connected to a single data projector. Extron carries an extensive line of AB style switches at http://www.extron.com/prodline.htm. See also Projection.

ABKY= The Atkinson, Banker, Kaplan, and Young (1994) textbook entitled Management Accounting which is noteworthy in this glossary as being the first accounting text accompanied by an Internet bulletin board. Prentice-Hall was the first publishing company, to our knowledge, to offer an interactive two-way network dialog between adopters of selected textbooks and the authors of those books, including a bulletin board of latest readings related to the text, abstracts of related literature, and classroom aids. The ABKY network was the first of the Prentice-Hall offerings to adopters and is available on listserver@watarts.uwaterloo.ca. (See also Internet and Networks)

Accelerated/Advanced Graphics Port = A bus specification by that gives 3D graphics cards faster access to main memory than the usual PCI bus. AGP allows scattered data in system memory to be read in bursts. AGP reduces the overall cost by using existing system memory.

Accelerator board= A hardware electronic board (containing a microprocessor) that can be added to some computers in order to speed up the processing in slow computers. The speed gains are confined to internal calculating and sorting such that no apparent gains are obtained for file management and other busing activities. (See also CPU, Board, and Bus)

Account boot disk= A disk used to load DOS into the computer when it is turned on.

Acrobat= (See PDF)

Active video= A video AV standard and open-video architecture that Microsoft Corporation hopes will become the popular standard to replace the Video for Windows (.avi file extension) and Quicktime (.mov file extension) video architecture. Active video attempts to overcome common complaints with its Video for Windows (e.g., limited throughput, poor A/V synchronization, and hardware/software incompatibilities. Also, Active Video will have software MPEG decoding and will cross platforms with Windows, Windows 2000, and Power Macintosh. It will also have an Active Movie filter to play on the Internet via Microsoft's Explorer browser. Whereas Video for Windows was losing out to Apple's Quicktime in popularity, Microsoft's Active Video makes it a closer race between Apple and Microsoft for dominance in the setting of video standards. (See also Video and MPEG)

ActiveX = utilities from Microsoft Corporation that combine older Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and Component Object Model (COM) utilities. AcitiveX is usually coded in Visual Basic and is quite confusing since it is an outgrowth of a complex set of OLE and COM technologies. Various ActiveX applications can be downloaded from http://www.download.com/PC/Activex/0,271,0-0,00.html. One of the most widespread applications is to give interactive controls (e.g., ask questions, provide answers, perform computations, push buttons, etc.) to users of Internet Explorer on the web. Therein lies a huge risk as well when computers also have Windows Scripting Host (WSH) utilities using ActiveX. WSH files have a file extension whs and are similar to PIF files in older 16-bit applications. Prior to WSH applications, users could browse the web and use email without any worries about virus infections as long as security warnings were heeded about file downloads that run in Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. That is no longer the case if WSH utilities are installed. To avoid such risks, users can either rely upon Netscape products for email and web browsing since Netscape products use Java rather than ActiveX software. If users prefer Microsoft Internet Explorer for web browsing and Microsoft Outlook for email, then they may want to consider adding security barriers to WSH risks. In Internet Explorer you can click on menu choices (View, Internet Options, Security, Custom, Settings) and choose the option to disable "ActiveX Controls Not Marked as Safe." Repeat the same procedure for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. You may also want to consider disabling WSH, although you thereby lose the applications relying on WSH utilities. For virus updates and news, two good web sites are Network Associates at http://www.nai.com/vinfo/ and Mcafee at http://www.mcafee.com/ . (Also see Visual Basic and CORBA ) For more information on the use of ActiveX in distributed network computing, see Database, ADO, and RDS.

ADAM= Animated Dissection of Anatomy for Medicine project that resulted in high quality computer-aided learning modules for schools of medicine. The "inside story" of A.D.A.M. is briefly reviewed in PC World, November 1994, p. 96. See A.D.A.M. Software, Inc. at http://www.adam.com/ for more details.

ADC= Analog to Digital Converter that converts analog sound to binary code form (digital information). (See also DAC, Modem and Video)

ADO = (See Database.)

ADPCM= Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation of audio waveform sampling that records the difference between samples is recorded rather than the actual values. This increases fidelity with lower resolution than conventional PCM. (See also Audio and PCM)

AERO=

"Before Going to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

Aero: This is the graphical user interface that's a key part of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, due out around Jan. 30. If you want to get the full benefit of Vista, make sure any Windows PC you buy this season is capable of running Aero. Many are not.

Agent= Agents are search tools that automatically seek out relevant online information based on your specifications. Agents are also called intelligent agents, personal agents, knowbots or droids.

AIF= One format of Macintosh audio (sound) files. (See also Audio)

AIX= An IBM version of the Unix operating system. It will run on PCs with 386 or higher chips and on workstations and mainframes. (See also Unix)

ALN = (See Asynchronous Learning Networks)

Alpha processor= The ultimate top-of-the line processor for PCs that uses DEC's 21064 chip. The "Alpha-based" systems such as the DECpc from Digital Equipment Corporation claims it is the fastest system available for Windows 2000.

ALT= Software ALTernatives to authoring systems that have full CMS utilities. In other words, professors who do not need full CMS features may opt for alternative authoring packages such as hypertext or hypermedia packages that do not have full CMS features. Various ALT options are compared in Chapter 3. (See also CMS)

America Online= The commercial AOL network (800-827-6364) that "remains the hottest, easiest-to-use and most interesting of the services" according to Mossberg (1994a). AOL offers Time Magazine, the Chigago Tribune, and other news and television network options. New services to educators online include an American Federation of Teachers online doctoral program from the Electronic University Network and the Forum on Technology in Education and Training (FORUM-TET). With the May 11, 1994 announcement of a merger of AOL and Redgate Communications, AOL will take an early lead over competitors in multimedia and GUI graphics networking. (See also GUI, Networks, CompuServe, Internet, eWorld, Interchange, and Prodigy)

Amiga= A video computing hardware/software desktop workstation formerly manufactured and marketed by Commodore International based on Motorola microprocessors. Amiga workstations became a widely popular option in conjunction with NewTek's Video Toaster software for home and office videotape productions. Amiga developed its own operating system called Amiga DOS. A major drawback is that as a computer it does not communicate (i.e., its files are not readable) on more popular Apple, PC, and Unix operating systems. For example, it can neither read MS-DOS files into its operating system nor write out MS-DOS files. It is far less of a competitor for digital computers and networking than for analog video computers such as Mac Video (see Birkmaier (1993) and Torres 1993). The new Amiga workstations became aggressive low-priced competitors to Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations for 3D animation rendering for broadcast quality video. The future of the Amiga is clouded by the 1994 declaration of bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation of the former Commodore International Corporation. At this juncture it is uncertain whether another manufacturer will take over all Amiga technologies and patents. NewTek Inc. (800-847-6111) now sells workstations for its Video Toaster software formerly used in Amiga computers. The Amiga and NewTek workstations compete with Apple AV and SGI competitors, but these options should not be confused with the more extensive concepts of network video servers. (See also Video server, CD32, Apple AV, SGI, and Mac)

Hello Bob, I stumbled across your listing of computer and techincal terms and was very pleased to have found it! It looks very complete. I wanted to mention an error I found. In the text on the Amiga, you mention it could not read or write MS-Dos disks. This is not correct. The Amiga OS supported multiple disk types, excluding Macintosh due to the fact that those disks were not constant velocity format. MS-Dos 720k - 1.44k were supported provided the person had a HD drive for the 1.44 capability.

Thanks for the great work again!

Aaron R>
Aaron & Terri [antfarm@wans.net ]

You can read the following at http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/21418.html

A combination of fierce loyalty and anti-Microsoft sentiment that would make Linux and Mac users blush has Amiga users clinging to their aging computers. The prospect of new hardware is almost too much for the dedicated outcasts to handle. They stick with the platform because it's stable, fast, and has an elegant OS that could multitask in only 512KB of memory fifteen years ago, back when Microsoft still thought DOS was the way to go.

No new hardware has been made for the Amiga since Commodore went under in 1993, with the exception of some third-party peripherals.

"And [now] there's tremendous hatred for Microsoft," said Harv Laser, founder of the AmigaZone, the oldest Amiga fan site online, with roots dating back to the mid-1980s. "A lot of people, myself included, don't want to give Bill Gates one penny."

So when a mysterious German computer company materialized last week announcing new computers based on the long-abandoned Amiga technology, there was much jubilation, along with some skepticism, on Amiga enthusiast sites.

Amiga DOS= (See Amiga)

AMPS = (See Wireless Glossary of Terms)

Analog= (See Video)

Anchor= Synonymous with hyperlinks, anchor refers to non-linear links among documents. Or more simply put, it's the word or phrase that can be selected to connect to another page resource.

Anchor color= The color on a browser screen that represents the anchor tag (navigation item) colors. The reason so many are blue is that blue is often the default color in browser software. This color can be changed to any combination of red, green and blue. The ability to change these colors at the reader level complicates choice of color at the authoring level.

ANet= The International Accounting Network, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia and Bond University, Queensland, Australia. The email address is ANet@scu.edu.au. A description of services is contained in the CETA Newsletter, June, 1994. Mailing lists are also available on ANet, including CDI-ACC-AUDIT in the United Kingdom and AC-CHANGE from Maricopa College in Arizona. (See also International Internet Association, PIC-AECM, and RAW)

Animation= Time-phased moving graphic images that give the impression of motion such as in motion picture cartoons or videographic movements of objects about the screen. Several frames show a progression of movement, and thereby simulate movement. The best-buy in animation software is Autodesk 3D Studio according to PC Computing, December 1994, p. 204. (See also 3-D, flc/fli, Morphing, and Video)

Annotations= Personal notes you can attach to the documents you have saved in your Web browser. The notes are available to you whenever the document is viewed.

ANSI= The American National Standards Institute sets basic standards like ASCII characters and acts as the United States' delegate to the ISO. Standards can be ordered from ANSI by writing to the ANSI Sales Department, 1430 Broadway, New York, NY 10018. (See also ASCII, ISO 9000, and Rich-text format)

Anti-Blur=

"Before Going to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

Anti-Blur: Also known as antishake or image stabilization, this is a crucial feature of digital cameras today. Because few cameras have optical viewfinders, users tend to hold them at arm's length to frame the shot on the LCD screen. This increases the likelihood of shaking the camera. An anti-blur feature can correct that. The best anti-blur technology is optical. Digital versions are less effective.

API= Application Program Interface by which an application program accesses operating system.An API can also provide an interface between a high level language and lower level utilities and services which were written without consideration for the calling conventions supported by compiled languages. Netscape Corporation and Microsoft both provide APIs called NSAPI and ISAPI that essentially extend their web servers, and it provides developers a way to put application code actually within the web server. This means that you don’t have to start up a separate process each time one of these applications is called. And, since that application is always running, it can maintain connections to the database.

Apple AV= A line of computers that was popular for low-cost analog video computing due to built video capture hardware on the motherboard, a DAV connector, and a scan converter for analog video output to television sets and videotape recorders. The Power Macs have replaced the Apple AVs. (See also Video server, Dry camera, SGI, Mac, PowerPC, Mozart, Copeland, Gershwin, and Amiga)

Apple Corporation = (See Mac.)

Apple QuickTime= (See QuickTime)

Archie= Derived from the word archive, Archie is a Net-based service that allows you to locate files that can be downloaded via FTP.

ARPANet= The Advanced Research Projects AgencyNetwork formed in 1969 to connect the Department of Defense (DOD) with institutions conducting major defense contract research. The network linked super computers in major research universities with the DOD. This is credited with being the first academic computer network and is considered the "mother" of the Internet. In the 1980s, ARPANet split into two networks called ARPANet and MILNet (for unclassified military research). An interconnection with the DOD Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) led to a set of networks called DARPA Internet that later became referred to as just the Internet. (See also Internet)

Arrays= (See Jukeboxes)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)= Is a branch (usually called AI/Expert Systems) of computer science, mathematics, psychology, and systems engineering that attempts to make computer "decision making" more like human decision making and to aid or replace human decision makers with machines. Expert systems attempt to utilize the skills, knowledge, and decision evaluation processes of human experts. For example, computers now aid physicians in diagnosing diseases and computer-guided laser rockets virtually replace human guidance decisions. AI failed to live up to its early expectations when it was believed that AI computers would never fail to win at chess and language translators would soon be put out of work by computers. However, applications of AI have been taking place and computers can now play very good chess to a point where they occasionally beat even the grand masters.

ASCII= American Standard Code for Information Interchange computer character set (text and symbols) that enables transfer of text and data between different computing systems. This international standard provides only very plain text without options for font modifications. For example, files from word processors such as Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, and Word Star often cannot be imported to hypertext or hypermedia software without conversion to ASCII code (most word processors will change files to ASCII "text" files). The downside is that nearly all formatting and font variations are lost in ASCII conversions such that imported ASCII text may have to be re-formatted line by line and altered for font preferences. Very few software alternatives have "filters" that import word processor files directly without having to convert to ASCII codes, although many are now adding rich-text format (RTF) utilities. In hypertext authoring, choice of a hypertext software option should include a question concerning whether "filters" are available for avoidance of ASCII text conversions. (See alsoANSI, Internet Messaging, and Rich-text format)

Ask Jeeves = (See Search engine.)

ASP = has at least two meanings.

Application Service Provider that provides individuals or enterprises access over the Internet to applications and related services. This service is s sometimes referred to as "apps-on-tap." Early applications include:

Remote access serving for the users of an enterprise
An off-premises local area network to which mobile users can be connected, with a common file server
Specialized applications that would be expensive to install and maintain within your own company or on your own computer

Hewlett-Packard, SAP, and Qwest have formed one of the first major alliances for providing ASP services.

Active Server Pages. ASP script extensions contain either Visual Basic or Jscript code. When a browser requests an ASP page, the Web server generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser. So ASP pages are similar to CGI scripts, but they enable Visual Basic programmers to work with familiar tools. This is a page that performs customized "applications" services. A great example is NetLedger.com where individuals or complete business firms can access accounting software that allows all accounting to be maintained in NetLedger's online files. Business transactions (such as billings and collections) can even be managed by the applications server. See http://www.netledger.com/

Other examples are given at http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/stories/general/0,11011,2615695,00.html

For now, however, the latest twist on the ASP trend—what Outtask and some analysts are calling the BSP, or business service provider, model—remains immature. The range of business process services being offered in conjunction with hosted applications is narrow, mostly limited to functions such as travel, PC support and payroll. And, while some hosting providers such as Alexandria-based Outtask have begun building mixed portfolios of managed application and business process services from scratch and selling them directly to their customers, many established ASPs are adding the BSP tag to their résumés by forming alliances with the BPO divisions of major consulting and systems integration companies or with leaders in specific areas of outsourcing, such as Automatic Data Processing Inc. for payroll services. Many of those relationships, however, are new. Often, the hosted applications from one vendor and the business services from another are not truly integrated. So the user is often left negotiating and dealing with more than one provider.

Aspect ratio= The ratio of the horizontal to vertical size of the screen. Some monitors display rectangular pixels which can make the picture or image appear stretched. Software that allows images to be resized and changed with respect to aspect ratios greatly facilitates authoring. Otherwise, images have to be transported to other software for such changes and then transported back in a cumbersome process that makes authors grateful when aspect ratios and image sizes can be modified without such difficulties. Macromedia Director is one of the very few hypermedia authoring systems that has a utility for changing the scale and aspect ratios of imported bitmap pictures as well as rotating and inverting such pictures.

Assessment= The evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of technology on attitudes and performance. Tidd (1995) discusses various assessment scales such as the Computer Attitude Scale, the Computer Anxiety Rating Scale, and the Computer Self-Efficacy Scale. Assessment is very difficult because no matter how good the findings are in an empirical study, the relevance of those findings quickly falls away due to constantly emerging technologies that are significantly better than older technologies used in the study.

Asynchronous= A method of communication that places data in discrete blocks that are surrounded by framing bits. These bits show the beginning and ending of a block of data.

Asynchronous connection= The type of connection a modem makes over a phone line, this connection is not synchronized by a mutual timing signal or clock.

Asynchronous Learning Networks= ALN networks of education and training modules or courses where students learn in self-paced online pedagogy in contrast to synchronized presentations in traditional classrooms or electronic classrooms. Synchronous education in a scheduled sequence of classes will face serious new competition of asynchronous education distributed on networks where students learn and communicate most any day and most any time of day and study at their own paces. An example is the new online Western Governors University at http://www.westgov.org/smart/vu/vu.html. Ideally, faculty or other expert help is available online to both help students and evaluate student work and ideas. In addition, asynchronous courses may schedule synchronous virtual online meetings of subsets of students or entire classes of students. Networked courses may thus be synchronous and asynchronous, although the technical learning components are largely asynchronous. Bob Jensen has a paper on ALN at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm that reviews, among other things, the experiments conducted on millions of dollars in Sloan Foundation grants for ALN development. See also Hypermedia and Hypertext.

AT= (See PC)

ATG= (See Video server)

ATM= Automatic Teller Machines for banks and Asynchronous Transfer Mode switching in networks. The high speed ATM networks allow transmission of video, audio, and data over local and world-wide networks. (See also Broadband, Networks, and Sonet)

AU= The file extension for UNIX audio (sound) files. (See also Audio)

AU sounds= This is an audio format developed for Sun workstations and often used to distribute sound clips via the Web.

Audio= Voice, music, and other sounds recorded and stored in analog or digital form. The term RealAudio refers to a helper-app (plug-in) that allows WWW users to hear audio files in real time. Options for creating and playing digital audio Java applets are reviewed in deCarmo (1996). Options for converting written text into audio are given in Text reading. (See also Sound board, AU, AIF, Board, Hertz, Java, MIDI, Speech recognition, Text reading, Video/audio networking, and Wave file)

Recording what you hear: More MP3 and audio-file tools than you can shake a memory stick at!

Fred Langa, "Converting Audio Files? Let 'Er Rip!," Information Week, July 25, 2005 --- http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=166401664

With all that as lead in, here, then, are the suggestions from your fellow readers for the best tools for converting, ripping, and burning audio, extracted from over a megabyte of original text mail files:


Audacity Acoustica MP3 CD Burner Adaptec CD Creator Ashampoo Audio Catalyst Audiograbber Burn Quick Burn4Free BurnAtOnce Burrrn Cakewalk Pyro CD Burner Pro CD Burner XP Pro CD'n'Go CD Extreme	CD to MP3 Freeware CDex Cheetah Burner Creative OEM Software DeepBurner Disc Master dMC/dBPowerAMP Easy CD-DA Extractor Exact Audio Copy Express Burn Feurio Free Rip HotBurn HT Fireman iTunes	J. River Media Center JetAudio K3b Musicmatch Nero PlexTools Real Audio RecordNow QuickBurn Quintessential Roxio Shorten Files Winamp Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player
Fred, I have several ideas about freeware to burn MP3s and a possible solution to Ken's problems in burning CDs. I use Nero for most of my CD and DVD burning so I do not have a lot of experience with other freeware, but here are two I have used. First, Windows Media Player Version 10 can burn CDs from MP3 files. It can also rip music in MP3 format if you change the rip setting from its usual WMA setting. Look under Tools, Options, and then go to the Rip Music tab. Here is a link to the download. Also, Musicmatch Jukebox has a free version in addition to its paid version. It can also burn and rip MP3 files. Here is the link to the free download. In the past, I have had somewhat the same problem Ken appears to be having when burning a CD. At the very end of a burn (usually 99% complete) I would receive an error saying the burn could not complete. After some research, I found that having autoplay on might cause the PC to read the almost complete CD and try to run it JUST BEFORE it was complete. Turning off autoplay solved that problem. Most CD recording software now does this automatically during the burn process so you can leave autoplay turned on. I am not sure if this would solve Ken's problem, but it appears that he is having the same problem with every CD-burning software he tries so it might just be worth checking.
-- Clay Teague

Bob Jensen's threads on MP3 coding and decoding are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#MP3

Bob Jensen's threads on audio on the Internet are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#WebAudio

Older lternatives for creating MP3 audio files are given at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book99q4.htm#MP3

The Web is Alive With the Sound of MP3," Newsweek, February 22, 1999, Page 16.

http://www.mp3.com/ (hours of free downloads, including the New York Times MP3s.)

http://www.audiogalaxy.com/ (lots of samples and free downloads.)

Go to the Frequently Asked Questions at http://www.mp3.com/ . MP3 is a file format which stores audio files on a computer in such a way that the file size is relatively small, but the song sounds near perfect. You can identify MP3 files because they will end in MP3. Typically 1 MB is equal to one minute of music or several minutes for spoken work/audiobooks. This is about a 90% reduction in hard drive space and bandwidth vis-a-vis uncompressed high quality wav files, but the actual savings depends upon the recording quality of your wav files. If you think about a CD-ROM holding 650 Mb, this translates to over 11 hours of high quality audio in MP3 format. More importantly, MP3 audio does not require as much Internet bandwidth as previous audio alternatives.

Also see Web streaming

Audio board= (See Sound board)

Audio card= (See Sound board)

Audio Conversion to Text = (See Text reading)

Audio on the Internet= (See Internet audio and video)

Audio streaming= (See Web streaming)

Authenticated Payment Program=

From http://international.visa.com/fb/paytech/secure/main.jsp
Visa has begun the global rollout of the Authenticated Payment Program. The Program, based on commercial incentives, will vastly improve the payment service for e-merchants, consumers and Visa Members by enhancing convenience, acceptance and security. Consumers will know that they can shop safely and conveniently while preventing fraud on their card, and merchants will know they are dealing with a legitimate cardholder anywhere in the world. The newest authentication technology, 3-D Secure™, forms the basis for global interoperability of Authenticated Payments.

Authoring= Developing (writing of text, recording of audio, importing of video, inserting graphics, etc.) hypertext and hypermedia learning, entertainment, and reference materials. The history and trends in authoring are summarized at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm

Also see Cross-platform, Delta Project, Hypertext, CORE, Non-core, Hypermedia, Morphing, Presentation, Titles, and Rendering)

Authoring software= This term refers to software that enables the creation of multimedia or hypertext documents and presentations.

Authorware= Macromedia's hypermedia authoring system designed primarily for training and education asynchronous learning courses. Authorware was originally developed for Mac computers and is still the most sophisticated option for Mac users. There is a PC version that faces stiffer competition from high-end authoring systems listed at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245soft1.htm. The main competitor is probably Asymetrix ToolBook in terms of full course development, course management, CD-ROM delivery, and web delivery. For links to Macromecia and applications on the web, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/links/prelim.htm. The following is quoted from Jeff Glasse in MacWeek, August 25, 1997, pp.

Despite increased competition, Macromedia Inc.'s Authorware has been the undisputed champ for developing complex multimedia programs that require a high degree of user tracking. Version 4.0 of the $1,999 (estimated street price) package offers Web delivery and external file linking, making it irresistible for certain applications.

Macromedia also sells the Authorware 4.0 Interactive Studio, a $2,999 (estimated street price) package that includes Macromedia Director 6.0, xRes 3.0 and Sound Edit 16 Version 2.0.

Authorware 4 retains its heavy use of icons in interactive design. All program elements, including graphics, logic, transitions, audio and motion, are represented by small icons in the program's flowline. Program developers create a flowline in the Design window (similar to Director's Score) and view the actual media in the Presentation window (analogous to Director's Stage).

Interactive designers either love this approach or find it cumbersome, but one thing is certain: Authorware is significantly more difficult to learn than other major development packages. One of the reasons for this, however, is that Authorware boasts greater depth than other applications, making it particularly well-suited for creating complex, branched training materials--the program's original aim. Once you've overcome the rather long learning curve, the flowline also offers much easier debugging of complex logic than is possible in Director or even in mFactory Inc.'s mTropolis.

As in previous versions, Authorware 4 lets developers release titles for Macs and Intel-standard PCs without modification. The player engine is wrapped into the final project, making it a double-clickable application on both platforms. Macromedia does not charge a distribution licensing fee.

Director movies can be played within Authorware 4 with their interactivity intact. This is especially important if you want to develop titles that include both complex animation sequences, at which Director excels, and highly branched interactivity, Authorware's forte.

Writing for new audiences
Authorware 4 has been substantially retooled for Web deployment and functionality. It now supports external content controls, so a completed project can reference external media elements on a LAN, an intranet or the Internet. This lets you develop a program that can be updated without having to rebuild the entire project; simply update the media that the program references. Of course, you must manage these external files religiously, and if used in the final project, path name relationships must remain constant.

External links are managed through the aptly named External Media Browser, an essential new tool that lets you track external media efficiently and relatively painlessly.

Authorware titles can be played across the Web using Macromedia Shockwave technology. Unlike Director 6, Authorware still requires you to run a project through a separate Afterburner utility (included with the program) to "shock" it for the Web.

Version 4 adds support for a number of file formats, including GIF, JPEG and Adobe Photoshop. Images can be resized and cropped within the development environment, allowing for considerable flexibility in the process.

The program also adds a collection of Quickstart templates to help beginners create typical interactive projects.

Authorware is fully cross-platform, but there are minor differences between the two versions. Most significant is that the Mac version doesn't support Microsoft ActiveX controls, while the PC version does. This is less the fault of Macromedia than of Microsoft Corp., which has been slow to bring ActiveX technology to the Mac. Still, it's a significant issue for cross-platform developers who want to use the technology.

Despite the program's otherwise unsurpassed text-handling capabilities (including support for style sheet and RTF text import), Authorware still does not offer anti-aliased text--a serious omission. Director, which is less aimed at text-based programs, has offered this feature since Version 5.0. We hope Macromedia fixes this rather annoying problem.

While the interface is generally improved, Authorware still relies too much on dialog boxes. You often have to tunnel through several layers of them to change a single characteristic.

3-D Rendering for the Web

Software options for 3-D rendering on the web are reviewed in the NewMedia, May 5 1998, pp. 52-64. The NewMedia web site is at http://www.newmedia.com/ Those authoring packages rated as "Awesome" include Live Picture Reality Studio at http://www.livepicture.com/ (800-724-7900) and Platinum Technology VRCreator at http://www.platinum.com/ (800-442-6861). There are many other options rated as "Thumbs Up" or "Does the Job."

Conclusions
Macromedia continues to offer an environment with unparalleled power and depth for complex interactive projects. While Authorware's learning curve is significantly steeper than that of Director, mTropolis or Pitango Multimedia Ltd.'s ClickWorks, none of them offers the rich set of variables and external device controllers that Authorware boasts. Version 4's new set of Web tools makes this high-end program an even better choice.

Although Authorware lacks the powerful animation capabilities of Director, Macromedia has essentially addressed the shortcomings of both products by offering them together in the Authorware 4 Interactive Studio and allowing Director movies to be played within Authorware. The Studio provides a single development package that is essentially unsurpassed.

Macromedia Inc. of San Francisco is at (415) 252-2000 or (800) 989-3762; fax (415) 626-0554; http://www.macromedia.com/. For links to Macromecia and applications on the web, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/links/prelim.htm.

(See Hypermedia, Hypertext, and Authoring)

Autodesk= (See Animation and flc/fli)

A/V= Audio/Video marriage of big screen television with movie-theater-like audio in homes and classrooms.

AV= (See Apple AV)

Avatar= This term refers to an interactive representation of a human in a virtual reality environment; the term was popularized by Neal Stephenson's novel "Snow Crash."

AVI= Audio Video Interleaved digitized video files (with audio tracks) that satisfy MPC standards for Video for Windows playback. The Media Player (mplayer.exe) file that is included in Windows operating systems runs AVI files. Most PC video capture boards will convert analog video into AVI files. The AVI standard from Microsoft's Video for Windows is giving way to Microsoft's newer Active Video architecture. (See also Active video, MCI, MPC, and QuickTime)

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B-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

B2B and B2C / Baan / Back-end / Bandwidth / Bar codes / Baseband / Baud / BBS / BeVocal / BinHex / BIOS / Bit / BITNET / Blind / Blog / Blu-Ray DVD / BMP / Board / Bookmark / Bot / bps / Branch / Bridge / Broadband / Broadcasting / Browser / Browsers / ASP / Buffer underrun / Bulletin Board / Bus / Bus topology / Byte / Bytes

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Baan = Baan Company is a leading provider of enterprise business software that enhances the processes common to
businesses of all sizes and industries. Baan Company's commitment to continuously reducing complexity creates flexible, easy-to-integrate products and services that allow customers to adapt quickly to a dynamic competitive environment. The web Baan site is at http://www5.baan.com/cgi-bin/bvisapi.dll . See database.

Back-end = the final stage in a process or a task not apparent to the user. A common usage is in a compiler. A compiler's back-end generates machine language and performs optimizations specific to the machine's architecture. The term can also be used in the context of Open System Interconnect (OSI) network applications. A standard for layering of protocols (protocol stack) to implement it were was developed in 1978 as a framework for international standards in heterogeneous computer network architecture. The architecture is split between seven layers (lowest to highest):

1. physical layer
2. data link layer
3. network layer
4. transport layer
5. session layer
6. presentation layer
7. application layer

Generally each layer uses the layer immediately below it and provides a service to the layer above in a "back ended" way.

In the third generation of network computing, web servers perform back-end database computing where it’s controlled and managed. But third generation computing takes advantage of the new interactive server/client interactive technology like Sun's Java andMicrosoft's Microsoft's ActiveX/CORBA. Users on the client side want to interact in various ways such as perform sensitivity (what-if) type of analyses.

Bandwidth= Capacity (range) of transmission frequencies on a network as expressed in cycles per second (hertz) or bits per second that determines the amount of data, audio, and video that can flow over the network. The higher the frequency, the higher the bandwidth. (See also Baseband, Broadband, Hertz, bps, and Information highway)

Bar codes= Alternate standards for marking products or other items for reading by laser beams. They are used extensively for locating items on videodiscs and CDs. The LaserBarCode was the original standard for CAV discs. This was extended to LaserBarCode2 for CLV discs. The Bar Code CD is an audio standard for CD discs. (See also Videodisc and CD)

Baseband= A network cable that has only one channel for carrying data signals.

Baud= A unit of speed in data transmission, or the maximum speed at which data can be sent down a channel. Baud is often equivalent to bits per second. Named after J. M. E. Baudot (died 1903). (See also bps)

BBS= Bulletin Board Systems on the Internet that provide electronic bulletin board and conferencing services. (See also CWIS and Freenets)

BeVocal = (See Speech Recognition).

BinHex= A file conversion format that converts binary files to ASCII text files.

BIOS= (See VESA)

Bit= A contraction of binary digit, a bit is the smallest unit of information that a computer can hold. Eight bits is equivalent to a byte. The speed at which bits are transmitted or bit rate is usually expressed as bits per second or bps.

BITNET= Because It's Time NETwork is an early network of academic and research professionals. Most users have shifted to e-mail gateways. (See also Internet and Networks)

Blind = (See Disabilities.)

Blog = (See Weblog)

BMP= Bitmap graphics files that are accessible through Windows Paintbrush and most other PC graphics software. (See also Compression, CGM, and JPEG)

Board= A hardware component that fits into the expansion slot of a computer unit and expands the capabilities of the computer. A board can enable the computer to communicate with an external hardware device, such as a CD-ROM. Alternate terms are card, expansion card, interface card, interface board. (See also SCSI, Sound board, Video board, and PCMCIA)

Bookmark= A user-defined place mark that enables the user to return to a particular screen or starting point after accessing related information. Bookmarks may also be used to locate sections on related topics.

bps= bits per second. This is a measure of transfer speed that is commonly used in modems. (See also Bandwidth and Baud)

Branch= Any one of the paths an application can take after it evaluates a specific condition.

Bot = a roBot that usually is a software program that can be good (administering or policing on the network) or bad (causing evil) on the network. Bots commonly are used in real audio chat lines. A WebBot are "smart objects" that can be inserted into web pages to perform tasks that otherwise would require CGI scripting or some other dynamic action programming. WebBots can help set up dynamic chat lines, time image appearances, register and confirm actions, reference annotations, perform calculations, etc. Some HTML editors can be used to create WebBots. Microsoft FrontPage, for example, can be used for:

WebBot Confirmation Field component

WebBot Include component

WebBot Scheduled Image component

WebBot Scheduled Include component

WebBot Search component

WebBot Substitution component

WebBot Table of Contents component

WebBot Timestamp component

One example of a WebBot is the people search engine at http://www.nerdworld.com/

botnets and phishing on your computer at this very moment: Forwarded by Jagdish Gangolly
Know your Enemy: Tracking Botnets: Using honeynets to learn more about Bots --- http://www.honeynet.org/papers/bots/
The Honeynet Project & Research Alliance http://www.honeynet.org/
Last Modified: 13 March 2005

Honeypots are a well known technique for discovering the tools, tactics, and motives of attackers. In this paper we look at a special kind of threat: the individuals and organizations who run botnets. A botnet is a network of compromised machines that can be remotely controlled by an attacker. Due to their immense size (tens of thousands of systems can be linked together), they pose a severe threat to the community. With the help of honeynets we can observe the people who run botnets - a task that is difficult using other techniques. Due to the wealth of data logged, it is possible to reconstruct the actions of attackers, the tools they use, and study them in detail. In this paper we take a closer look at botnets, common attack techniques, and the individuals involved.

Bridge= A device that connects different LANs so a node on one LAN can communicate with a node on another LAN.

Broadband= Network transmission capacity that greatly exceeds capacity required for voice transmission over traditional telephone cables. Broadband networks may have dedicated portions for audio, video, and data or they may allow for capacity switching. (See also Bandwidth, Information highway, Switched network, Networks, and ATM)

Broadcasting = (See webcasting.)

Browser= A type of software that allows you to navigate information databases; examples are Netscape Navigator and NCSA Mosaic.

Browsers= (See Web browsers)

BSP = (See ASP)

Buffer underrun= A common error where the data stream being fed from the CD-R's cache buffer falls behind the laser doing the writing. (See also CD-R)

Bulletin Boards = (See e-mail )

Bus= The internal pathways (data bus, address bus, and control bus) of wires connecting various parts of a computer. Common standards for buses were Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) 16-bit bus common in AT-compatible PCs, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) 32-bit buses in IBM PS/2 computers, and Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) 32-bit buses that are backward compatible with ISA adapters. An "expansion bus" is an extension of the data bus and address bus that includes slots for adapter boards. It is better than ISA and EISA for hypermedia authoring to also purchase a "local bus" system in 32-bit or higher capacity with eight or more expansion slots for multimedia options. A local bus connects the CPU with peripherals directly so as to improve performance speed. However, in recent years, the VL local buses are not as good as the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) brainchild of Intel. The term "bus" can also apply to standards for connecting electronic components other than computer components. The term CDBus or consumer electronics bus refers to a home or office automation standard such that components connected through power lines, coaxial cable, infrared connections, and telephone lines will be mutually compatible. (See also VL-Bus and Cache)

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is the common bus used on PCs. It is a relatively slow hardware bus an is a small fraction of the speed of FireWire. The term "FireWire" is the early name given to High Performance Serial Bus.A serial bus developed by Apple Computer and Texas Instruments (IEEE 1394).The High Performance Serial Bus can connect up to 63 devices in a tree-like daisy chain configuration, and transmit data at up to 400 megabits per second.It supports plug and play and peer-to-peer communication between peripheral devices.Wintel (Intel and Microsoft) were spooked by the speed of FireWire and developed new PCs called Easy PCs that use only USB and FireWire in machines that will no longer have the familiar parallel and serial ports.

Bus topology= A physical layout of a LAN where all nodes are connected to a single cable.

Byte= The number of bits used to represent a character.

Bytes= Grouping of eight bits. While a bit can assume only two states, 0 and 1, a byte can store from 0 up to 255 different states. Most of the time a character is stored in a byte. Therefore, a byte can store up to 255 different characters. The standard ASCII character set consists of 128 characters; the additional characters generally used in PC software brings the total number of characters up to 255.

C-Terms

Return to Top of Document

Click on a term or phrase below:

Cache / CAL / Caller ID / Camcorder / Camera / CAPTURE / Capture / Card / Careers / CASE / Castanet / Casting / CAT /CAV / CBT / CD / CD Burning / CDMA / CD Phase Change Dual (PD) / CD Recording / CD32 / CD-3DO / CD-AUDIO / CDBus / CD-DVD / CD-Erasable / CDF / CD+G / CD-I / CD-Karaoke / CDMA/TDMA / CD-MM / CD-PD / CDPD / CD-Photo / CD-R / CD-R2 /CD-RW / CD-Rewritable / CD-ROM / CD-ROM Titles / CD-ROM XA / CD-RW / CD-Stand Alone / CD-Standards /CD-TV / CD-VIS / CD-WORM / CETA / CFML / CGA / CGI /CGM / Channel / Channel Casting / Channel Definition Format (CDF) / Chat Lines / Chipping / CHRP / CISC / Click Fraud / Client / Client-server / Client-server architecture / Clipboard / Clipper Chip / Clock speed / Cloud Computing / CLV / CMC /CMS / Coaxial cable / CODEC / CollabraShare / Collaboration / Collar / COM / Compact disc / Companding / Compression / Computer / Computer Based Training / CompuServe / Computer Virus / Concurrency Control / Configuration / Configure / Console / Control code / Conventional memory / Cookies / Copeland / Coprocessor / Copying / CORBA / CORE / Costless Collar / CPU / Cracker / Craplet / CRM / Cross-platform / Cryptolope / CWIS / CyberMall / Cyberspace

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Cache= A storage area in both RAM (cache memory) and disc drives (cache controllers) that keeps frequently accessed instructions more readily accessible. (See also Bus)

CAL= The most generic of Computer Aided Learning or Computer Assisted Learning terms. CAL encompasses in-class lecture aids, learning materials for computer labs, electronic books, learning materials available on networks such as the Internet, and any other learning aids that are used with computers or related devices such as compact disc (CD) players connected to television sets. Especially see the concept of a shell. (See also Authoring, Computer Based Training, Course Management Systems, Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Networks)

Caller ID= Caller identification of the phone number of person placing a call to another number. Some states now allow telephone owners to have visual displays of the caller ID.

Camcorder= (See Video camera and Video from digital (DV) camcorders. Also see Video.)

Camera= (See Dry camera)

CAPTURE= a NetWare utility program used to redirect output from a printer port on the workstation to a network printer.

Capture= (See Screen capturing. Also see Video.)

Card= (See Board)

Careers= (See Authoring)

CASE = Computer Assisted Software Engineering tools for automating information systems design and programming. The CASE tools are listed and extensively explained at http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/Software-Engineering/toolcat.html#label60 . See also Database and MDA..

Castanet = (See Webcasting.)

Casting = (See Webcasting.)

CAT= That subset of CAL that entails Computer Aided Teaching. This subset is restricted to software designed for authoring and/or delivery of learning materials in a classroom or on line in a computer network or teleconference in which the instructor is present and using the CAT materials as an aid to his or her teaching.

CAV= Constant Angular Velocity playback in magnetic and laser discs where the disc rotates at a constant speed. Relative to CLV variable speeds, the CAV approach results in varying data retrieval times that depend upon where the read/write head is located relative to the disc spindle. Authors of CAV disc products try to locate commonly accessed files closer to spindle. In videodiscs, CAV discs hold only 30 minutes of video on each side of a 12-inch disc. However, CAV facilitates searching for individual frames. (See also CLV)

CBT= Computer-Based Training in which the computer becomes a tutor for asynchronous learning that adjusts to each student's learning pace. CBT that contains artificial intelligence for adapting training requirements and options to different aptitudes and skills of individual students is referred to in military training as Intelligent CBT (ICBT) to distinguish ICBT from traditional CBT that does not automatically adapt to skills and needs of different learners. (Also see Authoring, Computer Based Training, Computer Aided Learning, Course Management Systems, Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Networks).

CD= A "small" injection-molded optical disc containing digitized information that has been recorded with a laser device and must be read on a laser device. The term "small" generally refers to a disc that is 8 cm or 12 cm (4.72 inches) in diameter as opposed to videodiscs that typically are much larger in diameter. Also, videodiscs usually are restricted to analog inputs from videotape whereas CDs rely on inputs from computer tape or other digitized platforms. Although there are several types of CDs for audio, television, and computer playback, the CD-Audio and CD-ROM discs have overwhelming shares of the market. For example, Kim (1994) discusses why CD-ROM discs are replacing floppy discs in a "ground swell." CD-ROM discs now hold approximately 680 Mb (i.e., 680 million characters) although compression techniques make it possible to record CDs from even larger computer files. Usually CDs have slower access speeds than magnetic hard drives, but speeds are improving and playback of video is now possible on both CD-ROM and CD-I players. Although the best known CDs once were those that contain only audio recordings, there is a rapidly growing market for various types of CDs that contain computer files and/or files that can be read on special devices connected to television sets. (See also Bar codes, CAV, CLV, Photo CD, Videodisc, Minidisc, CD-Stand Alone, Nintendo/SGI Cartridges, and Laserdisc)

CD Burning= (See CD-R)

CDMA =

Question
What is CDMA technology?

From The Washington Post on February 18, 2006

A joint venture between Nokia Corp. and Sanyo Electronic Corp. means that they will now control about 20 percent of the world's market for phones using CDMA technology. What is CDMA?

A. core digital multipe alignment
B. code division multiple access
C. control digital management access
D. control density media attention

CDMA, which stands for "code division multiple access," is used in the United States by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., as well as in Japan, India, China and South Korea. In other markets, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa, GSM, or Global System for Mobile communications, is the dominant standard.

CD Phase Change Dual (PD)= (See Phase Change Dual)

CD Recording= (See CD-R and CD-DVD)

CD32= The 32-bit multimedia CD system that plays on Amiga Computers from Commodore Corporation. These CDs are used for CD movies, games, and educational material on Amiga Computers. The future of the CD32 is clouded by the 1994 declaration of bankruptcy by Commodore Corporation. (See also Amiga)

CD-3DO= A type of compact disc designed originally to compete against CD-I and CD-MM for interactive television set entertainment and, possibly, education. A promoter named Trip Hawkins put together an impressive grouping of Hollywood movie studios and other developers of interactive videos using MPEG compression. Large companies such as Panasonic, Sanyo, and others are producing playback machines for TV sets. For an older review see NewMedia, August 1993, p. 21. For a more recent review see USA Today, May 28, 1998 where it is announced that Trip Hawkins launched a comeback after the early financial disaster of his 3DO venture. The 3DO video games lost out completely to competitors like Matsushita, Philips, Sony, and Victor who agreed upon a competing CD-Karaoke standard. Prospects once seemed high that this would emerge a winner. In 1993, 3DO stock soared in price. Time Magazine, January 3, 1994, p. 76, ranked the Panasonic CD-3DO Multiplayer as Number 1 in a listing and discussion of the top ten "best" new products of 1993. (In that same listing, the Motorola PowerPC Chip ranked Number 6 and PDA products came in at Rank 7 ahead of Mattus Ice Cream at Rank 9.) However, in 1994, sales of 3DO players have fallen far short of expectations (except in Japan) and the 3DO stock price fell from a high of over $45 per share to less than $15. Hawkins invested millions more of his own money in the company. "This maker of multimedia game players is fighting for survival" according to Newsweek on June 13, 1994, p. 40. Hawkins and his 3DO machines all but disappeared from the public. However, in May of 1998 they resurfaced 3DO unveiled 11 video games and targets to become a small and more focused video game maker. (See also Games, CD-VIS, CD-I, CD-MM, CD-R, and CD-Karaoke)

CD-AUDIO= A CD that contains only audio playback. These were invented by Philips and Sony and have become extremely popular in the music recording industry. In order for these discs to be compatible with consumer playback machines, most discs are recorded according to the CD-Digital Audio "Reebok" standard.

CDBus= (See Bus)

CD-DVD= Digital Video (or Versatile) Disc combines the best features of CD-ROM size and data storage with capacity for video storage beyond that of videodiscs. DVD is so revolutionary that in the next decade it will probably replace VHS videotapes and CD-ROMs and videodiscs.

Blu-ray set to be DVD standard after Toshiba white flag: Alas most of us will need new DVD players (probably new computers)
Sony's Blu-ray looks set to become the standard for high-definition DVDs after Toshiba signalled Monday that it may give up in a long-running format battle, to the relief of investors. Toshiba Corp. is reviewing its HD DVD business and "a complete withdrawal is one of the options it is considering," an industry source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Blu-ray and HD DVD -- which are incompatible -- can provide cinematic-quality images and multimedia features but the players come at a much steeper price than current-generation DVDs. The demise of HD DVD could spur sales of next-generation DVD players among consumers, who have been reluctant to gamble on one of the formats, analysts said, although Blu-ray was already far ahead in sales, particularly in Japan. Blu-ray can store more data than HD DVD but was initially seen as more expensive to make. Nonetheless, a growing number of Hollywood studios and retailers have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray. US giant Wal-Mart gave a decisive boost to Blu-ray last week when it said it would stop selling HD DVDs.
PhysOrg, February 18, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news122541604.html

Jensen Comment
The question for you is whether you television sets and computers can play Blu-ray disks?
For example, Dell and HP strongly supports the move to Blu-ray, but we have to expect this is partly due to Dell and HP users who will now buy new computers.
Dell now takes orders for a Blu-ray laptop --- http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/12/dell_touts_blu-ray_laptop/

Neflix enthusiasts like me will have to enable their accounts to get Blue-ray DVD movies --- http://www.netflix.com/MediaSelection?lnkctr=gnHdMedia

February 19, 2008 reply from David Albrecht mailto:%5balbrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]

I'm pretty ignorant here.

(1) Will Blue Ray work with any HD TV?
(2) When standard DVDs are no longer produced, will the Blu-Ray DVDs work on the regular DVD player on my laptop?
(3) If the answer to (2) is no, then will it work to pop out my old DVD drive from my computer and purchase/install a new Blu-Ray drive, or will the lack of HD on my computer screen (machine is 15 months old) destine it to the junk heap.
(4) Is all the bother really worth it? I mean, I watch DVD movies on my laptop, and I'm not seeing HD at all. Everything seems fine. In fact, all of this is better than anything I ever had before.
(5) I pick up my DVD movies at the Walmart $5 bargain bin, and at pawn shops. How long until I can start picking up blu-ray DVDs for the same prices at the same places?
(6) Will getting HD improve my BMI?

David Albrecht
LD in Ohio

February 19, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

What pretty well sealed the deal for Sony’s Blu-Ray was when Wal-Mart adopted this standard worldwide for movie disks and players.

I don’t have all the answers to your questions David, but the two technologies are not compatible. On our computers most of us have CD drives, older-style DVD drives, or in on occasion Toshiba’s standard HD-DVD drives. The CD disks and older-style DVD data disks are cheap and will probably be around for quite a while for data file recording and reading. The HD-DVD recorders and players will go the way of Betamax when the VCR standard beat out Betamax. Original DVD drives would not play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movie disks. However, HD-DVD players could playback older-style DVD disks that you may have recorded on your computer or purchased from vendors of data and software.

HD-DVD drives will not play Blu-Ray DVD disks that will become the new equivalent of the VCR back when we rented movies on VCR cartridges and recorded television programs on VCR recorders. Older style DVD drives that are on many computers will not play Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disks.

You can get answers from the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Ray

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD-DVD

Technical --- http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hd-dvd3.htm

The bottom line is that we will have to buy Blu-Ray drives for our television sets rather quickly. Folks who purchased archives of Betamax and HD-DVD movies will be out of luck just like those of us with boxes full of 8-Track music cartridges are out of luck. You will soon have to purchase a Blu-Ray player to watch DVD movies. You will also be buying Blu-Ray recorders to record television shows for your personal use.

Colleges will have to spend a lot of money putting Blu-Ray technology in electronic classrooms and labs. Even more costly will be getting Blu-Ray technology on faculty and staff computers. This will take time. It will be possible to replace the DVD drives without replacing the computers, but my guess is that many colleges will wait until faculty/staff members are due for new computer upgrades. In the meantime you will be able to buy blank CD and older-style DVD disks for some time at places like Staples. HD-DVD blanks will disappear much more quickly.

Bob Jensen

February 19, 2008 reply from Mac Wright mailto:%5bMac.Wright@VU.EDU.AU]

So today Toshiba has thrown in the towel. But what is next? from the time Sony threw in the Betamax towel until Video CDs was (I estimate) about 15 years. then DVDs arrived, then High speed internet, now Blue ray, In the end it is up to the market (probably on the Asian Continent and Indian Sub Continent) to decide how they will take their dose of movies, and with what new technology it will be delivered (and there are very few Wal -Mart stores out there!).

Kind regards,

Mac Wright
Co-ordinator Aviation Program
Victoria University
Melbourne Australia

February 19, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Mac,

Interestingly, Barry Rice and I had a somewhat similar debate when Barry first started the AECM. Barry argued that the CD had no future because other portable hard drives were better ways of storing data. He was correct only to a point especially with respect to overwriting files (no CD-RW at the time of this debate). Portable hard drive cartridges in those days cost about $100 and stored roughly the same amount of data as a CD. Some types of data were difficult to burn on CDs in those days. Also remember that there was no flash memory in those days such that hard drive cartridges relied on mechanical readers prone to breakdowns.

You’ve got to remember that in mid-1980s it was much more difficult to download data on the Internet and hard drive capacity on a PC was less than 1 Gb such that storage was nowhere near as cheap as it is today.

My counterpoint to Barry was that we could buy a blank CD for about $3 in those days as compared to comparable storage costing $100 on portable hard drives such as those Iomega cartridges that were subject to high failure rates relative to the less expensive CD disks. Certainly my old CD stored files are still around today whereas all my Omega cartridges and drives are kaput.

In any case, I think the Blu-Ray DVD disks will be around for at least a decade (no computing hardware technology lasts forever). Reasons include:

You don't have to pay for an expensive monthly broadband connection to rent or buy a DVD disk.
Hollywood studios are embracing Blu-Ray DVDs as the sales and rental medium of the future for users who cannot or do not want to download movies, such as the many television lovers in the world who do not use computers. Also, in the heart of Africa or the Amazon where there is no live TV reception, users with TV sets can still use DVD disks on television sets.
Even though outfits like Netflix now make it possible to download movies, this is still less popular than the tremendous disk rental service that Netfilx offers these days for playback on television sets (I love this service). Although I could download movies on my computers, I prefer to get the DVD disks that I can watch in comfort of my Lazyboy chair in front of a large-screen television set. Already Netflix has an option for renting DVD disks in the Blu-Ray format.
DVD rental and sales disks in stores appeal to browsers and impulse shoppers. I would never think of buying movie on sale at Wal-Mart unless I stumbled over a display of on-sale legendary movies in the in the aisle.

Blank DVD disks are still very cheap ways to store lots of data over a long time and less prone to failure than any other alternatives.

Bob Jensen

February 19, 2008 message from David Fordham, James Madison University mailto:%5bfordhadr@JMU.EDU]

Is it really progress?

My grad classes have some interesting takes on this stuff. Few of them know what an 8-track cartridge is, and I doubt anyone on this list remembers magnetic wire recorders (before the invention of tape) which my dad used when I was a little kid.

So what is *real* progress?

I make students question the use of the word "standard". This allows some very good discussion in graduate systems technology classes.

For instance, I take issue with the statement "the market will decide". See http://cob.jmu.edu/fordham/essay11.htm which is a part of my grad class from two years ago.

To quote from a paragraph late in that essay, "While the media pundits call this a "standard", it really isn't a consumer-level standard at all, but rather a "producer-level" standard. Calling the Blu-Ray-vs-HDDVD a standards war is like calling the "Boeing vs. Airbus" a standards war. What the consumer wants is irrelevant. A few large companies will decide which format they will use, because to the consumer, both deliver what is essentially the same product. Once several of the producers have selected one format over the other (due more to politics, payoffs, kickbacks, and the good-ol-boy system than any valid reason), the consumers will simply end up taking what they are given. Think about it. When was the last time an airline asked you which plane you prefer, an Airbus or a Boeing?

You were buying the end-product: the trip to Orlando, the video image, or whatever. As long as the end-product was delivered, the minor conveniences along the way were irrelevant. As that essay points out, failure to deliver convenience to consumers doesn't really matter anymore any way, a la big banks, phone companies, cellular providers, credit card companies, etc. In our inter-related technology, the need for compatibility overrides the market's wishes in terms of ALL the petty stuff. And since the large producers make the big decisions, ... well, you get the idea. The market isn't what decides.

That essay is the springboard for some interesting and thought-provoking discussions on accounting system design. Yes, accounting systems design. Think big.

David Fordham
James Madison University

CD-Erasable = an alternate term for CD-RW compact discs that can be erased and written over with new and/or updated computer files. For a more complete discussion see CD-DVD. The key feature of CD-RW is that these CDs will play on newer CD-ROM drives. This was not the case with older CD-Erasable discs. An older type of CD rewriting technology unveiled by Sony Corporation in 1993 that will allow for erasing and recording over CD discs that could not be played back on CD-ROM drives. Although some companies have sold rewritable CDs for some time, the playback hardware has not become a standard like CD-ROM playback drives. In 1997, however, virtually all vendors of CD recording hardware offer a CD-RW drive that will play and record discs that will play on CD-ROM drives. This technology brings the world of CDs closer to the world of videotapes and floppy discs. However, unlike floppy discs holding 1.44 Mb of data, the CDs will hold 650 Mb of data. This makes the recording and revision of multimedia files in a cheap storage medium (possibly less than one dollar) a feasible option. See CD-DVD.

CDF = (See RDF)

CD+G= Audio CD plus still-image graphics such as with Photo CD. Although these are commonly displayed on television screens, they are less interactive than CD-I, CD-VIS, CD-R, CD-Karaoke, CD-3DO, CD-MM, and CD-TV. For a more technical definition see http://www.soatusa.com/Cambda/NFProduc.htm .(See also Photo CD and CD-Karaoke)

CD-I= Compact Disc-Interactive compact disc (developed by the Philips electronics conglomerate headquartered in The Netherlands) that will play back visual as well as audio CD entertainment and learning materials in a hypermedia format on a television set. These discs require special players for CD-Karaoke that connect to a television much like a VCR machine. Players cost from $400 to $1,800, with portable players available that will fit in a briefcase. Video stores are now selling and renting CD-I movie, game, encyclopedia, travel, art, and other types of discs. Realistically, authoring workstations cost around $50,000 and higher. Typically they have a remote control device or joy stick for hypermedia controls. Philips got the market jump on CD-MM from Sony and CD-3DO from Hawkins. Various CD-I games, encyclopedias, hypermedia art books, and other consumer products are available on CD-I discs in department stores and video stores. Movies on CD-I may now be purchased or rented from video stores. Unlike many of the computer game competitors such as Data Discman and Sega, it is possible to link Mac or PC desktop computers to other hardware that allows professors to author their own learning materials on CD-I discs. To be compatible with CD-I playback machines, these discs should be recorded on the CD-ROM XA (extended Architecture) "Yellowbook" standard. OptImage (515-225-7000) has new high-end MPEG Digital Video Authoring software for CD-I and CD-XA. The Education Labels Group of Philips Media (800-945-4061 or 310-444-6613) under the direction of Bernard Luskin, a pioneer in TV education materials, works with educators to develop CD-I discs for education. With the initial market shock of CD-3DO, the future of CD-I and CD-MM is seriously in doubt, although much will hinge on the future cost of desktop authoring of CD-3DO titles. See CD for market share data. Miller and Miller (1992), and Phillips IMS (1992a,b,c). New software called CD-IT!ALL from OptImage(515-225-7000) allows Mac users to record CD-ROM discs directly from the Mac to certain types of CD-R recorders such as the Philips or Kodak recorder with an IS0 9660 option. However, to record CD-I discs the CD-IT!ALL software will not replace the Media Mogul software and the emulator hardware required between the Mac computer and the CD-R recorder. (See also CD-DVD, CD-VIS, CD-R, CD-Karaoke, CD-3DO, CD-MM, CD-TV, Games, and Photo CD)

CD-Karaoke= The video CD format that JVC and Philips initially agreed upon that eventually became the standard Video CD format agreed upon by major vendors such as Matushita, Philips, Sony, and Victor of Japan. Initially, vendors were trying to develop CDs for television sets that each had a different standard analogous to having different track gauges for different railroads. The agreed upon video standard in 1993 at last makes it possible to cross platforms in CDs for television. The announcement is reported in Videography, September 1993, p. 10. (See CD for market share data. See also CD-R, CD-I, CD-3DO, CD-MM, Games, and Photo CD)

CDMA/TDMA= Code Division Multiple Access and Time Division Multiple Access dual-mode cellular telephones that aid in the receiving of fax and computer network data on computers and PDAs. (See also Wireless Glossary of Terms, CDPD, Networks and PDA)

CD-MM= Older Sony CDs that compete with CD-VIS, CD-I, and CD-3DO discs that also play back visual as well has audio entertainment and learning materials in a hypermedia format on a television set. These will be replaced with newer players for CD-DVD. CD-MM discs required special players that connected to a television much like a VCR machine. They compete with CD-I discs but are not the same size and will not play on CD-I players. Only discs developed by Sony Corporation will run on CD-MM players. Various CD-MM games, encyclopedias, hypermedia art books, and other consumer products are available on CD-I discs in department stores and video stores. Whereas CD-I and CD-ROM discs may be recorded on CD-R blanks in home recording devices, it is less likely that CD-MM discs will ever be produced outside professional studios. Users will thus be limited by what Sony develops and promotes. In 1993, Sony agreed to a new CD-format that is more in line with other players in the market. With the initial market shock of CD-3DO, the future of CD-I and CD-MM is seriously in doubt. (See also CD-DVD, CD-3DO, CD-Karaoke, CD-VIS, and CD-I)

CD-PD= (SeeWireless Glossary of Terms and Phase Change Dual (PD))

CDPD= Cellular Digital Packet Data technology that facilitates more traffic on existing cellular networks. CDPD hardware is required for sending e-mail to PDAs. (See also Wireless Glossary of Terms and PDA)

CD-Photo= (See Photo CD)

CD-R or CD-RW= a term used for machines (drives) that will record CD laser discs that will read on standard CD-ROM drives. CD "encoding" depicts the recording (burning or transfer of files) to a CD, whereas CD "decoding" depicts the reading of those files. The term CD-Erasable in the early 1990s depicted recording of erasable CDs that could not be read only in special drives rather than CD-ROM drives. The first CD-RW drive on the market (in March 1997) is from RICOH for $595. Now CD-RW is the latest thing in erasable CDs. In times past, CD-R depicted a recordable CD blank disc also known as a CD-WORM disc. CD-R is now an obsolete term since, in 1997, CD-RW discs also known as CD-RW or CD-Rewritable discs made "read only memory" a thing of the past. Of course it is always possible to file protect and computer files in any type of storage so that they cannot be overwritten. In 1997, virtually all the manufacturers of CD-RW recording machines for CD-ROMs will offer CD-Erasable drives that will likely replace most CD-R technology up to 1997. Laser recording machines typically connect to a computer's SCSI or IDE controller. High-end desktop computers now come with CD-R or CD-RW recorders and players all in the same drive. Costs of a CD-R recorder have fallen by over 90% to less than $800. Recording CDs of any type is often referred to as "burning" or "baking." A CD recorder will not record every type of CD. Virtually all of them record CD-ROM discs and some will record CD-I discs. Rewritable versions are also available, but these will not play back on standard CD-ROM drives. CD-DVD recording requires more expensive hardware. Some record CD-Karaoke with appropriate software. Some CDs such as CD-MM and CD-3DO cannot usually be recorded on home recorders. CD-ROM and other types of CDs can be reproduced for less than $1 per disc. If you are purchasing a CD-R recorder, the high-end software and hardware for recording is reviewed in NewMedia, February 10, 1997, pp. 53-69. (See also CD-DVD, CD-Erasable, WORM, CD-I, CD-3DO, CD-MM, Phase Change Dual (PD), Games, and Photo CD)

CD-R2= (See CD-DVD)

CD-RW or CD-Rewritable= (See CD-DVD )

CD-ROM= Compact Disc-Read Only Memory compact discs. This is now an obsolete term since, in 1997, CD-RW discs also known as CD-Rewritable discs made "read only memory" a thing of the past. These 5.25 inch discs can be recorded, written over at will (unless file protected), and played back from computers connected to proper recording and/or playback drives. The CD-RW drives become like hard drives or floppy disc drives in that CD-RW discs may store files that can be executed in software packages such as word processors, spreadsheet software, ToolBook books, and HyperCard stacks. Some users want them to serve as auxiliary storage devices for computer text, audio, and video files. CD-RW drives will eventually be replaced by CD-DVD drives for DVD and DVD-RAM discs that are the same size but hold more than 20 times as much data. The problem for DVD is that CD-ROM drives exist in millions of computers and it will take time for the newer DVD hardware to take over as a standard. Presently, it is also much cheaper to record (encode) CD-RW discs using CD-R recorders costing less than $800. (See also CD-DVD and CD-ROM titles)

CD-ROM Titles= Books and games available on CD-ROM discs. Comparisons are difficult, because there are thousands in hundreds of markets. For example, see ADAM for one of the top medical and science titles that has done very well in a narrow market. The top titles in the general market according to PC Computing, December 1994, p. 206 are Microsoft Bookshelf (206-882-8080), Myst (415-382-4400), and Normandy (302-986-0444). PC World, December 1994, in a cover feature rates a larger number of titles by topic areas: One especially noteworthy CD-ROM title that has been popular in the consumer market is David Macaulay's The Way Things Work from Dorling Kindersley Publishing (800-225-3362). The number of CD-ROM titles has been nearly doubling each year for the past several years. It appears this will be the most popular electronic publishing medium for the rest of this decade. (See also ADAM)

CD-ROM XA= (See CD-ROM)

CD-RW= (See CD-ROM)

CD-Stand Alone= Reference to audio/video players that stand alone in the sense of not needing a computer. The term generally refers to set-top video boxes for network television or to CD players such as CD-3DO, CD-I, CD-MM, CD-TV, CD-VIS, etc. (See also Set-top box and CD)

CD-Standards = See http://www.soatusa.com/Cambda/NFProduc.htm

CD-TV= Commodore Dynamic-Total Vision player manufactured by Commodore Corporation to compete with CD-I, CD-MM, CD-VIS, and CD-3DO CD players for television sets. CD-TV discs are viewed in television sets from a CD-TV player or on Amiga video computers. They may not, however, be played on CD-ROM players. See CD for market share data. The market share of CD-TV is so small that its future is quite uncertain and is clouded by the 1994 declaration of bankruptcy by Commodore Corporation. (See also CD-I, CD-3DO, CD-MM, CD-VIS, Games, and Photo CD)

CD-VIS= The Memorex MD-2500 Visual Information System CD player marketed by Radio Shack that competes with CD-MM, CD-I, and CD-3DO discs that also play back visual as well has audio interactive entertainment on television sets. The Memorex MD-2500 requires no host computer to perform interactive operations from a remote control. Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia disc and some other discs are available, but the market share of CD-VIS never became great enough to attract widespread authorship of VIS discs. At present there are very few titles and interest in CD-VIS relative to CD-I and CD-3DO is waning.

CD-WORM= (See CD-R)

CETA= Center for Educational Technology in Accounting (817-565-3090) at The University of North Texas, P.O. Box 13677, College of Business Administration, The University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-3677. CETA is no longer operational. CETA once served as a clearinghouse of information on use of technology in accounting education and research.

CFML = Cold Fusion Markup Language for creation of dynamic and interactive Web pages. Along with the usual Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tags that determine page layout and appearance, the page creator uses CFML tags to bring in content based on the results of a database query or user input. CMFL is a proprietary language developed for use with ColdFusion, a product from Allaire. See also Database and HTML.

CGA= (See Graphics adapter)

CGI= Common Gateway Interface is one of the most popular UNIX-based programs/devices that supply interfaces between browsers and servers on the Internet. A standard for running external programs from a World-Wide Web HTTP server. CGI specifies how to pass dynamic components to the executing program as part of the HTTP request. For example, it will allow answers typed into an HTML form on the client computer to be tabulated and stored in a database on the server-side computer. Commonly, the server-side CGI program will generate some HTML which will be passed back to the client's browser. For example, it might report to the client user that the form is not filled out properly or report the invoice total of an order. CGI allows the returned HTML (or other document type) to depend in any arbitrary way on the request. The CGI program can, for example, access information in a database and format the results as HTML. CGI is not a programming language. There are various "CGI" scripting programs. Perl is a common choice for writing CGI scripts. in UNIX code. Some HTTP servers require CGI programs to reside in a special directory, often "/cgi-bin" but better servers provide ways to distinguish CGI programs so they can be kept in the same directories as the HTML files to which they are related. In order to improve performance, Netscape devised NSAPI and Microsoft developed the ISAPI standard which allow CGI-like tasks to run as part of the host server process, thus avoiding the overhead of creating a new process to handle each CGI invocation.

CGM= Computer Graphics Metafile international standard for 16-bit color graphics. CGM files cross platforms between PCs and Macs and can be generated in most graphics, paintbrush, and draw software. (See also Graphics and Cross-platform)

Channel= Transmission line that can carry the sound of a separate MIDI instrument. Each MIDI port allows up to 16 separate channels for sending or receiving data. Each channel can function as a separate instrument in an ensemble, each using its own patch and responding independently to continuous controllers. (See also MIDI).

Channel has another meaning on the World Wide Web. (See Webcasting.)

Channel Definition Format (CDF) = (see Resource Description Format (RDF))

Channel Casting/Surfing = (See Webcasting.)

Chat Lines or Chat Rooms = real time internet conversations (written or oral) that transpire in real (synchronous) time as opposed to conferencing (e.g., message board posting and topic classification." There are many sources for free chat software downloads. One such source is at http://www.chat.yahoo.com/. Comparisons with bulletin boards, email groups, chat rooms, etc. are made in the e-mail definition of this glossary. See e-mail definition, IRC, Listserv, USENet, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, webcasting, andtelephony.

Chipping (See Security)

CHRP = Common Hardware Reference Platform architecture in processors for Power PCs. This term has been replaced by "PowerPC Reference Platform" and is IBM's open system standard intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies.

CISC= Complex Instruction Set Computing chipsets such as the Intel family of popular 386, 486, and Pentium competitors and the Motorola 680x0 family in Mac computers. These were the most popular processors until the RISC alternatives entered the market. The future of CISC versus RISC is now up in the air. (See also Pentium, USENet, and RISC)

Click fraud

The act of purposely clicking ad listings without intending to buy from the advertiser.
www.tractionsearch.com/se-dictionary.php

In online advertising, click fraud involves sending fraudulent clicks to Cost Per Click (CPC) advertisers. The clicks can be artificially generated via automated technology methods (such as hitbots) or via manual clicking for the purpose of debiting CPC advertiser accounts or increasing CPC network partner/affiliate commission revenues. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_fraud

Yahoo settles "click fraud" lawsuit
Yahoo Inc. will consider refunding money to thousands of advertisers dating back to January 2004 and pay $4.95 million in attorney fees to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the Internet powerhouse has been profiting from bogus sales referrals generated through a sham known as ''click fraud.'' The agreement, given preliminary approval Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder in Los Angeles, doesn't limit Yahoo's liability -- one of several contrasts to a settlement reached in March by online search engine leader Google Inc. to resolve a class-action lawsuit over the same issue . . . Although Yahoo doesn't know how much money it will end up refunding, company officials seem confident it will be a relatively small amount. Yahoo's ad revenue totaled $9.1 billion from January 2004 through March of this year. "We want to keep our advertisers happy,'' said Yahoo lawyer Reggie Davis. ''Whatever credits are owed will be 100 percent forthcoming.''
"Update: Click Fraud Class-Action Suits at Yahoo and Google," MIT's Technology Review, July 3, 2006 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17118

Client= A computer that has access to services over a computer network. The computer providing the services is a server. Note: in an X-11 environment, the meanings of client and server are reversed. See Database.

Client-server= A corporate computing trend that is gradually replacing the old way of conducting business--large mainframe computers connected to terminals. In the new arrangement, company software applications run on a midrange computer (the server) that is connected over networks to PCs (clients). (See also Server)

Client-server architecture= An information-passing scheme that works as follows: a client program, such as Mosaic, sends a request to a server. The server takes the request, disconnects from the client and processes the request. When the request is processed, the server reconnects to the client program and the information is transferred to the client. This architecture differs from traditional Internet databases where the client connects to the server and runs the program from the remote site. Note: in an X-11 environment, the meanings of client and server are reversed.

Clipboard= A holding device that contains the most recently copied or cut text or image such that contents of the clipboard can be pasted one or more times into other parts of the document at hand or other documents. It is usually possible to cross between different software options such as between Windows programs.

Clipper Chip =

See http://www.cpsr.org/program/clipper/clipper.html

The Clipper Chip is a cryptographic device being promoted by the U.S. government. Its purported advantage is that it provides a standard for securing private voice communication. With Clipper, however, the government has the opportunity to obtain decryption keys that are held in escrow by two government agencies. Although the Clipper proposal requires legal authorization to obtain these keys, the history of illegal domestic surveillance by Federal agencies makes the existence of this "back-door" decryption channel a cause for concern.

Also see security.

Clock speed= The speed of the processor is measured with the clock frequency. The processor consistently works internally at the same clock frequency. The IBM PC has a clock frequency of 4.77 MHz (Megahertz). Compatibles sometimes use higher frequencies, but higher speeds may create compatibility problems.

Cloud Computing=--- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Computing

Check out some recent cloud computing stories on TechnologyReview.com:

Cloud Computing's Perfect Storm?: An initiative involving Intel, Yahoo, and HP will use large-scale research projects to test a new Internet-based computing infrastructure.
Lost in the Clouds: MobileMe is facing problems endemic to cloud computing.
TR10: Offline Web Applications: Adobe's Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.

"How Cloud Computing Is Changing the World: A major shift in the way companies obtain software and computing capacity is under way as more companies tap into Web-based applications," Business Week, August 4, 2008 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc2008082_445669.htm

At first, just a handful of employees at Sanmina-SCI (SANM) began using Google Apps (GOOG) for tasks like e-mail, document creation, and appointment scheduling. Now, just six months later, almost 1,000 employees of the electronics manufacturing company go online to use Google Apps in place of the comparable Microsoft (MSFT) tools. "We have project teams working on a global basis and to help them collaborate effectively, we use Google Apps," says Manesh Patel, chief information officer of Sanmina-SCI, a company with $10.7 billion in annual revenue. In the next three years, the number of Google Apps users may rise to 10,000, or about 25% of the total, Patel estimates.

San Jose (Calif.)-based Sanmina and Google are at the forefront of a fundamental shift in the way companies obtain software and computing capacity. A host of providers including Amazon (AMZN), Salesforce.com (CRM), IBM (IBM), Oracle (ORCL), and Microsoft are helping corporate clients use the Internet to tap into everything from extra server space to software that helps manage customer relationships. Assigning these computing tasks to some remote location—rather than, say, a desktop computer, handheld machine, or a company's own servers—is referred to collectively as cloud computing (BusinessWeek, 4/24/08), and it's catching on across Corporate America.

The term "cloud computing" encompasses many areas of tech, including software as a service, a software distribution method pioneered by Salesforce.com about a decade ago. It also includes newer avenues such as hardware as a service, a way to order storage and server capacity on demand from Amazon and others. What all these cloud computing services have in common, though, is that they're all delivered over the Internet, on demand, from massive data centers.

A Sea Change in Computing Some analysts say cloud computing represents a sea change in the way computing is done in corporations. Merrill Lynch (MER) estimates that within the next five years, the annual global market for cloud computing will surge to $95 billion. In a May 2008 report, Merrill Lynch estimated that 12% of the worldwide software market would go to the cloud in that period.

Those vendors that can adjust their product lines to meet the needs of large cloud computing providers stand to profit. Companies like IBM, Dell (DELL), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), for instance, are moving aggressively in this direction. On Aug. 1, IBM said it would spend $360 million to build a cloud computing data center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., bringing to nine its total of cloud computing centers worldwide. Dell is also targeting this market. The computer marker supplies products to some of the largest cloud computing providers and Web 2.0 companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo (YHOO). "We created a whole new business just to build custom products for those customers," Dell CEO Michael Dell says.

Continued in article

"Google's Cloud Looms Large: How might expanding Google's cloud-computing service alter the digital world?," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, December 3, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/19785/?nlid=701

To know how you'll be using computers and the Internet in the coming years, it's instructive to consider the Google employee: most of his software and data--from pictures and videos, to presentations and e-mails--reside on the Web. This makes the digital stuff that's valuable to him equally accessible from his home computer, a public Internet café, or a Web-enabled phone. It also makes damage to a hard drive less important. Recently, Sam Schillace, the engineering director in charge of collaborate Web applications at Google, needed to reformat a defunct hard drive from a computer that he used for at least six hours a day. Reformatting, which completely erases all the data from a hard drive, would cause most people to panic, but it didn't bother Schillace. "There was nothing on it I cared about" that he couldn't find stored on the Web, he says.

Schillace's digital life, for the most part, exists on the Internet; he practices what is considered by many technology experts to be cloud computing. Google already lets people port some of their personal data to the Internet and use its Web-based software. Google Calendar organizes events, Picasa stores pictures, YouTube holds videos, Gmail stores e-mails, and Google Docs houses documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. But according to a Wall Street Journal story, the company is expected to do more than offer scattered puffs of cloud computing: it will launch a service next year that will let people store the contents of entire hard drives online. Google doesn't acknowledge the existence of such a service. In an official statement, the company says, "Storage is an important component of making Web apps fit easily into consumers' and business users' lives ... We're always listening to our users and looking for ways to update and improve our Web applications, including storage options, but we don't have anything to announce right now." Even so, many people in the industry believe that Google will pull together its disparate cloud-computing offerings under a larger umbrella service, and people are eager to understand the consequences of such a project.

To be sure, Google isn't the only company invested in online storage and cloud computing. There are other services today that offer a significant amount of space and software in the cloud. Amazon's Simple Storage Service, for instance, offers unlimited and inexpensive online storage ($0.15 per gigabyte per month). AOL provides a service called Xdrive with a capacity of 50 gigabytes for $9.95 per month (the first five gigabytes are free). And Microsoft offers Windows Live SkyDrive, currently with a one-gigabyte free storage limit.

But Google is better positioned than most to push cloud computing into the mainstream, says Thomas Vander Wal, founder of Infocloud Solutions, a cloud-computing consultancy. First, millions of people already use Google's online services and store data on its servers through its software. Second, Vander Wal says that the culture at Google enables his team to more easily tie together the pieces of cloud computing that today might seem a little scattered. He notes that Yahoo, Microsoft, and Apple are also sitting atop huge stacks of people's personal information and a number of online applications, but there are barriers within each organization that could slow down the process of integrating these pieces. "It could be," says Vander Wal, "that Google pushes the edges again where everybody else has been stuck for a while."

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on Google are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm

CLV= Constant Linear Velocity playback in magnetic and laser discs where the disc rotates at varying speeds. Relative to CAV constant speeds, the CAV approach results in constant data retrieval times that do not depend upon where the read/write head is located relative to the disc spindle. CLV videodiscs hold up to 60 minutes of video per side of a 12-inch disc. However, CLV discs cannot be searched for individual frames as effectively as CAV discs. (See also CAV)

CMC = Cmputer Mediated Communication, a very broad term that encompasses chat lines, virtual communities, and other forms of communication. See IRC, Collaboration, and Virtual. See also Groupware.

CMS= That subset of CAL that entails Course Management Systems. This software is defined by the "core" attributes listed in Chapter 3. Chief among these attributes are utilities that allow instructors to keep student records, call up examination templates and questions, administer examinations, track student learning in course modules, and randomly access lecture and case materials. CMS software options compared in Chapter 3 are Quest, TourGuide, LessonBuilder, Tencore, Course Builder, HyperGraphics, Authorware, and Peak. Present CMS leaders are Quest for Windows and DOS and Macromedia Authorware for Mac operating systems. It is common to build custom CMS features into hypertext/hypermedia developments. For example, the Arizona State University accounting lab simulation package marketed by McGraw-Hill has core CMS attributes that were scripted into that package by the author even though ToolBook is not a full-featured CMS package. McGraw-Hill can sell the package without paying a royalty fee since ToolBook has no runtime usage fee. There are some CMS packages such as Quest, LessonBuilder, CourseBuilder, and Peak that have no runtime/royalty fees. But CMS options have drawbacks in spite of their utilities for educators. Except for Quest and Tencore, the other CMS packages do not have full-featured scripting options of such major hypermedia competitors as Multimedia ToolBook, Apple Media Kit, HyperWriter, Icon Author, etc. CMS options do not cross platforms to run on multiple platforms as well as hypermedia GainMomentum, ScriptX and Icon Author. Especially see the concept of a shell. (See also Runtime, Hypertext and Hypermedia)

Coaxial cable= A cable consisting of a single metal wire surrounded by insulation, which is itself surrounded by a braided or foil outer conductor.

CODEC = hardware and software for compressing and decompressing larve volumes of data. The term generally applies to large multimedia files.

CollabraShare = collaboration groupware from Netscape Corporation. Netscape Collabra provides enterprise group discussions based on Internet standards, letting the groups share and track information efficiently. Collabra makes it easy to share information and create a knowledge base that people can access at any time. You can eliminate unnecessary meetings and save valuable time by discussing important issues in a public or private discussion forum. Netscape Collabra extends open Internet standards to create a powerful collaboration tool for the corporation, and it seamlessly integrates with Netscape Collabra Server. See http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/communicator/faq.html#collabra. See also Groupware, Lotus Notes, and Collaboration.

Collaboration = a joint effort that network technology has facilitated with email, FTP, and more advanced means of sharing ideas, documents, and data. Writing has become more of a collaborative effort since the dawn of the WWW. The WWW takes authors beyond the telephone by enabling them to speak to one another (audio), see one another (videoconferencing), and visualize documents and data. Software alternatives for collaborative authoring are reviewed at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245soft1.htm . See also CMC, CollabraShare, IRC, Videoconferencing, Groupware, and Virtual.

Collar = a derivative instruments investing term where an investor puts a "collar" around investment risk, usually by selling a put option (an option to purchase) and purchasing a call option (an option to sell) around an investment. Amgen and Oracle sold put warrants on their own common stock and then used the proceeds to purchase calls on the same stock. This process is called a "costless collar" and is used to express a bullish view of the stock by management.

Compact disc= (See CD)

Companding= (See dbx)

Compression= Has several meanings. In one context, it refers to algorithms for shrinking the storage space required for files stored on discs. In those instances, nothing is usually sacrificed in the compression, although files may have to be decompressed before they can be utilized later on. In another context, compression refers to the storage of graphics or video files in such a way that they can be stored and/or processed more efficiently on computers. In the latter case, something (e.g., color depth, resolution, image sharpness, etc.) is usually lost in the process. (See also GIF, JPEG, Indeo, and MPEG)

Computer= An electronic system that can store and process information under program control.

Computer Based Training = (See CBT )

CompuServe= A commercial network that has some of the "richest offerings available, but it has been the slowest to change and can be much costlier than the other two services, especially if you make heavy use of some of its best features" according to Mossberg (1994a). It has a wide choice of bulletin boards, U.S. News and World Reports magazine, and Navigator to the Internet. News services are relatively cheap, but modem line costs are somewhat expensive. (See also Networks, Internet, SLIP, America Online, eWorld, Interchange, and Prodigy)

Computer Virus = (See Virus)

Concurrency Control= Concurrency control deals with the issues involved with allowing multiple people simultaneous access to shared entities, be they objects, data records, or some other representation. It is very important to have a recovery system such that if bad data is entered in a shared environment the databases can be recovered. It is important understand transactions, which are collections of actions that potentially modify records. More than one record may be involved, especially in double entry bookkeeping. An example of a transaction is a transfer of funds between two bank accounts. Concurrency controls are related to transactions controls, but they are not the same since transactions controls apply to single-person as well as multiple-person access. Transactions controls are intended to assure that updated transactions are allowable and orderly. Transactions in relational databases are often commands in a two phase commit system. A "two phase commit" transactions control is the process by which a relational database ensures that distributed transactions are performed in an orderly manner. In this system, transactions may be terminated by either committing them or rolling them back. Also see Database.

Configuration= This is a general-purpose computer term that can refer to the way you have your computer set up. It is also used to describe the total combination of hardware components that make up a computer system and the software settings that allow various hardware components of a computer system to communicate with one another.

Configure= The act of changing software or hardware actions by changing the settings.

Console= The file server.

Control code= Special nonprinting codes that cause electronic equipment to perform specific actions.

Conventional memory= (See RAM)

Cookies= Applets that enable a web site to collect information about each user for later reference (as in finding cookies in the cookie jar). Web Browsers like Netscape Navigator set aside a small amount of space on the user's hard drive to record detected preferences. Cookies perform storage on the client side that might otherwise have to be stored in a generic-state or database server on the server side. Cookies can be used to collect information for consumer profile databases. Browsers can be set to refuse cookies.

"Erasing Cookies From a PC," by Annelena Lobb, The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2005; Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112233873147495654,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal

Erasing Cookies From a PC

The Problem: Your PC is filling up with cookies, which let Web sites track your Internet-browsing habits.

The Solution: Cookies are short text files that attach to your PC when you visit Web sites. Some disappear from your computer when you exit Internet Explorer, while others remain. You'll likely want to keep some cookies on your PC -- you can't visit sites like Yahoo and Gmail without them. In other cases, they let you avoid retyping your ZIP Code or address every time you visit.

Here's how to avoid unwanted cookies: When using Internet Explorer, go to the "Tools" menu and click on "Internet Options." Select the "Privacy" tab, and click on "Advanced Settings." Check the box that lets you override automatic cookie handling. Then you can ask to be prompted whenever cookies appear -- you'll get a pop up asking whether you want to accept it. If you later wish to change your settings, click the "Edit" button under the "Privacy" tab. You can delete it from the list of managed sites.

Powerful Cookies 1.0.7
http://www.freewebs.com/powerfulcookies/

For those people who are concerned about erasing evidence of their Internet activity stored in their browser, Powerful Cookies 1.0.7 may be worth taking a look at. Visitors can use this program to delete cookies, clean index.dat files, clean the cache, remove temporary files, and erase typed URLs. This application is compatible with Windows 95 or newer.

Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm

Many times when you browse a website, your browser checks to see if you have any pre-defined preferences (cookie) for that server if you do it sends the cookie to the server along with the request for a web page. Sometimes cookies are used to collect items of an order as the user places things in a shopping cart and has not yet submitted the full order. A cookie allows WWW customers to fill their orders (shopping carts) and then be billed based upon the cookie payment information. Cookies retain information about a users browsing patterns at a web site. This creates all sorts of privacy risks since information obtained from cookies by vendors or any persons who put cookies on your computer might be disclosed in ways that are harmful to you. Browsers will let you refuse cookies with a set up that warns you when someone is about to deliver a cookie, but this really disrupts Web surfing and may block you from gaining access to may sites. It is probably better to accept cookies for a current session and then dispose of unwanted cookies as soon as possible so that cookie senders do not obtain repeated access to your private information. Microsoft Corporation has added the following utilities to the Internet Explorer (IE) browser according to http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/ms.cookies.idg/

The Internet Explorer 5.5 changes include the following:

• Notifications that Microsoft said will help users differentiate between first- and third-party cookies, plus automatic prompts that inform users anytime a third-party cookie is being offered by a Web site.

• A "delete all cookies" control button that has been added to the browser's main "Internet options" page to make it easier for users to get rid of cookies.

• New topics that have been added to Internet Explorer's help menu to better answer questions about cookies and their management.

Instruction for cookies control using Internet Explorer --- http://www.scholastic.com/cookies.htm

To accept cookies if you are using a PC running Windows...

Internet Explorer 5 1. Click Tools, and then click Internet Options.

2. Click the Security tab.

3. Click the Internet zone.

4. Select a security level other than High.

-or-

Click Custom Level, scroll to the Cookies section, and then click Enable for both cookie options.

5. Click on Apply.

6. Click on OK.

Other nations, notably in Europe, have placed more severe restrictions on the use of cookies. See http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/eu.spam.idg/index.html

An Innovative Cookie Jar

The big question is whether Microsoft will adapt to StealthSurfer or introduce a competitive product for Internet Explorer. My guess is no! We may have to install Netscape once again just to keep pesky cookies off the main hard drive.

"Furtive Surfers Find a Way to Keep Their Travels Secret," by Howard Millman, The New York Times, March 4, 2004 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/technology/circuits/04quie.html

A new thumb-size U.S.B. drive from a company called StealthSurfer aims to guard your privacy by keeping the records of your Web activity close to the vest. When you plug in the StealthSurfer and use its customized version of the Netscape browser, the device stores the cookies, U.R.L. history, cache files and other traces of your Web browsing that would ordinarily accumulate on your computer's hard drive. When you're done surfing, you unplug the drive and take the records of your travels with you.

StealthSurfer's name is a bit of an overstatement. It does keep your Web-hopping and file-sharing activities away from prying eyes after the fact. But since it uses your computer's Internet connection, the Web sites you visit can still track your Internet protocol address as you move around online.

The StealthSurfer comes in four capacities, ranging from 64 megabytes ($70) to 512 megabytes ($299). You may experience a slight reduction in performance when you use the device because its flash memory writes data at slower speeds than a full-size hard drive does.

On the other hand, installation is a breeze - computers running Windows Me, 2000 and XP recognize the StealthSurfer as a drive when it is plugged in. (If you're running Windows 98, you must download a driver

The StealthSurfer home page is at http://www.stealthsurfer.biz/
Don't you hate it now that some businesses now use biz instead of com in their URLs?

Question 1:
How can you send email anonymously?

Answer 1:
Simply set up an email account under a fictitious name. For example, you can send email under multiple fictitious names from the Yahoo email server at http://www.yahoo.com/ (Click on 'Mail" in the row "Connect")

Question 2:
How can you be totally anonymous on the Web such that cookie monsters do not track your Web navigation at your site and bad guys cannot track your surfing habits or get at your personal information such as medical records, name, mail address, phone number, email address, etc.? (You can read about cookie monsters at

Answer 2:
There is probably no way to be 100% safe unless you use someone else's computer without them knowing you are using that computer on the Web. In most instances, the owner of the computer (a university, a public library, an employer, etc.) will know who is using the computer, but cookie monsters and bad guys on the Web won't have an easy time finding out who you are without having the powers of the police.

About the safest way to remain anonymous as a Web surfer is to sign up for Privada from your IP Internet provider that obtain your line connection from for purposes of connecting to the Web. In most instances, surfers pay a monthly fee that will increase by about $5.00 per month for the Pivada service (if the IP provider has Privada or some similar service). To read more about Privada, go to http://industry.java.sun.com/solutions/company/summary/0,2353,4514,00.html

Privada Control (Application)

Primary Market Target: Utilities&Services
Secondary Market Target: Financial Services

Description Used with Privada Network, PrivadaControl provides the consumer component of Privada's services, and is distributed to end-users by network service providers. Users create an online identity that cannot be linked to their real-world identity, allowing them to browse the Internet with the level of privacy they choose while still reaping the benefits of personalized content. PrivadaControl is built entirely in the Java(TM) programming language and runs completely in a Java Virtual Machine.

I added a Special Section to the document entitled "Opportunities of E-Business Assurance: Risks in Assuring Risk" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/assurance.htm

For more information about fraud and security, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm

(See also Finger, Security, and World Wide Web)

Copeland= The name given to Apple's troubled operating OS 8 System 8.0 for Mac and PowerPC computers. New features were to include OpenDoc object programming support, advanced security, TCP/IP support, and IPX support. Although it was expected to be released in 1996, Copeland was once again delayed for purposes of adding competitive features, especially networking utilities. In early 1997, Mac OS 8 (Copeland) development was purportedly in a state of chaos after losing some important engineers and the director of OS 8 development. The development was sidetracked when Apple purchased Steve Job's NEXTStep and announced that NEXTStep would become the core of future Mac and PowerMac operating systems. Apple's hopes are riding heavily upon the evolution of a new operating system called Rhapsody that is a revolutinary operating system based upon NEXTStep technology. (See also Mac, PowerPC, Operating system, NEXTStep, Mozart, Gershwi, and )

Coprocessor= Electronic component that relieves the microprocessor of some important tasks. Increased performance can often be achieved through the use of coprocessors. For example, a math coprocessor performs many of the math operations outside the microprocessor. A coprocessor may also speed graphics computations.

Copying= (See VCR, CD-R, Wide-screen TV, and SCMS)

CORBA= Common Object Request Broker Architecture is in competition with Microsoft's OLE/DCOM object-oriented Middleware technology for business applicaions. CORBA is most popular in communications Middleware using an Object Request Broker ORB. CORBA evolved out of TCP/IP. DCOM is bundled with the Windows 2000 operating system but has lackluster support for other operating systems. CORBA is more flexible with other operating systems. Both CORBA and OLE/DCOM are designed to distribute objects or assembly of appplications from discreet, self-contained components. Both are appealing in the fast growing technology of "object middleware." Object middleware has corporate appeal due to the ability to provide highly abstracted object-oriented programming interfaces. Microsoft added new terminology in this area. For example, COM depicts a Component Object Model to describe the base model used for building components. The term DCOM is the Distributed form of COM. ActiveX (formerly OCX) is the packaging technology for controls and supercedes prior Visual Basic Controls known as VBX. OLE no longer means object linking and embedding. OLE now refers to a collection of technologies. For interactive computing on the web, see Distributed Network Computing. A good textbook chapter on CORBA is given at http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~wwwbtb/fall.96/book/chap20/index.html. Also see RPC and http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm#ODBC.

An excellent article that compares XML and CORBA was written by Mark Elenko and Mike Reinertsen, "XML & CORBA," Application Development Trends, September 1999, pp. 45-50. For some reason the article is not available online along with the other articles that are online at http://www.adtmag.com/ (Maybe it will be made available by the time you read this edition of New Bookmarks):

It is still important to sometimes distinguish CORBA from XML. CORBA is an enabling technology for creating sophisticated, distributed object systems on heterogeneous platforms. XML is a technology for conveying structured data in a portable way. CORBA allows users to connect disparate systems and form object architectures. XML will allow users to transmit structured information within, between and out of those systems, and to represent information in a universal way in and across architectures. Both technologies are platform-, vendor- and language-independent. The conceptual fit is perfect. To see where and how this fit is best realized, we will examine how to actually combine CORBA and XML from a series of widening perspectives.

A May 3, 2001 email message:

Dr. Jensen,
I searched the article by Mark Elenko and Mike Reinertsen, "XML & CORBA," that you write in http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#CORBA ... but I found slides at URL: http://www.xenotrope.com/fipresentations.html
Regards.
Filippo Spadaro

ActiveX merges Microsoft's concept of Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) with interactive programming for the Internet. Its main main purposes for the Internet are to include live multimedia effects such as real (streaming) audio and to make it easy to bring web documents to life with virtual reality, including 360 degree video. ActiveX does not require HTML. ActiveX can perform many of the tasks that are also performed with Macromedia's Shockwave, but the ActiveX can create interactivity with much smaller file sizes and bandwidth requirements. As an illustration, visit Macromedia's FutureWave web site at http://www.macromedia.com/futurewave/. See also Distributed Network Computing. See also ActiveX and Visual Basic.

Welcome to OTM
What exactly are Object Transaction Monitors (OTMs)? In short, OTMs are a new category of middleware that should incorporate much of today's "best-of-breed" middleware technology features. Products in this category should support the object model without compromising the scalability, stability and performance characteristics offered by transaction processing (TP) monitors. OTMs should also
combine support for the synchronous communication model (found in most of the middleware categories, such as CORBA and COM) with support for the asynchronous communication model [found in message-oriented middleware products such as Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) and IBM's MQSeries].

There are a number of OTMs on the market today, although the exact number offered is not clear -- it depends on who is doing the talking and whether a product is generally available or in beta release. The veteran in the OTM market is Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) from Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., which began shipping in late 1996. M3 (formerly known as "Iceberg"), from Sunnyvale, Calif.-based BEA Systems Inc., was launched this June, with general availability of its first release scheduled for late July. The status of IBM's OTM offering, Component Broker, is unclear. Depending on whom you talk to at IBM, the next version of Component Broker is either in the early beta or late beta phase. http://www.adtmag.com/pub/Aug98/fe801-2.htm

Welcome to MTS
Microsoft Transaction Server is a distributed runtime environment for COM objects that began shipping approximately 18 months ago. It provides a sophisticated infrastructure for activating and running objects across the network. MTS provides automatic transaction management, database connection pooling, process isolation, automatic thread-pooling, automatic object instance management, resource sharing, role-based security, transaction monitoring within distributed applications and much more. These services are necessary for scaling server-side components and supporting a substantial number of concurrent client requests. MTS performs all of these services automatically, and without the need for application developers to write special code. A developer can therefore develop server-side components with a single client in mind. http://www.adtmag.com/pub/Aug98/fe801.htm

CORE= The Chapter 3 "core" attributes that distinguish CMS software/systems from other CAL options. (See also CMS)

CPU= Central Processing Unit that encompasses a computer's RAM, processing, and control circuitry, including the arithmetic-logic (ALU) unit. Both the ALU and the control units are wholly contained on the microprocessing chip whereas the primary storage is on the mother board or the expansion bus. For test comparisons of Intel Pentium, PowerPC, and Mips R4X00, and DEC Alpha, see Montgomery (1994). Montgomery ranks Pentium and Mips highest in terms of file servers. He ranks Pentium higher on most graphics and business applications criteria except for price since PowerPC is a cheaper alternative. There are, of course, other considerations. The PowerPC currently performs better than Pentium in terms of temperature, speed, and price, but all these advantages are expected to disappear when Intel introduces its upgrade versions of the Pentium. The PowerPC, however, will not perform as well using DOS and Windows operating systems. (See also Alpha processor, Pentium, MIPS, PowerPC, CISC, RISC, Operating system, and Motherboard)

Cracker = (See Phreaker.)

Craplet =

What's a craplet? (See Walt Mossberg's advice on how to wipe them out.)

Video: Walt tries to get rid of craplets

Many people are furious about so-called craplets, the unwanted programs that come loaded on most new PCs. Until computer makers stop dumping these junk programs on us, here are some strategies for avoiding them.
"Getting Junk Programs On Your New Computer," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2007; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117633406738767006.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Last week, when I condemned the flood of crippled trial software, ads and offers that come loaded on new Windows Vista computers, readers reacted strongly. I received roughly 700 emails, all but a handful agreeing with me. The column was the most popular article that day on WSJ.com and was cited on numerous other Web sites.

Clearly, many people are furious about these unwanted programs and icons, which are sometimes called craplets. Many would like to smite them without going through the laborious process of uninstalling them manually, one at a time. Some readers suggested strategies. The following are some options.

One ray of hope is a free program called PC Decrapifier. It can be downloaded at pcdecrapifier.com. This software automates the process of uninstalling craplets. It was written originally to clean up Dell computers, but its author says it will work on other brands, too. Before PC Decrapifier runs, it allows you to remove from its proposed deletion list any programs it considers junk, but which you might prefer to retain.

I haven't tested PC Decrapifier, but even assuming it works well there are a couple of downsides. First, it may not remove every craplet from every manufacturer. Also, unless you carefully tweak the deletions list, PC Decrapifier might remove some full working copies of preinstalled software that you want; it can't easily differentiate between trial and real versions of some commonly bundled programs.

Another option is to order a PC without the craplets in the first place. Some high-end Dell gaming machines are sold this way. Dell says you can also opt out of some third-party software on other models. Certain business models from various makers can be purchased clean, as well. But even business machines sometimes come with unwanted trial software, like limited versions of accounting programs, and may not be configured for consumers.

Dell, Sony and others say they are moving toward a new scenario in which all of this stuff will be easily refused on all models.

An alternate strategy is to avoid brand-name Windows computers and buy a Vista PC from a local shop that will construct it to your specs and leave off all the craplets. The catch is that you may pay more, and you must be certain that the shop will be around and willing to provide support for the life of the machine.

Some techies wrote me to say that the first thing they do with a new PC is to wipe out the hard disk and reinstall Windows so they start with a clean machine. But I can't recommend this for average users. For one thing, many new PCs no longer come with disks for reinstalling a full, clean version of Windows. Some have special sections of the hard disk from which you can perform a "recovery," but these recoveries may not be complete or may reload the craplets along with Windows. You could, of course, buy a fresh copy of Vista to reinstall, but that could cost hundreds of dollars.

Also, wiping out and rebuilding an operating system can be tricky for nontechies. Dell told me, "It is not advisable for nontechie consumers to wipe the hard drive and reinstall. ... This is intended as an emergency backup or for the technically sophisticated." Sony and Gateway sent me similar warnings.

Finally, an excellent way to avoid or minimize the craplet problem is to simply buy an Apple Macintosh computer. New Macs don't have any craplets displayed on their desktops. On a new Mac, no third-party software is automatically launched when you start the computer, and you don't need antivirus or antispyware programs because the Mac is essentially free from those menaces. So, even my year-old Mac laptop reboots roughly three times as fast as my three-week-old Sony.

Apple does include a few third-party programs on Macs, including one that, oddly, is for drawing comic-strip effects on photos. But these are tucked away in the applications folder and most are full working versions, not trials or offers. The main exception is a trial version of Microsoft Office. With some Mac models, you get trials of two Apple programs, iWork and FileMaker Pro. But these trials can be deleted simply by dragging the icons to the trash can.

Computer makers should stop dumping craplets on us. Until they do, you can find ways to avoid them.

Email me at mossberg@wsj.com . See video versions

Video: Walt tries to get rid of craplets

CRM = Customer Relationship Management system based upon information technology. Central to CRM are databases customer relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth. See Database and SAP.

New Offering from PwC Division touts consistent CRM PwC ConsultingTM, a division of financial services organization PricewaterhouseCoopers, has released CRM ACCEL — a complete multi-channel CRM program designed to help companies reduce the cost of serving customers while increasing revenue. http://www.newmedia.com/nm-ie.asp?articleID=3144

A CRM portals page is at http://www.downesmarketing.co.uk/crmlinks.html

Cross-platform= The ability of a software package or an electronic "book" to run in more than one operating system such as Icon Author and TIE crossings between Windows, Unix, and DOS operating systems. Rosenthal (1995) compares hypermedia authoring software having cross-platform capabilities. Some will only play back on cross-platforms but cannot be used to author in the platform of choice. Apple Media Kit and ScriptX authoring will run in DOS, Mac, Unix, and other operating systems, but neither option can be used for authoring in DOS or Windows. Insight into Multimedia and TIE can be used to playback in UNIX but authoring can only be undertaken in Windows. Hardware that crosses platforms in emulation (such as playing back Windows software in emulation on a Mac computer) frequently does not work well with complex authoring systems such as CBT ToolBook or Quest options that only perform well in Windows. Often very expensive options are priced for cross-platform capabilities that are limited in terms of authoring features present in software that will not cross platforms. GainMomentum authoring package from Sybase crosses platforms between UNIX, Windows, and Windows 2000. However, in spite of its very high price this package does not contain many of the wonderful authoring features found in Windows-only CBT ToolBook that is less than 10% of the cost of GainMomentum. Only a small proportion (less than 20%) of the hypermedia authoring options have cross-platform capabilities, but it is becoming a priority of many vendors to upgrade their products with cross-platform capabilities. Beware that some products like Apple Media Kit, Icon Author, TIE, Macromedia Authorware, Macromedia Director, Cast, Course Builder, Insight Into Multimedia, Oracle Media Objects, PowerMedia, Test, GainMomentum, and ScriptX may claim cross-platform capabilities, but it is not possible, for example, to translate complex hypermedia animations and high resolution graphics from a Mac to a Windows operating system and vice versa. See CGM for computer graphics metafiles that cross platforms between PC and Mac computers. Adobe Acrobat software is designed for cross-platform applications of many types of files, but it has limited or no ability to cross multimedia platforms. The term "cross-platform" can also apply to hardware options such a computers that will run under more than one operating system. However, this is not technically crossing a platform since it is merely equivalent to having two independent computers in one housing. Some, but not all, lessons authored in DOS and Windows may run on a Mac or PowerPC computer, but those that do may run painfully slow due to being run in emulation rather than direct form. Conversion software is available for converting Mac HyperCard Stacks into Multimedia ToolBook Windows books. Although this software works well for simple books (e.g., books having no complex animations and high-resolution graphics) that aren't in color, it doesn't work well for complex books with greater color depth, high resolution graphics, or complex animations. The same problem arises in most conversion software (e.g., that of Macromedia's Authorware and Director). Even ToolBooks created in 24 bit color PCs may not be suited for PC displays having lower color depths. Mac computers attempt to dither 24 bit color images into acceptable images for lower color-depth Mac computers, but PCs do not dither these images automatically. As books become more complex, a point is reached where authors must rewrite books for Mac and Windows operating systems. The Internet changed much of the worries about cross-platform capability. Increasingly, authoring software and other types of software are gearing up for playback on the World Wide Web (WWW) such as the Shockwave reader for Macromedia's Director and Authorware and the Neuron reader for the Asymetrix ToolBook products. (See also ActiveX Authoring, CORBA, Native, Operating system, PDA, and CGM)

Cryptolope= The combination of "cryptographic" security encription with "envelopes" of domain. Cryptolopes enable publishers on the WWW to securely distribute content with copyright protections and security over payments for copyrighted material usage.

CWIS= Campus Wide Information System bulletin board services that can be accessed on the Internet. These are available on most college campuses and provide bulletin board information on campus calendars, e-mail directories on the campus, employment opportunities, campus events, course catalogs, etc.

CyberMall= A term commonly used to describe an electronic site shared by a number of commercial interests.

Cyberspace= A term coined by William Gibson in his fantasy novel "Neuromancer" to refer to a near-future computer network where users mentally travel through matrices of data. The term is now used to describe the Internet and the other computer networks.

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D-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

DAB/DAR / DAC / Daemon / Darwin / DAT / Data Discman / Database / Database building from the WWW / Data Encryption Standard (DES) / Data Mining and Data Warehouse / DAV / DB 2 / dbx / DCC / DCOM / Debugging / DEC Alpha / Delta Project /Denial of Service Attacks / Desktop Search / Device driver / DHTML / Dial-up connection / Digital Video (DV) Camcorder / DIP Switch / Direct connection / DirectTV / Disabilities products / Disk-at-once recording / Distributed Network Computing / DLL / DLP and LCD / DNC / DNS / Document Type Definition (DTD) / Docking station / Document / Document Object Model (DOM) / Document window / DOM / Domino / Dolby-NR / DOS / Download / Draft-N / Driver / Dry camera / DSD / DSL / DSP / DSS / DSU / DTD / DTP / Dual Boot / Dual Core / DVD / DVD-RAM / DVD-ROM /DVI /

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

DAB/DAR= Digital Audio Broadcast and Digital Audio Radio broadcasting in digital formats via satellites and fiber optic cable. (See also Networks and DCC)

DAC= Digital Analog Conversion hardware that converts digital signals into analog form. (See also ADC, Scan converter, Modem, and Video)

Daemon = Disk And Execution MONitor programs that are not initially executed but lie in wait for certain contingencies to occur. Daemons are extremely common in UNIX operating systems.The slightly revised form Demon refers to the program itself whereas Daemon refers to an operating system process. See also HTTPd.

Darwin = (See Operating System.)

DAT= Digital Audio Tape used for recording computer disc files onto a cheap backup and storage medium. DAT tapes are contained in small cartridges that are the cheapest means of storing vast amounts of data. For example, a cartridge smaller than the palm of an adult hand can hold two or more gigabyes of data. Popular manufacturers of DAT backup tape drives include Sony and Hewlett-Packard.

Data Discman= (See Games)

Database= A computer file or system of data organized in records and fields for fast retrieval and ease of updating. For an overview of network database trends see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm. Also see CFML, Concurrency Control, DTP, GainMomentum, Grid Computing, JDBC, MDA, Middleware, Relational database management, SAP, Resource Description Framework, and 4GL Database Languages.

Key database system and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system web sites for large-scale systems are listed below:

Baan at http://www5.baan.com/cgi-bin/bvisapi.dll

Cars at http://www.carsinfo.com /

DATATEL at http://www.datatel.com/

IBM DB 2 at http://www.software.ibm.com/data/db2/

Informix at http://www.informix.com/informix/products/

JD Edwards Enterprise Software http://www.jdedwards.com/

Microsoft SQL Server at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/default.htm

Netscape Enterprise Server at http://merchant.netscape.com/netstore/servers/enterprise.html

Oracle at http://www.oracle.com/index_4.html

PeopleSoft at http://www.peoplesoft.c

SCT at http://www.sctcorp.com/education.htm

SAP at http://www.sap.com/

Some of the above systems are stronger on personnel management utilities and weaker on database technologies. Others are stronger on database technologies and weaker on personnel management. In all cases, installation of a system is no piece of cake. In some cases it can take years and millions of dollars to get a system in place. But in those instances these larger systems are the only feasible alternatives.

Smaller-scale database systems are reviewed by D.C. Hayes and J.E. Hunton in the Journal of Accountancy, January 1999, pp. 61-69. These are useful for small business and small departments within large businesses. Sometimes it is easier to build a small database system than to fool with a large system to handle smaller jobs. Smaller-scale database software packages include the following:

Microsoft Access at http://www.microsoft.com/products/prodref/332_ov.htm
For MS Access helper links see http://WWW.Trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5342/helpers1.htm#Access

Inprise Paradox at http://www.inprise.com/paradox/

Lotus Approach at http://www.lotus.com/

Microsoft Visual FoxPro http://www.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/

Microsoft is promising a greatly improved MS Access that will probably take over the smaller-scale database market like Excel took over the spreadsheet market. One advantage of MS Access is the way it integrates with other MS Office programs such as Excel.

Networked databases are exploding in popularity across the Internet. For a review, see http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/circuits/articles/18bots.html . Microsoft is promoting ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). The following is a quotation from http://www.microsoft.com/data/ado/prodinfo.htm :

The ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) programming model represents the best of the existing Microsoft data access programming models. If you are familiar with Data Access Objects (DAO) or Remote Data Objects (RDO), you will recognize the interfaces and will be able to work with them very quickly. You will also notice considerable improvements in the model, and tasks that were awkward in previous models have either been fixed or eliminated from the ADO model.

The ADO objects provide you with the fastest, easiest and most productive means for accessing all kinds of data sources. The ADO model strives to expose everything that the underlying data provider can do, while still adding value by giving you shortcuts for common operations.

ADO is Microsoft's strategic, high-level interface to all kinds of data. ADO provides consistent, high-performance access to data, whether you're creating a front-end database client or middle-tier business object using an application, tool, language, or even an Internet browser. ADO is the single data interface you need to know for 1- to n-tier client/server and Web-based data-driven solution development.

ADO is designed as an easy-to-use application level interface to Microsoft's newest and most powerful data access paradigm, OLE DB. OLE DB provides high-performance access to any data source, including relational and non-relational databases, email and file systems, text and graphics, custom business objects, and more. ADO is implemented with a small footprint, minimal network traffic in key Internet scenarios, and a minimal number of layers between the front-end and data source-all to provide a lightweight, high-performance interface. ADO is easy to use because it is called using a familiar metaphor - the OLE Automation interface, available from just about any tool and language on the market today. And since ADO was designed to combine the best features of, and eventually replace RDO and DAO, it uses similar conventions with simplified semantics to make it easy to learn for today's developers.

Related to ADO the Microsoft® Remote Data Service (RDS) for distributing data on the Internet. You can read the following at http://www.microsoft.com/data/ado/prodinfo.htm#Face :

RDS Overview

Multiple sources...One control...Rich user experience...RDS is just that simple! The Microsoft® Remote Data Service (RDS) is your source for distributed data access through the Web. RDS makes full-featured, data-centric Web applications a reality by combining data manipulation of retrieved data, efficient client-side caching, and support for data-aware ActiveX® controls with an elegant and powerful programming model.

RDS is Bringing Data Access to the Web!

RDS goes beyond the current generation of Web data access tools by allowing clients to update the data they see. Using drop-in ActiveX data controls, such as grids, lists, and combo boxes, developers can deploy sophisticated user interfaces that allow end users to view and change data with a minimum of programming. End users are no longer restricted to staring at a static HTML results table. With RDS, they may now alter, add, and delete data they have queried and retrieved. In addition, all changes are buffered locally, and can be submitted to the server for inspection, processing and storage in the database.

The benefits of traditional client/server technology have migrated to the Web, and the read-only, static client is a thing of the past. By providing a local data cache, the end user is now able to navigate through large data sets without costly server round trips.

RDS provides the ability to invoke remote objects over HTTP and DCOM, enabling programmers to develop distributed Web applications that effectively partition application logic between Visual Basic® Scripting Edition code on the client and server objects. Automation objects written in Visual Basic can expose services to client-side applications, while protecting business logic and data from distribution. Developers are no longer restricted to choosing between "thin" or "fat" clients and servers. They can make an informed choice and partition their data and business logic accordingly.

Object-oriented database systems are quite different from the extremely relational database systems (e.g., MS Access, FoxPro, DBase, etc) that are extremely popular today. I will begin this module with a quote from my favorite online textbook in accounting information systems (that I adopt each year for my ACCT 5342 course):

Emerging database systems concepts
We conclude this chapter with a brief discussion of an emerging concepts relating to database systems. Object-oriented (OO) approaches to modeling and implementing database systems are becoming increasingly popular. This approach employs object-oriented modeling (OOM) techniques to model the domain of interest and then implements the resulting model using an object-oriented database management system (OODBMS). The object-oriented approach focuses on the objects of interest in the domain. Customers, vendors, employees, sales orders, and receipts are all viewed as objects that have certain attributes. OOM involves identifying the objects of interest, their attributes, and relationships between objects.

A critical feature unique to the OO approach is that an "object" package includes both the attributes of the object and the methods or procedures that pertain to that object. The methods might dictate how the object's attributes are modified in response to different events, or how the object causes changes in the attributes of other objects. Thus, a key difference between the database models described earlier and the OO approach is that OO models combine data (attributes) and procedures (methods) in one package, i.e., the "object." This feature of OO models is referred to as encapsulation - attributes and methods are represented together in one capsule. Another powerful feature of OO models is inheritance. OO models depict the real world as a hierarchy of object classes, with lower level classes inheriting attributes and methods from higher level classes. Thus, lower level object classes do not need to redefine attributes and methods that are common to the higher level object classes in the class hierarchy.

An OO model contains all details needed for implementation and object-oriented DBMS are powerful enough to represent all the information contained in the model. However, most organizations that have made heavy investments in RDBMS see little need to migrate to OO environments. While OO modeling methods are available, there is no consensus regarding the "best" method to use. Finally, although OODBMS are beginning to become commercially available, they have not gained much acceptance in the marketplace probably due to their relatively high cost and poor performance in comparison to RDBMS. Gemstone, ObjectStore, VBase, and O2 are some examples of OODBMS.

Accounting Information Systems: A Database Approach
by Uday S. Murthy and S. Michael Groomer
For more information go to http://www.cybertext.com/

Next I will repeat a great illustration pointed out in the message below from Alexander Lashenko:

Hello Bob,

Take a look at http://www.sanbase.com/cx.html

It's an original object-oriented DBMS with web interface. Looks very nice.

Regards,

Alex.
Alexander Lashenko [alashenko@cryptologic.com]

See also Knowledge Managment and Search Engine.

For non-hierarchical online database design see OLAP.

E-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

E-Business / ECCH / Echo / E-Commerce / EDI / EDGAR / Education grants / EDUCOM / EduQuest / EISA / Electronic classroom / Electronic Jamming / E-mail / Emoticon / Emulation / encryption / eNetwork Software /Enterprise / EPG / ERP / ERIC / ESH / Ethernet / Evaluation / Event handler / eWorld / Execution flow / Expanded memory / Expansion board/slot / Expert systems / Explorer / Express Author / Extended memory / eXstensible Style Language (XSL) / External Viewer / Extractor / Extranet

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

E-Business = a term that is easily confused with E-Commerce. E-Business may be an umbrella term that refers to any type of business transaction on the Internet. Some writers, however, may use the term in a more restricted context such as a business-to-business (B2B) transaction as opposed to a business-to-consumer (B2C) transaction. For example, a B2B transaction might be a business firm's online banking transaction. E-Commerce refers more to the B2C context where a firm sells goods on the internet and makes collections via some payment scheme such as online credit card transactions. See ASP.

An Internet/Web portal with 14 channels on marketing and e-Commerce --- http://www.internet.com/home-d.html

Internet Technology

Ecommerce/Marketing

Web Developer

Windows Internet Tech.

Linux/Open Source

Internet Resources

ISP Resources

Internet Lists

Download

International

International News

International Investing

ASP Resources

Wireless

Other examples of portals and vortals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm

ECCH= European Case Clearing House, Cranfield Institute of Technology, Beds, MK43 0AL, United Kingdom (also at Babson College in Babson Park, Wellesley, MA 02157). The ECCH now offers an on line network server for international cases. Although none of the cases are, as yet, in hypertext or hypermedia format, it is a useful feature to have cases available for file transfer on the Internet. (See also HBSP)

E-Business = (See E-Business).

Echo= return response between a host server and a terminal computer. It is generally coded to be "on" or "off." If echo is "on" (full duplex), the host will send back every character the user types in. If echo is "off" (half duplex), the host will not send back the characters, and the user's local computer or terminal writes each character to the screen directly. This can be confusing to new users if the state of the echo parameter is different on the host computer and the user's computer.

EDI= The abbreviation for Electronic Data Interchange or Electronic Data Invoicing. The EDI system allows linked computers to conduct business transactions such as ordering and invoicing over telecommunications networks. The technology dates back to the 1970s when the first attempts at setting uniform standards commenced. However, EDI in telecommunications never lived up to its expectations largely due to high fees of Value Added Network (VAN) providers that, prior to the Internet usage, charged both monthly and transaction fees. In the late 1990s, EDI became less costly (as low as 10% of former VAN costs) when business applications exploded on the Internet and in intranets. The ultimate goal of EDI is to have standardized computer forms for business transactions and networking of nearly all aspects business transactions. This would greatly simplify use of networks to conduct business, accounting for transactions, and auditing. See "Intranets and Iternet: New Life for EDI," in Information Week, March 17, 1997, pp 65-67. Gradually EDI is being taken over by extranet networks on the Internet. See Extranet.

EDGAR = Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval database of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). EDGAR contains the digitized versions of many corporate filings, including 10Q quarterly and 10K annual financial reports of registered corporations and mutual funds.

The main EDGAR URL is at http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm .
An EDGAR tutorial is available at http://www.sec.gov/edgar/quickedgar.htm

The EDGAR database is one probably the most widely used database by investors and financial analysts. The drawback is that many of the filings are very long, sometimes exceeding 300 pages. Searching is usually tedious and requires considerable financial searching and accounting skills. Until filings are marked up in XBRL, the searching EDGAR will be tedious.

Currently, there are some corporate Web sites to aid in searching for EDGAR data. One of the best known is EDGAR Online at http://www.edgar-online.com/. EDGAR Online uses enhanced parsing technologies to quickly extract the popular data most often sought after by investors. Added services include email alerts, multiple file formates, and spreadsheet downloads. One of EDGAR Online's most popular services is a sales lead geration product called Wealth ID. This provides personal wealth information about individuals who file SEC Form 144 regarding sales of restricted stock.

Another help site is called EDGAR Advantage at http://www.edgaradvantage.com/resources.htm .This is more of a consulting site for EDGAR filers than users.

Education grants= (See Funding)

EDUCOM= A group of cooperating colleges and universities dedicated to advancing computer and network communications technology in education. EDUCOM coordinates newsletters and other publishing efforts along with conferences and related activities. For free publication subscriptions, contact EDUCOM, 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 (202-872-4200).

EduQuest= A revitalized system of multimedia hardware and software packages from IBM Corporation. The system primarily targets the K-12 education system in the United States. The new system is designed to be more powerful with networked PCs and a variety of Plug and Play adapters for auxiliary components.

EISA= (See Bus)

Electronic classroom= A large or small classroom filled with multimedia devices. The usual context is that of a lecture hall where the instructor has fingertip control of multimedia aids such as computer images, video tape images, videodisc images, audio, CD-ROM players, Internet connections, cameras that transfer images to large screens, etc. Some electronic classrooms have student response hardware such as response pads or even computer terminals. Usually, however, the electronic classroom is not viewed in the same context as a computer/multimedia lab or a language lab. In a lab setting the student usually works alone or in small teams in front of computers. In an electronic classroom, the instructor is usually focusing the attention of the entire class upon the same learning media. However, labs can be equipped with central screens so that combinations of instructor-focused materials can be combined with individual learning. Large lecture halls can also be equipped with students who combine large lectures with "studio classroom learning." See DeLoughry (1995a). (See also Studio classroom)

Electronic Jamming (See Security)

E-mail or email= Electronic mail transmitted between millions of users connected on networks worldwide. Messages are exchanged instantaneously, usually at zero marginal cost to users, thereby saving greatly on national or international telephone and express mail fees. Messages may be stored in computer files and processed at a user's convenience. Precautionary advice is given under ActiveX. (See also Internet, Internet Messaging, Instant Messaging, SLIP, and USENet)

For more about email virus risks and email attachment risks, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/assurance.htm

I wrote the following at http://WWW.Trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm#071498

*************************************************************************************************************************************

My reply to a faculty member concerned about how to reference email messages:

I think that when referencing such things you should fine tune distinctions between bulletin boards, email groups, listservs, forums, and chat rooms.

Bulletin boards do not allow users to all send messages to the bulletin board to each other. For example, an investment service my send bulletins to subscribers but subscribers cannot send messages to all other subscribers (unless they are given email addresses of each subscriber). Messages may also be posted at a web site with or without passwords for viewing messages on the board.

Listservs, listserves, or list serves (all three spellings seem to be used in practice and I am no authority on the "correct spelling" here) are like TigerTalk. Only subscribers can send messages to the list and messages sent to the list are sent to all subscribers' mail boxes. Usually you can subscribe or unsubscribe with a simple email message.

Email groups are like listservs with the distinction that a webmaster sets up designated members and one cannot simply "subscribe" to join the list or depart from the list. Since listservs are more complicated for webmasters to set up, the web master will usually recommend setting up an email group for a relatively fixed group. For example, the Department of Business Administration has a group address business-all@trinity.edu Staff in this department all receive any message sent to this address. However, no person can "subscribe" to or "unsubscribe from" the list with a simple email message like can be done with a listserv. Only the webmaster can add and remove members from the email group.

Forums can be listservs, email groups, or web sites programmed for input of user messages. The key distinction in being designated a "forum" is that there is a manager (moderator, editor, czar, steering committee, or what have you) who "runs" the thing to stimulate messaging on certain topics, follow-ups to messages, and generally keeps the thing moving in certain directions or blocks moving in other directions. The manager usually has an "official" appointment. For example, Southwestern Publishing as designated a famous author to manage a forum on certain types of topics. Often forums depend upon the reputation or power of the manager. An author or publisher may establish a forum for a given book or subset of related books.

Chat rooms entail messaging at designated times such that email discussions are more like conference calls.

If you find a preferred spelling of listserv, please let me know.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Emoticon

Question
What is an emoticon?
Hint: :-)
It was first invented by professor Scott E. Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University on September 19, 1972

Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be difficult to detect. Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly. "I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: -)" wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways." The suggestion gave computer users a way to convey humor or positive feelings with a smile _ or the opposite sentiments by reversing the parenthesis to form a frown.
"Digital ‘smiley face’ turns 25," MSNBC, September 18, 2007 --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20829611/from/ET/

A listing of emoticon examples is given at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticon

Emulation= (See Native)

Encryption= cryptographic conversion of data into ciphertext in order to prevent any but the intended recipient from reading that data. There are many types of data encryption, and they are the basis of network security. Common types include Data Encryption Standard and public-key encryption.

(See Security)

eNetwork Software= (See IBM)

Enterprise= A synonym for business, mainly big business. The enterprise computing market is typically the corporations that buy hardware and software and use them to run their operations.

EPG= Electronic Program Guide that displays scheduled shows on screen such as TV Guide On Screen.

ERP = (See SAP).

ERIC= Educational Resources Information Center documents database that contains a variety of resources to educators, especially teachers in K-12 schools. (See also Telnet)

ESH= Electronic Super Highway. (See Information highway)

ERP = (See SAP.)

Ethernet= A widely used interface data processing scheme for managing data transfers on network. An ethernet board (card) must be put into the computer for network connections. It can network a wide variety of computers, it is not proprietary, and components are widely available from many commercial sources.

Evaluation= (See Assessment)

Event handler= A special type of function that executes automatically when a particular user-enabled, system-enabled, or code-generated event occurs.

eWorld= A commercial world-wide network launched by Apple Corporation to compete with Interchange, CompuServe, Prodigy, and America Online. Key features of eWorld include its ease of use and graphical interface. The major limitation is that its use is restricted to Mac operating systems. A second drawback according to Mossberg (1994c) is that eWorld uses older technology revised from America Online. (See also Networks, CompuServe, Internet, Prodigy, Interchange, and America Online)

Execution flow= The section of code that the application executes, depending on branching decisions.

Expanded memory= (See RAM)

Expansion board/slot= (See Board)

Expert systems= (See Artificial Intelligence)

Explorer = (See Web browsers)

Express Author = A front end to Asymetrix Multimedia ToolBook that performs automatic scripting to both speed authoring and aid ToolBook novices. The software was developed at the IAT. This front end is mainly an aid to beginning authors who do not plan to become ToolBook experts. (See also Authoring and IAT)

Extended memory = (See RAM)

eXstensible Style Language (XSL) = (See HTML)

External Viewer= A program used for presenting graphics, audio and video files. Programs that allow the viewing of GIF and JPEG files and the hearing of AU files fall into this category.

Extractor = (See Wrapper).

Extranet= a term depicting networks on the Internet dedicated to business communications between a vendor and its suppliers, customers, or dealers. The term originated from network pioneer Robert Metcalfe. Using the common format of the World Wide Web, companies, their suppliers, customers, or suppliers exchange data electronically rather than sending paper-based information back and forth. It is viewed as an Internet alternative to Electronic Data Interchange comprised of dedicated lines and software rather than the Internet. Extranets are a lower cost alternative to EDI. For example, see "Toshiba Debuts Extranet" in Information Week, October 20, 1997, p. 36. Therein it is stated that nearly all of Toshiba's 350 independent dealers will be ordering products and parts via a secure extranet. FedEx now offers a BusinessLink extranet service with intent on handling the accounting for transactions as well as delivery of product. Competitors either are or will soon offer similar extranets. See EDI, Internet, and Intranet.

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F-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Facebook / FAQ / FC-AL / Fax / FDMA / Fiber optic / Fiero Online / File attributes / File server / File transfer / Finger / Finger gateway / Firewall / FireWire / Flash / Flash memory / Flash Player / Flatbed / flc/fli / FM synthesis / FMV / Fourth Generation Database Langages / fps / Freenets / FTP / Full-duplex / Fullerenes / Function / Funding

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Facebook= See Social Networks

FAQ= This is the acronym for Frequently Asked Questions. A common feature on the Internet, FAQs are files of answers to commonly asked questions. Read FAQs before wasting electrons asking obvious questions. Saves you from receiving flames.

FC-AL = (See SSA.)

Fax= Devices for transmitting and receiving photocopies over telephone lines. Text and graphics may be printed on paper or stored in computer files. Text is received as a graphic and must be translated by specialized software to be stored as text files for word processors. (See also PDA)

FDMA= (See Wireless Glossary of Terms)

Fiber optic= Cable that carries light pulses instead of electrical current. A cable comprised of a multitude of fine glass fibers has much more capacity than the previously popular copper cable. (See also Information highway, Networks, and Sonet)

Fiber Optics Terms from "Fiber to the School Desk," in T.H.E. Magazine, November 2001, p. 26 --- http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3709B.cfm

FIBER OPTICS TERMS

Category 5e (Enhanced) - A category of performance for inside wire and cable. Used in support of signaling rates of up to 100 MHz over distances of up to 100 meters. Calls for tighter twists, electrical balancing between pairs and fewer cable anomalies. CAT5e is intended to support 100 Base-T, ATM and Gigabit Ethernet.

Cisco IP/TV - A comprehensive network video-streaming system for businesses, schools and governmental organizations. Using network-efficient multicast technology it delivers TV-quality live video programming.

Fiber Optics - A technology in which light is used to transport information from one point to another. More specifically, fiber optics are thin filaments of glass through which light beams are transmitted over long distances carrying enormous amounts of data.

Hub - The point of a network where circuits are connected. Also, a switching node. In Local Area Networks, a hub is the core of a star as in ARCNET, StarLAN, Ethernet and Token Ring. Hub hardware can be either active or passive. Wiring hubs are useful for their centralized management capabilities and for their ability to isolate nodes from disruption.

IDF - Intermediate Distribution Frame. A metal rack designed to connect cables, located in equipment or in a closet. Consists of components that provide the connection between the interbuilding and intrabuilding cabling, i.e. between the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) and individual phone wiring. There's usually a permanent, large cable running between the MDF and IDF. The changes in wiring are done at the IDF, preventing confusion in wiring.

MDF - Main Distribution Frame. A wiring arrangement that connects external telephone lines on one side and the internal lines on the other. A main distribution frame may also carry protective devices as well as function as a central testing point.

MTRJ - A small form-factor style of fiber optic connector that is defined by its high-density footprint and RJ45 locking mechanism.

Multimode - An optical fiber designed to allow light to carry multiple carrier signals, distinguished by frequency or phase, at the same time. (Contrasts with singlemode.)

SC - Designation for an optical connector featuring a 2.5 mm physically contacting ferrule with a push-pull mating design. This connector is recommended in the TIA/EIA-568A Standard for structured cabling.

ST - Designation for the "straight tip" connector developed by AT&T. This optical connector features a physically contacting, nonrotating 2.5 mm ferrule design and bayonet connector-to-adapter mating.

Singlemode - A fiber that allows only a single mode of light to propagate. This eliminates the main limitation to bandwidth, modal dispersion.

Fiero Online= The Princeton University online art class on Fiero del Fancesca, an Italian 15th century Renaissance artist. This is an Iris Silicon Graphics high-end database library with scanned images of frescoes and a three-dimensional walking tour on computer for students. Students also construct their own models. This is considered one of the most successful CAL applications in universities.

File attributes= Access rights attached to each file.

File server= A computer running a network operating system that enables other computers to access its files.

File transfer= The ability to transfer text, graphics, software, spreadsheets, audio files, and video files over vast distances on computer networks such as the Internet. For example, the entire works of Shakespeare can be downloaded from Dartmouth College and government documents may be transferred from the Library of Congress. (See also FTP, Internet, and SLIP)

Finger= An Internet protocol used to find out more information about an Internet user. (See also Cookies)

Finger gateway= A source listing of graphics images that have been placed around the world on the Internet. (See also Mosaic)

Firewall= Go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/firewall.htm

Also see security.

FireWire = (See Bus.)

Flash = the name of a software product from Macromedia that is intended for more efficient Internet delivery of graphics and other media.

Neil Balthaser writes "Kill HTML Before It Kills Us," in NewMedia, September 1999. pg. 22. The online version is at http://newmedia.com/NewMedia/99/09/architects/Kill_HTML.html. In his own words, Neil Balthaser asserts the following:

Recently I was on a keynote panel addressing the future of the Web. The crowning moment came when the moderator displayed an HTML page before a crowd of hundreds, on 15-foot über-screens, and praised its "creative" use of fields! To emphasize her point, she changed the title from "The Art Center College of Design" to "The Fart Center College of Design."

This is how we're supposed to captivate the world and grab the attention of the masses? I don't think so.

Right now, raging all around us, is an enormous battle for mindshare. The movie studios are creating bigger blockbusters; stores are re-creating themselves as "community centers"; and gyms are adding translucent shower room walls so fitness buffs can watch anonymous figures lather up as they're working out. Yet among these distractions, do any stunning HTML pages spring to mind? How can we expect to survive this battle with HTML as our only weapon?

The simple answer is, we can't. Yet we continue to try.

I can hear your HTML programmers now: "But being creative using the simplest of tools shows the greatest creativity of all!" While this may be true, it's beside the point. If simple is best, how many master ASCII artists have you hired? Etching on film may be the simplest method of creating special effects, but that doesn't mean the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were etched on film. People are demanding better, hotter, and sexier forms of entertainment, and we're not going to give it to them with HTML. As an industry, we have to find and support other solutions.

Currently, Flash is our best weapon. Drop HTML, pick up Flash, and really learn it -- then push it. It offers the most robust authoring environment around, and it's backed by a single company that is focused on creating great tools. If Java had this kind of dedication behind it, I'd recommend it as well. But for all Java's strengths, it lacks a great, nontechnical authoring environment -- and that's what unleashes creativity and gives a new medium a life of its own.

Mr. Balthaser makes some good points, especially with respect to graphics, animation, and multimedia. However, it seems unlikely that Flash will ever replace HTML. At Macromedia's http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/productinfo/features/ you read the following:

Easily design and reliably deliver high-impact, low-bandwidth Web sites to all browsers. Flash is the only solution that lets you produce sites with vector and bitmap graphics, motion, MP3 audio, form input, and interactivity. Leading high-traffic consumer and portal sites use Flash to deliver engaging experiences that attract and excite Web users everywhere.

Be that as it may, text has many advantages over other forms of media. For example, text is the most efficient form of communication for search engines (at least until we really get serious about metadata, RDF, and XML). Flash cannot hold a candle to text formatting in FrontPage and Microsoft Office products such as PowerPoint and Word. Excel 2000 documents can now be saved in dynamic HTML (see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/dhtml/excel01.htm ). Microsoft Access 2000 documents can be saved in dynamic HTML. Macromedia has never suggested that its Flash software can replace its own Macromedia Dreamweaver. My point here is that HTML is not even close to dying. The frustration at the moment is that for web authoring, we need an entire tool box filled with FrontPage, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, and a host of other products including (possibly) Flash.

Now that PowerPoint reads so well in Internet Explorer and has audio capabilities via RealPresenter (http://www.real.com/products/tools/presenter/index.html ), perhaps some of you can help me with the question of whether Flash really can or should replace FrontPage and PowerPoint. I think not. I do think HTML will shrink in importance as networked databases grow in popularity, but it would seem that Flash will remain a small niche in a very large market.

Flash memory= An erasable memory used as an alternative to hard disk and laser disc storage. The term is used most often in conjunction with PCMCIA cards. (See also Hard drive, RAM and PCMCIA)

Flash Player=

"Before Going to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

Flash Player: A small-capacity digital music player, like Apple's iPod Nano and Shuffle. These players use flash memory, a type of memory chip that behaves like a small hard disk to store music, photos and videos. Larger players, such as the full-size iPod and the new Microsoft Zune, use actual hard disks, like the ones in computers. Flash memory is also what's inside the small memory cards used in digital cameras.

Flatbed= (See Scanner)

flc/fli= File extensions for animations conforming to Autodesk formats. With appropriate changes in the win.ini file, most PC computers will play back these animations without having Autodesk software installed. (See also Animation)

FM synthesis= The least-expensive method for producing synthesized sound. FM synthesis uses one sine wave to control the frequency of another. Most synthesizers built into PC audio boards and sound modules use more sophisticated synthesis techniques for greater accuracy in reproducing the sounds of different instruments.

FMV= Full Motion Video depicting video at 30 or more fps. (See also Video)

Fouth Generation Database Languages = (See 4GL Database Languages.)

fps= frames per second in video. Typical "full-motion" video in television and movies is 30 fps, but in digitized video such high fps rates are not yet common. Apple's QuickTime and Microsoft's Video for Windows typically run at 12 to 18 fps. (See also Video)

Freenets= Bulletin board services that are funded by individuals and organizations dedicated to making information freely available on networks. They operate much like public libraries through the National Public Telecommunication Network (NPTN.). Users can connect through modems or through Internet terminals. An example of a freenet is the "campus look-alike" Cleveland Freenet operated by Case Western Reserve University. (See also CWIS and BBS)

FTP= File Transfer Protocol used for downloading files on the Internet. Listings of ftp sites are available from Mosaic. (See also File transfer, Remote login, Mosaic, and Protocol)

File Transfers Across the Internet: The following article reviews the history and FTP options:
"FTP: For The People," by Michael Calore, Webmonkey, August 30, 2002 --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/36/index4a.html

Full-duplex= In full duplex communication, the terminal transmits and receives data simultaneously.

Function= An instruction to the application that performs operations or returns a value, or both.

Fullerenes=

Fullerenes, those soccer ball–shaped carbon molecules also known as “buckyballs,” have generated outsized expectations ever since their discovery in 1985. Scientists think they could eventually be used in chemical sensors, fuel cells, drug delivery, cancer medicines, and smart materials. Yet while commercial demand for fullerenes is gradually emerging, so are fears that these molecules, which measure only a few billionths of a meter across, pose serious health and environmental hazards.
"Mitsubishi: Out Front in Nanotech," by Stephen Herrera, MIT's Technology Review, January 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/issue/herrera0105.asp?trk=nl

Also see UbiquitousComputing.

Bob Jensen's threads on ubiquitous computing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ubiquit.htm

Funding= The raising of funds for hardware, software, and development. Grants are available from a variety of sources as noted in Chapter 3. Funding grants are available from a variety of sources tracked in the newsletters listed in Appendix 4. A directory of some funding sources is given by Eckstein (1991). Summaries of grants and assistance in writing grant proposals can be found in Columns, Spring 1994, p. 3. The CETA Newsletter tracks funding sources for accounting educators. Summer fellowships are also available from Teletraining Institute (405-744-7510). Apple Corporation offers a variety of funding sources for Mac and PowerPC users. (See also Delta Project)

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G-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

GainMomentum / Games / Gateways / GDI / GDS / Gershwin / GIF / GINA / Gnutella/Napster / Gopher / Gopherspace / GPS / Grants / Graphics / Graphics adapter / Grid Computing / Group / Group rights / Groupware / GSM / GUI

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

GainMomentum= The high-end $10,000 hypertext and hypermedia authoring software package from Sybase (800-879-2273). Features of this amazing, albeit expensive, software are reviewed in Morph's Outpost, September 1994, p. 1 ff, and in NewMedia 1995 Tool Guide, p. 25. Sybase is the first leading-edge vendor to offer serious database networking utilities for hypermedia and cross-platform utilities between UNIX, Windows, and Windows 2000. The main competitor at the high-end level will be ScriptX, although at this juncture it is not certain that ScriptX will match GainMomentum in database, networking, and Windows 2000 capabilities. (See also Cross-platform, Authoring, and ScriptX)

Games= Interactive entertainment programs that can be played back on computers or special playing machines connected to television sets. Some games are sold on compact discs that can either be played in CD-ROM drives connected to computers or CD players that are proprietary. For example, Sega games play on Sega players, Data Discman games play on Data Discman players, CD-I games play on CD-I players, etc. Games are generally authored by game vendors and cannot be modified or updated for education uses by users. Educators who think that their students are spending many hours in computer labs for academic purposes may discover that a large portion of computer lab time is taken up with game playing. More research needs to be conducted on the fascination of games so that educators can make better use of building these motivational factors into more serious learning materials. According to Pereira (1994), CD-ROM games are overtaking market leaders such as Sega and Nintendo that captured the early game markets with players that were not compatible with PC, Mac, or other desktop computers. Games are popular and addictive, in part, due to the release of endorphins in the brain, especially among women according to Carlton (1994a). (See also MUDs)

Gateways= Are connectors between two or more dissimilar networks that facilitate communication in such instances. Gateways have their own processors to perform both protocol and bandwidth conversions. Gateways between the Outernet and the Internet translate different protocols such as e-mail protocols of different networks into Internet protocols. (See also Internet, Mosaic, Finger Gateway, Whois Gateway, and Outernets)

GDI= Graphics Device Interfaces link graphics hardware devices with the CPU. Much of the power of graphics processing depends upon whether the system has 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bit graphics power. Limitations of customer hardware often detract from the ability to develop operating systems to take full advantage of graphics power. For example, when developing Windows Chicago for 32-bit processors, Microsoft Corporation had to leave 16-bit GDI capacity on its 32-bit operating system.

GDS (See Desktop Search)

Gershwin= The name given to Apple's planned operating system 9.0 for Mac and PowerPC computers. New features were to include advanced speed recognition, interfacing that adapts to individual users, and new microkernal architecture. However, the System 9.0 has been abandoned in favor of an entirely new operating system called Rhapsody. Apple's hopes are riding heavily upon the evolution of a new operating system called Rhapsody that is a revolutinary operating system based upon NEXTStep technology. (See also Mac, PowerPC, Operating system, Copeland, Gershwin, and Rhapsody)

GIF= This acronym stands for Graphic Interchange Format, a commonly used file compression format developed by CompuServe for transferring graphics files to and from online services. This is an extremely popular standard because it is so widely read in graphics software alternatives and is commonly used as the "GIF" file extensions of images carried on bulletin boards and transported across networks. A major drawback is the loss of color depth in GIF compression. Animated GIFs are popular at web sites. Click here for some links to Animated Gif Construction. (See alsoJPEG)

GINA= A graphical interface (formerly known as GUIDE) for the Internet. This is a low-cost option for graphically interfacing with e-mail, bulletin boards, databases, library catalogs, news services, and conferencing. Contact California Technology Project, P.O. Box 3842, Dept. PRG, Seal Beach, CA 90740-7842 (310-985-9631). The e-mail address is kvogt@eis.calstate.edu.

Gnutella/Napster = (See Napster/Gnutella )

Gopher= A menu-driven and user-friendly system of Internet sites that facilitate searching and browsing of documents and files around the world. Gopher has been largely overtaken by more modern web browsers (see Web browsers). Gopher was the first system that communicated easily between different types of operating systems and computer installations. The term "Gopher" arises from the fact that the system originated with graduate students at the site of the "Golden Gophers" at the University of Minnesota. The Gopher is one of the most popular of various menu-driven systems such as WAIS and World Wide Web. NOTIS Systems (708-866-0150) developed a Windows' front end to Gopher that is described in THE Journal, March 1994, p. 39. A graphical interface called WinGopher is available from NOTIS Systems Inc., 1007 Church Street, Evanston, IL 60201-3665 (800-556-6847). Gopher became very popular on the Internet, but it is now being replaced by a similar and more graphics-oriented system called Mosaic that has Gopher services available. (See also GINA, Mosaic, Internet, and SLIP)

Gopherspace= A term used to describe the entire gopher network.

GPS= Global Positioning System hardware that facilitates navigation via satellites. There are now versions for automobiles that have LCD screens to show maps and present vehicle location.

Grants= (See Funding)

Graphics = Computer images that contain pictures, drawings, and other forms of imagery other than text. Popular file extensions for graphics files are bmp, pcx, tif, and cgm. See CGM for a discussion of graphics that will cross platforms between Mac and PC computers. The best-buy graphics software options are ranked in PC Computing, December 1994, p. 205. Software options for 3-D rendering on the web are reviewed in the NewMedia, May 5 1998, pp. 52-64. The NewMedia web site is at http://www.newmedia.com Those authoring packages rated as "Awesome" include Live Picture Reality Studio at http://www.livepicture.com (800-724-7900) and Platinum Technology VRCreator at http://www.platinum.com (800-442-6861). There are many other options rated as "Thumbs Up" or "Does the Job." (See also 2-D, 3-D, SVG, and Paintbrush software)

Graphics adapter= The hardware inside a computer that enables the computer to display graphics on the screen. In contrast to Mac computers, PCs have a larger variety of graphics adapters that complicate compatibility between different PCs. In the early days, the PC standard was the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) that, by today's standards, is low resolution and low in color combinations. This was replaced by EGA Enhanced Graphics Adapter and then VGA Video Graphics Array having a standard 480 lines vertical and 640 pixels horizontal resolution. Today Super VGA extensions (to at least 600 lines vertical and 800 pixels horizontal) are the choice among most PC users for whom graphics displays are important. Be aware, however, that there are different Super VGA resolutions and monitor options that can affect the compatibility of graphics images among different PCs. Also be aware that LCD panels are not able to handle the higher resolutions of cathode ray monitors; therefore, images may not look as good during class delivery as they did on a monitor during the authoring process. The top-rated graphics adapters at the end of 1994 are Impression Plus (Rank 1) with 4Mb of video RAM from Matrox (514-685-2630), Imagine-128 (Rank 2) with 4Mb of video RAM from Number Nine (800-438-6463), and Graphics Pro Turbo (Rank 3) with 4Mb of video RAM from ATI (905-882-2600) according to PC Computing, December 1994, p. 140. A good company with computer to video interfaces isExtron. (See also AB style switches and LCD)

Grid Computing

IBM Bets Future on Grid Computing

Whatis Definition of Grid Computing --- http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci773157,00.html

Grid computing (or the use of a computational grid) is applying the resources of many computers in a network to a single problem at the same time - usually to a scientific or technical problem that requires a great number of computer processing cycles or access to large amounts of data. A well-known example of grid computing in the public domain is the ongoing SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) @Home project in which thousands of people are sharing the unused processor cycles of their PCs in the vast search for signs of "rational" signals from outer space. According to John Patrick, IBM's vice-president for Internet strategies, "the next big thing will be grid computing."

Grid computing requires the use of software that can divide and farm out pieces of a program to as many as several thousand computers. Grid computing can be thought of as distributed and large-scale cluster computing and as a form of network-distributed parallel processing. It can be confined to the network of computer workstations within a corporation or it can be a public collaboration (in which case it is also sometimes known as a form of peer-to-peer computing).

A number of corporations, professional groups, university consortiums, and other groups have developed or are developing frameworks and software for managing grid computing projects. The European Community (EU) is sponsoring a project for a grid for high-energy physics, earth observation, and biology applications. In the United States, the National Technology Grid is prototyping a computational grid for infrastructure and an access grid for people. Sun Microsystems offers Grid Engine software. Described as a distributed resource management (DRM) tool, Grid Engine allows engineers at companies like Sony and Synopsys to pool the computer cycles on up to 80 workstations at a time. (At this scale, grid computing can be seen as a more extreme case of load balancing.)

Grid computing appears to be a promising trend for three reaons: (1) its ability to make more cost-effective use of a given amount of computer resources, (2) as a way to solve problems that can't be approached without an enormous amount of computing power, and (3) because it suggests that the resources of many computers can be cooperatively and perhaps synergistically harnessed and managed as a collaboration toward a common objective. In some grid computing systems, the computers may collaborate rather than being directed by one managing computer. One likely area for the use of grid computing will be pervasive computing applications - those in which computers pervade our environment without our necessary awareness.

Read more about it at:

>

Terena offers a list of links to organizations working with grid computing.

>

Sun Microsystems provides a press release about its Grid Engine.

>

"Harnessing the Power of Grid Computing" describes simulations involving Einstein's General Relativity equations.

>

The Peer-to-Peer Working Group is fostering the advancement of infrastructure best practices.

From ADT Trends Newsletter on May 13, 2002

E-Business

IBM: May the Grid be with you By John K. Waters

IBM (www.ibm.com) used last week's developerWorks Live conference in San Francisco as a platform for touting the Grid computing paradigm as well as unveiling new open standards-based integration software; new developer tools; and to announce new strategic partnerships, new partner program offerings and new developer support offerings.

But the real buzz at this year's show was generated by IBM's continued push into grid computing, which the firm defines as a persistent environment that enables software applications to integrate instruments, displays, computational and information resources that are managed by diverse organizations in widespread locations. And the company is betting big on its potential.

IBM's interest in grid computing is not new. Last year, company reps were touting it as vital in the evolution of computing. Last November, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technology and strategy in IBM's Server Group, called grid computing the "key to advancing e-business into the future and the next step in the evolution of the Internet towards a true computing platform." He predicted that commercial uses of grid computing will soon emerge, and that the model will eventually serve as a vast infrastructure for e-business. Last week, Wladawsky-Berger was again IBM's point man for grid computing, declaring that "the grand challenge now is marrying Web services and grid computing."

Observers said Big Blue jumped to the head of the Grid pack last week by joining forces with Butterfly.net Inc. ( www.butterfly.net) , to deploy the first-ever custom commercial grid for the online video gaming market. The Butterfly Grid is designed to support so-called Massively-Multiplayer Games (MMGs), which pits millions of gamers worldwide against each other within the same game in real time.

Butterfly.net, a development studio, online publisher, and infrastructure provider for MMGs, built its Grid over the last two years using IBM e-business infrastructure technology. The Butterfly Grid is powered by rack-mounted Linux-based IBM eServer xSeries systems hosted by IBM and running on internal fiber-optic networks for optimal use of computing and communications resources. The grid design offers the potential to support over one million simultaneous players from each facility in a 24/7 environment with automatic fail over capability.

Butterfly.net officials said the open source Globus Toolkit ( www.globus.com ) was used to build its gaming grid. The Globus Project is a multi-institutional research and development effort creating fundamental technologies for computational grids. IBM also used Globus technologies to build its grid, described by IBM as a "geographically distributed supercomputer linking IBM research and development labs in the United States, Israel, Switzerland, Japan and England."

IBM officials describe the Butterfly Grid as a key commercial innovation. "We believe the Butterfly Grid is a breakthrough platform that will help entertainment, media and game companies reduce costs and better deploy their entertainment properties online," said Scott Penberthy, vice president of business development in IBM's global services group.

The Butterfly Grid is available as a fully managed service, as a packaged software license, or as a complete hardware/software solution.

Also see CFML, Database, DTP, GainMomentum, JDBC, Middleware, Relational database management, SAP, Resource Description Framework, and 4GL Database Languages.

Group= A collection of users.

Group rights= Rights given to a collection of users.

Groupware= software applications that facilitate shared work over long distances on documents and information. Groupware supports person-to-person collaborations and includesLotus Notes,Livelink from Open Text Intranets, E-mail, Silent Meeting Systems, Videoconferencing, etc. A good reference for groupware is found in http://www.collaborate.com/chapt1.html. Netscape's discussion of groupware is at http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/communicator/faq.html. See also Collaboration and CMC.

GSM = (See Wireless Glossary of Terms)

GUI= An acronym for Graphical User Interface, this term refers to a software front-end meant to provide an attractive and easy to use interface between a computer user and application, which historically gave rise to the icon-based operating system of Apple Corporation computers. The GUI concept actually had its origins in Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the early 1970s. However, it was Apple Corporation who eventually exploited the technology that is now the fundamental basis of Mac, Windows, and other GUI operating systems that perform commands based upon bit-mapped graphics icons. This paved the way for object-oriented systems of the 1990s. (See also Mac and Windows) A decade of the revolution in GUI and hypermedia Mac computing is celebrated in a book by Levy (1994) that is given an extensive review in Time Magazine, January 31, 1994, pp. 93-94. (See also America Online)

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H-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Hacker / / Half duplex / Handicapped /Handshaking / Hard drive / Hawthorne Effects / HBSP / HDMI / HDSPA / HD-DVD / HDTV / Helper app / Herf Guns and EMP Bombs / Hertz / Hi-8 / HL / Hologram / Home Page / HOP / Host / Hot spots / Hotlink / Hotlists / Hotword / HP/UX / HTML / HTML Document / HTTP / HTTPs / HTTPd / HyperCard / Hyperfacts / Hyperfiction / Hyperionics Hypercam / Hyperlink / Hypermedia / Hypertext / HX-Pro / Hz

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Half duplex= In half duplex communication, the terminal transmits and receives data in separate, consecutive operations.

Handicapped = (See Disabilities.)

Handshaking= A set of commands recognized by the sending and receiving stations that control the flow of data transmission.

Hard drive= A "hard disc" file storage disc (usually a magnetic disc) on a computer that has higher storage capacity and faster access time (e.g., under 20 ms) than slower devices such as floppy disc drives and optical disc (e.g., CD-ROM) drives. This is not the same as memory or random access memory (RAM). Usually the term "hard drive" refers to rigid discs coated with magnetic material. Fast hard discs are compared and reviewed in NewMedia, November 1994, p. 103. (See also RAM, Flash memory, RAID, and CD)

Hawthorne Effects= refer to distortions and possibly non-sustaining effects of a treatment just because its newness captures more of an individual's attentiveness. In double blind studies of the impact of technologies upon learning, Hawthorne effects are particularly troublesome. Students are more apt to be more attentive to newer technologies simply because they are "new" curiosities. Positive results on learning impacts may not be sustaining, however, after the novelty and curiosity factors decline with repeated use of the technology over time.

HBSP= Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston MA 02163 (800-545-7685). Although most noted for its hard copy publishing of cases and journals, HBSP has gone somewhat high tech with CD-ROM cases and catalogs listed on the Internet. Most CD-ROM options, unfortunately, do not include hypertext or hypermedia animations, audio, and video segments. A noted exception is the hypermedia video disc entitled Managing International Business by Harvard's Christopher Bartlett and INSEAD's Sumatra Ghoshal that is marketed by Course Technology (800-648-7450). A review is given in Harvard Business School Teaching Publications, Spring 1994, pp 1-3. Details of CD-ROM by Bartlett and Ghoshal are provided in Appendix 1. The Gopher address of HBSP is CATALOG@HBSCAT.HARVARD.EDU and the Telnet address is HBSCAT.HARVARD.EDU. E-mail may be addressed to HBSCAT@CCHBSPUB.HARVARD.EDU. The catalog is also available on floppy disc. (See also ECCH)

HDMI=

"Before Go ing to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

HDMI: This acronym, for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, describes a new kind of cable for hooking high-definition TVs to things like cable boxes and DVD players. It provides a high-quality digital feed, and combines both audio and video signals via a single connection. When shopping for an HDTV, make sure it has HDMI connectors on the back.

HDSPA=

"Before Going to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

HSDPA: An awkward name for a new high-speed cellphone network being deployed in the U.S. by Cingular Wireless. Its full name is High Speed Downlink Packet Access, and it's intended to compete with successful high-speed networks from Verizon and Sprint called EVDO, or Evolution Data Only. All of these new networks allow Internet access at about the speed of a slow home DSL line, which is a big boost for cellphones. If you care about email and Internet access on a phone, and you are using Cingular, get a phone that can handle HSDPA.

HDTV= High-Definition TV in digitized formats that will eventually replace present analog formats in 16:9 wide-screen TV. The Japanese version of HDTV is not truly the fully-digitized version broadcast system intended for the United States by the end of the year 2000. (See also Intercast,IDTV, Wide-screen TV, Video, and Videodisc-digital)

Helper app= (See Plug-in)

HERF Guns and EMP Bombs (See Security)

Hertz= Unit of measure that equals a frequency of one cycle per second. (See also Bandwidth, bps, Kilohertz, and megahertz)

Hi-8= A professional-quality format for high-end video cameras. Whereas the standard consumer resolution 8mm camera records 250 lines, the Hi-8 versions record 400 lines or more so as to produce more detail in video images.

HL= Hyper-Learning using hypertext, hypermedia, and computer networks. Authors like Perelman (1993) tend to use the term in the context of learning from servers on an information highway such as the Internet after multimedia transmissions become more common. (See also JITT and Hypermedia)

Hologram= (See 3-D)

Home Page= The document displayed when you first open your Web browser. Home Page can also refer to the first document you come to at a Web site.

HOP = (See Internet Messaging).

Host= A computer acting as an information or communications server.

Hot spots= Buttons or other programmable objects that can activate objects or linked events.

Hotlink= (See Hyperlink)

Hotlists= Lists of frequently used Web locations and URLs (Uniform Resource Locators).

Hotword= (See Hyperlink)

HP/UX= Hewlett-Packard Unix operating system. Hewlett-Packard also uses other operating systems such as its own proprietary MPE and NEXTStep. (See also Operating system and Unix)

HTML= An acronym for a HyperText Markup Language DTD. HTML is the language used to tag various parts of a Web document so browsing software will know how to display that document's links, text, graphics and attached media. Your are viewing an HTML document at this moment. The popular HTML and the emerging HTML are subsets of the GML text scripting conceived in1969 IBM researchers depicting Generalized Markup Languages (and not-so-coincidentally the lead researchers were named Goldfarb, Mosher, and Lorie). Between 1978 and 1987, Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb led the team that developed the SGML Standard GML that is became International Standard ISO 8879. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee led a team of particle physicists that invented the World Wide Web using a very small part of SGML that became the widely known and used scripting language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). SGML is tremendously powerful but inefficient and complex. HTML is marvelously simple but not very powerful. In 1996, Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems to spearheaded the development of the XML standard to lend power, efficiency, cross-platform standards, and simplicity to the networking of databases on the Internet. At the time of this writing, the world is converging upon an important standard known as RDF (Resource Description Framework) rooted in XML that will be the biggest thing to hit the Internet since HTML hit the Internet in 1991.

For my detailed review of XML, SMIL, XBRL, and RDF see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/xmlrdf.htm

XBRL= eXtensible Business Reporting Language. This is an extension of XML metatag technology key terminologies in business, accounting, and financial reporting. The major purpose is to allow users to locate and analyze financial reports or portions of financial reports in a manner that is far more efficient and effective than using traditional search engines and EDGAR utilities.

The main starting point in understanding XBRL is the XBRL Home Page at http://www.xbrl.org/

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a royalty-free, open specification for software that uses XML data tags to describe financial information for public and private companies and other organizations. XBRL benefits all members of the financial information supply chain.

XBRL is:

· A standards-based method with which users can prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze financial statements and the information they contain.

· Licensed royalty-free worldwide by XBRL International, a non-profit consortium consisting of over 140 leading companies, associations, and government agencies around the world.

· Permits the automatic exchange and reliable extraction of financial information across all software formats and technologies, including the Internet.

· Benefits all users of the financial information supply chain: public and private companies, the accounting profession, regulators, analysts, the investment community, capital markets and lenders, as well as key third parties such as software developers and data aggregators.

· Does not require a company to disclose any additional information beyond that which they normally disclose under existing accounting standards. Does not require a change to existing accounting standards.

· Improves access to financial information by improving the form of the information and making it more appropriate for the Internet.

· Reduces the need to enter financial information more than one time, reducing the risk of data entry error and eliminating the need to manually key information for various formats, (printed financial statement, an HTML document for a company's Web site, an EDGAR filing document, a raw XML file or other specialized reporting formats such as credit reports and loan documents) thereby lowering a company's cost to prepare and distribute its financial statements while improving investor or analyst access to information.

· Leverages efficiencies of the Internet as today's primary source of financial information. More than 80% of major US public companies provide some type of financial disclosure on the Internet, and the majority of information that investors use to make decisions comes to them via the Internet.

XBRL meets the needs of today's investors and other users of financial information by providing accurate and reliable information to help them make informed financial decisions.

Note that early in the Year 2000, XFRML at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants had a name change to XBRL. http://www.xfrml.org/

Efforts are underway to create standards for a new Dynamic HTML (DHTML) in a Document Object Model (DOM). However, progress is slow and will take years according to "A Tangled Web of Standards," in Internet Week, September 27, 1997, p. 1. For more on the WWW Consortium dealing with such issues, see http://www.w3.org/. A problem with DHTML is that it is inefficient and requires too many scripts to perform simple tasks. Moving beyond DHTML is Extensible Markup Language (XML) originating with Goldfarb and Bosak for putting tags on web pages to facilitate more efficient web searches. The XML term is misnamed in the sense that it is not technically a markup language. XML is becoming popular for business operations and web sites. For a review of XML see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/xmlrdf.htm. See wrapper.

Some key terms for XML:

Document Object Model (DOM) = a platform-independent and language-independent API that compiles an XML document into an internal tree structure and provides access to components and underlying data.
Document Type Definition (DTD) = a template that defines allowable structures in XML. DTD serves for checking validity in terms of XML.
eXtensible Style Languate (XSL) = pre-definined XML tags that define the XML data templates and formatting information for XML. XSL contains rules for transforming XML documents into other formats.
XML parser = a program that parses an XML document. A parser is a program that receives input from sequential source program instructions, interactive online commands, markup tags, or some other defined interface and breaks them up into parts (for example, the nouns (objects), verbs (methods), and their attributes or options) that can then be managed by other programming (for example, other components in a compiler). A parser may also check to see that all input has been provided that is necessary.

The Micrrosoft 2000 upgrades make use of HTML, DHTML, and XML. For example, it is possible to save an interactive Excel workbook or an Excel chart as a dynamic HTML document. For an illustrations, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/dhtml/excel01.htm. Also see Round Tripping.

For a review of HTML and network databases, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm.

See Round Tripping.

See ASP.

See CFML

Advantages of HTML

·         Easy to use with low-cost software (ranging from zero to $150 in most cases for HTML converters/editors). The latest word processing upgrades have limited HTML converters and editors included in the upgrade.

·         Both HTML authors and users can be trained easily and inexpensively.

·         HTML documents can be stored in cache such that the server is not tied up every time the client user wants to return to an HTML file (files can be stored in the browser's cache for short periods of time even if the user does not formally download and save the HTML file in a designated directory).

·         HTML documents can be easily printed using browser menu choices (linked graphics appear on pages as if they were pasted onto the document itself).

·         It is very easy to modify sizes of graphics images. A stored gif or jpg file can be viewed in a wide range of sizes (although increasing the size beyond the stored image size may result in pixelization).

·         HTML documents are easy to search and have given rise to popular web search engines (e.g., Yahoo, Altavista, Lycos, HotBot, etc.).

·         An HTML document can be viewed on multiple platforms (Windows, Macintosh, UNIX work stations, etc.).

·         HTML on the web can be networked across existing Internet networks.

·         HTML documents can contain links to graphics, audio, video, and animation files.

·         HTML documents are easy to access with modern browsers and save to client machines with minimal or no virus risks (relative to say virus risks of downloading word processor documents such as DOC files). (Browsers, however, are no longer risk free. See ActiveX.

·         HTML source codes are easy to view and modify --- usually with the menu choice (View, Source) in a browser.

Disadvantages of HTML

·         HTML is "document" rather than "data" centered and does not facilitate distributed network computing or relational database management utilities.

·         HTML is static and cannot make arithmetic calculations, date/time operations, perform Boolean logic, or revise data on the client or host computers. You cannot add 2+2 in HTML code.

·         HTML cannot be coded to conduct searches (although other software can be programmed to search HTML documents).

·         HTML cannot be made to tabulate survey responses (even though surveys can be conducted using forms in HTML documents).

·         HTML cannot perform security operations (authorize password clearances, authenticate servers or clients, encode and decode transmissions, etc.).

·         HTML cannot be made to react to signals such as the reaction of replying to messages.

·         HTML on the web requires connectivity to the web which, in turn, requires monthly or annual fees and frustrations of delays caused by clogged networks having insufficient bandwidth (especially for users that must use slow modem connections).

·         HTML generally leads to too many hits when using search engines. The XML and RDF solutions to this problem are on the way. See RDF.

For more on the WWW Consortium dealing with such issues, see http://www.w3.org/. See also CGI, Resource Description Framework, World Wide Web, and HTTP.

For searching information, see Search engine.

HTML Document= A document with a HyperText Markup Language DTD. It must be read using HTTP protocol. See HTML.

HTTP= The abbreviation for HyperText Transfer Protocol, HTTP is used to link and transfer hypertext documents. The secured socket extension is HTTPs for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (has SSL underneath HTTP. Another extension is HTTPd standing for Hypertext transfer protocol Daemon. This protocol can be used to customize web searches and handle response forms on web documents.

HyperCard= (See Hypermedia, Hypertext, Resource Description Framework, World Wide Web, and Authoring)

Hyperfacts= Hypertext and/or hypermedia versions of fact books. The best known of these are encyclopedia CD-ROMs such as the Compton and Grolier options. But there are many other widely selling hyperfact books such as The Way Things Work by David Macauley, a CD-ROM book that has sold over 3 million copies to readers interested in guides and graphics of important inventions. This and several other innovative CD-ROM fact books ranging from sign language to art collections are referenced by Rigler (1994). (See Hyperfiction, Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Authoring)

Hyperfiction= Hypertext and/or hypermedia versions of fiction, usually on CD-ROM discs. The main feature of hyperfiction is that alternative navigations through the plot are possible. In some cases the reader creatively determines certain outcomes. For a review of some of the popular alternatives see Svoboda (1994). Rigler (1994) reports that electronic book offerings at the American Booksellers Association annual meetings seem to be doubling in size annually. She discusses some of the more popular options such as Stowaway by Stephen Biesty. (See also Hyperfacts, Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Authoring)

Hyperionics Hypercam = (See Video.)

Hyperlink= Interactive navigation to other parts of a document, other documents, and other WWW sites. (See also Hypertext and Hypermedia)

Hypermedia= Hypertext with added features for audio and video features. Hypermedia may also entail touchscreen or remote control capabilities such that users can navigate by touching the computer screen or remote control devices. Eventually hypermedia will entail other senses such as smell. The key to hypermedia is random access that allows lightning-fast non linear navigation based upon reader choice or other reader actions such as responses to questions. The term "multimedia" is not totally synonymous with "hypermedia," because multimedia may not entail hypertext authoring. (See also Hypertext, Multimedia, and Timeline presentation) Training workshops are offered by the IAT (Institute for Advanced Technology) (919-405-1900). The IAT also broadcasts training courses via satellite KU and C bands and distributes tapes of those broadcasts. An extensive listing of training programs is provided in Appendix 6. For an introduction to hypermedia, see Jensen (1993). Further details on ToolBook and other authoring options are given in Chapter 3. (Also see Asynchronous Learning Networks, CD, Hyperfiction, Authoring, RAID, and CMS)

Bob Jensen’s threads on computing technologies for sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/senses.htm

The history and trends in authoring are summarized at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm

Hypertext= Pages of computer text that are authored in software allowing for non linear navigation based upon button controls, hotwords, or other controls that make sequencing of pages virtually irrelevant. Hypertext authoring packages typically differ from word processing packages that are intended primarily for preparing text for hard copy printing. Hypertext software may have options to print particular pages, but the intent is for computer use rather than printing. The key to hypertext is random access that allows lightning-fast non linear navigation based upon reader choice or other reader actions such as responses to questions. (See also Hypermedia and Timeline presentation.) Popular software terminology for hypertext includes HyperCard "stacks," Authorware "network icons," and ToolBook "books." Career opportunities in authoring multimedia are discussed by Jerram (1994a). Courses, trade shows, and literature on learning how to author multimedia works are summarized by Lindstrom (1994). The IAT also broadcasts training courses via satellite KU and C bands and distributes tapes of those broadcasts for persons unable to view/record them live. An extensive listing of training programs is provided in Appendix 6. For an introduction to hypermedia, see Jensen (1993). See Chapter 3 for hypertext and/or hypermedia authoring software options. (Also see Asynchronous Learning Networks, Authoring and CMS)

The history and trends in authoring are summarized at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm

HX-Pro= An audio tape monitoring system marketed by Dolby that facilitates recording of analog audio tapes at higher decibel levels to reduce tape hiss. This is a feature available on high-end tape decks. (See also Dolby-NR)

Hz= (See Hertz)

Return to Top of Document

I-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

IAB / IAT / IBM / ICBT / Icon / IDE / IDL / IDTV / IEEE / IETF / IIOP / IKE / Image map / IMAP4 / Incremental packet writing / Indeo / Indy / Information highway / Inline images / Instant Messaging / Integrated information system / Intelligent Computer Based Training / Interactive TV / Intercast / Interchange / Interface / Interleaving / International Architecture Board /International Internet Association / Internet / Internet 2 / Internet audio and video / Internet Messaging / Internet phones and videoconferencing / Iinternet Society / Internet surfing / Internet surfing backwards / Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) / InterNIC InfoSource / Intranet / IP / IRC / ISA / ISDN / ISO 9000 / ISO 9660 / ISOC / ISP / iSync / ITAD / ITU /

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

IAB= The abbreviation for Internet Architecture Board, the IAB is the council that makes decisions about Internet standards. See also IETF .)

IAT= Institute for Academic Technology, University of North Carolina, P.O. Box 12017, RTP, North Carolina 27709 (919-405-1942) and http://www.iat.unc.edu/. This was initially an IBM-funded support center for PC hypertext/hypermedia developers in higher education that was funded primarily through a grant from IBM Corporation. The IAT served as a clearinghouse for technology developments, develops some Multimedia ToolBook hypermedia education materials (especially in language education), and provides demonstrations on hypermedia. The IAT offered workshops for developers. The IAT Inforbits online newsletter is still in operation. The IAT also broadcasted training courses via satellite KU and C bands and distributed tapes of those broadcasts for persons unable to view/record them live. After IBM withdrew its funding of the IAT, the University of North Carolina closed the IAT on June 30, 1998. (See also IKE)

IBM= International Business Machines Corporation, a giant present and historic leader in mainframe and PC computing. Having survived an enormous downturn of bad fortunes in the 1980s, IBM has struggled back with new products and joint ventures. In 1997, IBM announced that network software would all be sold under the banner eNetwork Software. IBM developed a superior operating system called OS/2, but poor marketing and timing resulted in a loss of momentum to Microsoft's Windows and Windows 2000 operating systems. IBM's joint venture with Apple Corporation resulted in the Power Mac and Power PC desktop computers. Most interesting is the IBM Global Campus initiative and the IBM Higher Education home page.. (See also EduQuest, IAT, and IKE)

ICBT = (See CBT )

Icon= Graphical representation of an object (file, directory, picture, text field, etc.) as a tiny symbol that can be arranged with other icons and clicked on using a mouse pointer.

IDE= Intelligent Drive Electronics interface hard drive disc controller standard for PCs that enables the controller to reside on the motherboard and, thereby, not require the use of an expansion slot. This enhances ease of installation and allows for the elimination of SCSI controllers for accessing auxiliary hard drives, CD-ROM drives, CD-R drives, etc. See SCSI.

IDTV= Improved Definitional TV that uses a computerized line doubling technique to simulate HDTV at higher resolutions. (See also Video and HDTV)

IDL= Interface Definition Language that facilitates interfacing between servers and IDL compliant client computers. For example, a Java IDL enables Java to communicate with non-Java objects on networks. (See also Java.)

IEEE= Institute for Electrical and Electonics Engineers. The IEEE is a huge organization that is a major source of technical literature, training, standards, and virtually everything else in electrical and electronics engineering. See also ISO 9000.

IIOP = (See Internet Messaging).

IETF= The abbreviation for Internet Engineering Task Force. IETF refers to a subgroup of the Internet Architecture Board that focuses on solving technical problems on the Internet.

IKE= IBM Kiosk for Education (see also IAT and the IBM Global Campus.). One thing that stood out, or rather did not stand out, at the 1994 EDUCOM Conference was a booth in the most obscure part of the vendor exhibit area. IBM made a grant to the University of Washington to develop the IKE-IBM Kiosk for Education. Subsequently, IBM folded the IKE activities into the IBM Global Campus portfolio of products and services for educators.

Image map= A graphic image at WWW sites that is a navigational tool. It contains two elements: (1) the graphic that is visible on the screen and (2) a text file that contains the HTML or other hyperlink coding. (See also World Wide Web)

IMAP4 = (See Internet Messaging).

Incremental packet writing= Like multisession Photo CD, this process lets you add data to a disk in multiple sessions and create a single table of contents when the disk is full. Unlike Photo CD disks, though, a disk written in this way is readable by other CD drives only when the disk is finalized, not before. (See also CD-R)

Indeo= Video compression hardware manufactured by Intel for PC computers. The i750 chipset will capture 32-by-240 pixel windows at 15 fps and 160-by-120 pixel windows at 30 fps. Creative Labs (that markets the popular Sound Blaster and Video Blaster hardware/software) will now market the Indeo boards according to NewMedia, January 1994, p. 36. The main competitor for Indeo will be MPEG compression boards that are anticipated by analysts to be the major standard of the future. Hood (1994) is cautious about MPEG and leans toward the Intel Indeo option. He concludes: "Intel's most compelling arugument, however, is in the numbers. Machines capable of playing Indeo video (486 or Pentium) are selling at a rate of 1 million a month, whereas fewer than 200,000 MPEG boards have sold." (See also Video for Windows, QuickTime, Video, DVI, Compression, MCI, Ultimedia Video, and MPEG)

Indy= (See SGI)

Information highway= A world wide combination of fiber optic cable and satellite receivers in a future time when homes and offices around the world will be linked by highways of electronic information that can be traversed interactively both to and from a connected user. Technologies are coming to a head and plans are being laid to bring the digital information highways to Main Street USA and elsewhere in the world. In homes and offices, a single piece of interactive TV digital television equipment (let's call it the PCTV computer/television superhighways terminal) will combine what are now television sets, telephones, stereos, videotape players, videodisc players, compact disc players, and computers. The PCTV will be networked to hundreds of millions of "servers" ranging from the computer files of individuals to the systems of computer files that contain virtually all the movies ever made, all the contents of daily newspapers, all the "television" shows ever recorded, all the cataloged products and services available from vendors, all public documents of governments, all the contents of libraries, all instructional and training courses on most anything known in the world, and so on to limits beyond our present imaginations. Even before the information superhighways come to town via digital satellites, Barcroft (1993), telephone fiber optics, and cable digital TV, technology see Victor (1993b) is presently in place to make vast amounts of digitized financial information publicly available in hypermedia structures. The hardware for a fiber optic superhighway across the United States made great progress when AT&T Corporation announced that "Sonet" service is operational initially between 200 cities. In 1994, Macromedia teamed up with Microware Systems Corporation in Des Moines, Iowa, to extend the Director software into PC and Mac utilities for authoring interactive network television titles. (See also Intercast, Webcasting, PCTV, Video server, PPV, Set-top box, Sonet, Internet, and SLIP)

Inline images= These are the graphics contained within a Web document.

Instant Messaging (IMING) = messaging between to or more individuals who are simultaneously online. It is more like a telephone conversation than email. America OnlineAOL introduced instant messaging and has had an ongoing dispute with Microsoft over its use in Internet Explorer. Instant Messenger can be used by AOL members but there is no requirement to be connected to the Internet through AOL. An Open Source alternative to AOL's instant messaging is called Jabber.

In order for IMing to work, both users (who must subscribe to the service) must be online at the same time, and the intended recipient must be willing to accept instant messages. Under most conditions, IMing is truly "instant." Even during peak Internet usage periods, the delay is rarely more than a second or two. It is possible for two people to have a real-time online "conversation" by IMing each other back and forth.

Question
How can you get Instant Messaging (IM) for free without having to install any software?

First read about Instant Messaging at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_Messaging

"Don't Tell Your Boss, But There Is a Way To IM Despite Blocks," bu Sarmad Ali, The Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2007; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119205933351855322.html

Just use an Internet-based service so that you can chat from a Web page without having to install any software, which might be blocked by a firewall. I tested two such services: Meebo at www.meebo.com and KoolIM at www.koolim.com . Both are free.

These services let you simultaneously log in to multiple IM accounts -- and communicate with people with various services. If you have a friend who uses Yahoo Messenger, for example, and another who likes MSN Messenger, you can chat with either.

Another plus: Meebo and KoolIM are far less vulnerable to viruses than downloadable applications. They're also more efficient, saving users the hassle of installing multiple programs on a computer. This is especially handy for people with old computers that slow down when running several applications.

Meebo has a well-designed, sleek interface that makes it appealing to even the least tech savvy. From its home page, you simply sign in for different IM services—MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk (or Jabber) and AIM (or ICQ). Your buddy list will be combined automatically. You don't have to register, but if you do, you get perks such as a single sign-on for all of your accounts, and the ability to share files, save chat logs and store conversations.

I tried Meebo on my work Windows PC and my iBook at home, and it worked well on both. To start chatting, you just log in to any of the IM services by entering the screen name and password you already have with a service, or by picking a new name, password and services. Your buddy list will appear in a window on the right side of the page, with each name marked by an icon denoting the service the person uses. Once in your buddy list, you can add or delete a contact, message or join a group chat.

Continued in article

Set up free conference calls at http://www.freeconference.com/

Bob Jensen's threads on tools and tricks of the trade are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Google Introduces Instant Messaging
Google Inc. is joining yet another Internet turf battle, the one over instant communication. Google introduced today an instant-messaging service that lets users exchange text messages and make voice calls over personal computers. Google's move pits it against Internet giants such as Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. that dominate the market.
Mylene Mangalindan and Christopher Rhoads, "Google Introduces Instant Messaging," The Wall Street Journal, August 24, 2005; Page B3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112482337312020777,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

See this IM service at http://www.google.com/talk/ .

>	AOL has an Instant Messenger Web page where you can sign up and download the software.
>	Jabber.org provides more about Jabber instant messaging.

Skype™ is a programme allowing telephone conversations via the Internet. Calls to other Skype™ users are free as well as calls to regular telephone and mobile telephone numbers all over the world are at a low rate. Software Software is the general term for IT programs that make PCs and other electronic devices function
http://wireless-dictionary.rtx.dk/

The Hype over Skype: Can It Go the Distance?
Although Skype, which provides Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony services and PC-to-PC calling, turns two years old on August 29, it remains unclear what kind of business this relative newcomer will turn out to be. Skype could remain a mere fad for techies, become a next-generation communications platform or evolve into the next eBay or Google, say Wharton experts. What's certain, however, is that Skype, which has offices in Estonia, London, San Francisco, Korea and Japan, is worth watching. As of August 4, its software had been downloaded nearly 145 million times and the company claims to have 47 million people using its services. Skype is an "underappreciated phenomenon in telecom," says one Wharton professor.
Knowledge@ wharton blog, August 10-Sept 6 --- http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/

"VoIP is not a threat that's going to put telecommunications companies out of business," says Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications analyst and president of The Kagan Group. "VoIP is a change wave, part of a 20-year transformation that the telecommunications industry is in right now." That "change wave," as Kagan puts it, got a little closer to cresting this week -- but not from the Google announcement (of instant voice messaging http://www.google.com/talk/ ). Skype, the most popular VoIP application anywhere in the world right now -- with over 50 million registered users in just two years -- will celebrate its two-year anniversary next week. To mark the occasion, it will open up its technology platform, allowing any user to incorporate Skype into their Web pages and applications. Opening these application programming interfaces (APIs) is a "major step," said Jeff Pulver, chairman and founder of Pulver.com and creator of the international VON (Voices on the Net) conferences, in a statement. Earlier this summer, Skype released the API code for its "buddy" list (where Skype users keep their friends' and associates' contact information). The move has already spurred a small but growing development community of programmers looking to tie in buddy lists with telecommunications services. (One such service connects Skype's buddy list to cell phones, so users can call a Skype buddy on their mobile phone.) Skype's efforts in opening its code have "raised the bar for everyone," says Mark Levitt, a vice president of collaborative computing at IDC.
Eric Hellwig, "Google's Move into IM," MIT's Emerging Technologies, August 25, 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/08/wo/wo_082605hellweg.asp?trk=nl

See VoIP

Integrated information system= Networked systems that allow centrally located multimedia sources to communicate with remote centers such as classrooms. For example, over 5,000 classrooms are purportedly linked to the Dynacom (800-782-7230) integrated information system that utilizes video servers, satellite receivers, and classroom hand-held control devices.

Intelligent Computer Based Training = (See CBT )

Interactive TV= (See Information highway)

Intercast= a term given by Intel Corporation for incoming-only (push-only) reception of HDTV. An upgrade tuner for intercasting can be installed in a PC. The cost of such a tuner is under $150. Without any monthly fee, phone modem, or cable modem, users can receive broadcasts and webcasts. However, intercasting will not allow interactive searching or other two-way communication. See also PCTV, HDTV, and Webcasting.

Interchange= A commercial network service introduced by a computer book publishing firm called Ziff-Davis. Although designed to compete with CompuServe and other commercial network services, Interchange tries to provide more services for technology monitoring of computer users. (See also Networks, CompuServe, Internet, eWorld, Prodigy, and America Online)

Interface= The connection between a computer and its auxiliary equipment such as hard drives, CD-ROM drives, videodisc players, printers, scanners, etc.

Interleaving= A process that allows separate channels for data, audio, and video files to be played back simultaneously on a compact disc. Interleaving also allows the reader to choose from one of several audio channels while a video channel is playing. In playback, interleaved audio and video sequences are alternately played back such that on slow systems there may be choppy interrupts when video and audio are played simultaneously.

International Internet Association= An Internet service that may be accessed for a fee under instructions given at phone number 813-923-4093. The IIA taps over 20,000 databases worldwide, including databases from government, business firms, news services, and universities. American Accounting Association members may access a free AAA bulletin board by phoning 813-923-4093. (See also ANet and PIC-AECM)

Internet= An international grouping of computer networks. The Internet started as a relatively tiny United States Department of Defense (DOD) Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) project in 1969. It commenced with the networking of four computers. The Internet was not widely known between 1969 and 1991. Its popularity exploded when HTML, HTTP, and the World Wide Web made it much easier to use the Internet. For interactive computing between computers on the Internet, see Distributed Network Computing. For web browsers see Web browsers, Java, GINA, Gopher, Mosaic, and SLIP. For accounting educator Internet networks see ANet, ADO and RDS, International Internet Association, Internet 2, PIC-AECM, and RAW. (See also ABKY, IKE, Sonet, Telnet, FTP, TENet, ARPANet, BITNET, World Wide Web, Finger Gateway, Whois Gateway, UUCP, NSFNet, NYSERNet, Gateways, Outernets, Macmillan Information SuperLibrary, Remote login, Search engine, TCP/IP, and USENet). Also see Instant Messaging and Portal.

1974
Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf refer to the term "Internet" for the first time on their notes regarding Transmission Control Protocol
http://www.bangla.net/isp/tech_support/internet-timeline.html

The "official definition" came out long after the term Internet became commonly used --- http://www.itrd.gov/fnc/Internet_res.html

How Internet Stuff Works

HowStuffWorks --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/

How Internet Infrastructure Works: Backbones
Do you ever wonder how the Internet really works? How do Web pages, e-mail and music move to and from your computer? Learn all about the amazing..an OC-48 can transmit 2,488 Mbps (2.488 Gbps). Compare that to a typical 56K modem transmitting 56,000 bps and you see just how fast a modern backbone is...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure4.htm

How The Airborne Internet Will Work: Floating On Air
Learn about the airborne Internet and how you might use this technology in the near future. Read more here!..Sky Station International is counting on its blimps to beat Angel to the punch in the race to deliver high-speed Internet access from high altitudes...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/airborne-internet3.htm

How The Airborne Internet Will Work: NASA's Sub-space Plans
Learn about the airborne Internet and how you might use this technology in the near future. Read more here!..Not to be left out of the high-flying Internet industry, NASA is also playing a role in a potential airborne Internet system being developed by Aero...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/airborne-internet4.htm

How The Airborne Internet Will Work: A HALO Over Head
Learn about the airborne Internet and how you might use this technology in the near future. Read more here!..One the three companies developing an airborne Internet network is Angel Technologies. Its HALO Network may be ready for deployment at the end...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/airborne-internet2.htm

Introduction To How The Year 2000 Problem Worked
A fascinating article that describes how and why batteries work!..Archived Edition Although the Y2K problem came and went in January of 2000, we have saved this article as an archived editon of How...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/y2k.htm

How Urban Legends Work: Internet Urban Legends
Internet urban legends spread quickly because of the convenience of email. Learn about common Internet urban legends and the truth behind them...The methods of passing urban legends have evolved over time. In the past 10 years, there has been a huge surge of urban legends on the Internet...
http://people.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend5.htm

How Con Artists Work: Business And Internet Cons
Con artists can trick you out of your money. Learn how to spot con artists, characteristics of con artists, and how to avoid scams..actually selling anything, it's a pyramid scheme. The Nigerian Money Transfer Widespread use of the Internet has given con artists another way to scam...
http://money.howstuffworks.com/con-artist1.htm

How Internet Cookies Work: How Do Web Sites Use Cookies?
Cookies are widely used by Web sites to keep track of their visitors. Are cookies letting Big Brother into your PC? Find out what Internet cookies..customized weather information. When you enter your zip code, the following name-value pair gets added to MSN's cookie file: WEAT CC=NC%5FRaleigh%2DDurham...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cookie3.htm

How Virtual Private Networks Work: Tunneling: Remote-Access
Private networks give companies a way to extend their secure networks using regular Internet pathways. Find out how remote users can access a local network...2 Tunneling Protocol) - L2TP is the product of a partnership between the members of the PPTP Forum, Cisco and the IETF (Internet Engineering Task...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/vpn15.htm

How Virtual Private Networks Work: Tunneling
Private networks give companies a way to extend their secure networks using regular Internet pathways. Find out how remote users can access a local network...Most VPNs rely on tunneling to create a private network that reaches across the Internet. Essentially, tunneling is the process of placing an entire...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/vpn13.htm

Wal-Mart's Latest Sale: Broadband The retail giant's ISP turn is likely to push down prices and squeeze out competition.
Will other big-box stores follow suit?
Broadband sellers, beware. A new provider is on the scene—and it's a known price cutter. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) plans to announce Oct. 9 that it will resell high-speed Internet access from Hughes Communications (HUGH), the world's largest provider of broadband services via satellite. Granted, the market for satellite broadband is small, given the widespread availability of digital subscriber line access from phone companies and cable modem services from cable operators. Currently, satellite service tends to be more expensive and it's available mainly in hard-to-reach rural areas. Fewer than 500,000 Americans subscribe to satellite broadband access, according to consultancy Parks Associates. "It's still mainly for people who don't have a choice," says Michael Cai, an analyst at Parks. Only about 10% of Americans have no access to DSL or cable broadband.
Olga Kharif, Business Week, October 8, 2007 --- Click Here

Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm

Jensen Comment
Satellite broadband is great downloading alternative in the boondocks where cable and DSL connections are not available. But relative to cable and DSL broadband alternatives, satellite downloading is slower and satellite uploading is via a snail's pace landline telephone --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question606.htm

Satellite Internet System www.NationwideSatellite.com

Satellite Internet Access www.UsSatellite.com

Satellite Internet www.SatelliteFamily.com/HughesNet

"Video: Tim Berners-Lee on the Semantic Web: The inventor of the World Wide Web explains how the Semantic Web works and how it will transform how we use and understand data," MIT's Technology Review, March 27, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18451/

Internet Society --- http://www.isoc.org/

I've got all the symptoms
In the early '90s, psychiatrists and clinicians were beginning to hear of a new medical term, "internet addiction." At first, this was met with a lot of skepticism and denial, however, it became evident that the more people logged on to cyberspace, the more they got hooked.The 10 Symptoms You Need To Watch Out For:
AskMen.com --- http://www.askmen.com/fashion/body_and_mind/16_better_living.html

Three quarters of the American population now have Internet access, with women slightly more likely than men to spend time surfing, a new survey says.

Wired News, March 18, 2004 --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62712,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html

How Web Pages Work --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-page3.htm

How Internet Infrastructure Works --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm

How Computer Things Work (including buying guides) --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/

Personal technology reviews by Walter Mossberg --- http://ptech.wsj.com/

An Internet/Web portal with 14 channels on marketing and e-Commerce --- http://www.internet.com/home-d.html

Internet Technology

Ecommerce/Marketing

Web Developer

Windows Internet Tech.

Linux/Open Source

Internet Resources

ISP Resources

Internet Lists

Download

International

International News

International Investing

ASP Resources

Wireless

Other examples of portals and vortals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm

"Recommended Reading (on Internet Governance)," by Keith Huang, The Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2006; Page R2 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114297256826704402.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report

Internet governance has become an increasingly contentious issue, not only in regards to who should manage it, but also the limitations that some countries have placed on access.

For example, the Chinese government actively restricts access to forbidden sites and content -- a barrier that has been dubbed "The Great Firewall of China."

In contrast, the U.S. State Department has created a new "Global Internet Freedom Task Force" designed to help technology companies handle problems with censorship in countries that restrict Internet use.

Hans Klein, an associate professor of public policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has studied and written extensively on Internet governance and is an active member in various organizations that aim to foster the growth of the Internet and determine who should legally govern activity on the Web.

Here, Mr. Klein comments on a selection of what he considers among the best books and online resources about Internet governance.

Online Resources

ICANN, icann.org
"This is the site of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). I sometimes call ICANN 'the WTO of the Internet' because it coordinates world Internet resources the way the World Trade Organization coordinates trade. The site is packed with information, but it can be dry."

• The Internet Governance Forum, www.intgovforum.org
"The Internet Governance Forum will host international discussions of public policies for the Internet. This is its official site, and it will undoubtedly grow in importance as we approach the first IGF meeting in October 2006."

• ICANNwatch.org, icannwatch.org
"A lively site for news and sometimes biting commentary on ICANN. It also contains lots of archival documents and articles."

• Internet Governance Project, www.intgovforum.org
"A joint project of researchers from Syracuse University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Wissenschaftzentrum Berlin [Social Science Research Center Berlin], this site offers expert policy analysis on current issues. Full disclosure: I am one of the partners of this project."

• UN Working Group on Internet Governance, wgig.org
"This official site is for a U.N. working group that did important work last summer, but it remains a treasure trove of materials."

• World Summit on the Information Society, www.itu.int/wsis
"The World Summit on the Information Society was the site of last fall's showdown between the U.S. and the rest of the world over ICANN, wherein the U.S. won the right to approve new domain-name extensions and agreed to create an international forum on various Internet issues. The site hosts the 'Tunis Commitment' document that preserved ICANN's operation under U.S. authority."

• Heinrich Boell Foundation WSIS Site, www.worldsummit2005.de/en/nav/14.htm
"This was the main European site for tracking issues of Internet governance. It offers abundant material, in both English and German."

• The Register, theregister.co.uk
"This online trade journal, whose slogan is 'Biting the hand that feeds IT,' regularly offers thoughtful analysis of governance issues."

Books

• "Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace," By Milton L. Mueller
"This is a detailed history of the Internet governance debate by a professor of information studies at Syracuse University one of the leading intellectual-activists in the field."

• "Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information Infrastructure," Edited by Brian Kahin and Charles Nesson
"Although it is a bit dated, the essays in this volume offer a good legal overview of the issues of internationalization and cyberspace. Especially interesting is the lead article by David Johnson and David Post, 'The Rise of Law on the Global Network.'"

• "Global Public Policy: Governing Without Government," By Wolfgang H. Reinicke
"Reinicke's book is not about the Internet per se, but it explains a great deal about global governance in general. It offers a powerful perspective for thinking about Internet governance."

• "Global Media Governance: A Beginner's Guide," By Sean O'Siochru and Bruce Girard With Amy Mahan
"This elegantly brief volume surveys the major global governance institutions: WTO, WIPO [World Intellectual Property Organization], UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization], ITU [International Telecommunications Union], and ICANN."

Internet 2= the Internet 2 Consortium of more than 100 universities and other organizations collaborating to develop the next-generation Internet technology. In addition to bandwidth issues, the Consortium is dealing with such issues as audio and video integration, interactive distance learning, telemedicine, online research collaboration, and real-time simulation/modelling. The main web site is at http://www.internet2.edu/.

Also see Wireless & Glossary of Terms

Internet audio and video= The transport of audio and video such that users can hear sounds and watch video while reading text and graphics on the Internet. It is no longer necessary to download these media files and install them on a local computer or a local server. These files can be played live on the Internet. Ozer (1996) reviews audio and video hardware and software for the Internet. Popular QuickTime (MOV) and Windows Video (AVI) standards will soon have to compete with the newer Microsoft (AV) standard. Various playback utilities, including the always popular QuickTime playback software, can be downloaded free from <http://www.texas.net./>. Both real-time and pseudo streaming are discussed under Web streaming. (See also Active Video (AV), AVI, Java, QuickTime, and Web streaming)

Recording what you hear: More MP3 and audio-file tools than you can shake a memory stick at!

Fred Langa, "Converting Audio Files? Let 'Er Rip!," Information Week, July 25, 2005 --- http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=166401664


Audacity Acoustica MP3 CD Burner Adaptec CD Creator Ashampoo Audio Catalyst Audiograbber Burn Quick Burn4Free BurnAtOnce Burrrn Cakewalk Pyro CD Burner Pro CD Burner XP Pro CD'n'Go CD Extreme	CD to MP3 Freeware CDex Cheetah Burner Creative OEM Software DeepBurner Disc Master dMC/dBPowerAMP Easy CD-DA Extractor Exact Audio Copy Express Burn Feurio Free Rip HotBurn HT Fireman iTunes	J. River Media Center JetAudio K3b Musicmatch Nero PlexTools Real Audio RecordNow QuickBurn Quintessential Roxio Shorten Files Winamp Windows Media Player

Bob Jensen's threads on MP3 coding and decoding are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#MP3

Bob Jensen's threads on audio on the Internet are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#WebAudio

Also see Instant Messaging

Internet Messaging = technologies for sending messages across the Internet. Leading technologies are shown below:

Mail & News

IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol, Version 4)

A still-evolving protocol that allows a client to access and manipulate e-mail messages on a server. IMAP4--designed for disconnected e-mail use--lets you perform such tasks as managing folders remotely, viewing just message subject lines, and selectively downloading messages and attachments based on various criteria (size or author, for example). IMAP4 also allows for shared mail folders.

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)

A standard for transmitting nontext e-mail message attachments via SMTP. Most proprietary mail systems must translate any received MIME attachments through an SMTP gateway. See also MIME.

NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol)

The protocol used by clients to post and retrieve messages to and from news servers, which host discussions. NNTP is also used by news servers to replicate newsgroup discussions.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol, Version 3)

An established protocol that lets Internet users send and retrieve e-mail to and from mail servers. POP3 provides simple store-and-forward e-mail functionality, compared with the richer IMAP4 specification.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

A standard protocol that defines how e-mail messages are transferred between servers. SMTP defines only ASCII text content, necessitating the MIME standard for nontext attachments.

Uuencode/uudecode

Along with MIME, another common method of sending binary e-mail attachments as plain ASCII text. See ASCII..

See Instant Messaging

Infrastructure

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

The simple document-formatting language of the World Wide Web. Netscape and other vendors have begun using HTML as their standard for rich-text formatting across all Internet applications, such as e-mail and newsgroup messages. See HTML.

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)

The protocol that negotiates delivery of text and other elements from a Web server to a Web browser. See HTTP.

IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol)

An evolving wire-level protocol that defines how distributed objects communicate with each other. IIOP--which is similar to Microsoft's Distributed Common Object Model (DCOM) specification--is based around the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). In theory, any IIOP-compliant client software on any platform will be able to access the same object, a programming function that performs a specific task (such as authenticating a user against a server).

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

An emerging directory service protocol that uses a subset of the X.500 directory standard to provide a common way to identify user and group information. It can be extended to provide information on other network resources.

Security

S/MIME (Secure MIME)

A public-key encryption protocol for securely sending MIME attachments.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

A protocol for sending encrypted information between a client and a server, often a Web server. SSL can work with any application-layer TCP/IP protocol and is most commonly used with HTTP.

X.509 certificates

Digital-signature certificates that use public-key encryption for authenticating users. X.509 certificates can be issued by either a certificate authority (such as VeriSign) or an internal certificate server.

(See also Security, ASCII, E-mail, Internet, Internet Messaging, Mosaic, SLIP, and USENet)

Internet phones and videoconferencing= Emerging telephony on the Internet coupled with the extension to video telephony. Technology in this area is reviewed in PC Magazine, March 26, 1996, pp. 143-145. Also see Instant Messaging

Internet surfing= (See Web surfing)

Internet surfing backwards= (See Web surfing backwards)

Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX)= One of the data transmission protocols used by NetWare.

InterNIC InfoSource= An information server about the Internet. (See also Mosaic)

Intranet= The use of the Internet and Internet-type software for subsytems of computing for private organizations and individuals. Companies are storing key forms and documents on web sites inside their operations, making it easy for employees to find information using standard web browsers, not special-purpose database programs. Most intranets use the "free" connections of the Internet, and turn the Internet into an intranet with passwords or other access barriers to documents and databases. Combinations of free Internet lines connected with leased (usually from telephone companies) private nodes are termed "virtual private networks" or VPN. A VPN functionality of a dedicated line, but which is really like a private
network within a public one, because it is still controlled by a telephone company. VPN's use encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that only authorized users can access the network and that the data cannot be intercepted. Some security mechanisms exist that are not available on intranets. The finer points of VPN networking is discussed by in a very long article by Mike Fratto in "VPNs Across Multiple Sites," Network Computing, July 1, 1998, 38-70.(See also TCP/IP, WAN, LAN, and Extranet.)

IP= The abbreviation for Internet Protocol, IP refers to the set of communication standards that control communications activity on the Internet. An IP address is the number assigned to any Internet-connected computer.

iPod= Apple Corporation’s brand of portable media players launched in 2001. Devices in the iPod range are primarily music players, designed around a central scroll wheel --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod
Microsoft’s competing player is called Zune.

IRC= Internet Relay Chat audio conversation channel on the WWW that works much like a CB radio for chatting on particular topics. Chat lines are typically in real time whereas "conferencing" use topical message boards to allow messaging to take place asynchronously. (See also World Wide Web)

ISA= (See Bus)

ISDN= Integrated Services Digital Network means of connecting to digital networks, including the Internet, via a common (digital) telephone line. For a review of ISDN in accounting, see Harding (1996). It is the fastest way for many individuals to connect to digital networks via a modem. However, at the present capacity of 128,000 bps, it is very slow relative to cable TV modems that can do over 1 million bps and exponentially faster direct connections that do not use modems at all. (See also Modem, MMDS, and DSL)

ISO 9000= International Organization for Standardization's series of international standards for information systems intended for compatibility and quality assurance. These are intended to foster world trade.

ISO 9000 Translated into Plain English http://www.connect.ab.ca/~praxiom/.

ISO statdards include:

ISO 9001- "Quality Systems - Model for Quality Assurance in Design, Development, Production, Installation, and Servicing";

ISO 9002 - "Model for Quality Assurance in Production, Installation, and Servicing";

ISO 9003 - "Model for Quality Assurance in Final Inspection and Test.";

ISO 9004 - a document guide to further quality development;

ISO 14000 - a new standard to address environmental issues.

Most importantly, ISO is comprised of many other standard setting bodies, including the following:

ANSI (American National Standards Institute)

ITU (International Telecommunication Union)

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers)

VESA (Video Electronics Standards
Association)

The key to these standards has been an audit and ceritfication system. Companies seeking ISO certification must have an audit. The certification has become important, especially in Europe, for market advantages, cost reduction, access to markets, improved communications, reduced political conflicts, documentation and dissemination processes, and employee training. Many of the standards are focused upon meeting paperwork and record keeping requirements.

For a plain English explanation see http://connect.ab.ca/~praxiom/

ISO 9660 = The data-format and file-naming conventions that ensure CD-based data can be accessed across multiple computer platforms. (See also CD-R)

ISOC= This is the abbreviation for Internet Society, an organization formed to support a worldwide information network. ISOC is the sponsoring body of the Internet Architecture Board.

ISP= Internet Service Provider that provides access to the Internet and the World Wide Web.

iSync

iSync From Apple Corporation Beats Microsoft to the Market
January 6, 2002 message from AppDevTrends@101communications-news.com

Basically, the iSync platform adds mobile phones to Apple's digital hub strategy. It works with the Mac OS X Jaguar Address Book and iCal (Apple's calendar program) to synchronize contacts and calendars among Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, PalmOS devices, Apple's iPod portable digital music player and other Macs using Apple's .Mac service. With iSync 1.0, users can sync their Jaguar Address Book with the new .Mac Address Book, making it possible to access contacts while using .Mac Web Mail from virtually any computer, the company said in a statement. iSync 1.0 also includes a feature that allows for regularly scheduled Mac-to-Mac synchronization.

For the rest of the story, please go to http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=7132

Also see Wireless.

ITAD= Integrated Telephone Answering Device that avoids tape recording by using direct digital recorders for telephones.

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J-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Java / Java Virtual Machine /JavaScript /JavaStation / JDBC / Jeeves / JITT / Joy stick / JPEG /jpg / Jukeboxes

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Java= A programming (a slow running derivative of C++) language also known as "Hot Java" from Sun Microsystems that is designed for browser plug-in running of applications called "applets." In 1997, IBM became the world leader in Java development with its subsidiary Taligent developer leading the way. Java has spread like wildfire among software developers. and can now be run from leading browsers such as the Netsacape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. An especially important advantage of Java is the ability to run applets on virtually any operating system (Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, etc.) or even without a GUI operating system. Plug-in utilities are now available on most WWW browsers. An important advantage on network computers is the Remote Method Invocation (RMI) standard. RMI is that part of the Java programming language library which enables a Java program running on one computer to access the objects and methods of another Java program running on a different computer. Java is extremely controversial since it allows for "centralized" housing of software to run on inexpensive networked computers (as opposed to decentralized installation of software on higher-capacity desktop machines). Many users hope to rent software (e.g., word processors) as opposed to purchasing and installing software on individual machines. Although it has been possible for some time to purchase LAN versions of software for multiple machines, Java makes it possible to run software world wide from a single server. Traffic jams on the Internet, however, are serious obstacles to the future of Java. Java has put Sun Microsystems in head-to-head combat with Microsoft's newer OLE options for running applications on the Internet. See "Java Takes Hold" in NewMedia, July 15, 1996, pp. 46-54. Note especially Page 54 and Microsoft's strategy of embedding Java in Windows in an effort to stave off the Java threat of no longer needing the Windows operating system. Microsoft is also attempting to thwart Java success by extending Windows OLE capabilities. Options for creating and playing digital audio Java applets are reviewed in deCarmo (1996). For interactive computing on the web, see Distributed Network Computing.See also Taligent, IDL , World Wide Web and OLE.

JavaScript = a web document scripting language introduced by Netscape. These are codes that allow users to go beyond what is possible in HTML coding of web documents. You may learn more about them by searching for the term "Java Scripts" in my bookmarks file. A good starting site is at Netscape's JavaScript File. You may also search some key references such as the web site http://www2.bath.ac.uk/~ccsnad/java/jsfaq.html. A summary of JavaSript commands can be found at http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-1996/jw-12-javascript.html Some good JavaScript hints are given by Jen at http://www.frymulti.com/~jwang/jsintro.html . For interactive computing on the web, see Distributed Network Computing.

JavaStation= a low cost hardware unit that provides users an internet browser specifically designed to employ Java. The first model introduced was described in "Information Week," October 28, 1996, p. 24. JavaStation is based on the Pico-Java technology that Sun licenses to developers for WWW-based microcomputing. (See also Browser and Java)

Java Virtual Machine = software that allows Java to run on different platforms (operating systems.)

JDBC= Java Database Connectivity standard that allows Java to interface with databases. See Database, IDL, and Java.

Jeeves = (See Search Engine /.)

JITT= Just-In-Time Training. In many technical and complex areas it is not practical for employees or other persons to be knowledgeable about all details at all times. For example, it has become impractical for auditors to have a working knowledge of every accounting and auditing standard in the United States and other nations. Physicians and other medical practitioners cannot have instant recall of details of every disease and combination of medical symptoms and treatments. JITT refers to a process (that is usually aided by computers, compact discs, computer networks, and/or teleconferencing) in which the person receives training "just-in-time" when it is needed for a particular purpose. The JITT process may change the entire process of education and training, because the focus may become how to effectively access and utilize JITT rather than how to teach students and/or employees technical details that have to be memorized long before they are needed in practice. (See also Kiosk)

Joy stick= A remote control device that can be used in place of a keyboard or a mouse to allow for interactions between a computer and its user. Joy sticks are commonly used for computer games and usually connect through a serial port.

JPEG= Joint Photographic Expert Group standards for image compression that is an increasingly popular compressed graphics image file, the extension for which is usually jpg. Because large and high resolution graphics images with considerable color depth require massive amounts of storage (e.g., over 30 Mb) for each image, compression routines that create images almost as good with substantially fewer storage requirements are highly desirable. Doyle (1994b) calls several options "awesome," including the $940 Fast Electronic's Movie Machine Pro (415-802-0772) with M-JPEG and Avi file capturing options. Similarly, he calls the $570 Intel Smart Video Recorder (800-538-3373) and the $890 Micro Computer microVIDEO DC1 tv (800-249-6476) awesome. JPEG images are generally of sufficient quality that it is not necessary to utilize more storage space for uncompressed files. JPEG compression of graphics images requires no special playback boards. When using any compression utility such as JPEG, it pays to study the limitations. For example, JPEG compression does not work especially well with hard edges and lines in graphics images. Black and white images should never be compressed into JPEG images. Also conversions from GIF to JPEG may be disappointing since GIF images are usually color reduced before becoming GIF images. Also math coprocessors will not speed up JPEG graphics since JPEG algorithms use only integer arithmetic. JPEG can be used with motion video cards such as the RasterOps MoviePak2 video compression daughter card for Mac computers. (See also Video board, Compression, GIF, and MPEG)

jpg= (See JPEG)

Jukeboxes= Hardware devices for stacking discs, especially compact discs such as CD-ROM discs for a computer. Two hardware options for moving from one active CD to another are called jukeboxes and arrays. Jukeboxes typically take up only one SCSI device spot but they can be slow to access while the robot finds, extracts, moves, and inserts each disc. Arrays are linked CD devices that are both faster and cheaper than jukeboxes. See Glatzer (1994) for a discussion of details and comparisons of alternatives.

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K-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Kaleida / Kerberos / KE Shell / KHz / kilohertz / Kiosk / KISS / Knowledge Managment / Knowledge Portal /

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Kaleida= Kaleida Labs, Inc. in Mountain View, CA (415-966-0400). This is a software/hardware development company (along with the PowerPC and another company called Taligent) funded in a joint venture by Apple Corporation and IBM. The first noteworthy product is the long-delayed ScriptX hypermedia package designed to cross multiple platforms. Kaleida announced a 20% reduction in work force on May 10, 1994. Eventually the project was terminated as a joint venture and work in process was diverted to other projects in both companies. Kaleida is largely viewed by the public as a failed joint venture that did not meet its main goals. (See also Taligent, Firewall, PowerPC, and ScriptX)

Kerberos=

Kerberos -- Here is a FAQ that explains what Kerberos is
Also see http://www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/CCS/people/kenh/kerberos-faq.html

Kerberos is a network authentication protocol. It is designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications by using secret-key cryptography. A free implementation of this protocol is available from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kerberos is available in many commercial products as well.

Also see security.

KE Shell= Knowledge Executive Shell software from Arthur Andersen Worldwide Organization, Center for Professional Education, St Charles, IL. The software called Knowledge Executive Shell (KE Shell) provides facilities for integrating multimedia components of text, video, audio, and graphics.

KHz= (See kilohertz)

kilohertz= Unit of measure that equals a frequency of 1 thousand cycles per second. (See also Hertz and megahertz)

Kiosk= A multimedia display system such as those used in marketing displays at conferences and in stores. Kiosks are typically used for demonstrations and may be self-contained hardware units having computer, video, and audio capabilities. For example, Computer and Control Solutions (800-998-3525) offers one such self-contained Kiosk machine. (See also JITT) Also, a center of standalone interactive information or content. Large department store chains such as Sears and Kmart are installing web kiosks for accessing online catalogs and the entire inventories of items available for ordering. See "Virtual Shopping Gets Real," Information Week, May 17, 1999. p. 30.

KISS= Keep It Simple Stupid refers mainly to the authoring of electronic books and/or development of software in which success often depends upon keeping the learning and usage mindlessly simple. (See also Authoring)

Knowledge Management = a term that can have multiple meanings. In business information technology knowledge management refers to an entire integrated system for accumulation, integration, manipulation, and access of data across multiple organizations, including such data as credit data, consumer profiles, market data, product development data, etc. A good article about Microsoft Corporation's movement into this systems market is "Smart Moves," by Stuart Johnston in Information Week, May 31, 1999, 18-20. The online version is at http://www.informationweek.com/736/km.htm . At another level, it may refer to Enterprise Resource Management systems such as SAP. At still another level it may simply refer to database systems for "knowledge" such as the Ask Jeeves knowledge base. See also database.

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L-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Lab / LAN / Laserdisc / LCD and DLP / LD / LDAP / Legacy / Lindspire (Lindows) / Linear presentation / Links / Linux / Listserv / Linux / Live / Livelink / Local bus / Logic Bomb / Longhorn / Lotus Notes / Lotus ScreenCam / Loop

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Lab= (See Studio classroom)

LAN= A Local Area Network that depicts any computer network technology that operates at high speed over short distances (up to a few thousand meters). A LAN may refer to a network in a given department or within a given firm or campus. It differs from computer networks that cross wider geographic spaces such as those networks on a WAN network. A LAN does not use the publc arteries of the Internet like intranets and VPNs. (See also Internet, TCP/IP, WAN, Intranet, Wireless, Extranet, and Virtual Private Networks (VPN))

Glossary of Wireless LAN Terms

Access Point (AP): A device connected to the wired local area network that receives and transmits signals to wireless clients; this device must also be connected to the wired LAN if connections to external networks are required.

Authentication: A process that verifies that the user has permission to access the network; often associated with the process of joining a Bluetooth piconet or WLAN.

Channels: Another name for frequencies, especially within a defined band.

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS): A spread spectrum technique that uses a "chip" (redundant bit pattern for each bit to be transmitted) to encode the signal to ensure more reliable delivery; the technology employed in IEEE 802.11 implementations.

Frequently Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS): A spread spectrum technique that uses a range of frequencies and changes frequencies during the transmission; the technology employed in HomeRF (SWAP) implementations.

Industry, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) Band: An unregulated radio frequency that uses the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands for communication; these bands were approved by the FCC in 1985.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM): A multiplexing technique used in 802.11a WLANs; this technique minimizes the effect of multipath distortion encountered in 802.11b networks.

Spread Spectrum Transmission (SS): A technique that takes a narrow signal and spreads it over a broader portion of the radio frequency band.

Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) Band: An unregulated radio frequency that uses the 5 GHz band for communication; this band is divided into three sub-bands and are intended for use by short-range, high-speed wireless digital communication devices.

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity): Another name for IEEE 802.11b standard; this trademark is owned by WECA and devices that comply with it assure interoperability among vendors.

Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP): The IEEE specification for data encryption between wireless devices defined by the IEEE 802.1x standard.

Wireless Local Network (WLAN): A local area network that is not connected by wires but instead uses one of the wireless technologies.

Laserdisc= (See Videodisc and Videodisc-digital)

LCD= Liquid Crystal Device computer/video panel and projector displays. Miniature television sets, laptop computers, and notebook computers generally use some type of LCD display due to difficulties in manufacturing portable cathode ray tube monitors. LCD displays may come in black and white, gray scale, and various degrees of color depth. The panels that can be laid on top of overhead projectors for displaying computer images on walls and large screens are called "LCD panels." LCD panels differ as to whether they can display full-motion video as well as computer images. For a review of some of the leading vendors and their panels, see NewMedia, September, p. 89, and NewMedia, February 1994, p. 85. One of the top new generation projectors is the Sharp XG-E850U that is so bright it is "bringing the obsolescence of CRT-based projectors one step closer" according to a quotation from Videography, October 1994, p. 112. (See also Three-beam projector)

DLP= Digital Light Processor projection device developed by Texas Instruments. DLP is based on a digital micromirror device (a chip with millions of microscopic, hinged mirrors). Red, green and blue light is filtered through a color wheel.

LCD or DLP? See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Design

LD= Videodisc. (See Videodisc)

LDAP = (See Internet Messaging).

Legacy= An adjective that refers to technology associated with old corporate programs, such as those on mainframes. Increasingly used as a put-down, the opposite of cutting edge.

Lindspire (Lindows)= Linspire^TM is a full-featured operating system like Microsoft Windows XP or Apple Mac OSX. Linspire offers you the power, stability and cost-savings of Linux with the ease of a windows environment. In addition, Linspire features exclusive CNR technology that makes installing software on Linspire fast and easy -- simply find the software you want in the CNR Warehouse, then click and run it! Watch a 5-minute Flash Demo to quickly learn more about Linspire and CNR --- http://www.linspire.com/lindows_sales_intro.php

Lindows Inc. on April 14, 2004 changed the name of its Lindows operating system to Linspire, responding to a federal judge's refusal to halt Microsoft Inc.'s trademark infringement lawsuits outside the U.S.

See operating systems.

Linear presentation= (See Hypermedia and Timeline presentation)

Links= These are the hypertext connections between Web pages. This is a synonym for hotlinks or hyperlinks.

Linux= (See Operating System)

Listserv= an email system where users "subscribe" to join in on group messages. A message sent to the listserv is sent to every subscriber's mail box. A listserv is similar to an email "bulletin board." However, users of bulletin boards do not receive the messages in their mail boxes without first going to the bulletin board to view a listing of messages. There are thousands upon thousands of listservs on topics of mutual interest from sewing to microbiology. It is common for college courses to have a listserv so that instructors and students can all communicate easily with group messages. Over 70,000 interest groups (at this writing) are linked at http://www.liszt.com/. Comparisons with bulletin boards, email groups, chat rooms, etc. are made in the e-mail definition of this glossary. See e-mail, Chat Lines, IRC, USENet, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, webcasting, andtelephony.

Accountancy Discussion ListServs:

For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

AECM (Educators) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/
AECM is an email Listserv list which provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets, multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc

Roles of a ListServ --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

CPAS-L (Practitioners) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments, ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed. Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or education. Others will be denied access.

Yahoo (Practitioners) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA. This can be anything from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA.

AccountantsWorld http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and taxation.

Business Valuation Group BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM]

Chris Nolan at Trinity University wrote the following in an email message on October 7, 1998:

I was told by my book editor today that L-Soft, the owner of the Listserv software, sent a letter to the American Library Association about the use of the term "listserv" in some recent ALA publications. L-Soft claims that the term is trademarked and therefore cannot be used as a generic term for these sorts of bulletin board/mailing list systems, much like Xerox not being used as a generic for photocopying. Although I had only used the term once in my manuscript, ALA’s editors felt that I should either capitalize the term to refer to the L-Soft software or use other terms to describe the more general concept.

Checking L-Soft International’s web site, I see that they clearly state that LISTSERV is a trademark of their company.

Linux - (See Operating Systems.)

Live= When used in reference to a World Wide Web file, this term designates an object linked to another layer of information.

Livelink = (See Groupware).

Local bus= (See Bus)

Logic Bomb = (See Security)

Lotus Notes = a networking set of application programs from Lotus Development Corporation, now owned by IBM Corporation, which allows organizations to share documents, databases, and exchange electronic mail messages. Purportedly, Lotus Notes was the major reason why Lotus was purchased by IBM Corporation. An interactive web server called Domino was introduced in 1996 so that Lotus Notes users could build intranets on the internet. For example, the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand makes extensive use of Domino for worldwide groupware applications. Java applets will give web browsers the look and feel of Notes. The main web site for Lotus Notes is at http://www2.lotus.com/home.nsf. See also Groupware and CollabraShare.

Lotus ScreenCam = (See Video.)

Loop= A set of statements in a program executed repeatedly, either a fixed number of times or until a specified condition is true or false.

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M-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Mac / Mac AV / Mac OS 8 /Mac TV / Macmillan Information SuperLibrary / Maestro /Malibu Graphics Chip / MAPLE / MATHEMATICA / MATLAB / mbf / MCA / MCI / MD / MDA / MD-Data / Media streaming / megahertz / Memory / Meta Content Framework (MCF) / Metadata / Metaverse / mff / MHz / Microsoft Binary Format / Microsoft Tiger Video / Microsoft Camcorder / Microsoft Video for Windows / Mid / MIDI / Middleware / MIME / Mimosa / Minidisc / MIPS / MMDS / Modem / Money Backup File / MOOs / Morphing / Mosaic / Motherboard / Mov / Mozart / MP3 /MPC / MPC upgrade / MPEG / mpg / MS-DOS / MS-Windows / MTS/SAP / MUDs / Multimedia / Multimedia database / Multimedia upgrade / Multimedia Video Processor / Multisession recording / Multitasking / MUSEs / MUSHes / MySpace

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Mac= An abbreviation of the popular Macintosh computers manufactured and sold by Apple Corporation. These computers contain what is called the Macintosh Operating System that will only run software written for that processor. A decade of the revolution in GUI and hypermedia Mac computing is celebrated in a book by Levy (1994) that is given an extensive review in Time Magazine, January 31, 1994, pp. 93-94. Although software can be added so that Mac computers will run (in emulation form) many DOS and Windows programs (slowly), the PC computers cannot as a rule run Mac programs. Differences between Mac and PC operating systems have led to constant frustrations for authors since there is no single standard for authoring materials that can be used across the computer market. This is especially frustrating for authors of CD-ROM learning and entertainment materials. Mac computers took an early lead in graphics computing and menu-driven operating systems emulated later in Windows and OS/2 operating systems. A drawback for hypermedia developers, however, has been market share. Apple Corporation has less than 5% of the worldwide desktop computer market and has lost much of its competitive lead in graphics and hypermedia computing. In 1994, Apple's disturbing declines in market share, even after PowerMacs were introduced, led Apple Corporation to the first-time licensing of its operating system to other hardware manufacturers, notably IBM which will undertake a new joint venture to produce a new computer running forthcoming versions of the Mac operating system. Analysts, however, are skeptical that Apple's licensing agreements may be too little too late to stop the market share momentum of Windows 95 and Windows 2000. Apple also has videotape rendering workstations known as AV or Mac Video Computers. Video options from Apple Corporation are reviewed in Birkmaier (1993), Torres (1993), and Tuckerman (1993). Apple's hopes are riding heavily upon the evolution of a new operating system called Rhapsody that is a revolutinary operating system based upon NEXTStep technology. (See also AIF, QuickTime, Dry camera, Bus, Amiga, Mozart, Copeland, Gershwin, SGI, SUN, PC, PowerPC, GUI, NEXTStep, Operating system, , and Apple AV)

Apple Corporation's operating system for its Mac OS X servers is called "Darwin." Apple announced that it will make the Darwin source code available to developers. It is a variant of UNIX.

Mac AV= (See Apple AV)

Mac OS 8 = (See Copeland .

Mac TV= (See Apple AV)

Macmillan Information SuperLibrary= Is an online World Wide Web database (at mcp.com) to contents of computer books from Que, Sams Publishers, Hayden Press, Que College, NRP, Grady, and Adobe Press. Discount prices are also available to WWW users. There are other features such as a free online newsletter sent to your email address. The Macmillan USA Information SuperLibrary Newsletter is intended for your own personal use. Feel free to copy this newsletter and distribute it freely, as long as it is not for any business or commercial use, and is not altered, modified, or edited in any way. For further information about these terms send email to "info@mcp.com", or write Brian Mansfield, Marketing Manager-Online Services, Macmillan Digital USA, 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN, 46290 (317-581-4941).

Maestro= See Relational Database

Malibu Graphics Chip= (See Kaleida)

MAPLE= Mathematics computing software also known as Waterloo Maple, because it was developed at the University of Waterloo in Canada. This is a very popular software for both research and teaching of mathematics. New enhancements include a spreadsheet interface and interfacing with mathematics text processors. There are also interactive graphics and symbolic computing utilities. MAPLE runs on DOS, Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh platforms at present. (See also MATLAB and MATHEMATICA)

MATHEMATICA= Mathematics computing software from Wolfram Research Inc. in Champaign, Illinois. This is a widely popular software package used by many major universities. It is capable of two- and three-dimensional animated graphics. There are both Mac and Windows versions that allow users to choose between direct interaction with the kernel and interaction through a front end that supports a GUI. The front end allows users to create Mathematica Notebooks that incorporate text, graphics, animation, and audio. Many universities supplement or replace traditional curriculum materials with Mathematica curricula. (See also MAPLE and MATLAB)

MATLAB= Mathematical computing software from The Math Works, 24 Prime Park Way, Natlick, MA 01760-1500 (508-653-1415). Two important features of MATLAB software are the integration of MATLAB with Microsoft's Word for Windows and the Symbolic Math Toolbox for advanced visualizations of mathematical functions. (See also MAPLE and MATHEMATICA)

MCA= (See Bus)

MCF = (See RDF.)

MCI= Media Control Interface established by Microsoft Corporation that has become a popular standard for Windows authors and users. MCI menus drop down to let users select input sources such as CD-Audio inputs, videodisc inputs, MIDI sequencers, and auxiliary sources such as inputs from a stereo set or a videotape player. These standards also mean that certain types of files should play on MCI systems (e.g., WAV files should play audio and AVI files should play video on MCI systems). It is recommended that any hardware/software purchased for the PC go beyond MCI standards and be Sound Blaster compatible. This does not mean that you must buy multimedia upgrades from Creative Labs. It only means that your system is compatible with the popular standard established by Sound Blaster. (See also PCMCIA and MPC) Also, a standard control interface for multimedia devices and media files, including a command-message interface and a command-string interface.

MD= (See Minidisc)

MDA= Model Driven Architecture in information systems (rather than management's discussion and analysis MDA in financial reporting). Johanna Ambrosio states the following in "MDA: Tools for the Code Generation," Application and Development Trends, July 2003, Page 27 --- http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=7850

Model-Driven Architecture, or MDA, embodies the conundrum: Is the glass half full or is it half empty? Even though the MDA standard is still evolving, many products claim to be compliant with it and early adopters are developing apps with them.

MDA vendors claim that today’s products can generate between 40% and 80% of the completed code for a given app based on models created with UML, and customers and analysts back up those claims. MDA’s purported benefits go beyond automatic code generation and the reduction of development costs, but those advantages are longer-term and most have yet to be proven outside of theoretical conversations. They include factors like eventual code and model reuse, and more effective fulfillment of user requirements. One advantage touted by the MDA camp is the ability to swap out underlying technologies -- OSs or languages, for example -- by simply revamping the platform-specific model and then regenerating the applications.

Still, a split remains between current users of these products -- mostly architects who speak UML or another modeling language -- and the targeted group of developers who believe they can do a better job of writing apps than any code generator. And it is developers that need to be convinced that these tools can make their work lives more meaningful by allowing them to concentrate on the creative stuff.

MD-Data= (See Minidisc)

Media streaming= (See Web streaming)

megahertz= Unit of measure that equals a frequency of 1 million cycles per second. (See also Hertz and kilohertz)

Memory= (See RAM).

Meta Content Framework = (See RDF.)

Metadata = (See RDF.)

Metaverse= From the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, this term describes a virtual online representation of reality.

mff= (see MIDI)

MHz= (See megahertz)

Money Backup File (mbf)

I think you have to have Microsoft Money software to read mbf files. Take a look at http://www.referenceguide.com/reviews/msmoney2003.htm

For this and other file extensions, go to http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/fileextensionsm.asp I suggest that you do a word search at www.microsoft.com or at Google http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

Also, MBF stands for Microsoft Binary Format. You can probably do a Google search or a Microsoft site search for more information. One document of possible interest is at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B73027 I found a conversion link at http://myfileformats.com/download_info.php?id=6510

I found a conversion link at http://myfileformats.com/download_info.php?id=6510

Microsoft Camcorder = (See Video.)

Microsoft Tiger Video= (See Video server)

Microsoft Video for Windows= (see Video for Windows)

Mid= (See MIDI)

Middleware = second generation network computing applications extends data transfers from the client computers back to the web server and/or database server computers. Software for doing this is commonly termed "middleware." Software mediates between an application program on a server and a network of client machines. Middleware manages the interaction between applications across the heterogeneous computing platforms of client computers. See CORBA and DTP.

MIDI= Musical Instrument Digital Interface audio standardized hardware parameters set under MPC standards for MIDI interfaces that connect electronic keyboards, synthesizers, and related devices to computers. Musicians may record music into computer (MIDI) files that require much less storage space than WAV files that contain complete files of digitized sounds. A MIDI file does not contain digitized sound. Instead, such a file contains the information needed to play such sounds from a MIDI-compatible device. Music files may be played back (somewhat analogous to the old player pianos) on the MIDI. MIDI sound files are generally of higher quality than their WAV audio files that play on computers without MIDI interfaces. The MIDI is extremely popular among composers and arrangers of music who want to utilize computer aids in their tasks. The mff and mid MIDI file formats are popular file extensions for MIDI files that will run on most PC computers. (See also Channel and MPC)

MIME= Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension to files that tell computers what kind of program to use to view or run a file. Mimes are typically plug-ins to browsers that help launch helper apps or user apps. For use of MIMEs in messaging, see Internet Messaging. (See also Plug-in)

Mimosa= (See Video server)

Minidisc= Is used in a variety of contexts to depict miniature "MD" optical discs and/or magnetic discs smaller than the standard 4.72 inch CD. Some MD alternatives such as the Sony MD Data 2.5 inch disk are smaller than floppy discs but hold nearly as much as a CD-ROM. The Sony version holds up to 74 minutes of CD quality audio or 140 Mb of data storage. The most typical MD size is the 2.5 inch audio disc. The term MD-Data refers to a minidisc used to record computer files and hypermedia presentations. MD options are reviewed by Miastkowski (1994).

MIPS= Million Instructions Per Second benchmark for rating computer processor CPU speed. Comparisons of MIPS ratings, however, can be misleading since the speed of access to peripheral equipment has become so important in overall computing performance.

MMDS = Multipoint Multichannel Distribution Service using neighborhood line-of-sight microwave antennas to transmit wireless data from homes to Internet providers. Cable companies are employing this technology that will allow for fast wireless Internet connections to homes and businesses. See also DSL and ISDN.

Modem= Process of converting digitized data into analog form for a carrier wave. Demodulation transforms data transmitted in analog form back into digital form for computer storage and/or processing. Modems modulate and demodulate computer data for transmission on telephone lines. Fax modems have the added capability of importing facsimiles received over phone lines directly into computer files. Cable TV modems offer transmitting speeds of over five times those of ISDN modems. The term "ricochet modem" is sometimes used to depict a wireless connection of a computer to the Internet. The product Ricochet Modem is brick-sized connector from Metricom Inc. that is a special kind of radio connector to the Internet in metropolitan areas having Ricochet's receivers for Internet connections. The early applications of the Ricochet Modem are reviewed in Mossberg (1996). (See also ISDN, DSL, MMDS, and ADC)

Downstream (download) refers to the transmission of network datainto your computer from another computer. Upstream (upload) refers to transmission of network data out of your computer into another computer on the network. In other words, messages or data sent to you go downstream and messages or data sent by you go upstream. At the present time the fastest analog modems that convert analog phone line downloads into digital data on your computer (or vice versa for uploads) run at 56 Kbps (56,000 bits per second). Most users, however, are still using 28.8 Kbps modems. An ISDN line doubles capacity to 128 Kbps. The new DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) offered by phone companies increases this up to 6400 Kbps. However, Asymetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADsL) can go up to 6 Mbps downstream and 640 Kbps upstream. ADC Kentrix has a report discussing DSL and ASDL.

Good Morning! Today is March 19, 1997 And this is.... ---------INFORMATIONWEEK DAILY------------ The E-Mail News Service For IT Decision Makers from the editors of InformationWeek magazine * Now reaching 75,000 subscribers and growing at http://www.informationweek.com *********

_____Switched Broadband Key To Future Of E-Commerce____ Bell Atlantic chairman Ray Smith said yesterday at the Internet & Electronic Commerce Conference in New York that the success of Internet-based commerce depends on speed. He then described how his company will provide it: with high-performance "switched broadband" connections that he claims will render technology like ISDN and ADSL obsolete. "Switched broadband will obsolete everything that comes before." Smith said in his speech that Bell Atlantic's bandwidth "end game," lies with next-generation switched broadband technology currently under development and set for deployment in Philadelphia in 18 months. Switched broadband, built on unnamed technology licensed from Lucent Technologies, will offer downstream connect speed of 52 Mbps and upstream connect speed of 3 Mbps, while taking advantage of customers' existing telephone wiring. According to Smith, switched broadband is able to jump the performance hurdles posed by the final 20 yards between buildings and the fiber optic line that ends at the curb. Telephone companies like Bell Atlantic typically bury eight to 10 copper lines instead of just one when installing voice networks. Switched broadband uses devices licensed from Lucent that let data communications take advantage of those extra wires for data transmission, making high-speed connections across the copper. "[Switched broadband] turns that buried copper into gold," Smith said. --Jeff Sweat

********************************************** ************

Morphing= Process of special effects video and/or computer animation that distorts images in motion. What started out in the movies as perverse distortions and unreal "morphed" images has gained respectability in science as a means of visualizing data and dynamic changes in data. Originally, morphing was only something professionals could do on very expensive workstations. Now morphing software and hardware requirements are much more modest. See Burger (1994b) for an easy-to-read description of the morphing process. (See also Animation)

Mosaic= A menu-driven and user-friendly hypertext system (also called NCSA Mosaic) of Internet sites that facilitate searching and browsing of documents and files around the world. Mosaic has largely been overtaken by more modern web browsers. (See Web browsers) For users not connected to the Internet, Mosaic can also be used with SLIP. Mosaic combines various former Internet servers such as Gopher Servers, World Wide Web, InterNIC InfoSource, ftp Sites, Finger Gateway, Whois Gateway, and Home Pages. Stefanac (1994) provides both a brief history of the Internet and an excellent review (including Internet addresses of World Wide Web sites with their Uniform Resource Locator Addresses) of newer options for transmitting graphics, audio, and video over Mosaic networks. Rivera, Singh, and McAlister (1994) term Mosaic as an "educator's best friend." Key features include world wide free networking by graphical interfacing to text, pictures, digitized video, and audio. Clicking on a highlighted Mosaic hotword or phrase (indicating a hyperlinked term) will complete a connection to the appropriate server to display documents, graphics, audio, or other multimedia files. Mosaic is becoming even more popular than Gopher largely due to the graphics-orientation of Mosaic and commercial developers of Mosaic interfaces. Internet users interested in Mosaic should contact the Software Development Group, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 605 E. Springfield, Champaign, IL 61820 (217-244-0072). The e-mail address is mosaic@ncsa.uiuc.edu. Newsweek on October 31, 1994, page 60, asserts that NCSA Mosaic "free software works widely but not well." Enhanced NCSA from Spyglass Inc. and Netscape from Mosaic Communications Corporation have improved Mosaic code. James Clark, former CEO of Silicon Graphics Corporation, on May 16, 1994 announced the opening of Mosaic Communications Corporation in Mountain View, CA (415-254-1900) to develop software that interfaces business firms with direct Internet access. This interfacing development company has tough competitors such as Spry Inc. in Seattle, WA (206-447-0300) and others according to Information Week, May 23, 1994, p. 20. Spry Inc. specializes in connectivity tools for Microsoft Windows and has a new Mosaic interface ready for shipment. According to PC Computing, July 1994, p. 113:

Mosaic does the seemingly impossible: And its free! Mosaic provides easy net navigation by using hypertext links, and it lets you view graphics and embedded sounds while you're online.

For web browsers see Web browsers, GINA, Gopher, Internet, and SLIP.

Motherboard= A circuit board or "logic board" inside the computer that contains the central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor support chips, RAM, and slots for adding expansion boards such as audio, scanner, SCSI, and video boards. Multimedia chips such as DSP audio and video chips will increasingly be put on the motherboard rather than on expansion boards.

Mov= (See QuickTime)

Mozart= The name given to Apple's operating system 7.5 for Mac and PowerPC computers. New features include multitasking, improved networking, better multimedia support, and DOS/Windows capabilities. (See also Mac, PowerPC, Operating system, Copeland, Gershwin, and Rhapsody)

MP3 = (See Audio.) Alternatives for creating MP3 audio files are given at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book99q4.htm#MP3

MPC= A Multimedia PC refers to combinations of PC hardware that meet multimedia hardware-combination (e.g., audio and video boards for computers) standards set by the Multimedia Marketing Council to make multimedia hardware products of vendors more compatible. The MPC1 Level 1 standard requires a 386 PC with a minimum of 2 Mb of RAM. The MPC2 Level 2 standard requires a 486SX or greater PC with 4 Mb of RAM. A variety of PC manufacturers use the MPC trademark. Consumers can then be assured that MPC hardware from one vendor will be compatible with hardware of another vendor. Also, software written for MPC hardware should run on any MPC equipment. The term is generally used in conjunction with CD-ROM multimedia hardware. A CD-ROM player, for example, should run on a computer with an MPC trademark provided the player is MPC compatible. It is probably best not to invest in multimedia PC hardware that is not compatible with MPC standards. In the future, MPC standards will dwindle in importance as more and more vendors build audio and video hardware on the motherboard rather than as boards to place into expansion slots. However, Spanbauer (1993b), p. 42) observes that MPCs will "hang on" into the near future due to the number of computer manufacturers that find them to be lower cost and lower price alternatives. Brown and Lombardi (1994) review the new Level 2 MPC upgrade kits and provide consumer ratings of the vendor alternatives. A review of hardware options is given in NewMedia, July 15, 1996, p. 19. (See also MIDI and MCI)

MPC upgrade= (See Multimedia upgrade)

MPEG= Moving Pictures Experts Group systems boards and compression standards (e.g., MPEG-2 and MPEG-1) for the most popular emerging form of compressed full-motion video standard for computer file storage. MPEG compression requires MPEG playback boards and/or MPEG authoring boards such as the Optibase MPG-1000 digital video codec (compression/decompression) board (800-451-5101). Although MPEG-2 is superior to MPEG-1, MPEG-2 requires at least quad speed CD-ROMs that, thereby, limits the use of MPEG-2 in the commercial market. MPEG-2 works much better with CD-DVD. However, even MPEG-1 is considered a better video compression alternative than its competitors. Full-motion video at over 30 frames per second takes up so much digitized storage that video must be compressed to make it more useful in hypermedia. In 1996, Miro Computer Products (415-855-0955) introduced the first JPEG video capture card for less than $1,000 that will encode (capture) video in compressed MPEG format. MPEG video files have an mpg file extension and will not run on computers that do not have special MPEG playback hardware/software installed. MPEG playback hardware is becoming standard in most new computer models. (See also Active video, Compression, DVI, Indeo, Video, Video for Windows, QuickTime, MCI, Ultimedia Video, and JPEG) Also, a digital video standard developed by the Motion Pictures Experts Group.

mpg= (See MPEG)

MS-DOS= (See DOS)

MS-Windows= (See Windows)

MTS/SAP= Multichannel Television Sound and Second Audio Program dbx system for compressing stereo audio in a technical fashion too complicated to explain here. (See also dbx)

MUDs, MOOs, MUSes and MUSHes= Multi-User Dimensions or Multiple User Dungeon, or Multiple User Dialogue. These are extensions of Dungeons and Dragons that seduced "adolescents" into a network world of imaginary places. Now there are serious social and education MUDs. Some of the many types are reviewed in Basic Information About MUDs and MUDding. There are extensions such as Multi-user, Object-Oriented MOO applications that, along with MUDs, have become serious educational experiments and applications. For example, Conlon (1997) reports on the MOOville writing workshop for over 2500 students per semester at the University of Florida. Click here for a summary of it in Jensen and Sandlin (1997). Another less extreme extension is the MUSH which, like a MUD, is an electronic space in which multiple persons (players, users, students) socialize, create "worlds," and interact in gaming or serious episodes. For a discussion of the history and applications of MUSHes, see The Mush Manual by Lydia Leong. Also see MUDs, MOOs, and Muses. The variations differ more in terms of underlying codes than in purpose and application.

For an early overview of MUDs see Germain (1993). The addictive powers of MUDS and the fantasy world of LambdaMOO are discussed by Hafner (1994). MUDs and extensions such as MOOs and MUSHes are no longer viewed as merely interactive games. They have become serious paradigms for education and training. For a summary of MOOville and its outcomes see Chapter 2 of Jensen and Sandlin (1997). MUDs are particulary intriguing as education paradigms for reaching students who perform poorly in traditinal classroom settings. (See also Games)

Multimedia= The ability to combine audio, visual, and possibly other types of hardware into a presentation. For example, a "multimedia" classroom will typically have projection hardware and switching controls that make it easy for teachers to switch back and forth between computer projections, videotape projections, audio CDs, 35mm slides, videodiscs, CD-I players, etc. Although hypermedia presentations may require multimedia facilities, the two terms are not synonymous. Hardware and software options are discussed in considerable detail in Chapter 3. Career opportunities in authoring multimedia are discussed by Jerram (1994a). Courses, trade shows, and literature on learning how to author multimedia works are summarized by Lindstrom (1994). At the moment, multimedia hardware technology is in a greater state of change. For a discussion, see Document 7 at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen. Brickman and Manning (1995) discuss how student laboratories might be designed for multimedia technologies. (See also Video/audio networking and Hypermedia)

Multimedia database= (See Database)

Multimedia upgrade= Hardware additions (usually insert boards or plug-and-play devices) to computers that make some aspect of multimedia operational. The lowest form of upgrade is an audio upgrade kit. This is usually followed by a digital video upgrade kit. Other upgrades may include CD-ROM players, videodisc players, video scan converters, mixers, speakers, video editing systems, etc. Common upgrades meet MPC standards. (See also MPC and Multimedia)

Multimedia Video Processor= A DSP multimedia processing chip from Texas Instruments that is claimed to be 20 to 50 times more powerful than Intel's Pentium according to Information Week, March 14, 1994, p. 10. The MVP processor combines parallel-processing, DSP, and RISC technology.

Multisession recording= Creating a disk in several stages rather than all at once. (See also Single-session recording and CD-R)

Multitasking= Execution of programs simultaneously on a single computer. In newer operating systems, two or more programs may be running "in the background" while the user is concentrating on another program running "in the foreground." Limits on how many programs can be run at the same time depend more upon hardware capacities, especially RAM amounts. Most operating systems now have multitasking capabilities. Multitasking differs from multiloading in which RAM contains multiple programs that can only be run one at a time. (See also Operating system)

MySpace= See Social Networks

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N-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Nano Machines and Microbes / Nanotechnology /Napster/Gnutella / Native / Navigation / NC / NCSA / NetBIOS / Netcasting / NetWare / Network address / Network computer / Networks / Newsgroups / NexGen / NEXTStep / NFS / NIC / NIC / Nintendo/SGI Media Cartridges / NOC / Node / Non-core / Nonlinear presentation / Notebook computer / Novell / NNTP / NPTN / NREN / NSFNet / NSP / NTSC / NYSERNet

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Nano Machines and Microbes (See Security)

Nanotechnology --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ubiquit.htm

Napster/Gnutella = software for sharing files over the Internet. The cover story entitled “The War Over Napster” by Steven Levy appeared in the June 5, 2000 issue of Newsweek Magazine, pp. 46-53. Although most of the controversy over Napster concerns copyright and royalties, the way in which Napster broadcasts online directly from multiple servers to a single user is revolutionary and should be of great interest to accountants and financial analysts. In essence, every browser becomes a server for whatever files a person wants to share with the world. This is a very complicated issue that in tantamount to a paradigm shift in web serving, searching, and file sharing. See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/napster.htm. Also see P2P.

Native= The availability of a software package written directly for an operating system as opposed to running in emulation under some type of translation process. Emulation usually runs slower and possibly less effectively than native versions. For example, Word Perfect and Microsoft Word have native versions for both Power Mac and Windows Chicago operating systems. Most Windows and DOS programs must be run in emulation on PowerPCs such that the speed advantages of the PowerPC are virtually lost due to not being able to run in native form. Francis (1994) reports that the main drawback that is holding down sales of Apple Corporation' s Power Mac is that "no one is building mainstream (native) productivity applications for the Power Mac." Whether or not Windows Chicago is truly better than the IBM and Apple competition operating systems may be a moot point if there are over 40 million Windows users that have installed or soon will install Windows Chicago. Market share determines the number of native software applications being developed for operating systems. Mac, UNIX, and other operating systems are losing the native software development war to Windows Chicago and Windows 2000. Windows Chicago is almost certain to become the PC operating system standard of choice until its upgrade called Windows Cairo rolls off the line and/or Windows 2000 with upgraded object-oriented programming features become the operating systems of choice among users having newer hardware speed and memory components. (See also Operating system)

Navigation= The navigation of a reader or user through learning and entertainment materials such as electronic books, courseware, and networks. (See also Hypertext and Hypermedia)

NC= Short for network computer. Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison popularized this term for a simple device connected to the Internet that can do many tasks associated with PCs, but for a fraction of the cost. A good review as of the end of 1996 is provided in Information Week, November 18, 1996, pp. 14-16. For interactive computing on the web, see Distributed Network Computing.

NCSA= National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 605 E. Springfield, Champaign, IL 61820 (217-244-0072). This University of Illinois center produces high-end video imaging of art and scientific data. The NCSA also develops software for multimedia education and research. (See also Mosaic)

NetBIOS= A network communication protocol that NetWare can emulate.

Netcasting = (See Castanet.)

NetWare= A network operating system produced by Novell Incorporated.

Network address= A hexadecimal number used to identify a network cabling system.

Network computer= (See NC)

Networks= Linkages between computers allowing data and other digitized information to be transmitted between computers. Networks may be local, regional, national, or international. Commercial vendors such as Prodigy, America Online, CompuServe, and World of Boston provide relatively user friendly instructions about how to use networks. Internet users no longer have to acquire greater expertise in Unix coding for creating web documents and FTP usage. For a summary of alternatives, see Document 6 at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen. For a sampling of professors who use network technology for courses, go to Document 4 at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen . Alternatives such as email, BBS services, and Groupware for networked PC instruction are compared at Texas A&M University by Klemm and Snell (1994). They conclude that desktop conferencing is the best alternative and compare alternative vendor products for such purposes. For accounting educator Internet networks see also ANet, International Internet Association, PIC-AECM, and RAW. Prentice-Hall was the first publishing company, to our knowledge, to offer an interactive two-way network dialog between adopters of selected textbooks and the authors of those books, including a bulletin board of latest readings related to the text, abstracts of related literature, and classroom aids (see ABKY for an illustration). CD-ROMs can be used on network servers using new hardware described in PC Computing, December 1994, p. 144. (See also America Online, DAB/DAR, Delta Project, CompuServe, eWorld, Interchange, Prodigy, LAN, Video/audio networking, Video server, Internet, and SLIP)

Newsgroups = (See Newsgroups)

NexGen= Next Generation microprocessor RISC chip from Alaris (a venture company formed with seed money from Compaq, Olivetti, Paine Webber, and others) that was independently designed from Intel chips but is aimed at being equal to or better than the best Pentium alternatives from Intel. Alaris may be contacted at Phone 510-770-5770 or Fax 510-770-5769. Major manufacturers such as IBM and Compaq are offering NexGen alternatives to Pentium. At present, NexGen can deliver most performance efficiencies of the best Pentium alternatives at significantly lower prices. (See also RISC and Pentium)

NEXTStep= An operating system developed by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer. For a comparative analysis with other current operating systems see PC/Computing Special Report (1994). NEXTStep is a leader in GUI interfaces and has some native applications software such as Word Perfect and Mathematica up and running. The future of NEXTStep was uncertain until Apple Corporation purchased the OS for $400 million in 1997 with the intention of making it the core of the future Mac and PowerMac operating systems. a revolutionary operating system from Apple Corporation that is based upon NEXTStep technology. Apple plans to deliver two operating systems for the next several years. First will be the Mac OS, which we will continue to upgrade and improve to support the current Macintosh customers worldwide, approximately 60 million users. Second will be a new OS based on NeXT Software's operating system technologies, NEXTStep and OPENStep. The powerful and advanced NeXT technologies are years ahead of competitive offerings, and will provide the foundation for a new OS, code-named Rhapsody. In addition to leveraging the NeXT technologies, Rhapsody is designed to run Mac applications through a Mac OS compatibility environment. Rhapsody's user interface will combine elements from both the Mac OS and NEXTStep, but will be closer in look and feel to the Mac OS Finder. We realize that customers need a consistent interface in the two operating systems to deploy them throughout a single organization. It's important for training and ease of use. One of the advantages of NeXT's technology is the easy support of multiple user interface paradigms. (See also Operating system and Rhapsody.)

NFS= The abbreviation for Network File System, NFS is a protocol suite developed and licensed by Sun Microsystems that allows different makes of computers running different operating systems to share files and disk storage.

NIC= The abbreviation for Network Information Center, NIC is an organization responsible for supplying information for component networks that comprise the Internet.

NIC= The Network Interface Card is a circuit board that is installed in the file server and workstations that make up the network. It allows the hardware in the network to send and receive data.

Nintendo/SGI Media Cartridges= Refer to data storage cartridges that are much faster than present CD-ROM alternatives for storing computer games, audio, and video files. The outlook for CD-ROM in the long haul is not so rosy. Billups (1994), p. 100 predicts the following:

As a lingering vestigial remnant of the mechanical age, the CD-ROM has no place in a fully digital communications environment and is no doubt destined to the same scrap heap as the eight-track. The new Nintendo/Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) media environment, for instance, uses a silicon cartridge that is two million times faster than CD-ROM. The storage capacity of this new environment has doubled in the last two months and the price unit has dropped more than half. By the time it hits the market it will set a new standard overnight.

In our viewpoint, however, the CD-ROM will remain the standard until better alternatives can be recorded as simply and as cheaply in homes and offices as CD-ROM discs can now be mastered (burned) for less than $20 per disc on desktop recorders costing less than $3,000. (See also Games)

NOC= The abbreviation for Network Operations Center, NOC is the organization responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Internet's component networks.

Node= A workstation, file server, bridge, or other device that has an address on a network.

Non-core= Those Chapter 3 attributes commonly found in course authoring systems that are not part of the core attributes of course management systems (CMS). (See also Authoring and CORE)

Nonlinear presentation= (See Hypermedia and Timeline presentation)

Notebook computer= A portable computer about the size of a standard ring binder notebook. Original laptop computers were about the size of a briefcase. Notebook computers later emerged that could be carried inside a briefcase. Next, sub-notebook computers were introduced that could be carried inside a suit pocket, although the most popular models presently are notebook size portables. Multimedia versions are slightly larger and heavier. Although notebook computers do not have expansion slots for hardware modifications, SCSI, Ethernet, ISBN, video caputure, and other hardware options are available on PCMCI cards. Also, docking stations allow notebook computers to have most of the features of desktop computers, including expansion slots. (See also Docking station, PDA, and PCMCIA)

Novell= A company based in Provo, Utah, that produces the NetWare network operating system.

NNTP = (See Internet Messaging).

NPTN= National Public Telecommunication Network in Cleveland that is dedicated to making communication, bulletin boards, and networking services freely available through linkages of privately funded sources. (See also Freenets)

NREN= National Research and Education Network (NREN). In December 1991, the U.S. Congress passed the High Performance Computing and Communications Program. This will expand international networking to thousands of times its present capacities and uses. Although intended primarily for research and education, the NREN will carry commercial traffic in research and education in addition to the types of noncommercial traffic carried presently on the Internet. The NSFNet is now referred to as the "Interim NREN. (See also Internet)

NSFNet= National Science Foundation Network connecting research universities and other research centers in the United States. (See also NREN)

NSP = Native Signal P rocessingsoftware from Intel that improves multimedia playback.

NTSC= National Television Standards Committee standards adopted in the 1960s by most nations in the Western Hemisphere, Japan, and other parts of Asia. These standards differ from PAL and SECAM standards in other parts of the world. For example, videotapes recorded under NTSC standards will play on videotape players sold in the United States and Canada. NTSC videotapes will not, however, play in European countries which have not adopted the NTSC standards. (See also PAL and SECAM)

NYSERNet= An Internet network that links rural libraries with a high speed communications network. This network is a nonprofit, equal-access network that has strong backing from major computer vendors and publishing firms. For details see EDUCOM Update, July/August 1993, pp. 3-4.

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O-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Object linking and embedding / Object-Oriented Database Systems / OCR / ODBC / ODF / OEM / OKI / OLAP / OLE / OLE/DCOM / OLTP / Online / On-the-fly recording / Ontology Web Language / Open / Open Database Connectivity / Operating system / Optical character recognition / Optical drive / Optical scanner / ORB / OS/2 / OS 8 / OSI Model / OTM / Outernets / OWL

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Object linking and embedding= (See OLE)

Object-Oriented Database Systems

Emerging database systems concepts
We conclude this chapter with a brief discussion of an emerging concepts relating to database systems. Object-oriented (OO) approaches to modeling and implementing database systems are becoming increasingly popular. This approach employs object-oriented modeling (OOM) techniques to model the domain of interest and then implements the resulting model using an object-oriented database management system (OODBMS). The object-oriented approach focuses on the objects of interest in the domain. Customers, vendors, employees, sales orders, and receipts are all viewed as objects that have certain attributes. OOM involves identifying the objects of interest, their attributes, and relationships between objects.

A critical feature unique to the OO approach is that an "object" package includes both the attributes of the object and the methods or procedures that pertain to that object. The methods might dictate how the object's attributes are modified in response to different events, or how the object causes changes in the attributes of other objects. Thus, a key difference between the database models described earlier and the OO approach is that OO models combine data (attributes) and procedures (methods) in one package, i.e., the "object." This feature of OO models is referred to as encapsulation - attributes and methods are represented together in one capsule. Another powerful feature of OO models is inheritance. OO models depict the real world as a hierarchy of object classes, with lower level classes inheriting attributes and methods from higher level classes. Thus, lower level object classes do not need to redefine attributes and methods that are common to the higher level object classes in the class hierarchy.

An OO model contains all details needed for implementation and object-oriented DBMS are powerful enough to represent all the information contained in the model. However, most organizations that have made heavy investments in RDBMS see little need to migrate to OO environments. While OO modeling methods are available, there is no consensus regarding the "best" method to use. Finally, although OODBMS are beginning to become commercially available, they have not gained much acceptance in the marketplace probably due to their relatively high cost and poor performance in comparison to RDBMS. Gemstone, ObjectStore, VBase, and O2 are some examples of OODBMS.

Accounting Information Systems: A Database Approach
by Uday S. Murthy and S. Michael Groomer
For more information go to http://www.cybertext.com/

Next I will repeat a great illustration pointed out in the message below from Alexander Lashenko:

Hello Bob,

Take a look at http://www.sanbase.com/cx.html

It's an original object-oriented DBMS with web interface. Looks very nice.

Regards,

Alex.
Alexander Lashenko [alashenko@cryptologic.com]

Also see Database.

OCR= Optical Character Recognition software and hardware used to interpret scanned symbols into characters of text or numbers recognized as something other than mere graphics images. The term is commonly used in such software as OmniPage Pro (800-535-7226) to indicate options of translating scanned words and numbers into computer text files that can be read by word processing and spreadsheet software. Leveraging ScanSoft's world-leading optical character recognition (OCR) and PDF conversion technology, the OmniPage Search Indexer creates index data from your document images, without changing the original. The ScanSoft OmniPage Search Indexer includes an OCR engine that is very fast and accurate, as well as a lightning fast PDF indexing engine - both tuned for search applications.

ScanSoft is the OCR behind the world's largest book scanning projects, and has been selected by nearly 100% of commercial vendors delivering imaging solutions, including AnyDocs, Autodesk, Avision, Brother, Canon, Captiva, CardScan, Dell, HP, Hummingbird, FileNET, Kofax, Verity, Visioneer and Xerox --- http://www.scansoft.com/OmniPage/Search/

(See also Scanner)

ODBC= Open Database Connectivity support. Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) refers to a standard for accessing different database systems in Visual Basic and Visual C++. Applications in most any software (e.g., Asymetrix ToolBook) can submit statements to ODBC using the ODBC type of SQL. ODBC then translates the code for use in common database systems such as Access, Paradox, dBase, Text, Excel and Btrieve databases. ODBC is based on Call-Level Interface and was defined by the SQL Access Group. Microsoft was one member of the group and was the first company to release a commercial product based on its work (under Microsoft Windows) but ODBC is not a Microsoft generated standard. ODBC drivers and development tools are available now for Microsoft Windows, Unix, OS/2, and Macintosh. See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm#ODBC.

ODF = OpenDocum ent Format

"Software Hardball," by Scott McNealy, The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2006; Page A10 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114135713113288409.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

In the larger scheme of things, barriers to exit are bad for the consumer. It means that in the long term we often end up paying more than we should and getting less innovation than we would on a level playing field. Companies should compete on the value their products provide, not on their ability to lock customers into a proprietary "standard." At this point, some people throw up their hands and say that's just the way of the world. Nothing we can do about it.

Not so. There is now an open, international standard for common personal productivity applications -- spreadsheet, presentation and word-processing programs -- called the OpenDocument Format (ODF). Approved by an independent standards body, ODF has the backing of a broad community of supporters including consumer groups, academic institutions, a collection of library associations including the American Library Association, and many leading high-tech companies, but no single company owns it or controls it. (A "standard" created and controlled by a single company is not a true standard.) Any company can incorporate the OpenDocument Format into its products, free of charge, and tear down the barriers to exit.

Imagine being able to open any email attachment, read it and make changes, even if you don't have the exact program it was created in. That's the kind of interoperability the OpenDocument Format is designed to foster.

If this standard is to become a reality, we must insist on it. In the U.S., Massachusetts has been leading the way with a mandate that all software purchased by the commonwealth comply with ODF. Globally, 13 nations are considering adopting it. The reason is simple. The data belongs to the people, not to the software vendor that created the file format.

OEM? I think not!
Short for original equipment manufacturer, which is a misleading term for a company that has a special relationship with computer producers. OEMs buy computers in bulk and customize them for a particular application. They then sell the customized computer under their own name. The term is really a misnomer because OEMs are not the original manufacturers -- they are the customizers.
Webopedia --- http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/OEM.html

OKI = Open Knowledge Initiative

For more detail see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

OKI and OCW: Free sharing of courseware from MIT, Stanford, and other colleges and universities.
"CourseWork: An Online Problem Set and Quizzing Tool," by Charles Kerns, Scott Stocker, and Evonne Schaeffer, Syllabus, June 2001, 27-29. I don't think the article is available online, although archived table of contents for the June edition is at http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/magazine.asp?month=6&year=2001

"MIT's Superarchive," by Sally Atwood, Technology Review, November 2002 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/atwood1202.asp

A digital repository will revolutionize the way research is shared and preserved.

Every year MIT researchers create at least 10,000 papers, data files, images, collections of field notes, and audio and video clips. The research often finds its way into professional journals, but the rest of the material remains squirreled away on personal computers, Web sites, and departmental servers. It’s accessible to only a few right now. And with computers and software evolving rapidly, the time is coming when files saved today will not be accessible to anyone at all.

Until recently there has been no overall plan to archive or preserve such work for posterity. But true to its problem-solving nature, MIT has come up with a solution. In September the Institute launched DSpace, a Web-based institutional repository where faculty and researchers can save their intellectual output and share it with their colleagues around the world and for centuries to come. The result of a two-year collaboration of the MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard, DSpace is built on open-source software and is available to anyone free of charge. But it’s even more important to note that many believe this groundbreaking effort will fundamentally change the way scholars disseminate their research findings.

OLAP = Online Analytical Processing database design in which data can be analyzed from a multidimensional point of view. A great example is given online at the FedScope Website of the U.S. Government. Whereas a relational database can be thought of as two-dimensional, a multidimensional database considers each data attribute (such as product, geographic sales region, and time period) as a separate "dimension." OLAP software can locate the intersection of dimensions (all products sold in the Eastern region above a certain price during a certain time period) and display them. Attributes such as time periods can be broken down into sub-attributes.

I stumbled upon a rather unique website that organizes data in a way that may interest some of you. It has possibilities for online training and education site designs. The site is called FedScope from the Office of Personnel Management of the U.S. Government --- http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/index.htm

FedScope is an On Line Analytic Processing tool which provides a free and easy way to access and analyze a large array of Federal employment data on your own.

FedScope uses multidimensional data sources called "Cubes". A FedScope cube brings together 13 key dimensions (data elements) on the Federal workforce and lets you explore any combination of the data: up, down, and across the dimensions.

You can easily

·         use our shortcut canned reports that we've provided in this application.

·         free-style with our OLAP tool to create your own reports.

·         export data to your favorite software (i.e. Excel Spreadsheet) for analysis and presentation.

·         export reports to Adobe Acrobat PDF for printing.

Online Glossary of Online Terms from the Office of Personnel Management of the U.S. Government --- http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/glossary/index.htm
(This glossary has a somewhat unique design for online users.)

Another OLAP-type approach entails pivot table analysis in Excel spreadsheets. You can download sample pivot table illustrations from Microsoft Corporation's financial statement Website at http://www.microsoft.com/msft/tools.htm . To slice and dice these pivot table reports, the Excel spreadsheets containing the data must be downloaded into an Excel program (which in reality makes this no longer an "online analytical process." After doing so, the pivot tables can be manipulated and users can prepare their own custom charts, other pivot tables, etc. This is very useful, but is not as neat and tidy as the truly online Cube OLAP approach available at the Fedscope site note above.

OLE= Object Linking and Embedding standards established by Microsoft Corporation for Mac and Windows operating systems. In 1997, Microsoft declared that OLE no longer stands for object linking and embedding (seeActiveX and CORBA ). Before 1997, however, OLE standards allowed the creation of links between documents and the embedding of documents in multiple applications. The OLE standards are designed to be "dynamic" in that as changes are made in an object in one document, the changes are simultaneously made automatically in all linked documents. For example, in pasting from the clipboard, authors choose the Paste Link or Paste Special command rather than the Paste command in the Edit menu. Pasting in this way creates a dynamic link between the source document and the destination document. OLE also supports embedding which embeds the source document (or a portion of the document) into the destination file such that the two documents become a "compound" file. Embedding is often used where a server file (creating embedded items) and client files (receiving embedded files) are in the system. In contrast to OLE linkages, OLE embedding edits in client files will not alter server files. This is not the case with OLE linkages, where any changes in a linked file will change all other linked files. Most word processor and spreadsheet software options have OLE capabilities. (See ActiveX, CORBA, and Java)

OLE/DCOM = (See CORBA )

Online= (See also Networks)

OLTP = On-Line Transaction Processing in database management systems. See Database.

On-the-fly recording= Sending data from your hard disk directly to the CD-R burner, without creating a physical image file first. (See also CD-R)

Ontology Web Language --- See OWL

Open= a public standard in computer contexts that is the opposite of "proprietary." Open refers to software and hardware made from published specifications that anyone can copy --- so customers have choice among multiple suppliers that compete on price and innovation. (See also Cross-platform)

Operating system= The master control software system that serves as a foundation for applications software. Examples of past, present, and forthcoming operating systems include MS-DOS, Amiga DOS, Windows, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Chicago, Windows Cairo, OS/2, Workplace OS, Apple/Mac Systems 7 and 8, Taligent (Pink), PowerOpen, NEXTStep, Rhapsody, Unix, SCO, AIX, HP/UX, HP/MPE, SCO Open Desktop, Solaris, and UnixWARE (Novell). A second class of operating systems is known as real time processing. These are used more for on-the-fly control systems such as aviation control systems and military applications. Examples include the Intel Multibus and iRMX operating systems. For a comparative analysis of the 32-bit options, see PC/Computing Special Report (1994) where it is concluded that there are advantages and drawbacks of each option and no clear optimal choice at this juncture in time. For 10 years, Apple Corporation would not license its proprietary Mac operating system to other manufacturers. However, in 1994 Apple announced that it would license its System 7 operating system to other vendors on PowerPC computers. In 1997, plans for Copeland and Gershwin upgrades were abandoned in favor or Rhapsody. Apple's hopes are riding heavily upon the evolution of a new operating system called Rhapsody that is a revolutinary operating system based upon NEXTStep technology. This may help to overcome the problem that Apple Corporation's market share has declined to less tan 5% of the desktop computing market and an even smaller percentage of the laptop/notebook computer market. The new licensing agreement is designed to cut into the huge market share of Windows operating systems from Microsoft Corporation. However, Microsoft Windows still remains the market share choice. Then along came Linux to challenge the Microsoft's operating systems. Linux (pronounced Leenicks) is a freely-distributable implementation of UNIX that runs on a number of hardware platforms, including Intel and Motorola microprocessors. It is very popular among computer scientists who have freely given their time to develpment of Linux.

The Linux home page is at http://www.ssc.com/linux/ .

"The Penguin Is Popping Up All Over Linux is fast breaking out of its original stomping ground in servers and into cell phones, cars, telecom gear, consumer electronics...," Business Week Online, March 30, 2004 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2004/tc20040330_8251_tc167.htm

UNCOUNTED MILLIONS.
Sound familiar? It should. To a degree, the same dynamics are propelling Linux' swift rise in the server OS market. Linux had a 7% share of that market in the fourth quarter of 2003 according to Framingham (Mass.) tech tracker IDC. But this number may not reflect the tens of millions of free versions of Linux that system administrators have downloaded and installed themselves. And year-over-year, Linux posted a 63% increase in market share, by far the biggest increase for any server OS.

This rapid growth in part reflects Linux' rapid move into the embedded operating system market. Until recently, makers of proprietary operating systems mainly worked that sector. The largest among them, Wind River (WIND ), attained close to 50% market share but remained far from dominant, as no one company could create products to span the thousands of types of processors that run embedded software. In fact, many device companies -- in aerospace and defense in particular -- have kept their development and code in-house.

As Linux has begun to mature, however, electronics makers have started to focus on its advantages. By incorporating it, they can minimize the number of operating systems they use in products to boost efficiency -- and thus free their programmers to concentrate on work that adds value to their products.

Continued in the article

Linspire^TM (formerly Lindows) is a full-featured operating system like Microsoft Windows XP or Apple Mac OSX. Linspire offers you the power, stability and cost-savings of Linux with the ease of a windows environment. In addition, Linspire features exclusive CNR technology that makes installing software on Linspire fast and easy -- simply find the software you want in the CNR Warehouse, then click and run it! Watch a 5-minute Flash Demo to quickly learn more about Linspire and CNR --- http://www.linspire.com/lindows_sales_intro.php

Apple Corporation's operating system for its Mac OS X servers is called "Darwin." Apple announced that it will make the Darwin source code available to developers. It is a variant of UNIX.

News from Microsoft --- http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/migrate/unix/default.asp

As the Windows platform continues to evolve to address changing business computing needs, many organizations currently on UNIX platforms are turning to Windows to run their new client and server business applications. They're discovering that moving to the Windows platform does not require abandoning existing investments in UNIX applications and infrastructure.

This section explains why customers should consider migrating to Windows from UNIX. It also provides detailed information for IT professionals and developers on how to move from UNIX systems to Windows XP, Windows 2000, and the upcoming Windows .NET Server and Microsoft .NET Web services platforms.

Why Migrate to Windows from UNIX and Linux

How to Migrate to Windows from UNIX and Linux

Migration Tools and Resources

Optical character recognition= (See OCR)

Optical drive= Any medium or device using a laser beam for accessing data stored on an optical disc. Typical optical drives are CD drives and videodisc drives. However, there are many types of optical drives including those that can be written on and re-written on much like floppy discs or computer tape. To date, most optical drives have slower access time than magnetic drives. (See also CD and Videodisc)

Optical scanner= (See OCR)

ORB = (See CORBA )

OS/2= Operating System 2 introduced by IBM Corporation in 1992 and upgraded to OS/2 Warp in 1994. This is the first 32-bit processing system designed for PCs. It beat its rival Microsoft Windows 2000 to the market by almost two years. In early 1994, neither Windows 2000 nor OS/2 have made a huge dent in the DOS and Windows market. For example, there were only four million OS/2 adopters and 250,000 Windows 2000 adopters at the end of 1993 in comparison with over 40 million Microsoft Windows adopters. As older PCs are replaced by higher speed PCs with more memory, 32-bit processors will become more popular. OS/2 gets some high praises when compared with current 32-bit alternatives in PC/Computing Special Report (1994). At issue is whether OS/2 or Windows 2000 or Pink or some other operating system will saturate the market (after DOS, Windows, Apple/Mac, and Windows Chicago stubbornly fade from the scene). OS/2 is a very reliable operating system that requires less PC capacity than Windows 2000. However, Windows 2000 has more networking utilities that may give it the competitive edge in the future. Until software vendors offer a wider array of options for either OS/2 or Windows 2000, the operating systems most widely used worldwide will continue to be DOS, Windows, and Windows Chicago. An alternate IBM operating system called Workplace OS combines the object-oriented Workplace with the OS/2 operating environment. Since OS/2 Warp has such a small market share, developers are not generating significant native software applications that run more efficiently in OS/2 vis-a-vis Windows. In CD-ROM Today, February 1995, pp. 40-51, OS/2 Warp performance is evaluated and a forecast is made that IBM will abandon OS/2. Although OS/2 Warp runs DOS applications better than MS-DOS itself, it is very slow when trying to run Windows applications. Neither Apple Corporation nor IBM Corporation have been able to significantly gain market share against Microsoft Windows. (See also Ultimedia Video, Operating system, DOS, Windows, Windows Chicago, and Windows 2000)

OS 8 = (See Copeland)

OSI Model= The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model for describing network protocols was devised by the Internet Standards Organization. It divides protocols into seven layers to standardize and simplify definitions.

OTM = (See CORBA).

Outernets= Systems of computer networks that are not bundled on the Internet but nevertheless can be accessed to the Internet through gateways that translate outernet protocols into Internet protocols. The worldwide system of gateways is called the "Matrix" or "the Net". (See also Internet)

OWL = Ontology Web Language (OWL)

The main link for Web Ontology is at http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/WebOnt/

The OWL Web Ontology Language is designed for use by applications that need to process the content of information instead of just presenting information to humans. OWL facilitates greater machine interpretability of Web content than that supported by XML, RDF, and RDF Schema (RDF-S) by providing additional vocabulary along with a formal semantics. OWL has three increasingly-expressive sublanguages: OWL Lite, OWL DL, and OWL Full.

Also see RDF at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm#RDF_Extended

It is interesting how OWL had an entirely different meaning at one time. OWL was the first commercial hypertext course management system in a box following OWL Corporations training development efforts for the U.S. Navy. OWL died when DOS faded. You can read the following at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm

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P-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

/ P2P / Packet / Paintbrush software / PAL / Palette / Panning / Paradox / Parallel processing / Parser / Password / Patch / PC / pcd / PCI / PCM / PCMCIA / PCS / PCTV / PC-TV /pcx / PDA / PDF / Pentium / Peripheral Component Interconnect / PERL / Personal Computer / PersonaLink Service / Phase Change Dual (PD) / Photo CD / Photography / PHP / Phreaker / Physical-image file / PIC-AECM / Pink / PIP / Pitch bend / Pixel / Platform / Plug and play / Plug-in / Podcasting, iPod U, RSS and RDF / POP / POP / POP3 / Portal / POTS / Power Macintosh / PowerOpen / PowerPC / PPP / PPV / Premastering/mastering software / Presentation / Print devices / Print forms / Print job configurations / Print queues / Print server / Processor / Prodigy / Projection / Protocol / Pseudo web streaming

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

P2P= Peer to Peer Networking. Not just a chaotic haven for Napster fans, peer-to-peer networking is getting praise from the button-down side of e-commerce for the business problems it can solve. http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012201/2663715/

For my Threads on the Napster/Wrapster/Gnutella/Pointera/FreeNet Paradigm Shift in Web Serving and Searching, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/napster.htm

Packet= A discrete unit of data bits transmitted over a network.

Paintbrush software= Software used to create new or modify imported graphics images and photographs. Options and prices vary widely. Important features to look for are the variety of filters that enable importing a wide variety of types of graphics images, the ability to resize and change aspect ratios of pictures, and the layering of objects in an image such that images behind layers can be recovered (this is a feature of Adobe Photoshop that is not available in most other software options). Alternative software features and options are reviewed in the annual NewMedia Tool Guide from NewMedia magazine in the 1995 edition. 2-D graphics software options are listed on pp. 40-43.

Photoshop 7.0 Overview Adobe's Photoshop 7.0 has officially hit the shelves! Evany takes a whirlwind tour of new features like the File Browser, Healing Brush, and the beefier Brush palette, then shares her opinions --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/16/index1a.html

For a great alternative that is easier to use than Adobe Photoshop, much less expensive, and far less demanding of computer power, try Paintshop Pro from JASC --- http://www.jasc.com/

(See also Animation and Texture)

PAL= Phase Alternation Line television standard for most western European nations. For example, videotapes recorded under PAL standards will not play on the NTSC tape players found in the Western Hemisphere and Asia. (See also NTSC and SECAM)

Palette = A table of available simultaneous colors that paints pixels on the screen.

Panning =

Video: Panning effects are created by moving the "camera" (usually from side to side) while keeping the subject in the viewfinder. Zooming entails making the image more or less magnified.

Audio: Positionings of sounds to the left or right in a stereo sound field, creating the effect of different instruments playing in different parts of the room. You must be able to control panning in order to take advantage of the stereo capabilities of high-end synthesizers and some MPC boards.

Paradox= A relational database PC system from Borland International. See GainMomentum, Relational database management, and 4GL Database Languages.

Parallel processing = (See Multitasking)

Parser = a program that receives input from sequential source program instructions, interactive online commands, markup tags, or some other defined interface and breaks them up into parts (for example, the nouns (objects), verbs (methods), and their attributes or options) that can then be managed by other programming (for example, other components in a compiler). A parser may also check to see that all input has been provided that is necessary. See HTML.

Password= A secret word used to identify a user.

Patch= A set of tone-generating parameters that determine the instrument imitation (flute, violin, etc.) of a synthesizer.

PC= A Personal Computer that is compatible with the IBM desktop computers. PCs that are not manufactured by IBM Corporation are typically referred to as "clones." Generally, programs written on any PC will play on another PC. Most PC users now run under Microsoft DOS or Microsoft Windows operating systems. Newer and more advanced processors include OS/2 from IBM and Windows 2000 from Microsoft Corporation. Programs written on a Mac operating system will not usually run on a PC. Differences between Mac and PC computers have led to constant frustrations for authors since there is no single standard for authoring materials that can be used across the computer market. This is especially frustrating for authors of CD-ROM learning and entertainment materials. PC computers using the early Intel 8088 processor were called XT models. The XT's gave way to the AT models containing the 80286 or higher level Intel processors. Now the model names usually contain the processor specifications such as Intel 386, 486, and Pentium designations. The top-rated PCs at the end of 1994 are Dell Dimension (Rank 1), Micron PCI (Rank 2), Gateway P% (Rank 3), and IBM ValuPoint (Rank 4) according to PC Computing, December 1994, p. 126. Two pages later, that same magazine ranks the best-buys in portables as TravelMate 4000M from Texas Instruments (Rank 1), Latitude XP from Dell (Rank 2), and ThinkPad755C from IBM (Rank 3). (See also Bus, Amiga, Mac, SGI, SUN, and PowerPC)

pcd= (See Photo CD)

PCI= (See Bus)

PCM= Pulse Code Modulation of audio waveform sampling that records actual values rather than the ADPVM difference between samples. This decreases fidelity with higher resolution than ADPCM. (See also Audio and ADPCM)

PCMCIA= Personal Computer Memory Card International Association defined standards for memory card external slots (ports) to peripheral devices such as fax modems. PCMCIA slots are common in printers, and notebook/laptop computers, but these "slots" have been troubled technologies from the start. Before buying a computer with PCMCIA slots, readers are advised to read Doe (1994) and Smarte (1994) regarding the problems and hopes for improvements in the future. Doe (1994), p. 172 states that: "User outrage about this incompatibility has scared many people away from PCMCIA." The Type I slots are 3.3 mm thick and serve mainly as memory cards. The Type II slots are more input/output compatible with fax modems and LAN adapters. The Type III slots are 10.5 mm thick and can be used for porting to some auxiliary storage devices such as external hard drives. One problem is that some vendors who claim to have Type III slots are really manufacturing with only Type II slots stacked on top of each other giving rise to a .5 mm incompatibility difference. There is also some doubt whether PCMCIA technology can be expanded to 32 bit and 64 bit processors of the future. Smarte (1994), pp. 204-205 compares performances of leading PC models on various PCMCIA attributes and functions. Readers might especially want to note how many of the computer models "fail" with respect to SCSI performance using PCMCIA slots. Smarte (1994), p. 208 also provides a small glossary of PCMCIA terms. For example, "CIS" depicts Card Information Structure of formatting and data organization on the card. "Plug and play" is a feature that allows changing of cards without having to reboot the system. Smarte (1994), p. 215 also provides a listing of new PCMCIA technologies and their vendors.

PCS= (Wireless Glossary of Terms)

PCTV= (See Information highway)

PCX= (See Graphics)

PDA= Personal Digital Assistant pocket-sized devices for recording of typed or handwritten messages that can later be ported to computers. See Wireless Glossary of Terms. The most innovative device was the Newton developed and later abandoned by Apple Corporation. Two leading devices that emerged are linked below:

The Psion Series gives you the computing power that you need without the excess weight. It has a touch type
keyboard and full page width touch-sensitive screen, yet weighs less than 13 ounces (or less than 360g), has around 35 hours of battery life and fits into your pocket. The Psion handheld computer is compatible with all leading Windows 95/NT4 word processors, spreadsheets and databases, and synchronizes with schedule and contacts software on your desktop PC, including Microsoft, Lotus, Corel, WordPerfect and other applications. PsiWin 2 - included as standard - docks your Psion to your PC. See http://www.psion.com/series5/index.html

The market share leader in the latest PDA devices is Palm. The Internet connections to the world are wireless and use only AAA batteries. I wish it had a keyboard when it is not connected to a PC. But theres are some great features in spite of not having a keyboard. For a Palm product review, see http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/990521palm .
The Palm home page is at http://www.palm.com/ .

PDA and PDF= Portable Document Aassistant PostScript formatting technology that attempts to provide a viable way of exchanging documents across operating systems and different types of software. The of the best known PDA option is the Acrobat tools from Adobe Corporation that gives rise to PDF documents in Protable Document Format file extensions. Acrobat also provides other utilities such as the Distiller tool that translates PostScript files into a PDF format, the Exchange tool that facilitates insertion of hypertext linkages, the PDF Writer containing printer drivers, and other utilities. For a review of Acrobat, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/wwwsoft.htm. Also see Cross-platform.

I have been playing a little more with Version 4 of Adobe Acrobat. The most common way to generate an Acrobat PDF file is to create a document in a word processor (say a DOC file) or a spreadsheet (say a XLS file). With Adobe Exchange installed, you can simply save a second copy of the document as a PDF file. In the past, I pretended there was a glass barrier in which the original images were behind the glass (and could not be modified with Adobe Exchange) versus Acrobat Exchage things that you could do in front of the glass (such as add annotations, hyperlinks, bookmarks, audio, video, etc.). Prior to Version 4, any changes in content of the file behind the glass could not be made using Adobe Exchange. Version 4, however, allows certain types of changes such as "touching up" words, insertion of pages, and renumbering of pages. However, most serious modifying and editing of text or data are still best accomplished by returning to the word processor or spreadsheet program. For example, if I added text in a sentence I could not get the longer sentence to easily wrap around and adjust the lines for the added text. Have any of you found a way to make such text wrappings automatice in PDF text editing?

Version 4 of Adobe Acrobat (particularly the Adobe Exchange module) certainly makes it easier to publish web documents in PDF form rather than HTML or dome other DTD. Version 4 is a significant upgrade. The main advantage is that the original document produced on a word processor or spreadsheet program does not have to be edited and touched up in the same manner that an HTML conversion often requires fixing up and images. For example MS Word tables and Excel tables do not have to be fixed up in a PDF file, but these tables almost always have to be fixed up following a conversion to a HTM file. Images do not have to be stored in separate files like they do for HTML documents. Another advantage arises in that the hard copy printout of the PDF file is nearly perfect in terms of looking just like the original DOC or XLS printout.

But there is one huge disadvantage of a PDF document on the web that is often overlooked. That disadvantage is that a PDF document cannot be scanned by web search engines such as Altavista, HotBot, and Lycos. If authors want to have their work picked up by search engines, one possibilty is to publish a summary of the PDF document in a separate HTML document. Include lots of key words and text in the HTML document that will motivate users to click on the hyperlink to the PDF file.

Adding (limited) text editing capabilities will not be viewed happily by all authors. For example, PDF files are often the files of choice by corporations issuing annual reports. A main reason is that they print so nicely from PDF files. Another reason in the past, however, was that users could not modify the text in a PDF file. With Version 4 of Acrobat Exchange, however, readers can change text, insert pages, import other PDF files, repaginate, etc. PDF authoring no longer comforts authors that their documents remain "Pretty Decidedly Fixed" after they are downloaded by users.

From Information Week Newsletter on March 6, 2001

The future is wireless, or so we're told. While vendors work out the formula for devices and services that will put wireless clients into every consumer's hands, at least one wireless networking technology has moved out of the early-adopter stage. Wireless Ethernet, defined by the 802.11b standard, is coming into its own as a common technique to connect clients to networks. It is this genuine maturity that new technologies are pushed to achieve. This is the magic place on the product life curve when companies can begin ordering and installing the technology as a solution rather than as an experiment.

We took five separate 802.11b systems to the Review Bunker at the University of Hawaii's Advanced Network Computing Lab to see whether these products truly are as mature as they seem. We wanted to see whether the wireless networking systems would be easy to integrate into an existing network and easy to forget once they were installed. In short, we wanted to find out whether wireless networking systems can replace standard 10Base-T with no performance or management penalties for users and administrators.

Five companies accepted our invitation to this lab test. Cisco, Enterasys Networks, Intel, Proxim and Symbol Technologies brought network access devices, management software and wireless PC cards to the Review Bunker and helped us put the systems through their paces. In the end, we found that there's a lot of good news in wireless networking, along with one little detail that will cause you some trouble. --Curtis Franklin

Read on to find out how they performed: http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eCoW0Bdl6n0V30LWBN

***************************************************

Providers Overcome Bluetooth Blues

Bluetooth--a technology that backers in the wireless and computer industry promise will enable cheap, short-range wireless networking--is set to become a reality after more than two years of development.

By this summer, wireless operators will be selling phones with Bluetooth transceivers, small chips that can communicate at distances up to 30 feet and wirelessly connect to PCs and PDAs.

Wireless service providers are excited about the prospects. They expect gadget fans and road warriors to use their cellular networks to connect Bluetooth-enabled devices to the Internet and corporate LANs.

The coming of age of Bluetooth means more traffic over the network and more demand for wireless services, say wireless operators. --Jonathan Collins, tele.com

Read on: http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eCoW0Bdl6n0V30LWCO

Pentium= A CISC high speed processor that followed the 486 processors of Intel. The Pentium runs much faster than the 486 in most instances and, thereby, is a better alternative for graphics, audio, and video processing. It is also better suited to newer operating systems such as Windows Chicago and Windows 2000. Early versions tended to overheat and had an unknown life and reliability. Later versions of Pentium processors such as the P54C overcame all doubts about Intel's ability to produce a cool running CISC processor at speeds up to 100 MHz and plans to produce even faster Pentiums. These newer versions dispel all doubts about "Intel's aim to crunch the PowerPC" according to Information Week, February 21, 1994, p. 60. The comparative advantages, and they are serious advantages in the market, are the ability to run DOS and Windows applications in direct rather than emulation form in Pentium processors. This is not the case with PowerPC alternatives. Also, some users prefer CISC to RISC. (See also Mulimedia Video Processor, NexGen, RISC, and CISC)

Peripheral Component Interconnect= (See Bus)

PERL = (See CGI.)

Personal Computer (PC)

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Computer

Personal Computer History
"Forgotten PC history: The true origins of the personal computer --- The PC's back story involves a little-known Texas connection," by Lamont Wood, Computer World, August 8, 2008 --- Click Here

This year marks an almost forgotten 40th anniversary: the conception of the device that ultimately became the PC. And no, it did not happen in California.

For decades, histories have traced the PC's x86 lineage back to 1972, with Intel Corp.'s introduction of the 8008 chip, the 8-bit follow-on to the 4-bit 4004, itself introduced in 1971 and remembered as the world's first microprocessor (download PDF).

But the full story was not that simple. For one thing, the x86's lineage can be traced back four additional years, to 1968, and it was born at a now-defunct firm in San Antonio. The x86 was originally conceived by an all-but-forgotten engineer, Austin O. "Gus" Roche, who was obsessed

with making a personal computer. For another thing, Intel got involved reluctantly, and the 8008 was not actually derived from the 4004 -- they were separate projects.

Industrial designer John "Jack" Frassanito, head of John Frassanito & Associates Inc., a NASA contractor in Houston, remembers wincing while plans for the device were drawn by Roche on perfectly good tablecloths in a private club in San Antonio in 1968. He was then a young account manager for legendary designer Raymond Lowey (who did the Coke bottle and the Studebaker Avanti, among other things). Frassanito was sent to Computer Terminal Corp. in San Antonio to help design CTC's first product, an electronic replacement for the Model 33 Teletype. CTC had been recently founded with local backing by former NASA engineers Phil Ray and Roche.

After arriving in San Antonio -- where he soon joined CTC's staff -- Frassanito said that he quickly discovered that the teletype-replacement project was merely a ruse to raise money for the founders' real goal of building a personal computer.

A hidden agenda

"When writing the business plan, they decided to stay away from the notion of a personal computer, since the bankers they were talking to had no idea what a computer was or wasn't," Frassanito recalled. "So for the first product, they needed something they could get off the ground with existing technology. But the notion from the get-go was to build a personal computer firm."

The resulting terminal, the Datapoint 3300, established CTC as a going concern, and planning began on the project that Frassanito realized was Roche's obsession. He remembers lengthy discussions with Roche about what a personal computer should do and look like. Roche often expressed himself using metaphors from various classics, such as Machiavelli's The Prince, which Frassanito found necessary to read.

To ensure a market for the machine, Frassanito said that the CTC founders decided to promote it (with appropriate programming) as a replacement for the IBM 029 card punch machine, and they gave it a half-height display to match the aspect of an IBM punch card. To keep it from being intimidating in an office, they gave it the same footprint as an IBM Selectric typewriter.

The resulting compact enclosure had heat problems, and in late 1969 and early 1970, the designers began looking for ways to reduce the number of components, including reducing the CPU board to one chip.

The start of Intel's involvement

Frassanito recalled accompanying Roche to a meeting with Bob Noyce, head of Intel, in early 1970 to try to get Intel -- then a start-up devoted to making memory chips -- to produce the CPU chip. Roche presented the proposed chip as a potentially revolutionary development and suggested that Intel develop the chip at its own expense and then sell it to all comers, including CTC, Frassanito recalled.

"Noyce said it was an intriguing idea, and that Intel could do it, but it would be a dumb move," said Frassanito. "He said that if you have a computer chip, you can only sell one chip per computer, while with memory, you can sell hundreds of chips per computer." Nevertheless, Noyce agreed to a $50,000 development contract, Frassanito recalled.

Frassanito's recollection of Noyce's negative reaction is echoed in the transcript of a group interview done in September 2006 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. (download PDF). The group included six people who were involved in the development or marketing of Intel's first CPU chips: Federico Faggin, Hal Feeney, Ed Gelbach, Ted Hoff, Stan Mazor and Hank Smith. They agreed that Intel's management at the time feared that if Intel put a CPU chip in its catalog, the computer vendors that were Intel's customers for memory chips would see Intel as a competitor and go elsewhere for memories.

That fear, they indicated, was evident as late as 1973. The group also recalled that work was suspended on the CTC chip, called the 1201, in the summer of 1970 after CTC lost interest, having decided to go ahead with a CPU board using transistor-transistor-logic (TTL) circuits instead of relying on a chip-based design. TTL is the level of integration that preceded microcircuits, where a chip might have tens of transistors rather than thousands.

Continued in article

PersonaLink Service= (See PDA)

Phase Change Dual (PD)= A technology for recording rewritable compact discs that was developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Osaka, Japan. The PD phase change on tiny disc crystals is achieved with a laser beam burning that makes them more or less reflective. The PD rewritable discs, however, cannot be read on standard CD-ROM players. This limits the market for developers. However, the rewritable feature has many useful attributes. The capacity of a PD disc is currently 650 MB and the player/recorder sells for less than $1,000. (See also CD)

PHP = a server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language. This may sound a little foreign to all you folks coming from a non-Unix background, but PHP doesn't cost anything. The PHP web site is at http://www.php.net/ . Also see Shell.

Photo CD= A CD that contains up to 100 high quality photographs developed by Kodak from 35 mm film directly onto a CD-ROM or a CD-I disc. PhotoCD files generally have a pcd extension and can be played back on Kodak software. New Photo CD Portfolio and Create-It software from Kodak (800-CD-KODAK) facilitate presentations such as classroom lectures and outside presentations to be pressed to Photo CDs. However, the Photo CD disc only stores graphics images (including text stored as a graphic) and will not store files that can be executed in computer software such as playing back a ToolBook book or HyperCard stack or storing a Lotus or Excel spreadsheet file. (In contrast, a CD-ROM disc will store computer files that can be read into execution files.) Reading of such discs requires special software. Also, CD-ROM drives have to be sufficiently fast (e.g., double or triple speed) to playback Photo CD discs. CD-I and related machines that play on television sets rather than computers will also play Photo CD discs. For a guide to Photo CD usage see Brannon (1993). For the Photo Factory software package see Multimedia Store in Appendix 6. A production guide is provided by Larish (1993). (See also Dry camera and Video from digital (DV) camcorders)

Photography= (See Dry camera)

Phreaker = the skilled saboteur who relies on guile and the fallibility of employees in an information system. Employees do not necessarily have to be co-conspirators. The phreaker takes advantage of their innocence and trusting nature. The term is used in contrast to a hacker and a cracker. A hacker is a person who relies only upon technology to hack into the system (e.g., by breaking the encryption code.) Whereas a hacker usually breaks in without intention to harm the system or for personal gain, a "hacker" turns into a "cracker" when the intention becomes more sinister. A "phreaker" may do some hacking or cracking, but the to be a phreaker the saboteur must also rely upon human fallibility. (See also firewall.)

Hi Speer,

I always appreciate it when you inform me about a broken link. The link http://www.iste.org/Publications/Books/Future is now repaired at http://WWW.Trinity.edu/rjensen/prelim.htm I am glad that you are doing your assigned homework for the New Orleans workshops. I also just realized that you may not receive this since you are about to board the plane in Aukland.

When I started to type this response, it dawned on me that you and some other subscribers to the aecm might be interested in phreaking. Phreaking will become the major concern in design of internal control systems and evaluation of assurance service risks by CPAs. I am using the term in the present context described and illustrated at

http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/news/0727/31ebhat.html

I mentioned previously that John Howland and I included phreaker Bruce Sidlinger in writing a case that is now in the final competition in the AICPA's academic/practitioner case competition. Quite on his own, Bruce did some geeking on phreaking. It turns out that the early history of this term has a somewhat different meaning than its meaning in present-day usage. Bruce's message to me is reproduced below:

Bob
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-736-7347 Fax: 210-736-8134

Hi Dr J,

just found a writeup on the subject:

...There was never an Oscar Meyer Weiner whistle that I can recall, but there was a Captain Crunch whistle.

What happened here is that in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s (I can’t recall exactly when), someone discovered that a cheap toy whistle given away as a little prize in boxes of Captain Crunch breakfast cereal in America would blow at a tone of just about exactly 2600 hz. Thus you could blow the whistle into the phone, trick the phone company into thinking you’d hung up, and start dialing and playing all kinds of other things without being billed.

This was totally on accident of course. The Captain Crunch people, and whoever actually made the whistles, did not intentionally create such a whistle. It just happened that that was the frequency the whistle created when blown.

On the old phone system, everything was controlled by simple tones. 2600 hz was the tone your phone sent to the system whenever you hung up. Thus, if you generated that tone without hanging up, you were effectively on the system without anyone knowing it. You could make free phone calls to anywhere, and if you had a way of generating other tones, you could do even more to play with the system.

The Captain Crunch whistle was very limited; other much more sophisticated tone generators were used by many phreakers. I even read at one time about a blind gentleman with perfect pitch who could blow 2600 and all kinds of other tones just by whistling—which may sound like a legend, but is actually QUITE believable. The old phone system did EVERYTHING with just a few simple tones, and none of them were difficult to duplicate.

The whistle was more of an item of amusement for the "phreaking" community than anything else I think.

By the way, all of this is more or less irrelevant now; most of the world is now on electronic, digital switching, and those old tones don’t do anything anymore.

I shouldn’t be considered a ‘primary source’ on any of this, though for a while there I did used to do a lot of phreaking, back when I was under 18. But that was in the ‘80s, and near the end of the big era of pirating phone usage. But I did read a whole lot of the underground literature of that day, and did do some playing myself...

Dean Esmay, esmay@syndicomm.com

Bruce D. Sidlinger [BRUCE@Sidlinger.Com]

Physical-image file= A complete, bit-for-bit mirror image of all the files to be burned to a CD-R disk in a recording session, stored on a hard disk. (See also CD-R)

PIC-AECM= Pacioli International Centre for Accounting Education using Computers and Multimedia, Loyola College in Maryland, 4501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210-2699 Phone: (410-617-2478), Fax: (410-617-2006) email: pacioli@Loyola.edu. The AECM-L mailing list is also available. A description of services is contained in the CETA Newsletter, June, 1994. (See also ANet, International Internet Association, and RAW)

Pink= A forthcoming Taligent multi-platform operating system jointly backed by Apple Corporation and IBM as the next generation of operating systems. The "multi-platform" feature will permit running DOS, Windows, OS/2, Apple/Mac systems, Unix, and PowerOpen. (See also Operating system)

PIP= Picture-In-Picture that can simultaneously display two TV images on the same screen, including images from two separate TV tuners or a TV tuner and VCR tape deck. (See also POP and Video)

Pitch bend= Gradual change in a tone's frequency (highness or lowness). For example, this can be used to create effects like vibrato or to produce more natural note attacks on some instruments.

Pixel= Pix Element or Picture Element (according to Greg Lara). These are the rectangular "dots" that comprise the smallest units of screen color variations. The more pixels that the computer can display per square inch of screen, the higher the resolution of graphics images on the screen. Older CGA resolutions had such large pixels that outlines of individual pixels could be seen in the graphics images. Higher resolutions such as those in Super VGA make it harder to detect pixels without zooming enlargements of parts of the screen. Larger numbers of pixels make graphics modification tasks more tedious.

Platform= Another word with many meanings. A platform can be a chip, a computer, an operating system, an application--or any combination of them. But it usually refers to a collection of technology that software companies use in making new products. (See also Operating system)

Plug and play= A phase that can have a variety of meanings in different contexts. In the most general sense, it means ease of setup and operation such as when a device can simply be plugged into power and run with ease. In the area of PCMCIA cards, the term means that cards can be removed and replaced with other cards without having to reboot the system. Details of plug and play are given in White (1994). (See also PCMCIA)

Plug-in= Has a meaning that can vary with context. The most common meaning in WWW browsers is reader (runtime, playback, view) software that will "plug" into the browser such that when a file extension (e.g., PDF, TBK, WAV, AVI, MOV, etc.) is encountered the browser will view or download the file automatically and run that file. Most plug-in readers are free. Examples include the PDF Acrobat reader from <http://www.adobe.com/>, the shockwave reader from <http://www.macromedia.com/>, the neuron reader from <http://www.asymetrix.com/>, and movie readers from <http://www.texas.net>. VRML readers are usually browser plug-ins. A summary of browser plug-ins is contained in "Get Plugged In: Navigator Plug-Ins That Liven Up the Web," PC Magazine, May 28, 1996, pp. 44-60. (See also MIME, Internet, Browser, and World Wide Web)

Podcasting = (See below)

"Podcasting Takes Off," by Kevin Bullis, MIT's Technology Review, October 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/10/issue/datamine.asp?trk=nl

Podcasts--those amateur or professional audio or video programs delivered automatically to a subscriber's computer or MP3 player--let consumers listen to their favorite shows whenever and wherever they want. But though the technology for podcast subscriptions has been around for several years, the mainstream has only recently caught on.

An explosion in podcasts' popularity in the first half of this year, culminating in the launch of a podcast directory at Apple's iTunes online music service, has providers scrambling to keep up with server demands and businesses looking for ways to turn a profit.

Several factors may have sparked podcasting's new popularity: Broadband access and new applications and directories make acquiring podcasts painless, for example, and other programs make creating them a snap. Phenomenal sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, which let people take the show on the road, also likely have helped.

For more on Podcasting see RSS and RDF

POP= Picture-On-Picture that entails wide-screen viewing of up to three TV images simultaneously on 16:9 wide-screen TV. (See also Wide-screen TV, PIP, and Video)

POP3 = (See Internet Messaging).

POP = An acronym for Point of Presence, POP is a service provider's location for connecting to users. Generally, POP refers to the location where people can dial into the provider's host computer. Most providers have several POPs to allow low-cost access via telephone lines.

PORTAL =

A "one-stop" place of information and services for some topical area or grouping of related topical areas. Following on the heels of my featured knowledge portal in my August 22, 2000 New Bookmarks comes a featured review of "Portals in Higher Education," by Michael Looney and Peter Lyman, Educause Review, July/August 2000 --- http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm00/erm004.html

A few selected quotations from the Looney and Lyman article are given below:

WHAT ARE PORTALS?
Let’s start with a simple definition, and then explore some of the variations of portals. At the most basic level, portals gather a variety of useful information resources into a single, “one-stop” Web page, helping the user to avoid being overwhelmed by “infoglut” or feeling lost on the Web. But since no two people have the same interests, portals allow users to customize their information sources by selecting and viewing only the information they find personally useful. Some portals also let you personalize your portal by including private information (such as your stock portfolio or checking account balance). Put simply, an institution’s portal is designed to make an individual’s Web experience more efficient and thereby make the institution as a whole more productive and responsive.

. . .

The two most popular consumer portals are AOL and Yahoo! AOL ( http://www.aol.com ) has over twentyfive million users averaging 12 minutes per session.2 Yahoo! ( http://www.yahoo.com ) has over twentytwo million users averaging nearly 25 minutes per session and is the classic directory portal that most other portals have imitated. Portals often seem similar from one site to another because publishers of generic consumer information, such as InfoSpace ( http://www.infospace.com ) and MyWay ( http://www.myway.com ), license the same information services to many dot.coms. College.com companies may license these information to companies as B2B (business-to-business) enterprise or use them on student-oriented web pages as a B2C (business-to-consumer) enterprise.

. . .

According to the Delphi Group’s published survey results, 55 percent of Fortune 500 companies are already using an enterprise portal or have plans to develop one in the near future. Enterprise portals are intended to assist employees to be more efficient and productive by centralizing access to needed data services—for example, competitive information, manufacturing and accounting data, 401K information, and other human relations data. Enterprise portals often include news, weather, and sports feeds as a benefit for the employee, giving these portals the appearance of a community portal.

Examples of campus portals:

Some campuses have already started developing educational portals to accomplish these goals. The University of Washington has developed MyUW ( http://myuw.washington.edu ). This portal site uses information in innovative ways that enhance the educational mission, personalizing student data (student debit-card totals, student course information) and providing faculty with ideas and resources for new uses of technology for teaching. The UW portal seems to have the mission of creating an online community encompassing a diverse and complex on-and off-campus environment. And the MyUCLA site ( http://www.my.ucla.edu ), one of the oldest in higher education, provides a classic directory-style portal, ranging from new modes of accessing campus administrative data to relevant feeds from the UCLA Daily Bruin.

My main objection to a portal is that is requires user log-in. This makes it difficult to locate documents within using search engines like Google. I might never have been "discovered" if my Web site was instead a portal requiring a log-in at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

"Why Are Portalized University Home Pages Rare? by Joe St Sauver, Syllabus, March 2004, pp. 21-24 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9022

What's a Portal Anyway?

A good defining answer to "What's a portal?" has always been elusive, but operationally it is a Web site that:

Requires users to log in. A login allows users to customize the portal to best reflect their interests --- interests that could then be recalled during subsequent logins.

Is inclusive enough to act as the user's default Web start page, providing access to all the major tools the user wants or needs to work online.

Is tightly integrated with existing administrative systems such as Banner, and existing teaching and learning systems such as Blackboard or WebCT.

Straight forwward, secure Web sites that many have deployed --- sites that allow users to perform administrative tasks online such as registering for classes or looking up grades --- are generally not considered to be portals, because users will not routinely log in to sites of that sort unless they have a specific administrative task to accomplish, and it is extremely unlikely that anyone would make one of these secure administrative Web sites their default home page.

"Facing the Portal: A conversation with Annie Stunden (University of Winconsin-Madison's CIO)," Syllabus, March 2004, pp. 8-14 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9021

Syllabus: What would you say are the most important lessons learned from your experience with your portal?

Annie Studnen: We learned that on a campus as big as ours, fostering the collaboration of the campus community is one of the most important things, and one of the hardest. We’re a very distributed environment so people can sort of do what they want to do. There’s very little top-down direction that dictates what you have to do. Our chancellor was certainly interested in having a portal, or at least something that looked like a portal, on campus. But we needed to champion this actively, to get people willing to put the information that they felt ultimately responsible for into the portal. That was the hardest part. We know how to do the technology. The people work is harder. Folks on campus felt that if they put the information that they were responsible for—think about student records information, for example—in the portal, that they were, in some way, losing control.

An issue still floats out there about how the portal is governed. Student Affairs manages the student information system, Finance manages the financial system, and the Graduate School manages the grants management system. But who manages the portal? Is it that awful technology organization you never trust? —Read: “Why should they be calling the shots on this?”

Well, if the central technology organization is not calling the shots, in concert with some kind of campuswide advisory or governance body, where else can you put the responsibility so that the portal does not become one-department centric? And the whole point is to keep the portal a campus portal, not a teaching and learning portal, not a student information system portal, not a payroll portal, but a campus portal. This remains a challenge, because distributed governance is hard. Regardless, our campus portal is becoming more and more accepted—we’re getting something like 70,000 hits a day.

The best and most imaginative campus portal did not survive. I contend that the Fathom knowledge portal at Columbia University extended well beyond the objectives and strategies of other campus portals do date. The Fathom portal was leading partners such as the Smithsonian and the New York Public Library for heavy input of knowledge into the portal. It was called Fathom --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book00q3.htm#Fathom

An Internet/Web portal with 14 channels on marketing and e-Commerce --- http://www.internet.com/home-d.html

Internet Technology

Ecommerce/Marketing

Web Developer

Windows Internet Tech.

Linux/Open Source

Internet Resources

ISP Resources

Internet Lists

Download

International

International News

International Investing

ASP Resources

Wireless

Other examples of portals and vortals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm

POTS= This is an acronym for Plain Old Telephone Service.

Power Macintosh= (See PowerPC)

PowerOpen= (See Operating system and PowerPC)

PowerPC= A revolutionary new desktop RISC computer emerging from a joint venture between Apple Corporation, Motorola, and IBM. Rupley (1994, p. 129) writes that: "PowerPC will remake the computer industry at its foundations." What is revolutionary is the ability of the PowerPC to run under Apple, OS/2, DOS, Windows, and Unix operating systems. This is a remarkably fast and cheap CPU using RISC chip technology. IBM was the first company to introduce the PowerPC notebook computer. For a time it looked like the PowerPC would indeed capture enormous chunks of market share from Intel, but then in hurried desperation Intel introduced its 90-MHz and 100-MHz O54C CISC processors. With the new CISC Pentiums and RISC NexGen alternatives selling at a much faster clip than Mac and IBM PowerPC processors, it appears that PowerPC will have a tough time selling to users other than Mac users who want faster processors for the Apple operating systems. Later versions of Pentium processors such as the P54C overcame all doubts about Intel's ability to produce a cool running CISC processor at speeds up to 100 MHz and plans to produce even faster Pentiums. These newer versions dispel all doubts about "Intel's aim to crunch the PowerPC" according to Information Week, February 21, 1994, p. 60. The comparative advantages of the Intel processors, and they are serious short-term advantages in the market, are the abilities of Intel processors to run DOS and Windows applications in direct rather than the emulation form used in PowerPCs and Macs. The main drawback of the PowerPC is that PowerPC users can only run DOS and Windows applications in emulation form such that all speed advantages of the PowerPC are lost. For this reason, the "PC" part of the tradename "PowerPC" is somewhat misleading since most PC users run under DOS and/or Windows operating systems. Certainly users who prefer to stay in a DOS and/or Windows operating system are advised to stick with the 486, Pentium, or some other CPU alternative that does not require emulation. When applications vendors bring applications to market in PowerOpen, Pink, and planned PowerPC native software, Intel and NexGen may lose market share to PowerPC, but this probably will not happen to a major extent in this century, largely due to the fact that PowerPC requires replacement of existing computers with new PowerPC computers. Worldwide, this will not happen for years due to tight budgets in business and government. It will be years before software developers offer PowerPC native software anywhere close to the present Windows product lines. Francis (1994) reports that the main drawback that is holding down sales of Apple Corporation's Power Mac is that "no one is building mainstream (native) productivity applications for the Power Mac." IBM is also working with Apple to develop the PowerOpen operating system for the PowerPC. Taligent is developing the Pink operating system for the PowerPC. At the time of this writing the planned full line of PowerPCs is not available. It will only be a short time before portable (e.g., Tadpoles and PowerBooks) and multimedia PowerPC lines are produced, although demand for these portable versions leads to long delivery delays. Another drawback of the PowerPC is that the alliance between IBM and Apple was weakened somewhat by delays in developing a PowerPC that will switch back and forth between Mac and IBM operating systems (e.g., between Mac and OS/2 or Mac and Windows). Users still have to make that big choice between one operating system or another. Good news includes the current availability of some popular software packages designed specifically for the PowerPC such as WordPerfect native Power Macintosh. Bad news includes the decision of Lotus Corporation not to produce native PowerPC versions at the present time. Even more discouraging for PowerPC hopefuls are analyst forecasts of the pent up demand for Windows 95 and Windows 2000 that will probably lead consumers toward Intel and NexGen processors. At the moment, it's still a horse race between Intel and PowerPC with PowerPC far behind and waning hopes for a burst of speed. Francis (1994) reports that Moody's Investors Service Inc. placed Apple Corporation under review largely due to "concerns about the computer vendor's long-term operating performance and the viability of its technology strategy." A huge area of concern has been the tapering off of demand for the new Power Mac versions of the PowerPC. Apple's share of the PC market reached 14% in 1993, but has since slipped back down to less than 5%. Apple admits to losing the operating system war to Microsoft. In Information Week, November 11, 1996, p. 26 Marco Landi (Chief Operating Officer at Apple Corporatiion) is quoted as saying "We are not an OSS company. We've lost that battle." In 1997, Apple intends on moving more into the cross- platform basis for software for the Internet. (See Cross-platform. Market share determines the number of native software applications being developed for operating systems. Mac, UNIX, and other operating systems are losing the native software development war to Windows 95, 97, and Windows 2000. Windows 2000 is almost certain to become the PC operating system standard of choice until its upgrade called Windows Cairo rolls off the line and/or Windows 2000 with upgraded object-oriented programming features become the operating systems of choice among users having newer hardware speed and memory components. But for users who stand by their Power Macs, we recommend joining the Apple Multimedia Program (408-974-4897) that offers a variety of online services and other services that, in our viewpoint, are well worth the $750 price of membership. (See also Native, CPU, Pentium, CISC, RISC, Taligent, Operating system, Mozart, Copeland, Gershwin, and Mac)

PPP= Point-To-Point protocol used over serial lines that are necessary for phone line connections to computers. (See also ISP, SLIP, and Modem)

PPV= Pay-Per-View commercial selling of live-event TV such as PPV boxing events. PPV will probably become a much more lucrative business when the information highway comes to town. (See also Information highway)

Premastering/mastering software= The software layer that readies files for recording. This involves converting file structures to adhere to the ISO 9660 conventions, simulating the image on the hard disk as a CD-ROM, and sending the image to the CD-R drive. (See also CD-R)

Presentation= Presentation electronic "slide show" options such as SPC's Harvard Graphics, Gold Disk's Astound, Asymetrix's Compel, Microsoft's PowerPoint, Macromedia's Action, Micrografx's Charisma, Just-Ask-Me, On-The-Air, Lotus Corporation's Freelance, Word Perfect's Presentations, Special Delivery, Q/Media, Zuma Group's Curtain Call, and others are mentioned in Chapter 3 and listed in greater detail in Appendix 6. These, in conjunction with spreadsheet software (Lotus, Excel, Quatro Pro, etc.), are the most widely employed aids currently used by accounting professors according to survey results reported in Chapter 4. An extensive list of presentation software vendors and product attributes is provided in Appendix 6. Green and Green (1994) discuss how presentation software is becoming closer to authoring software. Jerome and Lee (1995) rate and compare presentation software alternatives with particular focus on multimedia features. Hardware options are reviewed in the NewMedia Tool Guide for 1995 ( pp. 105-112). For a review of presentation software options also see NewMedia Tool Guide for 1995 ( pp. 11-16), McCraken (1994) and Green and Green (1994). (The addresses and phone numbers of NewMedia, Multimedia World, and other periodicals are contained in Appendix 4.) The top rated options according to PC Computing, December 1994, p. 178 are PowerPoint from Microsoft Corporation (800-426-9400), Harvard Spotlight (Rank 2) from Software Publishing (800-336-8360), and Freelance Graphics (Rank 3) from Lotus Development (800-343-5414). Paintshow and photoshow options such as Micrografx PhotoMagic, MacPaint, Corel Draw, Publisher's Paintbrush, and Adobe Photoshop may be used for pictures but are cumbersome for group presentations but are often used for images imported into presentation, hypermedia, and CMS courseware. Robinson and Lee (1994) discuss the fine line between "authoring" and "presentation" software. Many presentation software vendors such as Gold Disk (Astound) are adding audio, video, and button navigation utilities. They also discuss options for crossing platforms between operating systems such as between Windows and Mac operating systems. (See also Projection and Authoring)

Print devices= Definition files for different types of printers to be used on a print server.

Print forms= Definitions of different types of paper size to be used on a print server.

Print job configurations= Complete descriptions of how a file is to be printed on the network.

Print queues= Definitions of the order in which and where a file is to be printed on the network.

Print server= A computer running a program that allows it to accept files to be printed from other workstations.

Processor= (See CPU)

Prodigy= A commercial network service that is a joint venture between Sears Roebuck and IBM. This service has improved some of its technical problems but it is also expensive according to Mossberg (1994a). NewMedia, January 1994, p. 31 has a brief summary of new features such as color-coded menus, digitized photos, Internet mail, TV listings, and travel services. (See also Networks, CompuServe, Internet, eWorld, Interchange, and America Online)

Projection= Display of computer and video images on monitors and screens. A "Multimedia Projectors Buyers' Guide" is provided in Multimedia World, June 1994, pp. 77-79. (Also see AB style switches, LCD and Three-beam-projector)

Protocol= Any formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must follow to exchange those messages. Protocols can describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces (e.g., the order in which bits and bytes are sent across a wire) or high-level exchanges between allocation programs (e.g., the way in which two programs transfer a file across the Internet). Files on the Internet are transferred via what is known as FTP File Transfer Protocol. See World Wide Web for the common http protocol. See Internet Messaging for common protocols for sending messages across the Internet. (See also FTP and File transfer)

Pseudo web streaming= (See Web streaming)

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Q-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Quad Band / QuickRing / QuickTake / QuickTime / QuickTime VR

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Quad Band=

"Befo re Going to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

Quad Band: A cellphone that handles all four bands, or frequencies, used in various countries by wireless phone companies adhering to a world-wide standard called GSM. Examples are Cingular and T-Mobile in the U.S., and Vodafone and Orange in Europe. A quad-band phone can be used on any GSM network anywhere, so if you travel overseas a lot, you may want one.

QuickRing= (See Bus)

QuickTake= (See Dry camera)

QuickTime= Animation and video files that originally were designed for by Apple Corporation for Mac computers. Next came the software for playing quicktime video on PC computers. In late 1996, Apple announced that it was letting go of its proprietary rights so that Quicktime could become an open-platform recording standard. Now PC users can record and well as play back Quicktime video. Various playback utilities, including the always popular QuickTime playback software, can be downloaded free from <http://www.apple.com>. Quicktime is clearly the standard in the lead for WWW video. But Microsoft's replacement of Video for Windows with its newer Active Video software makes it a closer race for dominance in video software. (See also Active video, DVI, Video for Windows, Indeo, MPEG, Video, MCI, Ultimedia Video, Internet audio and video, and AVI)

QuickTime VR= (See Virtual Reality)

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R-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

/ RAD / Radio / RAID / RAM / Random access memory / RARP / RAW / RDF and RSS / RDS and ADO / Real time / RealAudio / Reengineering / Relational database management / Remote control / Remote login / Remote print server / Rendering / Rescaling / Resource Description Framework (and RSS & Podcasting/Screencasting) / Response pads / Reverse Address Resolution Protocol / RGB / Rhapsody / Rich-text format / Ring topology / RISC / RMI / Rochochet Modem / ROM / Round Tripping / Router / RPC / RSA / RSS and RDF / RTF / Runtime

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

RAD = Rapid Application Development in the context of development applications software. The term is used in the context of object oriented (oo), component-based and vissually-aided software that allows for faster development of applications software. For example, Netscape Corporation in 1997 introduced a component-based Visual Java-Script intended to be for the web what Microsoft's Visual Basic software was for earlier applications development. Visual Java Scrip also licensed TV-Objects from TV-Objects Corporation in Princeton, N.J. for translating Visual Basic applications into JavaScript for RAD. In 1997 Apple Corporation bet the farm on Rhapsody for RAD.

Radio = Internet and satellite radio delivered by non-traditional media.

Question:
What is XM Radio?

Answer:
Stallite radio such as XM Radio will soon give traditional AM and FM radio stations daunting competition. Most General Motors cars will soon be equipped with XM receivers. In addition, dealers will be able to install XM receivers in other makes of cars. XM Radio is featured in a Barron's cover story on February 17, 2003.

You can read the following at http://www.xmradio.com/

It's easy to get XM in your new car, right at the dealership. For the 2003 model year, many vehicles are now available with XM as a manufacturer–supported option, including 25 models from GM. Select one of the brands below for more information. We're adding new models all the time so be sure to keep checking back. If you don't see your desired model, ask your dealer about how to add XM to any radio.

One big idea can change everything. And XM Satellite Radio is one big idea: Radio to the Power of X. America's most popular satellite radio service gives you the power to choose what you want to hear - wherever and whenever you want it. XM offers 70 music channels - more than any other satellite radio service. Plus 30 channels of news, talk, sports and entertainment. 100 basic channels in all, for a low $9.99 monthly subscription. And now, XM is the first satellite radio service to offer a premium channel for an additional monthly fee.

It's our passionate commitment to program quality that will give you more of the listening you enjoy most, including many commercial-free channels. XM's radios for the car and home offer you freedom - from static, from distortion, from that frustrating feeling when you drive out of range in the middle of an exclusive interview or a new song you've been waiting to hear.

So if you're a music devotee, a sports fanatic or a news hound, come share our passion for the new power of radio. Join us in a listening partnership as we capture the soundtrack of your imagination. Our job is to push radio beyond traditional limits and win you as a fan. Your job? To sit back, listen, and open yourself to the excitement of radio as you've never heard it before.

Oh Goodie
Sexy Stories and Surprises --- http://www.xmradio.com/programming/channel_page.jsp?ch=205

Based on Playboy TV's hit show Night Calls, join your hosts, Juli and Tiffany, for a romp on the wild side. Hear stories, get advice and join their special guests for some playful adult fun.

During select hours you'll even be able to call-in live. Don't be shy - these experts are always open to getting a few helpful hints for themselves.

For a limited time, a one-time transaction fee of $4.99 will be waived for current subscribers who wish to add our Playboy Radio premium channel.

Monthly premium service charge of $2.99 required. Only account holders may activate this channel.

So what's a better "Oh Goodie?"
Educational programming. For example, investors might one day tune into investing tutorials as well as commentaries on different investing alternatives and risks. There may be poetry readings and tutorials about writing poetry. Old and new novels might be read and analyzed. Eventually, continuing education courses may even be delivered over commercial-free radio by paying monthly service charges.

Jensen Added Note:
What's the downside to having all this commercial-free music and other programming?

Commercial-cluttered traditional radio stations and even donation-supported PBS and campus radio stations will have to scramble to compete. Classical music lovers may prefer a larger variety of classical music choices on satellite radio and Internet radio. Country music fans may prefer to listen to bluegrass even if they're driving across Utah rather than Kentucky. I think you probably get the point that XM radio will probably have a much better growth market than Internet radio. Internet radio has much less potential in moving vehicles, hotel rooms, and other places where hooking up a computer is too much bother.

However, Internet radio recently got a huge boost --- http://www.saveinternetradio.org/

In a stunning victory for webcasting, both the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously passed a revised version of H.R. 5469 late last night that clears the way for copyright owners to offer webcasters a percentage-of-revenues royalty rate, essentially allowing the parties to mutually agree to override the CARP decision of last spring.

The Senate passed the bill at 10:32PM ET and the House passed it at 2:44AM. It now goes to President Bush for his signature.

The bill was actively supported by virtually all players on both sides of the debate this year, including the record industry, artist representatives, large webcasters, small webcasters, college radio representatives, and religious broadcasters.

In what was viewed as a surprise by some observers, the legislative staff in the office of retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) (pictured) apparently played an active and valuable role in crafting what the parties concluded was a much better piece of legislation than the one Helms blocked at the last moment late last month (here).

President Bush signed H.R. 5469 just before Christmas in 2002.

For an example of streaming media, see http://www.streamingmediaworld.com/

Also see Web Media

RAID = Redundant Arrays of (Independent or Inexpensive) Discs refers to storage products with speed and capacity for large quantities of data, especially graphics, video, and audio data for multimedia computing. There are six RAID levels starting with RAID 0 available for Mac computers. Most PC disc array systems are designed for Novell NetWare software. Different levels of RAID are explained at Advanced Computer & Network Corporation at http://www.acnc.com/raid.html

RAM= Random Access Memory portion of a computer. The term "memory" typically refers to RAM as opposed to hard disc and optical disc storage of files that cannot be randomly accessed without searching by sectors. RAM stores instructions and other files potentially needed for immediate processing of a task at hand. Memory usually can be accessed "randomly" at relatively high speeds. Files stored on computer tape, floppy discs, hard drive, optical drives, etc. are not available in RAM until they are "loaded" into RAM. Four important types of RAM in PCs running DOS are conventional memory, high (upper) memory, expanded memory, and extended memory. When DOS first was designed, 640 Kb of memory seemed like a lot, so out of the then standard 1 Mb of base memory, 640 Kb was designated as conventional memory reserved for DOS and the remaining 360 Mb was high (upper) memory available for other internal system computing functions. Later, memory managers and the Windows HIMEM.SYS file made some of the high memory available for software usage. Another gimmick entailed use of peepholes of size 64 Kb swapping of chunks of memory. However, today the 1 Mb base memory utilized in the most efficient way is not sufficient to run most newer types of software. Memory SIMM chips can be added to raise the RAM to higher levels such as 64 Mb currently popular in multimedia authoring. Upper limits for extended memory options vary with types of PCs. Extended memory is much more important than expanded memory. Often the term extended memory applies to all RAM above the 640 Kb of conventional RAM, although from a technical standpoint it applies to RAM above the 1 Mb base. The term "RAM cache" refers to a section of RAM set aside to serve as a buffer between the central processing unit and auxiliary disc drives. At the present time it is not uncommon to pay in the neighborhood of $200 for each 16Mb of RAM added to computers. (See also Cache, SIMM, VRAM, Hard drive, Flash memory, and CD)

Random access memory= (See RAM)

RARP

Bob:
Below is something that might make a good entry into your Technology Glossary. (Text below from What is.com) Ever since I got a DSL line I have been unable to log onto Temple University's primary mail server. I receive an abrupt and annoying message "The TCP/IP connection was unexpectedly terminated by the server." It happens that Temple has security procedure in place for this server that traces my IP address back to my ISP to verify my name when I try to log on to get my mail. However, my ISP uses a newer system called "Reverse Address Resolution Protocol" (RARP), which does not keep a list of names on a name server for immediate verification. (Maintaining an up-to-date list of client names on a name server apparently is an expensive, labor-intensive process.) I doubt if my ISP is the only one using this technology. This is an interesting clash of old fashioned security procedures and newer technology.
Steve Fogg

Reverse Address Resolution Protocol

RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol) is a protocol by which a physical machine in a local area network can request to learn its IP address from a gateway server's Address Resolution Protocol (Address Resolution Protocol) table or cache. A network administrator creates a table in a local area network's gateway router that maps the physical machine (or Media Access Control - MAC address) addresses to corresponding Internet Protocol addresses. When a new machine is set up, its RARP client program requests from the RARP server on the router to be sent its IP address. Assuming that an entry has been set up in the router table, the RARP server will return the IP address to the machine which can store it for future use. RARP is available for Ethernet, Fiber Distributed-Data Interface, and token ring LANs.

Stephen L. Fogg, Ph.D., CPA,
Chair Department of Accounting Fox School of Business and Management
Temple University Philadelphia, PA 19122 Phone: 215-204-1915 Fax: 215-204-5587 URL: http://www.sbm.temple.edu/~fogg

RAW= Rutgers Accounting Web informational retrieval system (funded with a grant from NCAIR) for a variety of free materials for accounting educators. The main purpose of the system is to share materials developed in connection with the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC). Materials include lectures, cases, assignments, examinations, syllabi and course outlines, and reports of projects at various AECC sponsored sites. The World Wide Web address for the Lynx program for text only is <http//www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw.htm>. Lynx only transfers text. For graphics, a Mosaic option is available. Contact Professor Alex Kogan, Accounting and Information Systems, Faculty of Management, Rutgers University, 180 University Ave., Newark, NJ 07102-1905. Phone: 201-648-1064 and Fax 201-648-1283 and email kogan@andromeda.rutgers.edu. (See also ANet, International Internet Association, and PIC- AECM)

RAW= A file format for digital photographs that is uncompressed and largely unmodified by the camera's chips, and therefore includes every detail of the color and image. It is prized by professional photographers and serious amateurs, who look for cameras and photo software that can handle the RAW format. But it produces enormous files, so most users should ignore it and stick with the very good, very common compressed photo format, called JPEG or JPG.

RDS = (See Database.)

Real time= (See Operating system and Web steaming.)

RealAudio= (See Audio and Web steaming.)

Reengineering= Computerized automation of a "production" system (factory, education, information, etc.) that entails radically redesigning the way work is done and the intended performance of the system.

Relational database management= A database system that stores data in two-dimensional data tables at the same time such that the program can work with two tables at the same time. It is "relational" if one table defines the relation between entries in rows (data records) and columns (fields). Not all database software claiming to be relational meet the "true" relational database mathematical theory developed by Edgar Codd in 1970. For example, dBASE and FoxPro can link two databases through a common field but are not true relational database programs. One of the most widely selling relational database management systems is the Unix-based system from Oracle Corporation (415-598-8000). Microsoft introduced two very popular systems called Microsoft Access and Visual Fox Pro. Most traditional database packages such as Paradox and dBase also upgraded to relational database systems. See ODBC. Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm#ODBC.

A language which provides a user interface to relational database management systems, developed by IBM in the 1970s, is called a Structured Query Language (SQL). Development is still underway to enhance SQL into a computationally complete language for the definition and management of persistent, complex objects. This includes user defined data types, support for knowledge based systems, recursive query expressions, and additional database query tools. It also includes the specification of abstract data types (ADTs), object identifiers, methods, inheritance, encapsulation, and all of the other utilities associated with object data management.

"Microsoft delivers first Maestro beta Server-based package works with Office," by Ed Scannell, InfoWorld, May 10, 2005 --- http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/05/10/HNmaestro_1.html

Claiming it represents a significant step forward in its business intelligence strategy, Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles) on Tuesday is selectively introducing the first beta of Maestro, a code name for a server-based application that helps corporate users build scorecards to monitor and improve company performance.

The strategic intent of Maestro is to drive down business intelligence capabilities to the desktop so customers can use the applications associated with Microsoft's Office System to better track their company's performance relative to the overall goals they have set for themselves, company officials said.

"It [Maestro] basically moves business intelligence from being report-centric to being more metric-centric, meaning managers and their workers who want to view KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) can do it via a Web page," said Chris Caren, General Manager at Microsoft's Office Business Applications Group. "And because it is built into the Office System and SharePoint, it has collaboration capabilities that let users analyze performance with their peers," he said.

Microsoft officials said Maestro represents its ongoing commitment to business intelligence, which they see as a crucial piece of technology for its Information Worker Business. That group specializes in helping individuals, teams, and organizations to be more productive through the various pieces that make up the Microsoft Office System.

Explaining how the product works, Caren said Maestro sits on top of the company's SQL Server database, which is commonly used for building data warehouses and for populating and tracking metrics. Maestro can be used to expose metrics that reside in SQL Server, allowing users to author or define new KPIs they write, and which SQL Server then tracks.

For interactive computing on the web, see Distributed Network Computing. Also see See GainMomentum, Database, and 4GL Database Languages.

Emerging database systems concepts
We conclude this chapter with a brief discussion of an emerging concepts relating to database systems. Object-oriented (OO) approaches to modeling and implementing database systems are becoming increasingly popular. This approach employs object-oriented modeling (OOM) techniques to model the domain of interest and then implements the resulting model using an object-oriented database management system (OODBMS). The object-oriented approach focuses on the objects of interest in the domain. Customers, vendors, employees, sales orders, and receipts are all viewed as objects that have certain attributes. OOM involves identifying the objects of interest, their attributes, and relationships between objects.

A critical feature unique to the OO approach is that an "object" package includes both the attributes of the object and the methods or procedures that pertain to that object. The methods might dictate how the object's attributes are modified in response to different events, or how the object causes changes in the attributes of other objects. Thus, a key difference between the database models described earlier and the OO approach is that OO models combine data (attributes) and procedures (methods) in one package, i.e., the "object." This feature of OO models is referred to as encapsulation - attributes and methods are represented together in one capsule. Another powerful feature of OO models is inheritance. OO models depict the real world as a hierarchy of object classes, with lower level classes inheriting attributes and methods from higher level classes. Thus, lower level object classes do not need to redefine attributes and methods that are common to the higher level object classes in the class hierarchy.

An OO model contains all details needed for implementation and object-oriented DBMS are powerful enough to represent all the information contained in the model. However, most organizations that have made heavy investments in RDBMS see little need to migrate to OO environments. While OO modeling methods are available, there is no consensus regarding the "best" method to use. Finally, although OODBMS are beginning to become commercially available, they have not gained much acceptance in the marketplace probably due to their relatively high cost and poor performance in comparison to RDBMS. Gemstone, ObjectStore, VBase, and O2 are some examples of OODBMS.

Accounting Information Systems: A Database Approach
by Uday S. Murthy and S. Michael Groomer
For more information go to http://www.cybertext.com/

Next I will repeat a great illustration pointed out in the message below from Alexander Lashenko:

Hello Bob,

Take a look at http://www.sanbase.com/cx.html

It's an original object-oriented DBMS with web interface. Looks very nice.

Regards,

Alex.
Alexander Lashenko [alashenko@cryptologic.com]

For extensions beyond relational databases see OLAP

Remote control= Any of a variety of meanings depending upon the context. There are remote control computer devices such as remote mouse controllers and wands that generate some keyboard controls. A remote control buyers' guide is provided by Glass (1994). (See also Student response pads)

Remote login= Refers to the capability of a network user to access databases and software on other computers, possibly computers linked on the Internet in remote parts of the globe. (See also Telnet and FTP)

Remote print server= A computer running the RPRINTER program, enabling it to print output from other network workstations and operate as a normal workstation.

Rendering= Generally refers to graphics rendering, especially 3-D rendering. Biedney (1994) provides a technical discussion and a comparison of alternative software options for rendering 3-D images on desktop computers. (See also Authoring)

Rescaling = (See Aspect ratio)

Resource Descri ption Framework (RDF), RDF Site Summary (RSS), Podcasting, Screencasting, and iPod U = a framework for metadata and provides for interoperability for applications in "machine-understandable" information on the Web. RDF draws upon several technologies such as XML (Extensible Markup Language). RDF a recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium currently headed by Tim Bermers-Lee, the creater of the HTML markup language and the http protocol that is the basis of the World Wide Web. Over the long run, Berners-Lee envisions a time when Web sites can be devoid of most broken links and difficult-to-find information.

See RDF and OWL at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm#RDF_Extended

The first step to understanding RDF is to distinguish between data and metadata. Metadata tags in documents and databases provide "data about data" like unseen genes provide data about body parts. One of the drawbacks of HTML is that HTML tags relate only symbols rather than attributes of what the symbols depict. For example, HTML tags tell us how to display the word "eyes" in a web document but there are no tags related to attributes such as eye color, eye size, vision quality, and susceptibility to various eye diseases.

For example, HTML tags relate only to formatting and linking tags on words red and purple appearing in a document. HTML tags do not disclose that both words depict colors, because HTML does not associate words with meanings. Metadata, on the otherhand, attaches meanings to the data by attaching hidden attribute tags. For example, attached to the word "petal" might be an invisible tag that records information that the petal has color having particular coded numbers for color hue and color saturation for rose petals. When any petal's invisible tags are read in a meta search engine, it would be possible to identify types of roses having a range of hue and saturation commonalities. Poppies would be excluded because they do not have rose tags. Red herrings (a term for false leads in a mystery) would be excluded because they do not have a tagged attribute for color.

In a sense, metadata is analogous to genetic code of a living organism. Attributes in hidden tags become analogous to attributes coded into genes that determine the color of a flower's petals, degree of resistance to certain diseases, etc. If we knew the genetic "metadata" code of all flowering plants, we could quickly isolate the subsets of all known flowering plants having red petals or resistance to a particular plant disease. In botony and genetics, the problem lies is discovering the metadata codes that nature has already programmed into the genes. In computer documents and databases, the problem is one of programming in the metadata codes that will conform to a world wide standard. That standard will most likely be the RDF standard that is currently being developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) having Tim Berners-Lee as its current Director.

The examples given by me above are gross simplifications of text tagging that will actually take place under RDF. RDF works in a more complicated fashion that will be much more efficient for meta searches. The core of RDF will be its "RDF Schema" briefly described below:

This specification will be followed by other documents that will complete the framework. Most importantly, to facilitate the definition of metadata, RDF will have a class system much like many object-oriented programming and modeling systems. A collection of classes (typically authored for a specific purpose or domain) is called a schema. Classes are organized in a hierarchy, and offer extensibility through subclass refinement. This way, in order to create a schema slightly different from an existing one it is not necessary to "reinvent the wheel" but one can just provide incremental modifications to the base schema. Through the sharability of schemas RDF will support the reusability of metadata definitions. Due to RDF's incremental extensibility, agents processing metadata will be able to trace the origins of schemata they are unfamiliar with back to known schemata and perform meaningful actions on metadata they weren't originally designed to process. The sharability and extensibility of RDF also allows metadata authors to use multiple inheritance to "mix" definitions, to provide multiple views to their data, leveraging work done by others. In addition, it is possible to create RDF instance data based on multiple schemata from multiple sources (i.e., "interleaving" different types of metadata). Schemas may themselves be written in RDF; a companion document to this specification, [RDF Schema], describes one set of properties and classes for describing RDF schemas.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
http://web1.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/

The term "metadata" is not synonymous with RDF. There were various metadata systems before RDF was on the drawing boards. Microsoft's Channel Definition Format (CDF) used in "Web Push Channels" and Netscape's Meta Content Framework (MCF) preceeded RDF. These technologies describe information resources in a manner somewhat similar to RDF and can be used to filter web sites and web documents such as filtering pornography and violence from viewing. Metadata systems can be used to channel inflows of desired or undesired web information. CDF, for example, carries information not read on computer screens that perform metadata tasks.

RDF resources are built upon a foundation of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) that are described at http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-fielding-uri-syntax-04.txt . The metadata structure for in RDF has the following components described on Page 4 of http://web1.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/

Resources
All things being described by RDF expressions are called resources. A resource may be an entire
Web page; such as the HTML document " http://www.w3.org/Overview.htm l " for example. A
resource may be a part of a Web page; e.g. a specific HTML or XML element within the
document source. A resource may also be a whole collection of pages; e.g. an entire Web site. A
resource may also be an object that is not directly accessible via the Web; e.g. a printed book.
Resources are always named by URIs plus optional anchor ids. Anything can have a
URI; the extensibility of URIs allows the introduction of identifiers for any entity imaginable.

Properties
A property is a specific aspect, characteristic, attribute, or relation used to describe a resource.
Each property has a specific meaning, defines its permitted values, the types of resources it can
describe, and its relationship with other properties. This document does not address how the
characteristics of properties are expressed; for such information, refer to the RDF Schema
specification).

Statements
A specific resource together with a named property plus the value of that property for that resource
is an RDF statement. These three individual parts of a statement are called, respectively, the
subject, the predicate, and the object. The object of a statement (i.e., the property value) can be
another resource or it can be a literal; i.e., a resource (specified by a URI) or a simple string or
other primitive datatype defined by XML. In RDF terms, a literal may have content that is XML
markup but is not further evaluated by the RDF processor.

I received the following message from one of my graduate students (Dan Price) that led me to two very helpful web sites:

Hi Dr. J,
I asked my wife about XML and RDF, and she gave me some good information about how they work in relation to HTML.
XML is a metalanguage based on the same foundation as HTML. RDF works within XML as a foundation for processing metadata. In a way, the two will work together like OO databases do. USAA’s web page uses some XML.

Two good sites on the topic are:

(XML for the Absolute Beginner) www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-04-1999/jw-04-xml.html

(A good RDF web site) http://web1.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/

Dan Price

To my graduate student's message above, I might add the following online article entitled "XML Gains Ground: Vendors pledge support as XML stands poised to become a universal format for data exchange" at http://www.informationweek.com/725/xml.htm .

The most likely scipting codes will be XML, although RDF can be used in other scripting systems. The popular HTML and the emerging HTML are subsets of the GML text scripting conceived in1969 IBM researchers depicting Generalized Markup Languages (and not-so-coincidentally the lead researchers were named Goldfarb, Mosher, and Lorie). Between 1978 and 1987, Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb led the team that developed the SGML Standard GML that is became International Standard ISO 8879. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee led a team of particle physicists that invented the World Wide Web rooted in the rule-based text scripting markup innovations of SGML. The World Wide Web is comprised of all web documents marked up in scripts known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) scripts. SGML is tremendously powerful but inefficient and complex. HTML is marvelously simple but not very powerful. In 1996, Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems to spearheaded the development of the XML standard to lend power, efficiency, cross-platform standards, and simplicity to the networking of databases on the Internet. At the time of this writing, the world is converging upon an important standard known as RDF (Resource Description Framework) rooted in XML that will be the biggest 21st Century thing to hit the Internet since HTML hit the Internet in 1991.

For more discussion of RDF and XML see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm#RDF

· Question
What is the Semantic Web that is a "rising tide" in the world of business?

The Semantic Web project of the W3C in which automated methods based on quality metadata are envisaged to replace much human searching of the web. Relies on ontologies, XML and RDF --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XMLRDF.htm

"Taming the World Wide Web: A rising tide of companies are tapping Semantic Web technologies to unearth hard-to-find connections between disparate pieces of online data," by Rachael King, Business Week, April 9, 2007 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070409_248062.htm

When Eli Lilly scientists try to develop a new drug, they face a Herculean task. They must sift through vast quantities of information such as data from lab experiments, results from past clinical trials, and gene research, much of it stored in disparate, unconnected databases and software programs. Then they've got to find relationships among those pieces of data. The enormity of the challenge helps explain why it takes an average of 15 years and $1.2 billion to get a new drug to market.

Eli Lilly (LLY) has vowed to bring down those costs. "We have set the goal of reducing our average cost of R&D per new drug by fully one-third, about $400 million, over the next five years," Lilly Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sidney Taurel told the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan last August.

As part of its cost-cutting campaign, the drugmaker is experimenting with new technologies designed to make it easier for scientists to unearth and correlate scattered, unrelated morsels of online data. Outfitted with this set of tools, researchers can make smarter decisions earlier in the research phase—where scientists screen thousands of chemical compounds to see which ones best treat symptoms of a given disease. If all goes according to plan, the company will get new pharmaceuticals to patients sooner, and at less cost.

Found in Space Those tools are the stuff of the Semantic Web, a method of tagging online information so it can be better understood in relation to other data—even if it's tucked away in some faraway corporate database or software program. Today's prominent search tools are adept at quickly identifying and serving up reams of online information, though not at showing how it all fits together. "When you get down to it, you have to know whatever keyword the person used, or you're never going to find it," says Dave McComb, president of consulting firm Semantic Arts.

Researchers in a growing number of industries are sampling Semantic Web knowhow. Citigroup (C) is evaluating the tools to help traders, bankers, and analysts better mine the wealth of financial data available on the Web. Kodak (EK) is investigating whether the technologies can help consumers more easily sort digital photo collections. NASA is testing ways to correlate scientific data and maps so scientists can more efficiently carry out planetary exploration simulation activities.

The Semantic Web is in many ways in its infancy, but its potential to transform how businesses and individuals correlate information is huge, analysts say. The market for the broader family of products and services that encompasses the Semantic Web could surge to more than $50 billion in 2010 from $2.2 billion in 2006, according to a 2006 report by Mills Davis at consulting firm Project10X.

Data Worth a Thousand Pictures While other analysts say it will take longer for the market to reach $50 billion, most agree that the impact of the Semantic Web will be wide-ranging. The Project10X study found that semantic tools are being developed by more than 190 companies, including Adobe (ADBE), AT&T (T), Google (GOOG), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Oracle (ORCL), and Sony (SNE).

Among the enthusiasts is Patrick Cosgrove, director of Kodak's Photographic Sciences & Technology Center, who is, not surprisingly, also a photo aficionado. He boasts more than 50,000 digital snapshots in his personal collection. Each year he creates a calendar for his family that requires him to wade through the year's photos, looking for the right image for each month. It's a laborious task, but he and his colleagues aim to make it easier.

One project involves taking data captured when a digital photo is taken, such as date, time, and even GPS coordinates, and using it to help consumers find specific images—say a photo of mom at last year's Memorial Day picnic at the beach. Right now, much of that detail, such as GPS coordinates, is expressed as raw data. But Semantic Web technologies could help Kodak translate that information into something more useful, such as what specific GPS coordinates mean—whether it's Yellowstone National Park or Grandma's house up the street.

Continued in article

Also see:
"Q&A with Tim Berners-Lee The inventor of the Web explains how the new Semantic Web could have profound effects on the growth of knowledge and innovation," Business Week, April 9, 2007 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070409_961951.htm

"The Web's Father Expects a Grandchild: Tim Berners-Lee is working on the "Semantic Web," with its richer information links that unlock the power of "unplanned reuse of data," Business Week, October 22, 2006 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041022_6972_db083.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on the Semantic Web are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XMLRDF.htm

Bob Jensen's technology glossary is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245gloss.htm

Also see See OWL

THE FUTURE OF SEARCH --- RDF, RSS, and Pluck

December 28, 2004 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU]

Check out the following video tutorial on RSS provided by Derek Franklin, one of the most prolific authors on Macromedia Flash.

http://www.rssdomination.com/video.htm

Richard J. Campbell
mailto:campbell@rio.edu

December 28, 2004 reply from Bob Jensen

You can read about the origins of Resource Description Framework (RDF) at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm#TimelineRDF

You can read more about Wiki at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245glosf.htm#Wiki

RSS is defined as Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary where RDF in this context is a XML markup that allows you to find topics in documents that do not necessarily use your search terminology and exclude documents that use your terminology in a different context. . Unfortunately, the same term in English may have vastly different meanings which leads to getting thousands or millions of unwanted "hits" in traditional HTML text searches.

A RSS site allows user to add content to the site. In this sense it is like Wiki, but it us much more efficient and popular than a Wiki for news feeds (although Wikipedia has just started a news feed feature.). But Wiki's do not have the same deep RDF metadata features. Wikipedia defines RSS as follows at http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RSS.html

Short for RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary, an XML format for syndicating Web content. A Web site that wants to allow other sites to publish some of its content creates an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A user that can read RSS-distributed content can use the content on a different site. Syndicated content includes such data as news feeds, events listings, news stories, headlines, project updates, excerpts from discussion forums or even corporate information.

RSS was originally developed by Netscape.

RSS/RDF feeds are commonly available ways of distributing or syndicating the latest news about a given web site. Weblog (blog) sites in particular are prolific generators of RSS feeds. Free software that integrates well with Internet Explorer and is very simple to install is Pluck from http://www.pluck.com/

The following are RSS search advantages described by Pluck:

For Hunters and Gatherers, a New Way to Compare
"With one click, users of Pluck can save Web bookmarks into an online folder or email them to others."

Blurring the Line Between Affiliate and Developer
"Pluck not only integrates eBay searching into the browser, but it improves on features built into eBay.com..."

Question
Is RSS really the next big thing on the Internet?

Answer
Actually RDF is a long-run huge thing for meta searches, and RSS is probably the next big thing as an early part of RDF. Major Internet players such as Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay are already providing RSS feeds distributing or syndicating the latest news about their sites. Weblog (blog) sites in particular prolific sources of RSS feeds.

There are also anti-spam advantages featured in the video at http://www.rssdomination.com/video.htm

You should probably download Pluck and begin to play around with RSS feeds and searches. There are, however, drawbacks.

If you feed too much too often, there is high risk of information overload. It is something like email from Bob Jensen magnified 1,000 times. Also be aware that any summarization or abstract of a complete article must by definition omit many things. What you are most interested in may have been left out unless you go to the main source document.

Another limitation is that our libraries are just beginning to learn about RDF and it's helper RSS sites. This technology is is on the cutting edge and you can still get lost without the help of your friendly librarian. This is still more into the XML techie domain and is not as user friendly to date as most of us amateurs would prefer.

From the Scout Report on June 16, 2006

RSS Bandit 1.3.0.42 http://www.rssbandit.org/

While many people may already be familiar with the world of RSS (Real Simple Syndication), there may be a few persons lurking out there wondering: What can RSS do for me? RSS can do quite a bit actually, and so they might do well to take a look at this latest version of the RSS Bandit application. With this application, visitors can view news items in customizable newspaper views and also create fine-grained controls that will help them manage how items are downloaded. As with many similar applications, adding new feeds is just a one-click operation. This latest version is compatible with all computers running Windows 2000 and newer.

Bloggers will love TagCloud
Now, many bloggers are turning to a new service called TagCloud that lets them cherry-pick articles in RSS feeds by key words -- or tags -- that appear in those feeds. The blogger selects the RSS feeds he or she wants to use, and also selects tags. When a reader clicks on a tag, a list of links to articles from the feeds containing the chosen keyword appears. The larger the tag appears onscreen, the more articles are listed.
Daniel Terdiman, "RSS Service Eases Bloggers' Pain," Wired News, June 27, 2005 --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67989,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_8

Burnhan's Beat provides quite a lot of information about the history, advantages, and limitations of RSS --- http://billburnham.blogs.com/burnhamsbeat/2004/02/rss_a_big_succe.html

In particular note j's Scratchpad --- http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/2004/02/26#a829

I will be interested in reader comments, because I still feel very ignorant in this domain.

Bob Jensen

A free service lets you record a podcast by calling a toll-free telephone number and speaking into a voicemail-style recording tool --- http://www.gcast.com/?nr=1&&s=54541642

"GCast: Super-Easy Podcasting," Monkey Bites, February 21, 2006 --- http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/

Here's a site for anyone who's considered podcasting but balked because of technical issues or lack of hardware. It's called GCast, and it's a free service that lets you record your podcast by calling a toll-free telephone number and speaking into a voicemail-style recording tool. They also offer free hosting, browser-based mixing tools, and podcast-safe music downloads. Another cool feature is GCast's embeddable player, which is featured on their home page. The little player, which you can drop into any page, has a short description of your audio content as well as a play/pause button that lets people start listening without leaving the page.

Podcasting 101

What is a podcast?

Do I need an iPod?

How do I listen and subscribe to podcasts?

How do I create a podcast?

Where can I find more podcasts?

More about us

podLoadr 1.0 --- http://www.podloadr.com/
With all the content on the web, visitors may be interested in taking some of this material with them on their iPod as they go from place to place in their travels. podLoadr 1.0 is a great way to make this happen, as visitors can place documents on their devices, along with RSS feeds, radio shows, and so on. Visitors should note that while this version will work on all computers, they will need to have iTunes 7.0.1 or later installed.

Download and try some free Podcasting software

PodSpider ---
http://www.podspider.com/website/v2/en/podspider.php?affiliate=1a08f4ebe7e2be602256412ed41ed96f

What exactly is podcasting?
Technically speaking, podcasting is the process of making audio files (podcasts) available on the internet using a special RSS feed. Podcasts are "broadcasts" that dedicate themselves to a specific subject. These can be radio broadcasts, private broadcasts or radio plays. Podspider gives you instant access to the largest selection of podcasts in the world.

Forecasting the Future of Podcasting
In the USA, the podcasting market has already developed to an advanced level. Podspider represents the beginning of this trend in Germany. In a July 2005 study of the US market performed by the US market research institute The Diffusion Group, it was determined that growth in the penetration of podcasting technology can be directly tied to the expanding use of portable digital audio players. Based on this, the institute projected that the number of podcast listeners is expected grow from 15% to 75% of portable digital audio player users between 2004 and 2010. Backing this into numbers, the institute further projected that the number of podcast listeners in the US alone will increase to around 57 million within the next few years.

Why is podcasting so interesting?
In contrast to normal radio, you can take a podcast (also called an episode) with you on any digital audio player that supports the MP3 format, and play it whenever and wherever you like. You can stop, back up and repeat the podcast as needed. A further benefit is that you can listen to all of the programs on the subject of your choice, completely independent from traditional radio reception. And because almost anyone can produce a podcast, the variety of themes found within the constantly growing number of podcasts is as interesting and varied as life itself. Podcasts are also, as a general rule, free from advertising.

Test Podspider now! (Here you can download a Podcasting software that is either free or you can also get a fee version) --- http://www.podspider.com/website/v2/en/podcast.php?affiliate=1a08f4ebe7e2be602256412ed41ed96f

Update on Apple's iPod U (lectures from universities are for sale as noted in a prior edition of Tidbits)
For example, podcasts are available from Stanford University and the University of Missouri

"Apple Expands iTunes Podcast Service," by May Wong, MyWay, January 27, 2006 --- http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060128/D8FDDDHG0.html

In its latest move to broaden its iPod and iTunes franchises, Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) has introduced "iTunes U," a nationwide expansion of a service that makes course lectures and other educational materials accessible via Apple's iTunes software.

The company behind the iPod portable players, the iTunes online music store and Macintosh computers had been working with six universities on the pilot project for more than a year and expanded the educational program this week, inviting other universities to sign up.

Internet access to college lectures is nothing new, but listening to them on portable gadgets is a more recent phenomenon of the digital age, spurred in part by the popularity of podcasts, or downloadable audio files.

The University of Missouri offered podcasts of lectures through its school network before it signed up with Apple last summer as a pilot school. But "iTunes U" offered a software and service package for free, said Keith Politte, the development officer at the university's School of Journalism.

The market dominance of Apple's iTunes Music Store and iPods, which helped spawn the podcast movement, also was key.

"Our students are digital natives. We seek to meet our students where they are, and iTunes is the interface that most of our students are already familiar with," Politte said.

Apple's service offers universities a customized version of the iTunes software, allowing schools to post podcasts, audio books or video content on their iTunes-affiliated Web sites. The iTunes-based material will be accessible on Windows-based or Macintosh computers and transferable to portable devices, including Apple's iPods.

The service lets institutions decide if they want to limit access to certain groups or open the material to the public.

For instance, Stanford University, which joined the pilot program last fall, gives the public free access not only to some lectures but also audio broadcasts of sporting events through its iTunes-affiliated site.

Schools and universities have historically been major contributors to Apple's computer sales. With iTunes U, Apple "is leveraging the ubiquity that we've established on campuses with iPods and iTunes," said Chris Bell, Apple's director of product marketing for iTunes.

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education alternatives are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Also see Weblog (Blog)

Podcast Lectures from Stanford University
Stanford on iTunes --- http://itunes.stanford.edu/index.html

Boilercast from Purdue University

BoilerCast --- http://boilercast.itap.purdue.edu:1013/Boilercast/Index.html
BoilerCast uses current digital audio delivery technology to deliver classroom audio recordings to the students at their request. These recordings are often used as review of the day’s material for use on homework assignments and review before exams. BoilerCast is a service available to all credit courses held on the West Lafayette campus and is capable of recording lectures from over 70 classrooms on campus with no lead time, and any other campus classroom with sufficient notice. The real benefit of BoilerCast is that the instructor orders the service at the beginning of the semester and everything else is automatically handled. Instructors do not need to worry about recording a class or posting in on their website as this is all handled for them as part of the service. Instructors using Purdue’s central course management system, Vista, can integrate the service into their course materials by simply creating a link to the course audio website set up for them.

Jensen Comment
Note that lectures on BoilerCast can either be password protected or unlocked for the public. Most are unlocked. There are many other sources of podcasts, including the following:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/

http://www.podcastalley.com/

http://epnweb.org/

http://digitalpodcast.com/

http://www.podcast.net/

http://www.digitalpodcast.com/

May 3, 2006 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]

PODCASTING LEGAL GUIDE

Podcasting is a tool that allows instructors to give students access to audio or video files on their iPods or computers. As podcasting activity increases, so do the questions of legal rights and liabilities. Creative Commons has just released "Podcasting Legal Guide: Rules for the Revolution," "a general roadmap of some of the legal issues specific to podcasting." The guide covers copyright, publicity rights, and trademark issues related to content that you acquire or create. Information is also provided on licensing your podcast. The guide is available online at http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. For more information go to http://creativecommons.org/

Other related resources:

Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Legal Guide for Bloggers" http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/

"New Campus Copyright Guide" CIT Infobits, March 2006 http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/bitmar06.html#1

INTRODUCTION TO SCREENCASTING

The latest entry in the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's "7 Things You Should Know About . . ." series covers screencasting. "Screencasts can be thought of as video podcasts. They provide a simple means to extend rich course content to anyone who might benefit from the material but cannot attend a presentation." The paper answers such questions as "What is it?" "Who is doing it?" "How does it work?" and "What are the implications for teaching and learning?" To read "7 Things You Should Know About . . . Screencasting" go to http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI7012.

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) publishes the "7 Things You Should Know About . . ." series on a variety of emerging learning practices and technologies. Previous topics covered in the series include blogs, wikis, remote instrumentation, grid computing, and virtual meetings. To read other papers in the series, go to http://www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495

"ELI is a strategic initiative of EDUCAUSE. While EDUCAUSE serves those interested in advancing higher education through technology, ELI specifically explores innovative technologies and practices that advance learning." For more information, go to http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?Section_ID=86

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 1,900 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 200 corporations, with 15,000 active members. EDUCAUSE has offices in Boulder, CO and Washington, DC. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at http://www.educause.edu

Also see Webcasting and Blogs

Response pads= (See Student response pads)

Reverse Address Resolution Protocol = (See RARP).

RGB= A signal that can be separated into red, green, and blue components, combinations of which then can be used to create color screens or color print. Most computers have an RGB output that differs from the composite video or S-video outputs of television sets. This is why RGB computer signals must be scan converted into composite video for television viewing.

Rhapsody= a one time revolutionary operating system from Apple Corporation that was based upon NEXTStep technology. Apple plans to deliver two operating systems for the next several years. First will be the Mac OS, which we will continue to upgrade and improve to support the current Macintosh customers worldwide, approximately 60 million users. Second will be a new OS based on NeXT Software's operating system technologies, NEXTStep and OPENStep. The powerful and advanced NeXT technologies are years ahead of competitive offerings, and will provide the foundation for a new OS, code-named Rhapsody. In addition to leveraging the NeXT technologies, Rhapsody is designed to run Mac applications through a Mac OS compatibility environment. Rhapsody's user interface will combine elements from both the Mac OS and NEXTStep, but will be closer in look and NEXTStep feel to the Mac OS Finder. We realize that customers need a consistent interface in the two operating systems to deploy them throughout a single organization. It's important for training and ease of use. One of the advantages of NeXT's technology is the easy support of multiple user interface paradigms. See also Mac and NEXTStep.

Rich-text format= A text formatting standard established by Microsoft Corporation to enable text to be transferred between a word processor and other software without losing all of its formatting properties. Many modern word processors have the option of saving documents in rich-text format (RTF). Increasingly, authoring software vendors of hypertext, hypermedia, and CMS software are adding RTF importing utilities to overcome the frustrations of importing in ASCII or ANSI forms that lose all or most formatting properties. (See also ASCII and ANSI)

Ring topology= A network configuration that connects all nodes in a logical ring-like structure.

RISC= Reduced Instruction Set Computing chipsets such as the MIPS R4000 and R4400 intended to outperform CISC complex instruction chipsets such as the Intel family of popular 386, 486, and Pentium competitors and the Motorola 680x0 family in Mac computers. The concept of RISC evolved from IBM laboratories where it was noted that most routine processing of consumers does not require full use of the processor. RISC processors consume less power and generate less heat than CISC processors powerful enough to compete at the same speed and capacity as RISC processors. They do this by reducing the number of operations and executing multiple instructions in what is known as "superscaler" processing. However, INTEL intends to keep its CISC lines competitive with RISC processors. At this juncture, it is impossible to know who will win the RISC versus CISC processor competitions of the future. The RISC-architecture is the foundation of the new PowerPCs and the PA-RISC systems of Hewlett-Packard Corporation. The HP 32-bit PA-7100 chip, for example, runs about 25% faster than the PowerPC RISC chips and the Pentium CISC chips. A new RISC processor from Texas Instruments called the Multimedia Video Processor is claimed to be 20 to 50 times more powerful than Intel's Pentium. RISC chipsets may become more of a threat to CISC in the form of NexGen alternatives to Pentium that are being manufactured by Alaris for Compaq, IBM, and other major PC manufacturers. (See also Mulimedia Video Processor, NexGen, PowerPC, and CISC)

RMI = (See Java).

Rocochet Modem= (See Modem)

ROM= Read-Only Memory whose files can be accessed, executed, and possibly copied. However, ROM files cannot be deleted or otherwise altered on the ROM device; for example, a CD-ROM compact disc can be read only but not written upon by the user. (See also WORM)

Round Tripping = a term used mainly to refer to the transformation of a computer file into a different type with the option to return to the original type. Microsoft uses this term in conjunction with Office 2000 products. For example, an Excel worksheet or an Excel chart can be saved as an HTML file with many of the interactive features of Excel (such as replacement of data and recomputation of functions) in the browser rather than Excel. However, the HTML files have round-trip recovery features for saving the file back to an Excel worksheet or Excel chart. See HTML.

Router= A communications device designed to transmit signals via the most efficient route possible. See Firewall.

Tom Hicks brought me up to date on wireless home firewall computers. He recommends Linksys products such as the one at http://www.linksys.com/splash/wcg200_splash.asp

The Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway is the all-in-one solution for Internet connectivity in your home. The Cable Modem function gives you a blazing fast connection to the Internet, far faster than a dial-up, and without tying up your phone line.

Connect your computer to the Wireless-G Cable Gateway via USB, or take advantage of the built-in 4-port 10/100 Ethernet Switch to jump start your home network. You can share files, printers, hard drive space and other resources, or play head-to-head PC games. Connect four PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. The built-in Wireless-G Access Point allows up to 32 wireless devices to connect to your network at a blazing 54Mbps, without running cables through the house. It's also compatible with Wireless-B devices, at 11Mbps. The Gateway's Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share that high-speed Internet connection.

To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Cable Gateway features an advanced firewall to keep Internet intruders and attackers out. Wireless transmissions can be protected by powerful data encryption. Safeguard your family with Parental Control features like Internet Access Time Limits and Key Word Blocking. Configuration is a snap with any web browser. With the Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway at the heart of your home network, you're connected to the future.

See Firewall.

RPC = Remote Procedure Call protocol that allows a program on one computer to execute a program on a server computer. Using RPC, a system developer need not develop specific procedures for the server. With RPC you call a specific function whereas with an ORB you call a method within a distributed object. In ORB each object manages its own private instance of the data whereas in RPC you can only call a specific function and all functions get implemented in the same way. ORB allows for differential processing. See CORBA.

RSA=
This RSA faq provides answers to a host of questions about RSA, including what it is (an asymmetric -- public key -- encryption algorithm developed by mathematicians Rivest, Shamir and Adelman) --- http://www.iae.nsk.su/pages/CRYPTO/rsafaq.html

RSA is a public-key cryptosystem for both encryption and authentication; it was invented in 1977 by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman. It works as follows: take two large primes, p and q, and find their product n = pq; n is called the modulus. Choose a number, e, less than n and relatively prime to (p-1)(q-1), and find its inverse, d, mod (p-1)(q-1), which means that ed = 1 mod (p-1)(q-1); e and d are called the public and private exponents, respectively. The public key is the pair (n,e); the private key is d. The factors p and q must be kept secret, or destroyed.

It is difficult (presumably) to obtain the private key d from the public key (n,e). If one could factor n into p and q, however, then one could obtain the private key d. Thus the entire security of RSA is predicated on the assumption that factoring is difficult; an easy factoring method would ``break'' RSA

Also see security.

RTF= (See Rich-text format)

Runtime= Permissive use of a portion of a software system that allows for the "running" or "viewing" or "delivery" or "playback" of an application in contrast to its "authoring." An author may write an electronic book in Asymetrix ToolBook authoring software, for example, which can then be played by readers using ToolBook runtime software. Many types of software (e.g., word processor, spreadsheet, and database software) have no runtime versions. Most hypertext and hypermedia authoring packages have runtime versions. Vendors vary as to whether fees are charged for runtime versions. Apple Media Kit from Apple Corporation and ScriptX from Kaleida Labs are examples of options that can have costly runtime fees, especially for items sold in large-scale markets. Some options have free runtime within an organization but charge a royalty on all sales of applications outside the organization. A professor who writes a CD-ROM textbook in some types of software (Apple Media Kit, Icon Author, Tencore, etc.) can use the free runtime versions for discs distributed free to students and faculty within his or her university but would have to pay a royalty on each CD-ROM sold for a profit. There is a strong incentive for authors to seek out hypertext and hypermedia authoring packages that are accompanied by free runtime (reader, player, playback, delivery) files for all customers. Many of these alternatives are discussed and compared in Chapter 3.

Return to Top of Document

S-Terms

Click o n a term or phrase below:

Sampling rate / SAP / Satellite Radio / Scalability / Scan converter / Scanner / SCMS / SCO Open Desktop / Scopeware / Score / SCORM /Screen capturing / Screencasting and Podcasting / Scripting / ScriptX / SCSI / Search engine / Search Extractor and Wrapper / SECAM / Second Life (Virtual Learning) / Security / Sega / Semantic Web and RDF / Senses / Sequence / Server / Set-top box / SGI / SGML / Shared Memory / Shareware / Shell / Silent Meeting / SIMM / Simulation / Single-session recording / Skype / Sling Box a / SLIP / Smart agent / Smart card / SMIL / S/MIME / SMITS / SMS / SMTP / Social Networks / Socket / Solaris / Sonet / Sound Blaster compatible / Sound board / Sound recording / Sparc / Speech recognition / Sprite / SQL / SSA / SSL / Stand-alone / Star topology / Still video camera / Streaming Media / Structured / Structured Query Language / Student response pads / Studio classroom / SUN / Surfing / Surfing backwards / SVG / S-VHS / Switched network / Synchronous / Synchronous connection / Syntax

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Sampling rate= The frequency with which samples are taken and converted in digitizing operations. This is measured in kilohertz (KHz). The MPC standard requires a sound card with a recording sampling rate of at least 11 KHz and an output rate of 11 and 22 KHz.

SAP = (Acronym for a long German name) SAP is a company from Germany that sells the leading suite of large-scale client-server business software. The US branch is called SAP America. The web site is at http://www.sap.com . SAP is powerful but very slow and expensive to implement. The following message appears in InformationWeek Online for November 13, 1997:

General Motors has chosen SAP's R/3 software as its global financial application. The decision is part of the automaker's "common platform strategy," a program that aims to reduce costs and complexity by standardizing GM's many businesses on several core IT products. GM says it plans to implement the financial apps in a "phased rollout," beginning with its automotive assembly and components operations in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, and later in North and South America. GM's goal is for full deployment by 2002. The R/3 software will replace a mix of applications GM has running in hundred of locations, a GM spokesman said. SAP software isn't new to GM: The automaker already has SAP human resources modules in a handful of places, including its Opel manufacturing operations in Germany and Delphi parts operations in France. The GM spokesman noted, however, that the new deal with SAP doesn't include HR modules. GM will take the lead in managing the R/3 rollout, while former GM unit EDS will "have some role," probably alongside other third-party service providers, the spokesman said. Financials terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Major ERP providers include the following:

SAP at http://www.sap.com

JD Edwards at http://www.jdedwards.com/

Baan at http://www5.baan.com/cgi-bin/bvisapi.dll

PeopleSoft at http://www.peoplesoft.com/

I worry some about business schools that are jumping on the huge commitment to bring SAP or other ERP software to students. SAP is one of the various alternatives for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). First SAP is a major commitment of resources, faculty, and students. Second, there is a legal liability risk that should be carefully cleared through any university's legal department since it is possible for users to find themselves in lawsuits brought against developers of SAP.

More importantly, I worry about the future of ERPs. In this context I call your attention to an article by Tom Stein entitled "ERP's Fight for Life," in Information Week, April 12, 1999, 59-66. The online version is at
http://www.informationweek.com/729/erp.htm

On May 5, 1999 InformationWeek Online reported the following:

J.D. Edwards has hit hard times as the demand for ERP software remains stagnant. The company said yesterday it

expects an operating loss of more than $25 million for its second quarter, ended April 30. Company officials blame the

anticipated shortfall on lower-than-expected license fee revenue, the impact of headcount additions made in the first fiscal

quarter, investments in product development, and a $2.1 million write-off as a result of the acquisition of the Premisys Corp.

According to preliminary results, J.D. Edwards expects to report total second-quarter revenue in the range of $215 million

 to $235 million, which represents approximately a 3% to 12% increase over revenue of $209 million in the same period last year. License fee revenue is projected to be in the range of $60 million to $65 million. The company says revenue was adversely impacted by a general slowdown in demand for enterprise software as companies focus on year 2000 readiness. Final results for the quarter will be released on May 26.

Brent Thill, a financial analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston Corp., says the shortfall in license revenue is attributable to

a slippage of new customer orders in the United States. He adds that J.D. Edwards' win rate against market leaders SAP

and Oracle fell to 30% from 50% six months

ago.

From InformationWeek Online May 6, 1999

SpeechWorks International Inc. yesterday introduced the first speech-recognition applications that will let employees and customers access SAP applications by speaking over the phone. SpeechWorks unveiled software building blocks that let developers add speech-recognition capability to SAP’s Sales & Distribution, HR Employee Self-Service, and Customer Interaction Center modules.

Demand for speech-enabling SAP applications is strongest among customers already implementing other speech-recognition applications, according to SpeechWorks. The sales module lets sales representatives and customers determine the status of customer accounts, product availability and pricing, and sales-order placement. People can also speak to the applications to place and confirm orders. The HR module lets employees speak to access information about benefits, salaries, paychecks, travel expenses, time reporting, and personal information.

SpeechWorks for SAP will be available from SpeechWorks early in the third quarter. SpeechWorks will deliver similar software for PeopleSoft Inc. and other enterprise resource planning vendors around year’s end.

Various schools of business have moved heavily into SAP. One example is California State University at Chico. It would be interesting to hear from some accounting faculty who are using SAP to give some advice to faculty who are contemplating recommending SAP to their administrators.

Information Week on May 10, 1999, Page 26 elaborates its notices that SpeechWorks International has speech recognition modules for ERP systems. For example, these modules can now be deployed in SAP. See http://www.speechworks.com/ .

From InformationWeek Online on March 16, 2000

ERP vendors are adapting to the new IT environment in which businesses are betting on online exchanges, not enterprise resource planning solutions. Both SAP and J.D. Edwards & Co. made significant moves this week to host and develop online marketplace technology.

SAP on Wednesday revealed the formation of SAPMarkets, a subsidiary that, starting in May, will develop, market, and operate marketplaces using SAP technology. Hasso Plattner, co-chairman and CEO of SAP, will act as interim CEO until a permanent one is found.

The vendor's mySAP.com Marketplace efforts will be consolidated into the new company. One goal is to clear up the confusion the mySAP.com moniker created by encompassing the vendor's Internet strategy, software applications, and hosted applications under one name. "I applaud that SAP is finally resolving the confusion 'mySAP.com' brings to customers," says Byron Miller, VP at Giga Information Group. "But before they compete head-on with other companies in a new market, they need to resolve some functionality problems."

J.D. Edwards on Tuesday created a unit to focus on business- to-business solutions and expand development of its online- exchange technology. Michael Schmidt, former VP of worldwide sales and marketing, will head up the unit. - Elisabeth Goodridge with Alorie Gilbert

"Spotlight on Midlevel ERP Software," by Roberta Ann Jones, Journal of Accountancy, May 2002 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/may2002/jones.htm

Years ago, when the personal computer was just coming into its own, accounting software was relatively simple: Its single function was to automate the task of double-entry accounting and produce a straightforward balance sheet. As computers became more robust and integrated databases standardized, accounting software developers added more functions—including cost accounting, manufacturing resource planning (MRP), customer resource management (CRM), human resources (HR) and payroll. To differentiate these superproducts from the simple accounting programs, marketing-minded vendors christened the new packages enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Exhibit 1: Software Vendors

Product

Vendor

Web address

Address

Carillon

Pettit & Co.

www.carillonfinancials.com

100 N. Central Expressway, Suite 1300
Richardson, TX 75080

eEnterprise

Microsoft
Great
Plains

www.greatplains.com

One Lone Tree Rd.
Fargo, ND 58104

E by Epicor

Epicor
Software

www.epicor.com

195 Technology Dr.
Irvine, CA 92618

MK Manufact'g

Computer
Associates’
InterBiz

www.interbiz.com

One Computer Associates Plaza
Islandia, NY 11749

Enterprise IQ

IQMS

www.iqms.com

4250 Aerotech Center Way, Suite A
Paso Robles, CA 93446

Progression

Macola

www.macola.com

333 E. Center St.
P.O. Box 1824
Marion, OH 43301

ERP Plus

PowerCerv

www.powercerv.com

400 North Ashley Dr.,
Suite 2700
Tampa, FL 33602

Scala 5.1

Scala
Business
Solutions

www.scalaworld.com

300 International Parkway, Suite 300
Heathrow, FL 32746

Solomon

Microsoft
Great
Plains

www.solomon.com

200 East Hardin St.
P.O. Box 414
Findlay, OH 45840

Traverse

Open
Systems
Inc.

www.osas.com

1157 Valley Park Dr.,
Suite 105
Shakopee, MN 55379

Exhibit 2: Service, Support, Price, Implementation

Exhibit 3: Manufacturing Process

Exhibit 4: Core Financials

Exhibit 5: Purchasing and Sales Processes

Exhibit 6: Human Resources Process

Exhibit 7: Tax and International Processes

Many accounting software vendors, while eager to jump on the ERP bandwagon but unwilling or unable to develop their own complete ERP functionality, choose instead to license the very best special modules developed by other software companies. This option has gained popularity as advances in Windows and compatibility tools have made it easier to seamlessly link new modules to existing software packages.

Using such best-of-breed, third-party products was a boon to ERP vendors: It saved them money and made their products more powerful and more competitive. Further, it meant that the customer was getting an already proven (read that debugged) product.

Not all customers agree that plugging in third-party products is a good idea. If the licensed product malfunctioned (and what software product is perfect?), the customer now had to deal with two vendors—the ERP vendor and the third-party vendor. More often than not, when such a problem arose, each vendor tended to blame the other, leaving the customer uncertain where to turn for help. In our reviews, we have not provided separate evaluations of any third-party products.

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Educators' Reviews on January 14, 2004

TITLE: Large Software Customers Refuse to Get With the Program
REPORTERS: Kevin J. Delaney and David Bank
DATE: Jan 02, 2004
PAGE: A1,6
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB107300003323708100,00.html
TOPICS: Accounting Information Systems

SUMMARY: Delaney and Bank report that business software giant SAP blinked in its confrontation when one of its customers refused to upgrade to a newer version of their software. During the economic downturn, SAP, as well as other application software providers, had increased their revenues not so much through new sales, rather they insisted their current customers upgrade their previously purchased software packages. The related article from one year ago reflects that trend.

QUESTIONS:
1.) How does an ERP impact the relationships in the financing, manufacturing, and other business processes?

2.) Briefly outline how a customer relationship module (CRM) is expected to influence performance for a purchasing firm. Do the same for a supply chain management (SCM) module.

3.) Given the conclusion from Delaney's related article about SAP's return to dominance one year ago, what do you think this bodes for the future of SAP?

Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
Reviewed By: Benson Wier, Virginia Commonwealth University
Reviewed By: Kimberly Dunn, Florida Atlantic University

--- RELATED ARTICLES ---
TITLE: Germany's SAP Regains Edge in U.S.
REPORTER: Kevin Delaney
PAGE: B5
ISSUE: Jan 31, 2003
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1043914959248254464,00.html

If you click here, you will find messages from various users of ERP software, especially SAP, in business education programs. I think you will find these messages very candid and helpful
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245glosap.htm

See Database and CRM.

Scalability= how well a system performs as it grows. For example, a central server of some kind with ten clients may perform efficiently. It has a scalability problem if it fails with an increasing number of clients. If the average response time probably scales linearly with the number of clients, it has a complexity of O(N) ("order N"). The October 1997 issue of Application Development Trends (ISSN 1073-9564) on Page 13 describes the IBM DB2 "Web-enabled database which potentially lets customers scale from desktop or laptop systems to massively parallel processors." See Database .

Scan converter= A hardware device for converting the digitized monitor signals of a computer into analog signals that can be played on a television set. For a detailed review of options and comparison of products see Waring (1994c). Some projection devices such as three-beam projectors for computers in classrooms have built in scan converters. (See also Analog and Video)

Scanner= Both hand-held and flatbed hardware and software for copying graphics images and text into computer files. Both color and black and white options are available. We have never had much luck with hand-held versions, but flatbed scanners do a terrific job. Text scanned as graphics must be converted into computer text via specialized software such as Omni Page Pro from Caere (800-GO-CAERE). (See also OCR)

Leveraging ScanSoft's world-leading optical character recognition (OCR) and PDF conversion technology, the OmniPage Search Indexer creates index data from your document images, without changing the original. The ScanSoft OmniPage Search Indexer includes an OCR engine that is very fast and accurate, as well as a lightning fast PDF indexing engine - both tuned for search applications.

SCMS= Serial Copy ManagementSystem circuitry in digital recorders that allows copying from a source program but blocks making copies of copies.

SCO Open Desktop= Santa Cruiz Operations' GUI operating system that is compared with other 32-bit operating system alternatives in PC/Computing Special Report (1994). This is a UNIX-based system that runs on Intel and MIPS hardware. (See also Operating system)

Scopeware= File arranging softare invented by David Galernter from Yale University.

"The Next Computer Interface," by Claire Tristram, Technology Review, December 2001 --- http://www.techreview.com/magazine/dec01/tristram.asp

The desktop metaphor was a brilliant innovation—30 years ago. Now it's an unmanageable mess, and the search is on for a better way to handle information.

Game, set, match: Chief scientist David Gelernter of Mirror Worlds Technologies says the desktop metaphor is over. (Photos by Timothy Archibald and Jonathan Worth)

"The desktop is dead," declares David Gelernter. Gelernter is referring to the "desktop metaphor"—the term frequently used for the hierarchical system of files, folders and icons that we use to manage information stored on our home or office computers. At the annual gathering of technophiles at TechXNY/PC Expo 2001 in New York last June, he told the rapt crowd attending his keynote speech that the desktop metaphor is nothing more than virtual Tupperware. "Our electronic documents are scattered by the thousands in all sorts of little containers all over the place," he said. "The more information and the more computers in our lives, the more of a nuisance this system becomes."

For the past decade or so Gelernter has been campaigning for a new metaphor to overthrow the desktop—first in research he carried out at Yale University, where he is a professor of computer science, and now as chief scientist of his new company, Mirror Worlds Technologies, with offices in New Haven, CT, and New York City. In March, Mirror Worlds announced a novel metaphor called Scopeware, software that automatically arranges your computer files in chronological order and displays them on your monitor with the most recent files featured prominently in the foreground. Scopeware is far more sweeping than a simple rearrangement of icons, however: in effect, it transfers the role of file clerk from you to the computer, seamlessly ordering documents of all sorts into convenient, time-stamped files.

Score= A sequence, either time-based or frame-based, that determines the timing of a presentation and the synchronization of its objects.

SCORM = Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of specifications that enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of web-based learning content. Being SCORM compliant in software and course management technologies is very important in education in order to be compatible with other education technologies.
See www.egov.hyperwave.com/solutions/standards.html

Screen capturing= The "capturing" of images on a computer screen onto a clipboard or into a graphics file so that they can be imported into other software. Screen captures are analogous to photographs of screen images. Captured text is normally in graphics mode such that it must be run through a text converter (e.g., OmniPage text conversion software) that translates graphics text back into word processor text. In PC World, February 1994, p. 224 it is shown how Windows screen capturing can be accomplished using the Windows Recorder utility in the Program Manager. Doyle (1994a) provides useful tips for QuickTime video capturing. Screen capturing software options are reviewed in the NewMedia 1995 Tool Guide (p. 34). (See also OCR) It is important to also go to Video.

Screencasting = (See Resource Descriptive Formating )

Scripting= (See Authoring, HTML, and RDF)

ScriptX= A somewhat revolutionary and failed authoring and scripting hypertext and hypermedia language. ScriptX from the defunct Kaleida Labs (in a joint venture with Apple and IBM corporations) was and early option designed to cross between various operating systems (e.g., Unix, Windows, DOS, Apple/Mac, OS/2, and PowerOpen). ScriptX was intended compliment the failed Taligent (Pink) multi-platform operating system. (See also GainMomentum, Kaleida, Taligent, Cross-platform, and Authoring)

SCSI= Small Computer System Interface, is a set of interfaces that allow personal computers to communicate with peripheral hardware such as disk drives, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, CD-RW drives, printers, and scanners faster and more flexibly than previous interfaces. SCSI interfaces often cost a bit more than IDE controllers, but there are some advantages to SCSI interfaces. See IDE.

Search engine= WWW sites that allow users to type in a word or phrase and then search for other WWW sites linked to that word or phrase. Bob Jensen' search engine helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Thank you Curtis Brown

Chances are many of you know about this already, but I thought I’d mention that the search engine I now go to first for most purposes is Google (http://www.google.com/). This search engine rates a site higher the more links there are to it from other highly rated sites. Don’t know exactly how they manage that, but in my experience the results are remarkable—if I’m looking for one particular site, it’s usually the number one-ranked result.

I suppose it wouldn’t be so effective for very new or very esoteric sites that no one (yet) knows about. But for sites that have been around long enough for word to get out, it’s very effective. It may not find things that Alta Vista or HotBot or whatever wouldn’t find, but it does a much better job of putting what I’m looking for at the top of the list. The web site describes it as a "Beta" version, but it looks ready for prime time to me.

(example: type "thomas" into Google and the number one result is the library of congress site with information about the US Congress. This site isn’t in the top 50 results for HotBot, Alta Vista, or Lycos (though it is #1 on HotBot’s top ten most visited sites for that search string). Similarly, a search for "Phil Gramm" on Google turned up his Senate homepage as the number one link. This wasn’t in the top 20 on HotBot or Alta Vista; a subpage of his Senate site was around number 10 on Lycos.)

Another nice feature of Google is that they cache the pages: if your search results include a broken link, you can still bring up Google’s cached copy of the page to see what used to be there. The cached pages are text only, but they use the URL for the original page as the base for relative links so that if images are still there they will load properly.

Thank you Neil Hannon

For people who search the Web frequently and want to use it more efficiently, Infoseek Express is a next-generation desktop search product which brings multiple search and information sources together in one place. With Express you can find, explore, and do anything on the Internet faster and easier than before.

Express is different from other search engines because it runs within your Web browser, searches multiple search engines simultaneously, and provides an easier to use, faster interface. In addition, Express has an open architecture that allows for mass distribution, easy updates, and extensive personal customization.
http://www.tiac.net/users/nhannon/news.html

Probably the most interesting of the "search engines" are those that use natural language and artificial intelligence. The best known illustration is the "Ask Jeeves" web site at http://www.ask.com/ . The software commenced with David Warthen in Berkeley in 1996. The following is a quotation from "Ask Jeeves," NewMedia, June 1999, p. 54:

Warthen tapped into artificial intelligence research at Berkeley and Stanford, hired "computational linguistics" experts, and brought in editors to link standardized question templates to Web sites with the right answers. The editors are critical to Ask Jeeves' power. "Humans are very good at cognitive decision making," says Warthen. "When we designed our system we were very conscious of how to get human value added."

They created software that can examine a question for its semantics (word meaning) and syntax (grammar and sentence structure). Their system parses it, rearranges it into a template, and searches for a "best-match" template tied to a collection of Web sites, or scroll-down menus that give the user a chance to further refine his query.

Over time the site has expanded its "knowledge base" to more than seven million question/answer connections.

On Page 55, the above article states the following:

Ask Jeeves now licenses its technology for corporate online tech support. Dell Computer's Ask Dudley site (using the name and likeness of their head tech-support guru) "took off like wildfire," according to Manish Mehta, Dell's senior online support manager. It already accurately answers more than 60 percent of all questions, and provides valuable feedback. "It's a nifty mechanism to learn exactly what customers are asking as soon as a new system launches."

Toshiba America receives 380,000 tech-support calls a month. It launched its Ask IRIS (Instant Response Information Service) in mid-March and hopes to see a 20 to 30 percent reduction in calls by year's end. "We're hoping IRIS will be as smart as our very smartest technician," says Dan Ludwick, Toshiba's director of service marketing.

Ask Jeeves customizes its corporate clients' existing tech support database to match the question/answer template format. In addition, Ask Jeeves maintains and monitors the system software and knowledge base, plus handles data mining and analysis. Initial costs range from $400,000 to more than $1 million, depending on the depth of the data. Licensees pay a fraction of a penny to Ask Jeeves for each good question/answer match.

Yahoo is still my choice if you have a particular category. However, my first choice in general is now Ask Jeeves because of the neat way I can merely type a natural language query. I suggest that you ask Jeeves a question just for kicks and then see how fast you will get hooked on Jeeves. http://www.ask.com/ .

Search Extractor and Wrapper = (See Wrapper.)

SECAM= SEquential Couleu AvecMemoire sequential color and memory television standard adopted by France and the USSR in 1967. This has some phase and amplitude integrity (skew-symmetry) advantages over NTSC and some line flicker (Hanover bars) disadvantages. Having France and some parts of Eastern Europe on a different standard than PAL for the rest of Europe and NTSC for North America and Japan is somewhat frustrating for manufacturers of hardware and developers of videotapes. (See also NTSC and PAL)

Second Life (Virtual Learning) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#SecondLife

Security= Protection against error and fraud. In computing and networking this includes firewall protections (e.g., passwords) for entry and encryptions for messages that contain protected data such as credit card numbers. A computer virus is one of the most serious problems. A virus hardware/software infection designed intentionally to corrupt a computer, computer files, and/or networks. For virus updates and news, two good web sites are Network Associates at http://www.nai.com/vinfo/ and Mcafee at http://www.mcafee.com/ . (Also see ActiveX.)

The main computer security site is probably CERT --- http://www.cert.org/

One of the main systems and security sites is at http://www.isworld.org/

The U.S. Department of Justice Cybercrime Website --- http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/

Bob Jensen's threads on security --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#SpecialSection

Nearly the entire April 2004 issue of Syllabus Magazine is devoted to computer and network security. This is a useful reference with lots of links --- http://www.syllabus.com/mag.asp

You should also know about this site when you have a computer security question --- http://www.alw.nih.gov/Security/security.html

Hackers Hall of Fame --- http://tlc.discovery.com/convergence/hackers/bio/bio.html

Bob Jensen's computer security bookmarks are at --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob4.htm#200503Security

An Innovative Cookie Jar

"Furtive Surfers Find a Way to Keep Their Travels Secret," by Howard Millman, The New York Times, March 4, 2004 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/technology/circuits/04quie.html

A new thumb-size U.S.B. drive from a company called StealthSurfer aims to guard your privacy by keeping the records of your Web activity close to the vest. When you plug in the StealthSurfer and use its customized version of the Netscape browser, the device stores the cookies, U.R.L. history, cache files and other traces of your Web browsing that would ordinarily accumulate on your computer's hard drive. When you're done surfing, you unplug the drive and take the records of your travels with you.

StealthSurfer's name is a bit of an overstatement. It does keep your Web-hopping and file-sharing activities away from prying eyes after the fact. But since it uses your computer's Internet connection, the Web sites you visit can still track your Internet protocol address as you move around online.

The StealthSurfer comes in four capacities, ranging from 64 megabytes ($70) to 512 megabytes ($299). You may experience a slight reduction in performance when you use the device because its flash memory writes data at slower speeds than a full-size hard drive does.

On the other hand, installation is a breeze - computers running Windows Me, 2000 and XP recognize the StealthSurfer as a drive when it is plugged in. (If you're running Windows 98, you must download a driver

The StealthSurfer home page is at http://www.stealthsurfer.biz/
Don't you hate it now that some businesses now use biz instead of com in their URLs?

You can read more about cookies at "Cookies."

Examples of available (or possible) IW weapons
From a document entitled "An Introduction to Information Warfare" by Reto Haeni at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/reto/infowar/info-war.html

Computer Viruses

A virus is a code fragment that copies itself into a larger program, modifying that program. A virus executes only when its host program begins to run. The virus then replicates itself, infecting other programs as it reproduces. Viruses are well known in every computer based environment, so that it is not astonishing that this type of rough program is used in the Information Warfare. We could imagine that the CIA (or Army, Air Force ....) inserts computer viruses into the switching networks of the enemy's phone system. As today's telephone systems are switched by computers, you can shut them down, or at least causing massive failure, with a virus as easy that you can shut down a "normal" computer. An example what the damage a virus could cause exists. We can compare it with the system crash of AT&T long distance switching system on January 15, 1990 [10].

Worms (Also see Worm)

A worm is an independent program. It reproduces by copying itself in full-blown fashion from one computer to another, usually over a network. Unlike a virus, it usually doesn't modify other programs. Also if worms don't destroy data (like the Internet Worm, they can cause the loss of communication with only eating up resources and spreading through the networks. A worm can also easily be modified so that data deletion or worse occurs. With a "wildlife" like this, I could imagine breaking down a networked environment like a ATM and banking network.

Trojan horses

A Trojan horse is a code fragment that hides inside a program and performs a disguised function. It's a popular mechanism for disguising a virus or a worm. A trojan horse could be camouflaged as a security related tool for example like SATAN (Security Administrating Tool for Analyzing Networks). SATAN checks UNIX system for security holes and is freely available on the Internet. If someone edits this program so that it sends discovered security holes in an e-mail message back to him (lets also include the password file? No problem), the Cracker learns much information about vulnerable hosts and servers. A clever written trojan horse does not leave traces of its presence and because it does not cause detectable damage, it is hard to detect.

Logic bombs

A bomb is a type of Trojan horse, used to release a virus, a worm or some other system attack. It's either an independent program or a piece of code that's been planted by a system developer or programmer." With the overwhelming existence of US based software (e.g. MS Windows or UNIX systems), the US Government, or whomever you would like to imagine, could decide that no software would be allowed to be exported from that country without a Trojan horse. This hidden function could become active when a document with "war against the USA" exists on the computer. Its activation could also be triggered from the outside. An effect could be to format the computers harddisks or to mail the document to the CIA.

Trap doors

A trap door, or a back door, is a mechanism that's built into a system by its designer. The function of a trap door is to give the designer a way to sneak back into the system, circumventing normal system protection." As I mentioned in the last section, all US software could be equipped with a trap door that would allow IW agencies to explore systems and the stored data on foreign countries. This could be most useful in cases of military strategic simulations and plans and would provide the DoD's intelligence with vital information.

Chipping

Just as software can contain unexpected functions, it is also possible to implement similar functions in hardware. Today's chips contain millions of integrated circuits that can easily be configured by the manufacturer so that they also contain some unexpected functions. They could be built so that they fail after a certain time, blow up after they receive a signal on a specific frequency, or send radio signals that allow identification of their exact location - the number of possible scenarios exceeds, by far, the scope of this paper. The main problem with chipping is that the specific (adapted) chip be installed in the place that is useful for the Information Warrior. The easiest solution is to built the additional features into all the chips manufactured in the country that is interested in this type of IW.

Nano machines and Microbes

Nano machines and Microbes provide the possibility to cause serious harm to a system. Unlike viruses, we can use these to attack not the software but the hardware of a computer system. Nano machines are tiny robots (smaller than ants) that could be spread at an information center of the enemy. They crawl through the halls and offices until they find a computer. They are so small that they enter the computer through slots and shut down electronic circuits. Another way to damage the hardware is a special breed of microbes. We know that they can eat oil, what about if they were bred for eating silizium? They would destroy all integrated circuits in a computer lab, a site, a building, a town.......

Electronic jamming

In the old days (and even today) electronic jamming was used to block communications channels at the enemy's equipment so that they can't receive any information. The next step is not to block their traffic, but instead overwhelm them with incorrect information. This type of disinformation can also be combined with the possibilities described in the section "soft war"

HERF Guns - EMP Bombs

HERF stands for High Energy Radio Frequency. HERF guns are able to shoot a high power radio signal at an electronic target and put it out of function. The damage can be moderate (e.g. that a system shuts down, but can be restarted) or severe (e.g. the system hardware has been physically damaged). Electronic circuits are more vulnerable to overload that most people would suspect. This mechanism uses HERF guns with big success. In essence, HERF guns are nothing but radio transmitters. They send a concentrated radio signal to the target. The target can be a mainframe inside a business building, an entire network in a building, or as today's planes and cars are stuffed with electronic equipment, the target can even be a moving vehicle with all the inherent dangers for the people who are inside. EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse. The source can be a nuclear or a non-nuclear detonation. It can be used by special forces teams who infiltrate the enemy's and detonate a device near their electronic devices. It destroys the electronics of all computer and communication systems in a quite large area. The EMP bomb can be smaller than a HERF gun to cause a similar amount of damage and is typically used to damage not a single target (not aiming in one direction) but to damage all equipment near the bomb.

Also see Authenticated Payment Program (SET), Clipper Chip, Cookies, Cryptolope, Data Encryption Standard (DES), Encryption, Firewall, Kerberos, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), and WebLedger.

Bob Jensen's main documents on e-Commerce e-Business (including security) are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce.htm

I added a Special Section to the document entitled "Opportunities of E-Business Assurance: Risks in Assuring Risk" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/assurance.htm

For more information about fraud, information warfare, and security, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm

Sega= (See Games)

Senses = Bob Jensen’s threads on computing technologies for sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/senses.htm

Sequence= A combination of events executed in a predetermined order.

Server= A computer that shares its resources, such as printers and files, with other computers on the network. An example of this is a Network File System (NFS) server which shares its disk space with other computers. Especially see the concept of a shell.

Set-top box= A digital device that will sit on top of or inside a television set and provide the digital processing necessary to support interactive network services (video-on-demand, network placing of purchase orders, database access, etc.) in the early phases of the information highway. Eventually PCTVs will probably replace set-top box processors. (See also CD-Stand Alone and Information highway)

SGI= Silicon Graphics, Inc., 2011 North Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA, 94039-7311. This company manufactures high-end graphics work stations such as its Indy line for hypermedia, video, and 3-D graphics rendering. Some software vendors such as Information International write software for SGI workstations. These are among the best of the professional options for generating videographics and virtual realities, but they come at a high price for hardware, software, and technical help to obtain and maintain an SGI workstation. Software for SGI and other Unix-based workstations costs much more, "often 10 times the price of equivalent software for high-volume platforms like MPC---and much of it is extremely vertical in nature" says Spanbauer (1993b), p. 42. SGI now has a low-end multimedia workstation starting at under $5,000, The Sun Microsystems SPARClassic M (under $5,000) and 10SX (over $15,000) are designed to compete with the SGI Indago line for multimedia computing. Beware that buying an SGI computer such as the Indy for less than $5,000 is analogous to buying an automobile without a transmission, wheels, and other essential components. For example, the hard drive and monitor are not included at the $5,000 price. Lindy (1994) says the price of a complete Indy system rises to $27,600. He compares features of the Quadra 840AV with the more expensive and faster SGI Indy and finds that the Quadra 840AV performs as well or better in most instances for a lot less money for hardware and software. The SGI Indy competes with NewTek's Video Toaster and Apple AV competitors, but should not be confused with the more extensive concept of network video server. (See also Video server, Amiga, Apple AV, PowerPC, SUN and Unix)

SGML= The abbreviation for Standard Generalized Markup Language, SGML is an international standard for the publication and delivery of electronic information.

Shared Memory=

"Before Going to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

Shared Memory: A computer configuration in which the video circuitry lacks its own dedicated memory and must share, or drain off, a portion of the computer's main memory. This is common in lower-price computers. It's fine, but it reduces the amount of memory available to the nonvideo functions of the computer, so you may want to add extra memory to a PC of this type.

Shareware= This term refers to software that is available on public networks and BBSs. Users are asked to remit a small amount to the software developer, but it's on the honor system.

Shel = web server/client software focused on storage, delivery, and course management. This software facilitates server/client networking that allows for student record keeping, test grading, etc. Unlike high-end authoring software, courseware shells have utilities for creating network listservs, bulletin boards, chat rooms, electronic forums, telephony, etc. These shells also facilitate lesson authoring in virtually all of the high-end authoring software listed above. Some courseware shells have more authoring capabilities than others, although none have the full authoring capabilties of the high-end authoring systems.

| TopClass | WebCB | WebCT | Asymetrix Librarian | Mallard | Real Education |
| Convene | CourseInfo (Blackboard) | IntraKal | MentorWare | WebMentor Enterprise |
| Learning Space | Oncourse | McGraw-Hill Learning Architecture (MHLA) | PHP |
| CyberClass (Note: Cyberclass is unique in that server space is provided and users such as university professors need not use servers in their own institutions

. My review of shells is given at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245soft1.htm

Silent Meeting = (See Virtual.)

SIMM= Single In-line Memory Module plug-in memory module containing all the chips needed to add blocks of RAM to a computer. At the present time, it is not uncommon to pay in the neighborhood of $200 for each 16mb of RAM added to computers. (See also RAM)

Simulation= Computer generated or enhanced emulation of real world happenings. In the early days of computing simulation was largely a numerical modeling of factory operations, weather systems, planetary movements, etc. The advent of flight simulation ushered in physical reproductions of reality that gave the look and feel of being in a real world happening such as landing an aircraft at night in simulated airports around the world or simulated combat situations. Modern day multimedia computing has ushered in countless applications of visual as well as numerical modeling simulations. The high end technology for simulation today is virtual reality. (See also Virtual Reality)

Single-session recording= The older CD-ROM standard, where all data you intend to put on a disk must be recorded in one session rather than in several different sessions over time. (See also CD-R)

Skype --- see Instant Messaging

SLIP= Serial Line Internet Protocol that allows users in selected parts of the world to access the Internet via modems and phone lines if they are not directly connected to the Internet system of worldwide networks. There are specialized SLIP firms plus some of the more general firms such as Delphi and CompuServe. Unlike direct connections, however, SLIP interfacings normally have usage fees based upon timing and extent of usage. (See also ISP, PIP, and Modem)

Smart agent= A utility for scanning Internet resources and collecting files pertinent to selected interests. This also includes screen savers that collect information (e.g., news is downloaded at assigned intervals on the Pointcast screen saver at <http://www.pointcast.com/>). (See also XML and Search engine)

Smart card= a credit card with an embedded microchip that contains extensive information. Smart cards are presently used for telephone cards, health cards, pay TV, banking, GSM Global System for Mobile communications, and other cellular/satellite telephones. Smart cards can hold encrypted secure data transferred in from a personal computer. The future appears to be unlimited for secure smart cards.

SMIL = (See HTML)

S/MIME = (See Internet Messaging).

SMS = (See Below)

Question
What are the meanings of the terms SMS and Zlango

The newest language for mobile text messaging looks like hieroglyphics and sounds like a caveman. The language is Zlango, and its creators aim to inject whimsy and emotion into text messaging while reducing the number of keystrokes needed to get the point across. "SMS is the driest of all forms of communication," Zlango founder and Chief Executive Officer Yoav Lorch told UPI. "SMS," short for "short messaging service," is how much of the rest of the world refers to text messaging.
"Me little late meeting sorry sorry," PhysOrg, June 28, 2006 --- http://www.physorg.com/news70640782.html

SMITS= Self-Monitoring Intelligent Tutoring System for computer-aided instruction of accounting information systems. SMITS was developed with an NCAIR grant by Professors Glen L. Gray and L. Richard Ye at California State University at Northridge. See Gray (1994).

SMTP = (See Internet Messaging).

Social Networks

Social Networking for Education: The Beautiful and the Ugly
(including Google's Wave and Orcut for Social Networking and some education uses of Twitter)
Updates will be at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm

The Secret Behind Twitter's Astonishing Growth
The most popular Tweets in the world are CNN (Rank 1) and Britney Spears (Rank 2)
It’s highly unlikely that Britney Spears does her own Tweets

First you may want to read about the explosive growth of social networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks
Then you will appreciate the unique features of Twitter

A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, sexual relationships, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade.

Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.

In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.

Continued at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks

Then read about computerized social network services --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_services

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life.

While it could be said that email and websites have most of the essential elements of social network services, the idea of proprietary encapsulated services has gained popular uptake relatively recently.

The main types of social networking services are those which contain category divisions (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in North America;Nexopia (mostly in Canada);^[ Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, Tagged, XING; and Skyrock in parts of Europe; Orkut, Facebook and Hi5 in South America and Central America;^[and Friendster, Orkut, Xiaonei and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative), but this has led to some concerns about privacy.

"The Secret Behind Twitter's Growth," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, April 1, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/

At the Web2.0 Expo today in San Francisco, Twitter's Alex Payne discussed the technical details of the programming language he hopes can help his company handle the upswing in traffic it's experienced over the past few years. The company is leaving behind a programming language that's caused it much pain in the past, and embracing a new and somewhat obscure language called Scala.

Some background: Twitter, a service that allows people to post 140-character messages to friends and the public was launched in 2006, and is now estimated to have roughly 8 million unique users. A person posts a short message to Twitter and the service posts it to the Web and sends it to people's cell phones and Twitter software applications. The concept is simple, but under the hood, the technology is more complicated.

The popular Web programming language Ruby on Rails is responsible for the look and feel of Twitter's user-interface, as well as that of many other websites. Since the user-interface, known as the "front end," relied on Ruby, it made sense to use Ruby for "back-end" operations like queuing messages too. But as Twitter's popularity grew, the back end built on Ruby wasn't able to handle the torrent of messages that came its way. Hence, the "Fail Whale" and Twitter's reputation for frequently crashing was born.

So the Twitter team turned to Scala, a programming language with its origins in research done by Martin Odersky, a professor at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, around 2003. During his presentation, Payne, who's also writing a book on the language, explained that Scala has many of the benefits of other languages but without the drawbacks. Some of the characteristics that make Scala so appealing to Twitter is that it's able to efficiently handle concurrent processing--that is, separate instructions that need to use the same system resources at the same time. This is useful when messages from millions of people need to be sent out instantly to different devices all over the world.

It's also flexible for programmers to use, says Payne. If a programmer wants more structure, then Scala offers structure, but if she wants more free-form programming, it allows for that as well. And importantly, for Payne and the engineers at Twitter, Scala is a new, exciting, and "beautiful" language that keeps the team engaged, unlike Java, or C++. There's still room for programmers to feel like they're contributing to the development of something new and fresh. This isn't the case with more established languages.

Scala isn't perfect, notes Payne, but its benefits far outweigh its drawbacks. The most glaring drawback is that it's somewhat difficult to learn because it has a huge number of features and a syntax with which some programmers might not be familiar, he says. Additionally, Scala is relatively new, which means that it doesn't have a proven track record. But Payne says he and Twitter are willing to take the risk because the language already worked well in a number of test cases.

Right now Twitter's user interface runs entirely on Ruby on Rails, which is "fine for people clicking around Web pages," Payne says. By the end of the year Twitter hopes to have a set of services in the back end that are written entirely in Scala. And the company plans to make sure that all the third-party services that connect to Twitter via the application programming interface (API) go through Scala code, bypassing Ruby on Rails completely. When you're talking about a bunch of programs hitting the API rapidly," Payne says, "We found we can better optimize things...using Scala."

Social Networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks

Jensen Comment
I'm repeatedly invited, especially by former students, to become part of a social network, especially the LinkedIn network. I would find joining these networks too overwhelming. I hate Twitter tweets. I will just stick to my favorite ListServs and Blogs in order to maintain some control over information overload --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

Socket= This is a communication mechanism originally implemented on the BSD version of the UNIX operating system. Sockets are used as endpoints for sending and receiving data between computers. A SSL (secure socket layer) is a secured security socket that controls data flows into and out of a socket for security purposes. (Also see Security and Internet Messaging).

Solaris= (See Unix)

Sonet= Synchronized Optical Network that is now operational on 155 Mb per second fiber optic cable between major cities in the United States. This forms the AT&T Corporation backbone for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching and transmission of voice, video, graphics, and data. (See also Information highway, Fiber optic, and Networks)

Sound Blaster compatible= (See MCI)

Sound board= A hardware insert for computers that allows mono or stereo audio (e.g., from cassette players, microphones, and television audio tracks) to be sent to computer speakers "on the fly" and/or to be captured as computer files such aswav and voc files for PC computers. The wav file extensions run on Microsoft MCI standards and the voc files run on Soundblaster sound boards from Creative Labs. Hardware options are reviewed in the NewMedia 1996 Tool Guide. Software (audio editing) options are reviewed in the NewMedia 1996 Tool Guide. When available, it is often better to have audio hardware on the motherboard rather than as a board added to a computer's expansion slot. (See also DSP)

Sound recording = (See Sound board)

Sparc= A class of Unix-based workstations from Sun Microsystems, Inc., 2550 Garcia Ave., Mountain View, CA 94305. These are common in Unix-based networks. (See also SUN)

Speech recognition = The ability of the computer to interpret speech or other audio commands along with keyboard, mouse, and joystick commands. Bob Jensen's Threads on Speech Recognition and Conversations With Computers (Audio Portals) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/speech.htm

MIT's Video Lecture Search Engine: Watch the video at --- http://web.sls.csail.mit.edu/lectures/
Researchers at MIT have released a video and audio search tool that solves one of the most challenging problems in the field: how to break up a lengthy academic lecture into manageable chunks, pinpoint the location of keywords, and direct the user to them. Announced last month, the MIT Lecture Browser website gives the general public detailed access to more than 200 lectures publicly available though the university's OpenCourseWare initiative. The search engine leverages decades' worth of speech-recognition research at MIT and other institutions to convert audio into text and make it searchable.
Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, November 26, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19747/?nlid=686&a=f
Once again, the Lecture Browser link (with video) is at http://web.sls.csail.mit.edu/lectures/
Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm

Find free video lectures from free universities at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Bob Jensen's threads on how to capture streaming video --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

Mac Voice Recognition

"Talking to Macs," Walter Mossbert, The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2005; Page B4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110557287127924647,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Q: I have been a longtime user of voice-recognition software on my Windows PC and would like to use this type of program if I switch to a Mac. Does anyone make a worthwhile speech-recognition product for Mac?

A: Every Mac comes with built-in speech-recognition features that allow users to issue certain commands to the computer verbally. In addition, there are speech-recognition programs for the Mac that allow users to dictate text to the computer as well as issue verbal commands. For instance, there is a Mac version of the IBM ViaVoice speech-recognition program, familiar to Windows users. More information is at scansoft.com/viavoice/mac/. And a small software company, MacSpeech, makes a speech-recognition program called iListen. More information is at www.macspeech.com. There may be others as well. However, I haven't tested any of these, so I can't say how well they work or which is best.

How good are cell phones that automatically convert speech into text?
Phone makers have tried to solve this (cell phone text entry) problem by squeezing little keyboards into the bodies of some phones. But these keyboards usually make phones bigger and bulkier than normal, and often show up only on costlier models, like the Treo or BlackBerry. This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested a new phone that attempts to solve the text-entry problem in a novel way that doesn't involve typing, and can be used on a small, inexpensive phone with just a numerical keypad. This new phone lets you dictate your text messages by just speaking into the phone. The Samsung p207, $79.99 with a two-year contract from Cingular Wireless, has built-in "speech-to-text" technology: It turns what you say into text on the screen. This technology, called VoiceMode, was created by a small Massachusetts company called VoiceSignal Technologies Inc. If it works properly, VoiceMode should make composing a text message as simple as dictating a voice-mail message. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well. In our tests, the system made so many errors requiring tedious corrections that it might have been faster for us to peck out our messages the old-fashioned way -- especially if we used the abbreviations and shorthand phrases so common among text-messaging fans.
Walter Mossberg, "A Phone That Takes Dictation: Testing Voice-to-Text Function," The Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2005; Page D4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111454952602617503,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal

"Just talk to me," The Economist, December 6, 2001 --- http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=885022

Speech recognition: At long last, speech is becoming an important interface between man and machine. In the process, it is helping to slash costs in business, create new services on the Internet, and make cars a lot safer and easier to drive

In the early days of computing, information was put into computers by flipping switches. After this came the relative sophistication of loading programs and data by means of punched cards or punched paper-tape. These were followed in their turn by such devices as the keyboard, the mouse, the trackball, the joystick, the touchpad and the touch-sensitive screen. Throughout all this, speech—the most natural, and perhaps the most effective, interface between people and computers—has remained largely neglected. Apart from some modest developments in software for desktop dictation in the 1990s, the only time most people have talked to their computers has been when cursing them.

All this is changing. Already, speech recognition is a not-uncommon feature at the call-centres of telephone companies, financial-service providers and airlines in the United States. In Japan and Europe, meanwhile, speech recognition is being adapted for use as a hands-free input device for motor cars.

Technologies such as automatic speech recognition (ASR), speaker verification and text-to-speech generators (see article) are catching on fast. They promise to deliver access to information and services anytime and anywhere that there is telephone. With more than 1 billion phones in the world and new subscribers being added to the global networks at double-digit rates, the enthusiasm is understandable. What is really driving the enthusiasm for the technology is not just that people are used to talking over telephones and so need little encouragement or training. They have also proved themselves willing to pay a premium for such services.

Continued at http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=885022

From SyllabusNews on August 16, 2002

DePaul Develops Sign Language Translator

A team of faculty and students at DePaul University's School of Computer Science has created a computer-generated synthetic interpreter capable of translating spoken English into American Sign Language (ASL). The program, dubbed "Paula," uses speech recognition and sophisticated animation. Using the system, a hearing person speaks through a headset connected to the computer. The animated figure of Paula then translates intoASL through hand gestures and facial expressions on the computer screen. The project required four years and more than 25,000 hours worth of work by the project team. "Most people are not aware that ASL is not simply a signed form of English," said Rosalee Wolfe, professor of computer science at DePaul and one of the leaders of the research team. "It is a series of hand configurations, hand positions, body positions and movement and facial expressions that are used in certain specific combinations. Hence, creating an animated translator is a very intricate and detailed process."

For more information, visit: http://asl.cs.depaul.edu

To date, vocabulary limitations and other problems make this a less than perfect option for authoring at the moment. However, technology seems to be adequate for major companies like American Express, UPS, Schwab & Co., and other companies to move from "curious novelty to strategic technology" according to Mary Thyfault in "Voice Recognition Enters the Mainstream" in Information Week, July 14, 1997, p. 20. These companies intend to have computers respond to customer voices. For example, using technology developed by Nuance, Scwab & Co. introduced the "Voice Broker" that responds to telephone requests for market price quotations and other investment information. American Express uses voice recognition for travel services. The ability to talk directly with a computer was anticipated years ago in Star Trek television shows and with the supercomputer named HAL in the popular film "2001 Space Odyssey". Eventually speech recognition will be commonplace when using both large and small computers. Apple Corporation led the way in speech recognition, but the gap has been closed between Mac and PC users. The latest excitement in software that will recognize normal (continuous) speaking speeds is Dragon's Naturally Speaking fromhttp://www.dragonsys.com/. Other options such as Voice Assist from Creative Labs (800-998-1000) are available for PCs. However, the leading and most reliable PC software at the time of this writing are Naturally Speaking from Dragon and VoicePlus ViaVoice Simply Speaking Software from IBM Corporation. VoiceType sells for less than $100 and had 94% accuracy rate in tests reported in Consumer Reports, July 1997, p. 6. Another competitor (Kurzweil VoiceCommands) only had a 72% accuracy in the same tests, although VoicePad did receive the Software Publishers Association's Award for the "Best New Software Program of the Year" in 1997. Older links for discrete (non-continuous) speaking recognition include IBM's VoiceType and AVRI's SpeechCommander. Microsoft has Speech Dictation software. Siemens Business Communication also has products on speech recognition. One product from Siemens is ComManager telephony and call accounting software. Microsoft Agent can be downloaded free from http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/imedia/agent/agentdl.asp (See also Text reading and Disabilities products)

For applications of speech recognition see TRACI Talk: The Mystery and Let's go Read! An Island Adventure. Islip Media Inc. in Pittsburgh offers a speech recognition search engine for video libraries. It is costly, howver, at $50,000 for a 50 user license. The Islip web site is at http://www.islip.com/

Probably the most exciting thing this week is the featured speech recognition software on the PBS television show called Computer Chronicles. This show was a summer re-run of the Computers Without Keyboards show summarized at http://www.cmptv.com/computerchronicles/shows/99-00/1721keyboards/1721-summary.html

There were various demonstrations, including almost flawless letter dictation using Dragon's Naturally Speaking. You simply say "new paragraph," "comma," or other accepted commands, including correction comments such as a command to change "two" to "too." The Dragon Naturally Speaking software and other leading speech recognition websites are given at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Speech1

But everything else on the show paled in comparison to the BeVocal demonstration of how you can call a free long distance number and interact by phone with a virtual woman at http://www.bevocal.com/index.html

It's the only way to get FREE driving directions, traffic reports, weather forecasts, business locations, flight information, stock quotes, and more by phone. Just call 1-800-4-BVOCAL, speak up, and get what you need.

What is impressive is the fact that you can interrupt the virtual woman and ask her to repeat herself or spell words like names of city streets. You can also ask for current delays due to construction or traffic at the moment.

You can "barge in" by saying commands anytime; you don't have to wait until the end to speak.

Some BeVocal commands can be said anytime. That is, they can be used in any BeVocal service. Voice commands you can say anytime are: BeVocal Home, BeVocal Tips, BeVocal Driving Directions, BeVocal Traffic, BeVocal Flight Information, BeVocal Weather, BeVocal Stock Quotes, Pause, Repeat, What Are My Choices?, and Goodbye.

Other commands are specific to individual BeVocal services.

What is important to educators and librarians is not this particular virtual woman and this particular application with a knowledge base on the above topics. What is important is that this demonstrates the future of education and training of the 21st Century. Suppose you really do not know how to account for a cross-currency swap using a EURIBOR index. Someday it will be possible to dial up (from a hand-held phone which will also be a wireless computer) and listen to a detailed interactive tutorial that walks you through your particular problem (where you feed in your own particular parameters). You will be able to "barge in" when you don't understand something, ask for definitions, ask for diagrams, ask for history, ask for examples, ask for current index levels, etc. One day in the future you will also be able to do the same thing when trying to understand passages from Hamlet or Bob Jensen's muddled up theory paper at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/315wp/315wp.htm

As educators, we have a responsibility to begin to organize the academy to design speech-recognition knowledge bases for BeVocal types of education and training.

The flip side of "speech recognition" is "text reading" conversion of written text into audio. The pioneer in this technology is Bell Labs at http://www.islip.com/. That Bell Labs web site has some wonderful demonstrations of this technology. (See Text reading.)

Added on March 5, 2001
Send voice messages.

Impress and freak out your friends, family, or business associates by sending mass robotic phone messages (you choose the voice, male or female!) to up to fifty people via email, your PDA, or your WAP-enabled phone -- courtesy of ImBot, "your Internet messaging robot." Just sign up for the demo, and send up to three messages, free. --- http://www.imbot.com/

Added June 27, 1999 --- The June 27 broadcast of the Dynamic Duo had some helpful information to pass on to the world. I like the way the Duo is willing to tell it like it is from the standpoint of user friendliness and reliability. The web site for the Duo is at http://www.digitalduo.com/ .

The lead segment was on the state of speech recognition. Speech recognition has come a long way in a short time. It is especially wonderful for persons who cannot use keyboards for one reason or another. Dragon Systems Naturally Speaking Mobile is an award winning pocket-size recorder --- see http://www.dragonsys.com/products/naturallyspeaking/mobile/index.html .

A major advantage of speech recognition is that audio files are recorded on the fly. This would be great product for me since I usually videotape conference presentations and student presentations. My beleaguered secretary spends over half her time transcribing the audio into text. It would be wonderful if I could bypass her by recording directly into my Dragon Mobile. The Dynamic Duo, however, reports that this will probably not be possible until speech recognition gets much better. Although the time it takes to "train the system" on a particular voice such as my own voice has been reduced from two hours to 30 minutes, it is not likely that each speaker at a conference will want to speak into my recorder for 30 minutes prior to his or her presentation. Even when the Dragon Mobile is properly trained, the Dynamic Duo found an average of one error in 20 words --- and that is an average number. When there is ambient noise the error rate explodes. Recording from a distance such as 15 feet greatly increases error rates. I think I will wait for a while before going Dragon Mobile. You can find links to other speech recognition vendors at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245glosf.htm#Speech1

L&H Voice Xpress Professional has some key advantages over leading voice recognition software according to Jeff Angus in "Balanced Skills Make Voice Xpress a Winner," in Information Week, August 23, 1999, pp. 56-59. The online version is at http://www.informationweek.com/749/voice.htm. One of the advantages is that voice training is only takes about a third as much time as the training required for Dragon Systems. Another advantage is integration with Office 2000 products, especially Internet Explorer 5.0. You can dictate Office 2000 instructions by voice. Jeff Angus states the following

With about eight hours of use, Voice Xpress worked well enough for me to prefer it to typing. With 12 hours of use (work and training) it's a hands-down winner.

Voice Xpress still requires more help from me than I'd like recognizing Windows and application commands. Even going to the Voice Xpress toolbar and clicking the button that tells the utility to expect a command doesn't guarantee it will recognize my command every time.

In terms of desktop applications, Voice Xpress works best with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, both text-intensive processes. I struggled a little bit to have it work with my spreadsheet, and while it occasionally pulled the correct set of format and numbers ($1,287, for example) out of a string of spoken input, this complex task requires more training. Users who work extensively with spreadsheets may find the payback time quick enough.

The web site for Voice Xpress is at http://wemark.com/oivl.html. The base price is $149. Beware that you should not even think about this product without 96 Mb of RAM with Windows 98 and 128 Mb of Ram with Windows NT. I think I will wait for this product to be a bit more user friendly. When there's a Voice Xpress for Dummies I will be the first in line.

December 1999 Update Update on speech technologies --- http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2409293,00.html

Dragon Systems Inc. has begun previewing its new AudioMining speech technology, which will enable users to search and retrieve audio and streaming media content on the Web.

The AudioMining technology converts audio data into text, which can then be accessed by keyword searches, company officials said. That saves time and helps users be more productive because they don't need to listen to entire recordings to find information, they added.

Dragon demonstrated the technology for the first time at the Giga Showcase for Innovative IT Solutions earlier this month (December 1999) in Palm Desert, Calif., and conference participants voted it Best Overall Winner, Most Innovative Product, Best Business Application Potential and Highest-Quality Demonstration.

From New Media on July 19, 2001
SpeechGenie --- http://www.voicegenie.com

Gateway Platform Allows VoiceXML Based Access To Web Info

SpeechGenie is a turnkey deployment platform that allows corporations or service providers to enable their customers to access their applications and Web data via phone; i.e., customers can dial phone numbers, and by speaking commands into their phones, can access Web information and perform transactions, or manage their e-mail or personal information.

SpeechGenie is composed of a combination of hardware and software technology from both VoiceGenie and SpeechWorks. The product provides for the corporation and its developers a VoiceXML-based platform allowing them to create voice-activated (both speech recognition and TTS - Text-To-Speech - responses) interfaces to their Web applications or information.

VoiceGenie provides the VoiceGenie VoiceXML Interpreter (a 100% VoiceXML compliant tool that allows for the processing of VoiceXML scripts), and the VoiceGenie Telephony Software, which manages the ASR/TTS call channels.

SpeechWorks, on the other hand, provides the SpeechWorks OpenSpeech DialogModules, which provide developers with a collection of common reusable components for the creation of speech recognition interfaces; the SpeechWorks SMARTRecognizer ASR Version 7 for speech recognition chores; and the SpeechWorks Speechify TTS engine.

A key feature of SpeechGenie noted by the vendor is "...extensive OA&M (operations, administration and maintenance)..." capabilities through support for SNMP, Web and console interfaces, etc., allowing admins to monitor the status of the system and identify and diagnose faults or performance problems.

SpeechGenie is available now, with introductory pricing (through September 15, 2001) of $20,000.

"Software Called Capable of Copying Any Human Voice," by Lisa Guernsey, The New York Times, July 31, 2001 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/31/technology/31VOIC.html

AT&T (news/quote) Labs will start selling speech software that it says is so good at reproducing the sounds, inflections and intonations of a human voice that it can recreate voices and even bring the voices of long-dead celebrities back to life. The software, which turns printed text into synthesized speech, makes it possible for a company to use recordings of a person's voice to utter things that the person never actually said.

The software, called Natural Voices, is not flawless — its utterances still contain a few robotic tones and unnatural inflections — and competitors question whether the software is a substantial step up from existing products. But some of those who have tested the technology say it is the first text-to-speech software to raise the specter of voice cloning, replicating a person's voice so perfectly that the human ear cannot tell the difference.

"If ABC wanted to use Regis Philbin's voice for all of its automated customer-service calls, it could," said Lawrence R. Rabiner, vice president for AT&T Labs Research.

Potential customers for the software, which is priced in the thousands of dollars, include telephone call centers, companies that make software that reads digital files aloud, and makers of automated voice devices.

From Syllabus e-News on October 9, 2001:

U. Texas Med Center Institutes Speech Recognition

The University of Texas's Southwestern Medical Center is offering a speech recognition service enabling callers to say the name of the employee, physician, department, clinic, or study they are trying to reach and connect to an appropriate number. The service uses SpeechSite speech recognition technology from SpeechWorks International, Inc., and helps university operators, who field calls for about 75,000 patients annually, work with callers with more complex needs. The Center said more than 60 percent of all calls are now automated using the system, which resides on server in the data center and uses employee information from its human resources management system. In the near future, the system will be expanded to recognize Spanish-speaking callers.

For more information, visit: http://www.speechworks.com

See Also Text Reading that translates written text into voice audio.

Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-semantic-interpretation-20011116/

This document defines the process of Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition and the syntax and semantics of semantic interpretation tags that can be added to speech recognition grammars to compute information to return to an application on the basis of rules and tokens that were matched by the speech recognizer. In particular, it defines the syntax and semantics of the contents of Tags in the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification.

Semantic Interpretation may be useful in combination with other specifications, such as the Stochastic Language Models (N-Gram) Specification, but their use with N-grams has not yet been studied.

Although the results of semantic interpretation are describing the meaning of a natural language utterance, the current specification does not specifically generate such information in the Natural Language Semantics Markup Language for the Speech Interface Framework. It is believed that semantic interpretation can produce information that can be encoded in the NL Semantics Markup Language, but this is not ensured or enforced.

"The Last Word in Dictation. Period," by David Pogue, The New York Times, January 24. 2002 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/24/technology/circuits/24STAT.html

Copytalk is a glorified dictation service. From any phone, you dial Copytalk's toll-free number. At the tone, you dictate, for example, an e-mail message. Between 3 and 20 minutes later, the message you dictated is sent on its merry way across the Internet (with or without your review, at your option), looking exactly as if it came from your desktop PC.

The system relies on the world's most sophisticated speech-recognition system: a person wearing headphones. Because you're simply leaving a message for a transcriptionist, the results are far more accurate, and the system far more flexible, than you would get using speech-recognition software like NaturallySpeaking.

You might say, for example: "O.K., this e-mail's going out to Bill G., that's B-I-L-L G, at Microsoft.com. The subject is Windows XP, and the body is, let's see: `Dear Bill, Thanks for Windows XP.' No wait, make that, `Thanks a bunch for Windows XP.' Then, going on: `It's incompatible with my virus software, my printer and my wife. Can you fix it? Sincerely, Frank.' Oh, and also CC it to Steve B. at Microsoft.com. And I'd like to review it before you send it."

In other words, you dictate precisely as you would to a personal assistant. Copytalk says that its transcriptionists even try to correct spelling, grammar and muddled ZIP codes, which they check against the city information in addresses that you dictate.

If you have a Palm-based organizer, Copytalk gets even more interesting. You can dictate anything you can store on your organizer: datebook appointments, to-do items, memos, expense-report items, addresses and phone numbers and so on. In the process you can exploit the full range of Palm software features. You might say, for example, "I want a new appointment, called `Gadget-obsession therapy,' repeating every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 2:30 p.m., through May 30. Give me an alarm 20 minutes in advance. Oh, and attach a note to this appointment that has the phone number: Technophiles Anonymous, (212) 555-4433."

A Palm-savvy transcriptionist at Copytalk takes all of this down. The next time you sync your organizer with your Windows PC, the Copytalk software connects to the Internet and downloads the freshly transcribed material. A minute later the new appointment appears on the appropriate days, as though you had scratched it in yourself.

If your cellphone is your organizer (because it's a hybrid from Samsung, Handspring or Kyocera), or if you have equipped your organizer with some kind of modem and Palm's Mobile Internet Kit, life is even better: the new entries are entered into its calendar, address book, to-do list and so on, computerlessly.

If you're calling from a number that the service doesn't recognize or from an office whose phone system uses extension numbers, you have to plug in your phone number and password to prove that you're you.

But when you dial the service from your cellphone or home, the service immediately recognizes you and prompts you to begin dictating. That's when Copytalk begins to take on a life of its own, turning your phone into something like a magic voice recorder. You press Copytalk's speed-dial number on your phone, the call is answered before even one ring, and you're ready to dictate — all within five seconds.

On your cab ride back from a conference, for example, you can rattle off the contact info from the business cards that rained on you — and then throw them away. Recording business-travel expenses is another big payoff: it's hard to forget to bill your boss for some expenditure if you record it by voice while you're still expending.

The Copytalk Website is at http://www.copytalk.com/index.htm

A new breed of customer service agents will be so attentive to your needs that you’ll never guess you’re talking to software.

"Are You Being Served?" by Joe Nickell, MIT's Technology Review, March 15, 2002 --- http://www.techreview.com/articles/nickell031502.asp

Somehow it seems the more businesses cater to customers through the use of new technologies, the harder it is to get good service. It's hard to find a company of any size today that answers its phone or e-mail without first sending customers through a maze of touch-tone menus or voice prompts—"voice hell" always a 1-800 number away. Then there are online customer support centers: soulless lists of frequently asked questions, hyperlinked conceptual puzzles and unintuitive search engines that never quite answer the question at hand. "What customers very often end up wanting is an F-U button," jokes Dr. Rosalind Picard, an associate professor at MIT whose research examines the role of emotions in human-computer interactions.

Undaunted, technology providers and their corporate clients are pushing toward a future in which an increasing percentage of customer inquiries can be handled automatically and, hopefully, with better results. They aim to build so-called "service bots"—software-hardware hybrid systems that understand spoken or written English (or any other dialect or language preferred by the customer), interpret vague or broad queries, possess a thorough understanding of both the company's products and the customer's past interactions, and speak or write answers in an intelligible, context- and emotion-sensitive fashion. The necessary skill set for the perfect service bot demands several interdependent layers of technology: voice recognition modules, natural language understanding engines, artificial intelligence for data extraction and text-to-speech synthesizers.

Customers should like these new bots because they would be faster, more accurate and more consistent than live service agents, providing personalized interactions managed across any medium, available any time of the day. Companies will line up for the new technology in order to fend off ever-rising customer service costs and catastrophic call-center employee turn-over rates.

That's the premise, anyway. It may all sound pie-in-the-sky, but numerous technology companies, as well as research centers at leading academic institutions, are hammering away at the challenges of building a better service bot. The first generation is already here. Ford Motor Company employs a chatty online bot named Ernie, built by San Francisco-based NativeMinds, who helps technicians at its network of dealerships diagnose car problems and order parts. IBM's Lotus software division employs a service bot from Support.com that can examine a user's software, diagnose problems and fix them by uploading patches to the user's computer—without any necessary intervention by human tech support personnel.

And in an odd twist, Electronic Arts has built an entire game, called Majestic, around service bot technology built by San Francisco-based developer eGain. Majestic carries players through a complex, multi-media episodic mystery. Players receive clues and information via pager, fax, e-mail, Web sites and even telephone calls. eGain's service bot keeps track of player information such as what clues they've collected and how they have reacted. The software can handle 100,000 simultaneous player interactions.

But given the lousy track record of automated customer service so far, consumers have reason to be skeptical of this new generation of talking machines. Confusing or insufficient menu choices, lack of personalization, outdated or insufficient responses and failure to carry over punched-in account information to conversations with live reps rank at the top of consumer complaints about automated customer service systems today. Almost 40 percent of Americans press zero whenever they encounter an automated answering system, rather than waiting to hear the menu options, according to a study conducted in 1998 by the Center for Client Retention.

So will service bots truly give us better service, or will they simply allow companies to reinforce the walls between themselves and customers? Can we really hope for a better-than-human service bot? And, is it realistic to expect companies to deploy tomorrow's automated systems any better than they deploy today's?

"I don't think it's possible to even imagine a generic customer service [bot] that can handle any kind of question in any industry," says Joe Bigus, leader of the Agent Building and Learning Environment (ABLE) project at IBM Research. Bigus' research group has recently produced a toolkit that allows developers to build small software agents—programs that gather information and perform duties automatically—in Java. The toolkit consists of software code that provides baked-in machine learning capabilities and a set of instructions for customizing the software agents with specific domain knowledge. This allows developers to design any number of discreet agents that possess specialized knowledge and problem-solving capabilities; the agents can even interact with one another when faced with a complex problem.

By facilitating the deployment of a number of small, specialized software agents—rather than one massively complex agent—this approach mimicks the way human resources are managed: customer service agents at Sony aren't all trained to understand every product from audio cassettes to digital video cameras. Instead, small groups of service agents are given specific products to understand thoroughly.

Continued at http://www.techreview.com/articles/nickell031502.asp

See Also Text Reading that translates written text into voice audio.

Sprite= An independent graphic object that moves freely across the screen.

SSA = Serial Storage Architecture, along with its FC-AL Fibre Channel alterative, that offer huge bandwidth networking schemes that operate within an Eithernet network. Shared discs in SSA or FC-AL systems can be operated over networks as fast as hard drives on a local computer. Furthermore, the connecting cables are "thin" relative to traditional SCSI connection cables. Whjile Ultra-Wide SCSI has a 40Mbps maximum bandwidth, SSA offers 80 MBps and FC-AL goes up to 100 MBps. SSA is fully duplex with two cables to devices. One advantage of SSA is that if a connected device fails, the entire loop does not fail since SSA does not require a hub. Over time, SSA systems and FC-AL will probably replace SCSI systems. See also SCSI.

SSL = (See Socket. Also see Internet Messaging.)

Stand-alone= (See CD-Stand Alone)

Star topology= A network configuration where each node is connected by a single cable link to a central location, called the hub.

Still video camera= (See Dry camera)

Streaming = (See Web Streaming)

Structured= This adjective describes how data are stored and used at companies. Travel agents, for example, type information into designated spaces on electronic forms on their computer screens that are connected to database programs. That structures, or categorizes, the information so it can be searched and sorted using such criteria as a customer's name or destination. The Web, in contrast, stores data in an unstructured way that limits the kinds of searches that can be performed.

Structured Query Language = (See Relational database management.)

Student response pads = Hand-held wireless audience response pads which allow individual answers or group frequency responses to be immediately displayed in front of the class. The pads themselves must be separately purchased. HyperGraphics is the only CMS vendor that sells response pads with built in CMS software utilities. Barry Rice at Loyola College in Maryland performs Multimedia ToolBook authoring with student response pads for accounting applications in a Windows environment. See also Remote control and Electronic classroom)

Studio classroom= An application of computer technology pioneered by Jack M. Wilson at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute for replacing large lecture courses with students working in pairs in front of computer screens where they interactively tackle problems and issues rather than listen to or passively watch lectures in front of a mass lecture section. The only lecture comes at the beginning and end of class where the instructor commences or wraps up the learning session. The "studio" is a combination lab and electronic classroom.

Dr. Wilson serves as the President of the University of Massachusetts system. He had been serving as the Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University of Massachusetts System and is the founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UMassOnline, the University of Massachusetts Virtual University. As Vice president he was responsible for the coordination of the academic programs in research and teaching throughout the five campus system. As CEO of UMassOnline he worked with the five physical campuses, Amherst, Lowell, Boston, Worcester, and Dartmouth to provide online access to the programs of the University of Massachusetts.

Jack Wilson was one of the early pioneers in education technologies and learning. He is now CEO and founder of UMass Online .

Dr. Wilson, also known as an entrepreneur, was the Founder (along with Degerhan Usluel and Mark Bernstein), first President, and only Chairman of LearnLinc Corporation (now Mentergy), a supplier of software systems for corporate training to Fortune 1000 Corporations. In early 2000. LearnLinc merged with Gilat Communications, (GICOF) which also acquired Allen Communication from the Times Mirror group. The Gilat-Allen-LearnLinc combination forms a powerful "one stop shopping" resource for E*Learning that is now the Mentergy unit of Gilat Communications. (The LearnLinc Story).

Dr Wilson was the J. Erik Jonsson '22 Distinguished Professor of Physics, Engineering Science, Information Technology, and Management and the Co-director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at Rensselaer. After coming to Rensselaer in 1990, he served as the

·    Dean of Undergraduate Education,

·    Dean of Professional and Continuing Education,

·    Interim Provost,

·    Interim Dean of Faculty, and as the

·    Founding Director of the Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education.

In these roles, Wilson led a campus wide process of interactive learning and restructuring of the educational program, known for the design of the Studio Classrooms, the growth of the Distributed Learning Program, the creation of the Faculty of Information Technology, and the initiation of the student mobile computing (universal networked laptop) initiative

The Studio Classrooms at Rensselaer replaced large sized core courses taught by traditional lecture pedagogy with student teams responsible largely for teaching themselves using computer-aided and interactive course materials --- http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/WNCTW/ad7.html

Welcome To Interactive Learning
Roll up your sleeves and take a seat in the Rensselaer studio classroom. Classes of about 60 students are engaged at wired workstations - utilizing cutting edge tools like Web-based technologies, full-motion video, computer simulation, and other laboratory resources. An instructor and teaching assistant move from workstation to workstation observing and coaching. Notes are taken with a simple mouse click, as students download files and class materials onto their required laptops. It's an innovative blend of discussion and skill-building, high-tech inquiry and problem-solving - preparing scholars to succeed in the new business world. It's all part of Interactive Learning at Rensselaer.

More Studios Than Hollywood
Interactive Learning is more than just a concept at Rensselaer; it's a working reality. The approach has been infused throughout all of our undergraduate disciplines in more than 25 studio classrooms with more being built all the time. In the LITEC studio classroom, students build remote-controlled cars in a project-based, team environment. In the Circuits Studio, students develop and test their own circuits. The Collaborative Classroom, funded by the National Science Foundation, serves as a testbed for using computer technology to collaborate on design projects. At Rensselaer, knowledge and application are seamlessly intertwined.

Teaching How We Teach
Rensselaer's revolutionary model for education has been talked about, honored, and emulated. We earned the first Pew Charitable Trust Award for the Renewal of Undergraduate Education and the first Boeing Outstanding Educator Award, among others. Last year, we were named to administer an $8.8 million Pew-funded program to bring educational innovation to other universities in this country: The Center for Academic Transformation. Literally hundreds of institutions have visited Rensselaer to learn how we teach.

No Stopping Now
Of course, the very thinking that enabled Rensselaer to initiate Interactive Learning is the same mindset that keeps us pressing forward. Rensselaer's Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education was founded 11 years ago with the continuing mission of making Rensselaer a leader in innovative pedagogy. More recently, the Rensselaer Academy of Electronic Media has become the spawning ground for highly creative visualization software that enables students to learn scientific and engineering principles in ways never before possible. We continue to look for new and better methods to evolve education - meeting the present and future needs of our students, professors, and global businesses. Because solving real-world challenges is our mission and our passion.

For a summary short summary see http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/News15/text4.html . (See also Electronic classroom)

SUN= Sun Microsystem computers, most of which are network workstations using Unix operating systems. The Sun Microsystems SPARClassic M (under $5,000) and 10SX (over $15,000) are designed to compete with the SGI Indago line for multimedia computing. (See also SGI, Sparc, and Unix)

Surfing= (See Web surfing)

Surfing backwards= (See Web surfing backwards)

SVG = open-standard vector graphics format that lets you add high-quality graphics and animation to Web pages using plain text commands. It's the powerful combination of dynamic two-dimensional vector graphics and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Simply put, SVG creates small file sizes for faster Web page downloads, offers unlimited color and font choices, and that's just the beginning. Find out more about SVG at http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Overview.htm8

S-VHS= (See VHS)

Switched network= Is the opposite of dedicated bandwidth on the information highway. It is analogous to having a bridge that opens certain lanes in one direction to accommodate traffic flows in the morning rush hours and then changes the directions to accommodate evening rush traffic. In the case of switched networks, the bandwidth dedicated to flows of data, voice, video, and audio can be changed as needed. For example, video may require a temporary widening that limits data and audio flows. (See also Bandwidth, Information highway, and Video server)

Synchronous= A method of communication using a time interval to distinguish between transmitted blocks of data.

Synchronous connection= An analog to analog or digital to digital connection that is able to perform two or more processes at the same time by means of a mutual timing signal or clock.

Syntax= The rules of construction and terminology of a computer programming language. These rules are analogous to rules of spelling and grammar in a language, except that syntax rules are usually less forgiving. We can read a thousand-page book that has one error in spelling or grammar. Such is not the case with a computer program because it will not usually run if there is a syntax error.

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Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Tags= These are formatting codes used in HTML documents. Tags indicate how parts of a document will appear when displayed by browsing software.

Taligent= A former software development venture initially commenced by Apple and IBM corporations. In 1994, Hewlett-Packard announced it would take 15% in Taligent and provide technical support. Taligent's primary mission is to develop cross-platform object-oriented operating systems and applications software, the first release of which will be in 1995 for IBM's Unix-based system called AIX. Versions for OS/2, PowerOpen, and Hewett-Packards HP-UX systems will follow. The future of Taligent along with a similar joint venture at Kaleida Labs is somewhat uncertain due to changing times and top management strategies in IBM and Apple according to Information Week, May 23, 1994. Key features of the Taligent applications operating system and the "People, Places, and Things" user interface are discussed in Panettieri (1994b). The key feature is the object-oriented design that will greatly reduce the time and effort needed by software developers who can make use of chunks of pre-written code.

In in 1996, Taligent seemed beaten up and dead in the water until IBM decided to put an enoromous investment into Java support. In 1997, Taligent became the industry leader in Java development. (See also Java, Kaleida and Pink)

TCP/IP= Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is an internet transmission protocol that is extremely popular on the Internet. This is a standard for routing and data transfer around the world. It has become even more important in the rising tide of intranets. A good beginner's guide is provided in PC Magazine, November 19, 1996, pp. 223-224. (See also CORBA, Internet, and Intranet.)

TDMA = (Wireless Glossary of Terms)

Teleconference= A telephone communication in which more than two people are simultaneously connected so they can exchange verbal comments as if they were in the same room having a face-to-face conference. A teleconference need not have visual communications in addition to audio communications, but modern technology now makes it possible to see conference members on monitor screens or television screens. (See also IRC and Videoconferencing)

Telematics = the combination of computers in concert with telecommunications systems. This includes dial-up service to the Internet as well as all types of networks that rely on a telecommunications system to transport data.

Telephony = real time telephone conversation across a network, especially networks on the Internet. See Chat Lines and IRC.

Television= (See Video)

Telnet= The Internet standard protocol for remote login service that allows users on the Internet to access programs and applications on computers in remote locations. Telnet allows a user at one site to interact with a remote timesharing system at another site as if the user's terminal were connected directly to the remote computer. When using the Internet, type "Telnet" followed by a space and the address of the computer for remote login. Note that the Telnet protocol should not be confused with the Telnet public data network. (See also Protocol and Remote login)

TENet= Texas Education Network education Internet computer network connecting 15,000 school teachers and administrators in Texas. On the Internet, people from around the world can communicate with educators and access educational resources such as an online encyclopedia, the Educational Resources Information Center Documents Database (ERIC), lesson plans, study guides, current events, etc. (See also Internet)

Text conversion= (See OCR)

Text reading = The conversion of computer text into audio sounds. The flip side of "speech recognition" is "text reading" conversion of written text into audio. The pioneer in this technology is Bell Labs athttp://www.islip.com/. That Bell Labs web site has some wonderful demonstrations of this technology. Apple Computer has a text manager in its AV models. Options such as Text Assist from Creative Labs (800-998-1000) and related hardware/software from sound board vendors are available for PCs.

Text-to-Speech (Audio) is Quite Good Unless There Are Words Not in a Standard Dictionary

Try it out at http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal
The free software tries on such terms as "homoscedasticity" and "heteroscedasticity."

This software is useful for blind persons --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped

Bob Jensen's threads on speech/text recognition are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Speech.htm

"Lawyers Find Technology Helps with Reading Workload," PR Web, July 28, 2006 --- http://www.prweb.com/releases/legal/textaloud/prweb417395.htm

A life in the legal profession is filled with challenges. From demanding hours and monumental workloads, to the challenges posed by constant deadlines, huge caseloads, firm and client management, and legal research -- it's a notoriously tough profession. And among those challenges for law students and lawyers are the tasks of preparing and proofing a variety of legal manuscripts, letters and documents, along with maintaining an often massive reading list -- from legislation changes and updates, to legal research and case preparation, industry articles, and more.

Luckily, Text to Speech programs like NextUp's TextAloud ( www.NextUp.com ) assist those in the law profession in proofing their work or keeping up with their reading no matter where they are, through the freedom offered by listening to the material read aloud. TextAloud is an award-winning program that converts text into spoken audio for listening on a PC, and that can also save text to audio files for playback on portables like the iPod (R), PocketPC (R), and a wide range of portable devices.

People from a wide variety of professions have already found TextAloud to be an indispensable everyday tool, but the program has proven particularly popular among those in the study or profession of law. Many small firms or single-attorney offices face a mountain of document preparation from deeds, wills, lawsuits, and other court documents -- without the time or manpower to adequately proof those materials. TextAloud has proven invaluable in these instances, helping to improve reading comprehension and speed while offering the opportunity to proof work "by ear," and from anywhere. The program's ability to address formidable reading or study challenges for such users no matter where they are -- out of the office, waiting for a court appearance, or even at leisure -- has proven to be truly transformative.

In recent surveys of TextAloud's legal industry users, several respondents noted their use of the program specifically for the pursuit or study of law -- following are just a few testimonials:

* David D. (Attorney): "As a lawyer, TextAloud saves me hundreds of hours a month. If I get a contract or other document that requires a complete but only cursory inspection, TextAloud can be great for that. I also listen to long e-mails, articles from my favorite Web sites, and even entire books. I honestly don't know how I ever got by without it."

* Gordon L. (Attorney): "I use TextAloud to keep me updated on new case law and legislation by downloading a text or even a PDF file (my favorite feature) and then having TextAloud read it aloud to me over my iPod. It's a good timesaving technique, and permits me to review more law than I would otherwise. And used in combination with a portable audio device like an iPod or other MP3 player, you can make relatively productive use of time spent driving, waiting in line, grocery shopping, etc. Using TextAloud lets me get home to my wife and three kids sooner, rather than later."

Continued in article

Advances in Text to Speech

Type in some text and hear it read back to you --- http://vhost.oddcast.com/vhost_minisite/demos/tts/tts_example.html
Hint: Try some words that are not in the dictionary.

The Oddcast homepage is at http://vhost.oddcast.com/vhost_minisite/

May 3, 2006 reply from Stephen Field (Professor of Chinese at Trinity University)

Bob, for your information it also works when I type Chinese characters into the window.

Even the tones are correct when spoken!

iSpeak Personal Text Reader and MP3 Recorder --- http://www.computertimes.com/oct01edchoiceispeak.htm
(So simple that it does not even have a manual and the current price should be under $50.

iSpeak Personal Text Reader, from Fonix, reads text with a natural, human sounding voice using inflection, intonation, and pauses, to facilitate listening comprehension. This is not only a useful product, it is also a lot of fun. It injects “personality” into your PC with voices that let you control speed, pitch, and volume.

iSpeak allows you to quickly and easily transform text into clear, natural sounding audio files. With just a few clicks, you can conveniently scan e-mail, review Websites and listen to lengthy documents - all while working on other tasks, like browsing the Web, cooking dinner or writing a letter. You can even save text files as portable MP3s and then listen to them on a plane, in the car or anywhere else you want to be.

iSpeak is also ideal for those who are learning English as a second language or for children who are just learning to read. Simply highlight the desired text and then hit play to hear how it’s read, or set iSpeak to pronounce specific words as they’re typed in. The uses for iSpeak are many.

ISpeak is a powerful and flexible personal text reader. iSpeak can speak with a high-quality, human-sounding voice and voice lists of text files, text you enter from the keyboard, and the contents of the clipboard. With iSpeak, you can record synthesized speech to MP3 (.mp3) or Wave (.wav) files. You can also listen to and record Microsoft Outlook 2000 email with the click of a button.

Computer requirements for iSpeak?

Pentium computer (minimum 100MHz processor)

35 MB available disk space for Compact installation or 288 MB for Typical installation

32 MB RAM

CD-ROM drive

A Sound Blaster 16 or compatible sound card

Microsoft Windows 95/98/2000, ME, or Microsoft NT 4.0

What type of files will iSpeak read?

iSpeak will only read text files. A text file is a text-only file, which does not include formatting or graphics. Text files end with the extension .txt. To create a text file from text in an existing document, simply copy the text and paste it into Notepad, then save the new file. iSpeak will not play Word files (.doc).

Will iSpeak create and play audio files?

iSpeak can play a text file and record the synthesized speech to an MP3 (.mp3) or Wave (.wav) file. You can choose to record synthesized speech as a single audio file or as several audio files. However, iSpeak will only play text files. To play the audio files you have created, you must have an application that plays audio files.

Will iSpeak read email?

Fonix iSpeak 2.0 supports Microsoft Outlook® 2000. This does not include Microsoft Outlook Express® or any other e-mail application. During the iSpeak installation, an iSpeak menu will be automatically added to your Outlook menu bar. You can select the e-mail messages that you want iSpeak to read, play the contents of the inbox or a selected folder, and specify which e-mail messages iSpeak should read.

Will iSpeak read content from the World Wide Web?

iSpeak will read text from any web page. Simply copy the text, then click the Play button on the iSpeak interface. Alternatively, you can create a text file by pasting the text into Notepad, then save the new file.

What are the iSpeak modes?

The functionality of iSpeak is organized into two modes: Playlist and Keyboard. In Playlist mode, iSpeak will read text files that you organize into playlists, or lists of files. In Keyboard mode, iSpeak will voice individual keys, individual words, entire sentences, or combinations of all three.

What are iSpeak skins?

You can select between multiple skins to change the appearance of the iSpeak interface. Each skin provides the same functionality, but displays the interface elements differently.

You can download different skins from the Internet.

What are some common uses of the iSpeak product?

Save files or e-mail to listen to while you commute.

Get a feel for how a presentation or speech will sound.

Edit documents for school or work (you'll hear spelling or grammar errors your eyes don't see).

Save the synthesis of articles and online courses and textbooks to audio files for convenience.

Save stories to be read aloud to children as they follow along.

Use it to help teach English as a Second Language courses.

Use it to read your love notes to your significant other.

.System Requirements

- Pentium computer (minimum 100 MHz processor)
- Microsoft Windows 95,98,2000,NT,ME
- Hard disk with a minimum of 35 MB of free drive space
- 35 MB RAM for Compact installation or 288 MB RAM for Typical installation
- CD-ROM drive
- A Sound Blaster 16 or compatible sound card

Barry Rice forwarded the following message in January 1998:

Dear Mr. Rice: Thank you for your interest in the Lucent Technologies TTS system. The Windows 95/NT version of our multilingual TTS will be available for beta test in September, although the beta program is full at this time. General availability is scheduled for November. The full Software Development Kit, containing SAPI-compliant engines for both ASR and TTS, will be in the $500 range. Specific information on this product will be given on the Bell Labs web site shortly prior to general availability, so check our site again at that time. John Holmgren Business Development Manager Lucent Technologies Phone: 908 949-8864 Email: jholmgren@lucent.com

From Syllabus News on September 11, 2001

Convert Print to Spoken Words

The recently released Scan and Read family of software scans any printed material and converts it to spoken words, delivered in a variety of voices through the computer's speaker. The software also displays the text on the screen and highlights each word as it's read, a helpful feature for readers of all ages, those with learning disabilities, and non-English speakers looking for a way to increase their vocabularies. The more advanced members of the software family include word processing capability; the ability to access Microsoft Word files and convert them to spoken words; automatic image rotation, which allows software to convert text regardless of how it's positioned on the scanner bed; and the ability to create MP3 files, which can then be downloaded to other devices.

For more information, visit http://www.premier-programming.com.

Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine (Music, Speech, Recording, History) http://www.dismuke.org/

This is fascinating with all sorts of implications for research and future communication!

"Animated face helps deaf with phone chat," by Will Knight, NewScientist.com, August 4, 2004 --- http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996228

Software that creates an animated face to match someone talking on the other end of a phone line can help people with hearing difficulties converse, suggests a new study.

The animated face provides a realistic impersonation of a person speaking, enabling lip-readers to follow the conversation visually as well as audibly.

The prototype system, called Synface, helped 84 percent of participants to recognise words and chat normally over the telephone in recently completed trials by the UK's Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID).

The RNID trials involved hard-of-hearing volunteers trying to decipher preset sentences and also taking part in real conversations.

Synface takes around 200 milliseconds - one fifth of a second - to generate the animated annunciations. But the system incorporates a fractional delay, so that the face is perfectly synchronised with the voice on the end of the line.

Regional dialects

Synface runs on an ordinary laptop and can be connected to any type of phone, including a cell phone. It uses a neural network to match voice to mouth movements. This mimics the way neurons operate inside the brain and can be trained to recognise patterns.

The neural network used by Synface identifies particular sounds, or "phonemes", rather than entire words. This has been shown to be a particularly fast way of matching words to animation. By concentrating on sounds the system can also represent words that it has not encountered previously.

The technology is not meant to assist people who are profoundly deaf, but rather those who have some hearing difficulties. Around one in seven people in western countries fall into this category. So far, Synface has been trained to work in English, Swedish and Dutch. It could also be fine-tuned to recognise different regional dialects.

"The accuracy still needs to be improved," admits Neil Thomas, head of product development at the RNID. But he says it could eventually make life easier for many people who have trouble hearing.

"There are a lot of people who struggle with using the telephone," Thomas told New Scientist. "It really gives them an added level of confidence."

The system was developed by researchers at Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm, Sweden, University College London, UK as well as Dutch software company Viataal and Belgian voice analysis firm Babletech.

Bob Jensen's threads on multivariate faces are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm#faces

See also speech recognition and www.bevocal.com

Text recognition= (See Text reading)

Texture= Texturing effects in graphics images and multimedia backgrounds. Comparisons of software options for "tantalizing textures" are compared in NewMedia, November 1994, p. 104.

Three-beam projector= A computer/video projector having three color beams (guns) to project computer and/or video images on the wall or large screens. These are generally the top of the line in terms of projection quality and lowest in line in terms of portability. Most of these have scan converters to convert computer RGB into NTSC images. Early models could only scan CGA images from PC computers. Modern versions can scan almost any type of computer display, although they may require skilled technicians to adjust the display whenever a computer is first connected to the projector. These projectors are very popular as ceiling mounts in electronic classrooms. (See also Projection, LCD, and Graphics adapter)

THX= (See Dolby-NR)

tif= (See TIFF)

TIFF= Tagged Image File Format graphics file format popularized by Aldus PageMaker for recognizeing graphics from different types of software. TIFF graphics files typically have a tif extension. (See also Graphics)

Tiger Video Server= (See Video server)

Time line= A graphical representation of a span of time and the chronological relationship of events.

Timeline presentation= A "linear" presentation where the sequence on images or tasks is predetermined and cannot be interactively altered or modified by the user. This is just the opposite of "nonlinear" hypertext and hypermedia presentations where users interactively determine or partly determine the sequencing. (See also Hypertext and Hypermedia)

Titles= The vast array of CD-ROM, CD-I, CD-3DO, videodisc, videotape, and other "titles" of electronic books, electronic games, etc. available on the market. Many such titles of interest to accounting educators are listed in Appendix 1. Jerram (1994b) reports on the "explosion" of CD-ROM titles in general (e.g., electronic books and games) in 1993 and 1994. Weiner (1995) describes the activities of publishing companies to expand multimedia titles and related software. Weiner features efforts by Addison-Wesley Interactive. For reviews of CD-ROM titles on the market, we recommend CD-ROM Today (see Appendix 4). (See also Authoring, Games, and Hypermedia)

TiVo (pronounced TeeVo)= digital video recorder (DVR) mostly used to capture television shows for replay later on according to an annual fee that downloads television schedules making it easier to choose what and when to record. History of this device and its controversies are summarized at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiVo

“Tapping Your TiVo's Hidden Talents,” by Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2008, Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120467445124611699.html

TiVo is well-known as a high-end DVR with a great user interface. Its bubble-popping sound effects and grinning, animated mascot help users forget how much it costs to use. (TiVo boxes range from $100 to $600, and TiVo service costs $129 for one year when prepaid.)

A fondness for TiVo has encouraged users to refer to it with designated nicknames and/or genders. A teacher friend of mine was recently asked by a student if her husband's name was TiVo after the child heard her say she would have to tell TiVo about a new TV show. But like any old friend -- or spouse -- who has been around for a while, TiVo has a few tricks up its sleeve that might surprise longtime users and new owners alike. This column includes just a handful of those tricks and highlights some features that may make TiVo more useful. These tips are for everyday users, not serious hackers, and many others exist.

Remote-Control Codes

Each of these codes is entered one time to enable an otherwise-hidden function, and three chimes signal the code is set. These functions can be disabled by entering the code a second time, or if TiVo is rebooted.

Clock: If you miss having a VCR nearby to tell you the time while you watch TV, TiVo can help. A digital clock can be programmed to show up in the lower right-hand corner of your television screen by pressing "SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-9-SELECT."

While playing recorded shows, this clock displays the current time and the elapsed time of the program you're watching. Personally, I check a show's progress by pressing the remote's Play button to see the progress bar, and the Info button shows the current time. But the on-screen clock might come in handy when you're watching TV on a terrible date and you don't want to get caught glancing at your watch.

30-second skip: One of the glorious functions of TiVo and other DVRs is their ability to fast-forward through commercials. But it takes practice to know when to press Play so as to completely miss commercials.

If you're unsure about your fast-forwarding technique, TiVo can be permanently set to skip ahead in 30-second increments, by entering "SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-3-0-SELECT." This code must be set while watching a recorded show. After that, the 30-second skipping works whenever you press the "Skip To Tick" button, which looks like an arrow pointing right to a straight line.

TiVo says this code won't work for longer time increments, like 90 seconds, and I tried using various increments, to no avail. Still, pressing this button about five or seven times in a row (depending on the show) gets you through commercials with less guesswork.

Disappearing progress bar: TiVo's progress bar, which shows how far along a program has progressed in terms of the entire show's duration, appears at various moments, such as when you first play a recorded show or unpause. This indicator lingers on the screen for just about three seconds, but if this seems too long, you can enter "SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-PAUSE-SELECT" to set the progress bar to disappear after less than a second.

I tried this setting on my TiVo, but one second showed only a quick blink of the progress bar, not enough time to see anything.

Number Shortcuts

From the TiVo Central menu, pressing each number on the remote control's numeric keypad skips directly to a different tool. Some of the more useful shortcuts include pressing "1" to go to Season Pass Manager (a list of programs that are set to automatically record every episode), "4" to go to Search Title and "8" to go to TiVo Suggestions.

Viewing Tips

TiVo can display a programming guide in a TV-Guide-like grid, or as a two-columned TiVo Live Guide that can list future shows for hours or days out. The top of Live Guide gives a detailed description of each selected program, along with its duration and TV rating.

The Now Playing list shows content stored on a TiVo. By default, this list is organized in time sequential order with same-series TV shows grouped into folders. Remote-control shortcuts re-sort this list: pressing "1" switches from sequential to alphabetical order and vice versa; pressing "2" ungroups shows to display each title; shows are regrouped into folders when "2" is pressed again.

Lesser-Known Features

Universal Swivel Search is a way of seeing how TiVo's various shows and movies are related to one another. It lists details about each program, including actors, directors, tags associated with a show (like love, dating and addiction) and suggestions of similar content. Swivel Search is accessed through the Find Programs menu or More Options while looking at a recorded show.

By selecting a Swivel Search detail about a particular show, such as one of its actors, you can see what else he or she starred in and whether or not that show or movie is available through TiVo or Amazon.com's Unbox. Unbox downloads movies directly to your TiVo ranging from $2 to $15 each depending on whether you rent or buy a movie.

Plenty of free Internet content can be downloaded from the Web to your TiVo. But TiVo confusingly places this content in two menus: Find Programs and Music, Photos, Products & More. Under Find Programs, a Download TV & Movies section offers Amazon Unbox movies and free TiVoCast content. The latter can be set to automatically download with Season Pass settings, such as The Onion's weekly video or ExerciseTV's twice weekly videos.

The Music, Photos, Products & More menu holds content like photos and unprotected MP3s from a nearby computer, podcasts, Rhapsody music, Yahoo! Weather and Traffic and on-screen games. You can even buy movie tickets through Fandango.

TiVo takes up valuable space in a home entertainment center, so it's important for the company to make sure its content is varied and useful. The codes and shortcuts mentioned can change the way you use this valuable device every day.

Token= The data packet used to carry information on LANs using the ring topology.

ToolBook= a Windows and Windows 2000 based authoring system for computer based training and education. The main competitor is Macromedia Authorware. ToolBook has full functionality with web delivery options of Neuron. For links to Asymetrix and applications on the web, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/links/prelim.htm. (See Hypermedia, Hypertext, and Authoring)

Topology= The manner in which nodes are connected on a LAN.

Touchscreen = An overlay for a computer monitor screen that allows users to control navigation and other actions by touching the screen. Although widely used for children, touchscreens are also useful when customers enter reception areas and library users want to search holdings listings. A review of options is provided in the NewMedia 1995 Tool Guide (pp. 101-103).

Track-at-once recording= A mode that lets you record contents to a disk in multiple sessions, a track at a time. (See also Disk-at-once recording and CD-R)

Training= (See Authoring and Multimedia)

Transaction Control (See Concurrency Control)

Trap Door (See Security)

Trojan Horse (See Security)

Trumpet Winsock= A popular, cheerier TCP/IP protocol stack.

Trustee rights= Rights given to users to access directories on the file server.

TULIP= A program from Elsevier Science (212-633-3787) to license universities to receive technical journals in electronic form, including bibliographic information. To date, over 43 Elsevier and Pergamon journals are available at major universities such as The University of Michigan, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, University of Tennessee, University of California, University of Washington, Virginia Tech, MIT, and others. This is probably the first major attempt by a publisher of science journals to depart from hard copy publishing in favor of electronic media. Major advantages to users include compactness for storage, rapid access and retrieval, keyword searching, and ability to add user annotations and updates

Twitter

The Secret Behind Twitter's Astonishing Growth
The most popular Tweets in the world are CNN (Rank 1) and Britney Spears (Rank 2)
It’s highly unlikely that Britney Spears does her own Tweets

First you may want to read about the explosive growth of social networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks
Then you will appreciate the unique features of Twitter

Continued at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks

Then read about computerized social network services --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_services

"The Secret Behind Twitter's Growth," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, April 1, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/

Social Networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks

Return to Top of Document

U-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

/ Ubiquitous Computing / Ultimedia Video / Uninterruptible power supply / Unencod/undecode / UML / Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) / Uninterruptible Power Supply / Unix / Upgrade / Upload / Urban Legend / URL / USB / USENet / User / User app / UUCP

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Ubiquitous Computing (Nanotechnology) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ubiquit.htm

Also see Fullerenes

Ultimedia Video= Is IBM Corporation's OS/2 equivalent of Video for Windows. Ultimedia Video IN/2 is priced at under $200 and supports video capture and editing in IBM Ultimation and Indeo compression formats. It can deliver up to 30 fps at 320 by 240 window size if the user's hardware can handle the upper-end capabilities. (See also OS/2 and Video for Windows)

UML = Uniform Modeling Language

"UML Hits the Street," by Jack Vaughan, Application Development Trends, September 2001, pp. 18-23 --- http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=4805

When people initially get down to work with the Unified Modeling Language (UML), it is typically the first time they take up the practice of use cases. These are an important element of UML, intended to help gather functional requirements, as well as to provide a means of communication among development team members.

But use cases are not without controversy. And for long-time industry observers, the controversy may be somewhat familiar.

Many of the brickbats loosed years ago upon Case tools and structural analysis are now aimed at UML and use cases. Use cases lead to "analysis paralysis." Use cases are "shelfware." These are just some of the criticisms unloaded by influential software consultants and authors, many of whom are counted among the ranks of eXtreme Programming (XP) advocates.

At times, the XP squad, although it includes a number of individuals who see some merit in use cases, seems to echo the arguments of Rapid Application Development (RAD) advocates of the client/server era. These earlier RAD advocates challenged development orthodoxy of the day, which centered on "waterfall" processes. The RAD folk also took some arrows for creating a few allegedly non-scalable and non-repeatable systems.

On one level, the battle—and "battle" is probably too powerful a word—between UML and XP is new evidence of the timeless divide between designers who want just a little more time to do a little more analysis of system needs, and developers who just want to start coding.

This situation is natural. UML had something of a honeymoon. It arose in the late 1990s out of the combined efforts of notable software methodologists Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh and Ivar Jacobson, who came to work at Rational Software Corp. and who came to be known in a series of road shows as "The Three Amigos." The battle of the object methodologies was effectively ended as UML standardization responsibility was eventually ceded to the Object Management Group (OMG). Now, as UML is increasingly used, developers have had some mixed experiences, so there is a higher likelihood that UML will take a few shots.

While the recent UML World 2001 conference held in New York City featured sessions that considered new UML extensions and studied best practices in UML use case gathering, the conference was just as notable for a use case panel at which UML and XP proponents traded verbal barbs.

In technology, such battles are common. But if you are getting ready to sit down to a slug fest between UML and XP, I'm sorry—this is not that article. Rather than focus on the guerre du jour, this effort will instead uncover some user experiences with use cases. This will hopefully provide a useful backdrop for development managers trying to visualize their next steps in design and development.

Unencod/undecode = (See Internet Messaging).

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) = (See RDF.)

Uninterruptible power supply= A device that keeps computers running after a power failure, providing power from batteries for a short period of time.

Unix= An operating system developed by Bell Laboratories for use on large workstations. Latest information on Copeland and other operating systems can be obtained at <http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/center/default.html>. Details are provided in Information Week, April 29, 1996, p. 15. Unix became one of the main operating systems for networked computers. It is especially suited for networks and is commonly used for Internet networks. The Unix System V Release 4 based operating system is called Sun's Solaris that runs off Sun Workstations and the PowerPC. IBM's Unix-based operating system is called the AIX, and the Hewlett-Packard version is called HP/UX. A discussion of whether Unix should become more of a part of operating systems in accounting practices is provided by Courtney and Hunton (1993). Since the advent of Windows 2000, much of this argument becomes muted. (See also AU, SCO Open Desktop, Networks, and Operating system)

News from Microsoft --- http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/migrate/unix/default.asp

As the Windows platform continues to evolve to address changing business computing needs, many organizations currently on UNIX platforms are turning to Windows to run their new client and server business applications. They're discovering that moving to the Windows platform does not require abandoning existing investments in UNIX applications and infrastructure.

This section explains why customers should consider migrating to Windows from UNIX. It also provides detailed information for IT professionals and developers on how to move from UNIX systems to Windows XP, Windows 2000, and the upcoming Windows .NET Server and Microsoft .NET Web services platforms.

Why Migrate to Windows from UNIX and Linux

How to Migrate to Windows from UNIX and Linux

Migration Tools and Resources

Upgrade= (See Multimedia upgrade)

Urban Legend =

Urban legends are lies about what somebody said or wrote and are circulated wildly across the Web or some other network, including mouth-to-mouth dissemination. . The best way that I found to check on something before I forward it is to select an identifying phrase such as part of the title of a story. Then I go to http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
I enter the selected phrase into the "exact phrase" box and then in the "all of the words" box above I enter the word "urban" and the word "legend" without quote marks. Then I hit the Google Search button.

There are hundreds of sites that explain and/or archive supposed urban legends, some of which are as follows:

A great article on how urban legends work ---
http://science.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend.htm
http://www.snopes.com
http://www.urbanlegends.com/
http://www.urbanlegends.com/
http://www.ulrc.com.au/

We should always check to see if something is an urban legend before we pass it along. However, once something is claimed to be an urban legend, there is a tendency to immediately conclude the claim that it is urban legend is a true claim.

What about claims that may be false? Is there any site devoted to setting the record straight about urban legends that are not urban legends?

Proving a legend to be true is often a scholarship question, such as when a writer claims that "X did not say yyyy." A scholar may then search among the archives of the world for proof that X really did say "yyyy." What is more difficult, however, is when claims cannot be researched in any archives. For example, one might claim that President Lincoln had an affair during his presidency. To my knowledge, there is no archived record of such a claim. And people who might know first hand are no longer living. All we can do is criticize all unsupported claims for not being supported by any credible evidence.

After my Google search finds a site that boldly asserts that something is an urban legend, like most people I immediately concluded that it is an urban legend. Proving it to be otherwise may be impossible or impractical relative to the time and money available to prove it otherwise.

What about claims that may be false? Is there any site devoted to setting the record straight about urban legends that are not urban legends?

Urban legends have urban legends about urban legends that claim not to be urban legends but really are urban legends that may in fact not be urban legends and so on infinitum. Some are blatantly false from the beginning; others are embellished over time. One definition is as follows from http://support.airmail.net/faq/glossary_mz.php

Urban legend - A story, which may have started with a grain of truth, that has been embroidered and retold until it has passed into the realm of myth. Some legends that periodically make their rounds include "The Infamous Modem Tax," "Craig Shergold/Brain Tumor/Get Well Cards," and "The $250 Cookie Recipe."

One thing not to be believed is the typical claim that "This is not an urban legend." That's generally a signal that what follows is all or mostly bull.

One thing I do know! When one urban legend site claims something is an urban legend, the other urban legend sites follow the leader blindly like lemmings. Is there any site devoted to false claims about urban legends?

Bob Jensen

February 27, 2004 reply from David R. Fordham [fordhadr@JMU.EDU]

Bob, one of the modules in my AIS class is devoted to what I call “identification of trustworthy sources”.

While not a foolproof methodology, it is better than the “no methodology at all” approach used by the general population.

In a nutshell: use your own experience (supplemented by the experience of actual acquaintances whom you trust based on your own experience with them) to accumulate a repertoire (or harem, or collection, or …) of websites run by organizations which you trust to tell you the truth. Examples from my own collection include snopes, Symantec, McAfee, DataFellows, etc. I then rely on these “trustworthy” sites to tell me what is “the truth” vs. what is fiction.

Google searches return everything, and it is very easy to Spoof a legitimate site, even to Google. My experience has been thus: when someone tells me of a strange story, I check it out with one of my “trustworthy” sites, and 999 times out of 1000, I am surprised to learn that the trustworthy site not only tells me the story is a hoax, but that the hoax has been around since 1998, where it originated, why it is still circulating (e.g., the grains of truth which tend to bring the story to present consciousness, etc.), and other information which I didn’t know. Further, these sites often are “up to the minute” on new stuff, too.

There is no substitute for determining “who ya gonna call?”

I really like that quote, although I don’t know who to attribute it to: “The trouble with keeping an open mind is that people are always dropping their garbage in it.” Perhaps this was Pogo, too?

David R. Fordham
PBGH Faculty Fellow
James Madison University

URL= This is the abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator, the addressing system used in the World Wide Web and other Internet resources. The URL contains information about the method of access, the server to be accessed and the path of any file to be accessed.

USB = (See Bus.)

USENet or Usenet= USEr's Network of machines that exchange information tagged with labels called "newsgroups" which are transmitted between individuals at universities, secondary schools, government agencies, home computers, etc. Databases are available on many topics, from foreign hotels to kite flying. USENet traffic can be carried on the Internet, but is not restricted to the Internet. Internet users can exchange papers and lengthy data files. Anyone putting up a USENet newsgroup will discover that it is somewhat tedious.

Probably the least understood and least used resources on the Internet is Usenet (as opposed to the popular www). A nice article appears in "A Network for the World" by Richard Koreto in the Journal of Accountancy, August 1998, 33-35.

There are a variety of search engines that specialize in newsgroup searching, but few offer original content - most pull information from the DejaNews index. Tile.net at http://www.tile.net , however, provides special functions you won’t find in standard search engines and that can prove very useful in resear ching newsgroup information. Tile.net is a Web site designed to make USENET newsgroups easy to find. Tile.net’s advantage over other newsgroup indexes is that it helps you search for newsgroups rather than individual messages. Tile.net also provides statistics and other information about newsgroups and provides a link directly to each newsgroup, which will launch your Web browser newsreaders. Newsgroups in Tile.net are organized by index, description, and newsgroup hierarchy. Tile.net also provides information about listservs, FTP sites, and computer product vendors.

One of the more frequently posted questions is "How can I create a new newsgroup?" Briefly, creating a new newsgroup in the comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc or talk hierarchies involves first proposing the newsgroup in news.announce.newgroups, then conducting a "vote" among those Usenet readers who have an opinion on the proposed group. The entire process can take up to three months. For additional details see http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/8211/newgroup.html See Chat Lines and IRC.

User= Under NetWare, the definition of a set of access rights for an individual.

User app= (See Plug-in)

UUCP= Unix-to-Unix Copy Protocol that can be used for transferring files between Unix computers on network. (See also FTP)

Return to Top of Document

V-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

VAN / VAP / Variable / VB / VBE/AI / VBX / V-CD / VCR / Veronica / VESA / VESA/BIOS / VGA / VHS / Video, including how to make video clips of movements on a monitor's screen / Video adapter / Video board / Video camera / Video camera / Video camera still / Video capture / Video card / Video digital (DV) camcorders / Videoconferencing / Videodisc / Videodisc levels / Videodisc-digital / Video Editing (Digital) / Video for Windows / Video from digital (DV) camcorders / Video on the Internet / Video overlay / Video scan conversion / Video server / Video streaming / Video toaster / Video/audio networking (streaming) / Virtual / Virtual Reality / Virtual-image file / Virtual Private Networks (VPN) / Virus / Visual Basic / VL-Bus / VM-Channel / VoIP / voc / Voice recognition / VR / VRAM / VRML /

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

VAP= A Value-Added Process to the NetWare operation system provided by a third party vendor.

Variable= A named container that holds values, either numeric or text.

VB = (See Visual Basic.)

VBE/AI= (See Sound board)

VBX = (See Visual Basic and CORBA )

V-CD= (See CD-Karaoke)

VCR= A videotape player designed to connect to television sets or computer video capture boards. Videotapes are recorded in video format (e.g., NTSC or PAL) in half, three quarter, or one inch formats. The most common tape is the half-inch VHS tape, but for professional video materials and videodisc mastering one-inch tape is preferred. (See also VHS, Video, and Videodisc)

Veronica= This is a search utility that helps find information on gopher servers. Veronica allows users to enter keywords to locate the gopher site holding the desired information. The name is an acronym for "very easy rodent oriented net-wide index of computerized archives."

VESA= Video Electronics Standards Association that set such standards as the 1992 VL-Bus standards for local buses. A highly critical discussion of the VESA/BIOS Extension/Audio Interfase (VBE/A1) that is not backwards compatible with the Sound Blaster standard appears in New Media, June 1994, p. 18. (See also Sound board, Bus, ISO 9000, and VL-Bus)

VESA/BIOS= (See VESA)

VGA= (See Graphics adapter)

VHS= Videotape having 240-325 lines of horizontal resolution. Super VHS (S-VHS) and videodiscs contain up to 425 lines of resolution. S-VHS tape decks can also play VHS formats. (See also Video)

Video= A term that was once used to refer almost exclusively to analog recordings of images on tape that can be replayed at 30 or more frames per second (fps) depicting "full motion video." Since the age of digitization, the term now refers to analog or digital recordings (e.g., digitized video in computer files and HDTV) that can be replayed at 30 fps or a reasonably close approximation of full motion video. The term differs somewhat from "animation" in that animations are successions of still frames not necessarily intended to be "full-motion" at speeds comparable to video full motion. The highest quality video connectors are termed S-video connectors, whereas the lowest quality connector is the RF connector. Because of the tremendous bandwidth required for network transmission of video between computers, it is not yet common to watch a movie on the Internet. The wave of the future isMPEG compression. However, until there are millions of computer users with enough computer hardware capacity to run MPEG digitized video, Microsoft Video for Windows and Apple QuickTime will probably remain more common in CD-ROM authoring of education materials. Video options for the PC with particular stress upon Intel's Indeo Video amd Smart Video Recorder are analyzed by Liebman (1994). (See also Internet audio and video, Active video, Video server, HDTV, IDTV, PIP, POP, Videodisc-digital, Apple AV, Amiga, Ultimedia Video, Video for Windows, fps, MPEG, VHS, NTSC, PAL, and SECAM

Making videos and animations from still screens
Hi Richard,

Although I have not done so, it is my understanding that you can play a Flash movie within Authorware using Macromedia Flash Asset Xtra described at http://www.macromedia.com/support/authorware/documentation/awflash1/awflash1.html

I do not know how to create a flash movie from Authorware. This seems a bit awkward since Authorware is an interactive hypermedia learning software. Presumably, Nancy would like to create multiple movies for alternative hypermedia paths. The purpose, I assume, is to avoid having to download the Authorware player and/or to make the presentation more like going to the movies rather than having to click your way through a maze of buttons and hotwords.

If alternative hypermedia paths were each placed in a Flash or other movie, it would be possible to link each path's movie with simple HTML links. But if that is the main purpose, it would seem that using Authorware in the first place is not an optimal choice. I assume that Nancy already has the Authorware files authored and is now seeking a way to present parts of them in online videos.

Making avi files seems a bit heavy in terms of bandwidth and storage capacity required. Isn't there an MPEG alternative?

I might add some notes that I placed in New Bookmarks on March 12, 1999. I really like Lotus ScreenCam for making animations or videos of successions of screen images. This software does not come with a user's manual because the software is so easy to use that no manual is necessary. You can also capture audio, although Brian Zwicker once noted that even professionals have problems with ambient noise (I also have this problem). Lotus ScreenCam is great when you want to show students a succession of steps (software usage, journal entries, mathematics calculations, statistical tests, etc.) and narrate while you go. The reader is free (and not even necessary if you save the animation as a video).

In response to Brian's question, I don't think the quality of the audio or the video has a much of anything to do with whether you use Lotus ScreenCam, Microsoft Camcorder, or Hyperionics. HyperCam. The quality issue depends more upon the hardware of the particular computer used when the video or animation is captured.

I will comment on Lotus ScreenCam scm animation files versus avi video files. When I make an animated scm file it looks great and requires a small amount of disk space, say 249Kb of space for a 62 second animation. If I save the same file as a video avi file the same segment requires up to 55,092Kb of disk space for the highest quality video.

A minor difference is that the scm player must be downloaded to play the 249Kb file or any other scm files (this free scm player is very quick and easy to download and install from the Lotus web site). Most computers already have some capability to play avi files without downloading a proprietary player.

The essence of this problem arises in terms of web bandwidth. I once downloaded a 3,153Kb avi file from Ronald Tidd's web site at http://www.sbea.mtu.edu/rrtidd/avi/Excel/excel97.htm. It took 78 minutes to download across a T1 line starting. Of course the download would have been much faster when I arrived at work before 5:00 a.m. At either time of day, however, the download would have been much faster if Ronald had instead made a scm or other animation file of the same screen events the file would have been much smaller and flowed over the web much more efficiently.

As a compliment to Ronald, I want to stress that the quality of the audio and video is magnificent. However, It took 78 minutes to download a 3,153Kb file that only yields 45 seconds of playing time. One of the reasons for the high quality is his high sampling rate used in capturing the audio and video. A high sampling rate yields great quality at a great cost in terms of file size and bandwidth requirements on the Internet. I doubt that the software used matters nearly as much as the video/audio sampling rate, the quality of the microphone, the quality of the computer's capture hardware, and the screen resolution and video adapter quality of the computer itself (since we are talking about capturing successions of screen images here). I would opt for the Lotus ScreenCam scm file unless higher quality audio is absolutely essential. Users will save immense amounts of downloading time and disk storage space savings.

One drawback of the Microsoft Camcorder and the Hyperionics. HyperCam appears to be that they will only capture avi video files. Lotus ScreenCam provides a choice between the scm animation or the avi video options.

In any case, the relevant web sites are as follows (prices may have changed since March 12, 1999):

Lotus ScreenCam free trial version
http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/tabs/screencam
$28 PC Zone price at 800-419-9663

Microsoft Camcorder
Free inside the MS Office 97 Package
Reviewed at http://winweb.winmag.com/library/1996/1296/12r48.htm

Hyperionics. HyperCam
http://www.hyperionics.com/
$30 for downloading at the Hyperionics web site

Bob (Robert E.) Jensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212
Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210) 999-8134
Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard J. Campbell [mailto:campbell@RIO.EDU]
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2000 3:37 PM
To: AECM@VAX.LOYOLA.EDU
Subject: Re: Authorware and Flash

Nancy:

I'm a Flash author, but not into Authorware, but I am sure that you can play a Flash movie WITHIN Authorware. Alternatively, you can capture a non-interactive Flash movie as an avi file using a product like Camtasia (www.techsmith.com), which is one product I'll be showing at my CEP workshop - "Techie Teaching Tips: Beynd PowerPoint" at the annual AAA meeting Session # 19.

http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/aen/meet00/cpe/00cpe19.htm

Richard J. Campbell

www.VirtualPublsihing.Net

mailto:campbell@VirtualPublishing.Net

-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Lapierre [mailto:nlapierr@nbnet.nb.ca]
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 9:28 PM
To: rjensen@trinity.edu
Subject: Authorware and Flash

Hello!

I would like to know how I can convert an Authorware presentation into a flash movie?

A message from Gary Schneider [garys@SANDIEGO.EDU] on July 27, 2001

I've had very good luck with a product called HyperCam from
www.hyperionics.com

It does produce very fat AVI files, but those can be converted into MPEGs
with a free utility (link is on the Hyperionics site). HyperCam runs about
$30. They also have, if I recall correctly, a file editor that you can use
to touch up the AVIs before converting them. That product does cost
something closer to $100, but it is not essential for most people.

I've used Hyperionics' HyperSnap-DX for years to snap screen shots for my
books and have had very good experiences with the company and their support
of both products.

Video adapter= The video hardware that determines the resolution and color depth of screen images. A k-bit adapter can display 2 to the kth power colors. For example, an 8-bit adapter displays up to 256 colors whereas a 24-bit adapter can display over 16 millions colors in a single screen. In hypermedia authoring, problems are created when the color depth of the authored image is higher than the color depth of the user (customer, student, reader) computer. Mac and PowerPC computers will usually dither to make the image reasonably good for users, whereas PC users may have terrible images if their video adapters are too low in color depth. The same thing can happen if the user's PC screen resolution adapter is lower than the authored PC screen. These are terribly frustrating problems for authors and users. For this reason, most of the commercial PC graphics and video CD-ROM files are authored for lower video adapters than the author's video adapter. For example, the author may be capable of presenting a graphics image in 30 million colors in a resolution of 1024 by 768. The author may elect, however, to only use no more than 256 colors in standard VGA resolution in order to have better images on user computers with lower powered video adapters.

Video board= A somewhat misleading term that can apply to video capture and/or video playback hardware inside a computer. Video can be played back on computers without having video capture hardware. This enables CD-ROM users to view video and animations without having to install MPC or other standard video capture boards. However, if video capture boards are installed, users can also connect their computers to video sources (video recorders, video cameras, and television signals) in order to either view incoming video "on the fly" and/or capture segments of the video into digitized formats such as quicktime, avi, MPEG, or JPEG video formats. . Video board options for PCs are compared in NewMedia 1996 Tool Guide. In particular, Windows users should not purchase or install a video capture board before reading Doyle (1994b). He provides excellent advice on things to do before installing a Windows video board along with comparisons of alternative hardware options. Price is not currently a good indicator of quality and features. He also provides important advice for capturing and storing video files. For example, video files should not be saved using disk compression utilities like Doublespace or Stacker. For capturing and playback of digitized video into and out of computer files, a full-motion video frame grabber (digitizer) of some type allows authors to capture selected full-motion video (camcorder, videotape, videodisc, cable TV, satellite dish, etc.) images and convert those analog frames into digital graphics files on the computer. Video boards (cards) and frame grabbers start at around $200, but prices vary a great deal with vendors and options, including options under Microsoft Windows Video MCI standards, Apple QuickTime standards, IBM M-Motion (MM) standards, MPEG standards, and Intel Indeo standards. Virtually every major computer brand on the market has multiple options for video (multimedia) devices. Many of those devices also have accompanying frame grabber software. For example, readers may consider Pioneer's LaserActive system (213-746-6337). Compression boards for PCs come in a variety of prices and features. MPEG compression requires MPEG playback boards and/or MPEG authoring boards such as the Optibase MPG-1000 digital video code compression/decompression) board (800-451-5101).. Other alternatives such as XingIt from Xing Technology (800-294-6448) for video capturing software on ReelMagic MPEG playback hardware from Sigma designs (800-845-8086) are listed in Appendix 6. MPEG encoding compression boards are now available for under $1,000. Most computer vendors are now offering MPEG playback (decoding) options, but these differ from recording (encoding) options. However, until there are millions of computer users with newer computer hardware capacity to run MPEG digitized video, Microsoft Video for Windows under MCI standards and Apple QuickTime will probably remain more common in CD-ROM authoring of education materials until the market sorts out its preferences for MPEG, DVI, and the Intel Indeo. The term "video overlay" is used to depict a video board option to view live video "on the fly" in a monitor screen without burdening the CPU until the user elects to capture video. Not all video cards have video overlay options. (See also Active video, QuickTime, and Video capture)

Video camera = A camcorder camera that records full-motion images and audio directly to videotape. Video cameras exist for filming tapes of varying widths. Usually the wider the tape (e.g. one inch versus half inch), the better the picture quality. However, other factors such as High 8 versus Regular 8 come into play. High 8 cameras are especially popular among hand-held cameras, because of the professional quality for the size and price of the camera. Users who, for example, purchase an 8 mm video camera can play the tape into a videotape recorder and record VHS tapes or videotapes of other widths. (See also Hi-8, VHS, and Dry camera)

Video camera= A camera that captures video to tape or tape cassettes. These are typically called camcorders with popular models being analog camcorders in Regular8 or Hi8 quality. (See also Dry camera and Video from digital (DV) camcorders)

Video camera still= (See Dry camera)

Video capture= a process of transforming a video (e.g., NTSC) image into a computer (digitized) image. Video capturing options are reviewed in New Media, March 24, 1997, pp. 58-70. The process entails adding hardware and software designed to transform an analog (TV) image, say from a videotape, into a digital computer image. Usually a video capture board must be installed that is compatible with the bus of the computer. For example, a PC generally has an ISA, EISA, or MCA bus that in turn requires a compatible video capture board inside the computer. Video boards also enable computer users to view videotape or television images "on-the-fly" without necessarily capturing the images into computer files. Video capture boards vary greatly in price and quality. What is best for a given computer depends a great deal upon the amount of RAM, video RAM, graphics adapter, screen resolution, color depth, and speed of the computer. More recent comparisons are provided by Doyle (1994a) and (1994b). In particular, Windows users should not purchase or install a video capture board before reading Doyle (1994b). He provides excellent advice on things to do before installing a Windows video board along with comparisons of alternative hardware options. Price is not currently a good indicator of quality and features. (See also Video board, Active video, and QuickTime)

Video card= (See Video board)

Video digital (DV) camcorders= (See Video from digital (DV) camcorders)

Video/audio networking (streaming) = refers to audio and video on network that commences to play before files are fully downloaded. The terms "real" and "streaming" are synomyms in terms of network video and audio. For example, see http://www.tvontheweb.com/ and http://www.intrastream.com/ for an examples of streaming video players. An example of a daily news application is the Nightly Business Report delivered over real video at http://www.nightlybusiness.org/. Examples of real audio are provided at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm#Real1 For more detail see Web streaming.

Videoconferencing= Remote communication in which two-way video images are transmitted with audio. Although this can be accomplished with video cameras on special telephone connections, it is now possible to become much more sophisticated with videoconferencing using computers. A review of available systems is provided by Sherman (1995). Many colleges have videoconferencing systems in place (e.g., see T H E. Technology Horizons in Education, September 1993, pp. 38-40). Purportedly, the highest proportion of videoconferencing worldwide is for education and training. A review of videoconferencing options for the Internet is provided in New Media, March 24, 1997. (See also IRC, Internet phones and videoconferencing, Teleconference, and DSS)

Videodisc= An antiquated "large" (more than 12 cm or 4.72 inches) injection-molded optical disc containing digitized information that has been recorded with a laser device and must be read on a laser device known as a videodisc player. See CD-DVD for a discussion of why videodisc technology is in the sunset of its use in the world. The most common sizes are eight and 12-inch discs. A 12-inch disc will hold 54,000 video frames of super VHS quality. Full-length movies usually require more than one disc since only 30 minutes of video with audio can be stored on each side of a 12-inch CAV disc. A CLV disc can hold up to 60 minutes per side of a 12-inch disc. CLV holds more video but is more limited than CAV in terms of searching for individual frames. Two audio tracks can accompany a video track, thereby enabling educational audio to accompany entertainment audio. Although a videodisc resembles a CD-ROM in appearance, there are major differences. Relative to a CD-ROM disc, the laser disc is "large" in varying sizes of eight or more inches. Whereas a CD-ROM player can hold computer files and computer graphics images in common file extensions (e.g., GIF, BMP, PCX, TIF, JPG, etc.) and can be treated as a computer storage disc somewhat analogous to a high-capacity floppy disc, a videodisc cannot hold computer files. Videodiscs are more like videotape in that they are recorded in video formats such as NTSC or PAL or SECAM. Videodisc players are generally connected to television sets and will play on-the-fly in a computer only if that computer has a video board for any video source such as television inputs and VCR inputs. Videodisc and videotape images can be "captured" and transformed into computer files only if the computer has video capture hardware and software. Videodiscs are currently used in some multimedia presentations but their future in hypermedia is uncertain. Videodisc players cannot be made portable as CD-ROM players. Recently options became available for desktop recording of videodiscs. For example, Panasonic (201-348-7837) offers the LQ-3031T model starting at $12,500. However, most videodiscs mastered in professional labs require inputs of professional-quality videotape (usually one-inch videotape) produced in a video workstation. A second drawback of videodiscs is that, unlike CD-ROM discs, videodiscs cannot be previewed prior to being mastered. There are two types of videodiscs known as CAV and CLV. The most common entertainment and educational videodiscs are CLV discs. There are currently four levels of interactivity for videodisc players. Level "one" is controlled with an inferred or wired remote control or bar code reader. Level "two" players have programmable memory. Level "three" is controlled by an external computer which greatly improves interactive controls with hypermedia software. Level "four" is a high speed computer interface videodisc player that accesses each side of the videodisc. Level four is more useful for using a videodisc as an external storage device for computer data. For a short discussion of levels of interactivity see Lynch (1994), p. 19. Sources of educational videodiscs are given in Appendix 6. Applications in accounting education and training are listed in Appendix 1. Alternative videodisc players are discussed by Waring (1994a). Most hypermedia authoring software packages allow for interactive random access of videodiscs. NeXt users can control videodiscs from the Xanthus Craftman. One of the best buys for less than $1,000 is the MDP-1700R Multi Disc Player from Sony that plays different size discs and has an auto reverse feature that allows viewing and searching on both sides of the disc without having to turn the disc over in the playback machine. Videodiscs are likely to be overtaken by CD-DVD discs that will hold both video and data files. (See also CD-DVD, Bar codes, CAV, CLV, Delta Project, Videodisc-digital, CD, Titles, and CD-I)

Videodisc levels= (See Videodisc)

Videodisc-digital= A videodisc in digital format. For example, the DDV-7100 8-bit, 4.5 MHz bandwidth model was unveiled in October 1993 by Optical Disc Corporation (800-350-3500). The DDV-7100 will hold four hours of compressed digital video on one side of a 12-inch videodisc. Later systems will hold up to 10 gigabytes of data or one hour of HDTV. This technology is intended for interactive television of the future and for satellite uplinks and mass storage video servers. Playback units start at under $5,000 but recording units are likely to be found only in professional videodisc recording and reproduction laboratories since the disc recorder sells for almost $100,000 and requires other workstation hardware and software. This technology will probably be overtaken by newer CD-DVD technology. (See also CD-DVD)

Video Editing (Digital)

"Digital Video Editing" by Reno Marioni, Webmonkey, April 24, 2002 --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/15/index4a.html

In the pages that follow, I'll be taking a look at the basics of digital video editing and production using Apple's iMovie and Final Cut Pro 3, both of which run on the Macintosh (under either OS 9 or OS X).

iMovie is a free digital video editing program that comes bundled with every new Apple computer. It’s geared towards the novice, so it's incredibly intuitive and easy to learn. Final Cut Pro 3 is a more complex and professional level program with lots of features and a price tag of US$999. That may seem like a lot of cash, but it’s spare change compared to the costs of traditional video editing.

So the time has come for mere mortals — even poor, starving artists — to produce fine-tuned documentaries, commercials, music videos, and other works of video artistic expression. It just takes equal parts desire, dedication, and creative talent.

Continued at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/15/index4a.html

Video for Windows= Animation and video files that originally were developed by Microsoft Corporation for PCs running under Windows. This has become a widely popular option for PCs operating under MCI standards. Like QuickTime, Video for Windows is a low cost and low fps option that will be common in CD-ROM authoring of education materials until MPEG compression options and video networking become more widespread. Although Microsoft's Video for Windows and Apple's QuickTime captured early market share leads in digital video, newer and better compression alternatives such as Indeo and MPEG probably will take over this market. (See also DVI, QuickTime, Indeo, MPEG, Video, AVI, MCI, and Ultimedia Video)

Video from digital (DV) camcorders= Camcorders that capture video directly into digital formats that offer many advantages for multimedia computer files. The captured video can be copied indefinitely with higher resolution, digitized audio, and no loss of frames. The mini-DV cassettes are smaller and have at least double the capacity of the Regular 8 and Hi8 analog cassettes. Vendors and products are reviewed by Doyle (1996). (See also Dry camera)

Video on the Internet= (See Internet audio and video)

Video overlay= (See Video capture)

Video scan conversion= (See Scan converter)

Video server= The combination of hardware and software that allows for storage and transmission of continuous animation and video in real time. The core of a video server is a continuous media operating system that allows animation, audio, and real-time video to be processed and transmitted across networks or over digital television satellites. Major players are rushing to develop video servers, including the over $100 million dollar per year effort by the Advanced Technology Group (ATG) and Microsoft Corporation to develop the Tiger video server as part of the overall information highway architecture development code named Mimosa by Microsoft managers. For a review see Soat (1994). Microsoft's Tiger Video Server competes head on with rival video servers from IBM, Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Silicon Graphics Corporation, and others. What is unique about Tiger is that it can save about 90% on costs and can network the video directly into PC computers. For comparisons of video servers, see The Wall Street Journal, February 18, 1994, p. B1. (Also see Switched network and Set-top box)

Islip Media Inc. in Pittsburgh offers a speech recognition search engine for video libraries. It is costly, howver, at $50,000 for a 50 user license. The Islip web site is at http://www.islip.com/

Video streaming= (See Web streaming)

Video toaster = (See Amiga)

Virtual = a seeming reality that lacks some elements of total reality. Since the early days of computing, simulation has become the most common form of achieving virtual worlds for learning and research. The term "virtual" is now loosely applied in many contexts. At one extreme it is applied to most anything connected with a computer or networks. For example, network chat lines may be viewed as "virtual communities." Interactive creation (by multiple persons) of artificial worlds (e.g., MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes, simulations, etc.) has become a major component in creating virtual communities. At the other extreme there is virtual reality in its most advanced stages with headgear, wired body suits, simulated odors, simulated tactle sensations, surrounding 3-D worlds, interactions of multiple people and machines in a shared cyberspace, etc. Entire courses are either using or devoting the course to "virtual communities." For example, students in a sociology course at Northern Arizona University create virtual communities in a simulation of the colonization of mars. A Harvard University course is entitiled "Virtual Communities" with a web site at http://icg.harvard.edu/~cscie10/course-intro.html. See CMC, The term "virtual community" has evolved to where it usually refers to "conversations" that are not face-to-face and are often anonymous to at least the point where speakers cannot be identified (although groups to which they belong might be known). The key element is anonymity. Corporate boards of directors and other groups often pay to rent "silent meeting rooms" that are available in some universities such as the University of Arizona, Syracuse University, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and other campuses. In a "silent meeting," participants can be face-to-face and still communicate anonymously. This is because the "conversations" are taking place within the computers in front of all participants. When a participant makes a point, none of the other participants can detect which person in the room made the comment. See IRC, Simulation, USENet, MUDs, MOOs,and Virtual Realtiy.

Virtual Reality= Computer and video "VR" simulations that entail wearing headgear, electronic gloves, and possibly electronic body suits such that users are immersed in a cyberspace of simulated reality that gives the sensation of being in a three-dimensional world where objects can be moved about with hand movements and sensations of walking and touching are simulated using super computing power. The origins of virtual reality are in flight simulators of the military. There are now VR game arcades and laboratories where wide varieties of applications in entertainment, training, medical research, architectural design, data research, etc. are taking place. Virtual reality programs require massive computer power. Usually, the closer authors attempt to simulate the real world, the greater the computing power needed to achieve sensations of reality. Although most of virtual reality applications to date have been in training and entertainment, there are some applications in data analysis such as the use of VR to analyze international portfolio data in the TIAA/CREF Pension Funds. Winn (1994) contends VR will become a major part of university curricula. He cites evidence that VR is especially successful for learning in disadvantaged and physically handicapped students. In June 1994, Apple Corporation unveiled a new desktop computing software option (with a CD-ROM recorder) called QuickTime VR that takes a collection of photographs (e.g., photographs of numerous angles of the inside of a room) and assembles them into motion scenes that resemble more expensive virtual reality generated on super computers. Viacom Inc. sells a QuickTime VR entertainment CD-ROM called "Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual" that provides VR tours of the Starship USS Enterprise. For a review of some initial applications of QuickTime VR in anatomy education see Carlton (1994b). (See also Simulation and VRML.)

Also see Second Life (Virtual Learning) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#SecondLife

Virtual-image file= A set of pointers to the files on your hard disk to be sent to the CD-R drive, rather than a duplicate physical-image of those files. Usually employed for on-the-fly recording. (See also CD-R)

Virtual Private Network (VPN) = (See intranet.)

Virus = See Security.

For more about virus risks and email attachment risks, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/assurance.htm

More information can be found on the vendors' security pages:

Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/

Netscape

http://www.netscape.com/products/security/

Qualcomm

http://eudora.qualcomm.com/security.html

Finally, don't forget that some documents do carry viruses. For example, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint all support macro languages that have been used to write viruses. Naturally enough, if you use any of these programs and receive an e-mail message that contains one of these documents as an enclosure, your system may be infected when you open that enclosure. An up-to-date virus checking program will usually catch these viruses before they can attack. Some virus checkers that recognize macro viruses include:

McAfee VirusScan

http://www.mcafee.com/

Symantec AntiVirus

http://www.symantec.com/

Norton AntiVirus

http://www.symantec.com/

Virex

http://www.datawatch.com/virex.shtml

IBM AntiVirus

http://www.av.ibm.com/

Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus

http://www.drsolomon.com/

Visual Basic (VB) = an extension of Microsoft Basic that allows for GUI controls, animations, and drag-and-drop features. Its main competitors are Borland's Delphi and Sun's Java. VB is used in many Microsoft products and in numerous applications by third parties. The main web site for Visual Basic at Microsoft is http://www.microsoft.com/vbasic/ . Many links are provided at http://www.pcwebopaedia.com/VB.htm . VBX is a Visual Basic custom control used in may sofrtware components. VBX components allow developers to more quickly write Visual Basic components. When used in conjunction with Windows Scripting Host utilities, Visual Basic adds great risks for viruses when using email and web browsing software from Microsoft. For more discussion of such matters, see ActiveX.

VL-Bus= A local bus standard set by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) that requires direct-to-CPU connections that limit the number of expansion slots in computers. The VL-Bus is faster than EISA and less expensive to manufacture. For a time it was the bus of choice for PCs until the newer PCI bus was introduced by Intel. (See also Bus)

VM-Channel= (See Bus)

voc= (See Sound board)

Voice recognition= (See Speech recognition)

VoIP=Voice over Internet Protocol. A technology for transmitting ordinary telephone calls over the Internet using packetlinked routes. Also called IP telephony. Voice delivered using the IP. It is a term used in IP TELEPHONY for a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the IP. In general, this means sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service.
www.247access.co.za/pap/glossary.html

See Instant Messaging

VPN = (See intranet.)

VR= (See Virtual Reality)

VRAM= Video Random Access Memory chips that determine the performance capacity of video adapter hardware in computers. In particular, they allow for reading and writing of graphics images to take place simultaneously. At the time of this writing, authors of hypermedia are advised to purchase a computer with at least 2Mb of VRAM. (See also RAM)

VRML = an Internet standard for 3-D animations called Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML). By going to most any WWW search engine, it is possible to use a combination of search terms for web sites on this topic. For example, using http://www.altavista.digital.com/ with the search term "VRML" resulted in 80,073 hits on December 22, 1996 and 359,660 hits on September 19, 1997. VRML is designed to be a dynamic extension of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) standard that became the main component in the invention of the WWW in 1990 by particle physicists. In other words, VRML is intended for the WWW. Secondly, VRML is intended to be somewhat like VR in the ability to immerse participants into simulated 3-D worlds for education and entertainment. Thirdly, VRML can bring animation, audio, and 3-D reality to a MUD-type creation of imagined worlds and avatars in those worlds. However, VRML can also be used in a more mundane commercialization of the technology such as entering a simulation about being inside and operating a product such as a new model of automobile or a kitchen in an apartment complex that is still under construction. My favorite VRML repository is at the San Diego Super Computing Center at http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml/. (See also Virtual Reality)

Return to Top of Document

W-terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

WAIS / WAIS Gateway / WAN / WAP / Ware House (Data) / WARP / Waterloo MAPLE / Watermark / Wav / Wave File / WebBot / Web browsers / Webcasting / Web document / / WebLedger / Weblog (Blog) / Webmaster / Web node / Web page / Webspace /Web streaming / Web surfing / Web surfing backwards / WebTV /Whois Gateway / Wide area network / Wide-screen TV / WiFi wireless communications / Wiki and Wikipedia / Windows / Windows 95/98 / Windows 2000 / Windows Cairo / Windows Chicago / Windows Daytona / Windows DNA / Windows File System (WFS) / Windows Longhorn / Windows NT / Windows Scripting Host WSH / Windows XP /WinGopher / Wintel / Wireless communications / Wireless Glossary of Terms / Workplace OS / Workstation / World of Boston / World Wide Web (WWW) b / WORM / Wrapper / W-VHS / WWW / WYSIWYG

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

WAIS= The abbreviation for Wide Area Information Service, WAIS is a Net-wide system for looking up specific information in Internet databases.

WAIS Gateway= This term refers to a computer that is used to translate WAIS data so it can be made available to an otherwise incompatible network or application. Mosaic must use a WAIS gateway.

WAN= Wide Area Network of computers spanning hundreds or thousands of miles. Unlike intranets and virtual private networks, WANs do not use public Internet arteries and are totally isolated from the public domain. (See also LAN, Intranet, Extranet, and Virtual Private Networks (VPN))

WAP= (Wireless Glossary of Terms)

WARP= (See OS/2)

Waterloo MAPLE= (See MAPLE)

Watermark= a background image in HTML documents that does not scroll like larger images that are not watermarks. For example, in the Microsoft FrontPage Editor, if you click on Page Properties and Background, one of the options is to import a watermark image for your web page.

Wav= (See AIF, AU, Sound board, and Wave file)

Wave File= A wav file format used by Microsoft Windows for storing digitized audio. All information necessary to generate voice and music is stored in the file. (See also AIF, AU, Sound board, and MIDI)

The Web is Alive With the Sound of MP3," Newsweek, February 22, 1999, Page 16.

http://www.MP3.com (hours of free downloads, including the New York Times MP3s.)

http://www.audiogalaxy.com (lots of samples and free downloads.)

Go to the Frequently Asked Questions at http://www.MP3.com . MP3 is a file format which stores audio files on a computer in such a way that the file size is relatively small, but the song sounds near perfect. You can identify MP3 files because they will end in MP3. Typically 1 MB is equal to one minute of music or several minutes for spoken work/audiobooks. This is about a 90% reduction in hard drive space and bandwidth vis-a-vis uncompressed high quality wav files, but the actual savings depends upon the recording quality of your wav files. If you think about a CD-ROM holding 650 Mb, this translates to over 11 hours of high quality audio in MP3 format. More importantly, MP3 audio does not require as much Internet bandwidth as previous audio alternatives

WebBob = (See Bot.)

Web browsers = Interfaces to the World Wide Web that simplify locating web pages, downloading files, playing of audio, playing of video, etc. Gopher was the first to become a great hit, but it was limited mainly to text. Mosaic followed, but it was Netscape that hit the market with enormous success. Netscape Navigator can be downloaded from <http://www.netscape.com/. This success jolted Microsoft into expanding its network browser development from six employees to more than 600 developers. The Microsoft browser is known as Explorer (see <http://www.microsoft.com/>). Various other competitors are emerging, but it is a market share browser race between Netscape Navigator and Explorer. Features to both are added almost monthly, so it is very difficult to stay up to date on the latest happenings without going directly to the vendor web pages. An earlier comparison is given in PC Computing, April 1996, pp. 79-80, but this comparison was obsolete amost as soon as it hit the presses. Most browser vendors also sell software for creating and maintaining web (home) pages. Students can set up free homepages at <http://www.tripod.com/>. Virtual Servers Inc., for a monthly fee, will provide web server space to business firms and other parties wanting to set up network application servers. The Virtual Server home page is http://vservers.com/ . In the past, browsing was free of virus risks. With the advent of Windows Scripting Host utilities, this is no longer the case. Precautionary advice is given under ActiveX. (See also Cookies, Image map, GINA, Gopher, Mosaic, Internet, SLIP and Web streaming.)

Windows users mostly prefer Internet Explorer that comes bundled in Microsoft Office. A key advantage of Internet Explorer is that it supports DHTML dynamic Webpages. Another advantage is that it now supports XML and XBRL --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm

Apple's entry into the browser market is both sleek and unique. But is Safari the Mac user's best bet on the Web?
"Surfin' Safari," by Michael Calore, Webmonkey, January 8, 2003 --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/02/index3a.html

Those kooky minds over at Apple, I tell ya.

Apparently, they are not content with producing the industry's most celebrated hardware, the sleekest operating system, and the sexiest portable audio device since the boombox. Now, Apple Computer is setting its sights on the crowded browser market.

At the Macworld 2003 conference (which took place the week of January 6th, 2003), Apple head honcho Steve Jobs announced the development of a lightweight Web browser that's especially tailored for Apple's Jaguar operating system.

The new browser, named Safari, is available for download as a public beta from Apple's website. Our expectations are especially high on this one, partly because we've been handed a brand new standards-compliant browser based on an open-source engine. But we're really wringing our hands in anticipation because it's Apple, and Apple has consistently produced some fantastic software — iTunes, iMovie, and the whole OS X family of server and desktop work environments rank among the best — so its take on the seemingly perfected arena of the Web browser is a welcome and exciting event.

At the heart of Safari is the KHTML engine. Originally developed for the KDE Konqueror browser, Apple selected the open-source rendering engine for its speed, its compliance with current standards, and its relatively small code base. Also Safari's JavaScript handler, called JavaScriptCore, is based on Konqueror's KJS engine. Apple isn't just scamming open-source technology by building it into Safari, it's continuing to contribute to the community by tracking the development of the browser engine alongside the KDE development team.

Apple's commitment to the open-source movement is praised by many, decried by some. But if it means more engineers working on the improvement of Web browsers, making them better and more consistent, then why knock it? It should also be noted that many of the members of Apple's Safari development team have past experience with open-source browser technology: Don Melton, the Safari Engineering Manager, was one of the key people on the first Mozilla team, and David Hyatt, also on the Safari development team and from the Mozilla crew, was one of the originators of Chimera, an open-source browser for OS X.

Eager to try out the first public beta, I downloaded Safari, installed it on my 600MHz iBook (OS X 10.2 or later is required), and used it to complete a series of tasks. I wanted to see if Safari could handle the usual day-to-day stuff: browse my favorite news sites, pay my credit card bill, and update my weblog. I also played with all of the fancy features and gave the controls a few tweaks to see what the range of capabilities were.

So let's take Safari on a ride, shall we?

Continued at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/02/index3a.html

Mike's bottom line conclusion:

The general assumption of those in the pundit business is that Safari is intended as a replacement for the sluggish and standards-defiant Internet Explorer for the Macintosh. And it does serve as an excellent alternative. But is it the best candidate for the job? No.

In my opinion, the best browser for Mac OS X, or at least the most promising one, is Chimera. Also in the beta stage (release 0.6 as of this writing), Chimera is part of the Mozilla open-source browser project, so it runs on the Gecko engine. It's a lovely piece of software for many of the same reasons as Safari: it's fast and lightweight, it loads pages properly, and the major plugins work correctly.

Webcasting = use of World Wide Web to broadcast information. Unlike typical surfing, which relies on a pull method of transferring web pages, webcasting uses a "push" combination of technologies to send information to users' computers. This is also referred to as "broadcasting, channel surfing, or "netcasting." Users get steady updates of streams of information in requested categories. Users can subscribe to a "channel," download software to a local computer, and then streams of automatic updates follow. The most popular webcasting service to date is PointCast, but several major companies, including Microsoft and Netscape, have announced their own webcasting products and services. For example Netscape announced it "Netscape Netcaster" as follows:

Netscape Netcaster, the newest component of Netscape Communicator, enables push delivery of information and offline browsing. Netcaster seamlessly integrates with Channel Finder, the source for the best channels on the Internet. Users can subscribe to the information they want and have it delivered automatically. Offline browsing allows users to take the valuable resources of the Web offline with them - wherever they go. Developed entirely using the open Internet standards of HTML, Java, and JavaScript, Netscape Netcaster is an example of the powerful applications that can be built on the Netscape ONE platform.

For Podcasting go See also Listserv and Chat Lines.

One of the latest webcasting options is the Java-based Castanet that can be downloaded from http://www.marimba.com. When users subscribe to a channel with Castanet Tuner, it requests the download of the corresponding application from an Internet-based Castanet Transmitter server. Castanet Tuner then saves the Java application onto your hard disk. When launched, channels can either operate locally without a live Internet connection or (where appropriate for the channel's type of content) communicate across the Internet. In the past, web casting was free of virus risks. With the advent of Windows Scripting Host utilities, this is no longer the case. Precautionary advice is given under ActiveX. See also Intercast.

The next generation of metadata webcasting will probably be in Resource Description Format (RDF). There were various metadata processes before RDF was on the drawing boards. Microsoft's Channel Definition Format (CDF) used in "Web Push Channels" and Netscape's Meta Content Framework (MCF) preceeded RDF. These technologies describe information resources in a manner somewhat similar to RDF and can be used to filter web sites and web documents such as filtering pornography and violence. They can be used to channel inflows of desired or undesired web information. CDF, for example, carries information not read on computer screens that perform metadata tasks. See Resource Description Format (RDF) and Search engine.

Web document= An HTML document, Gopher document, a PDF document, or some other document that is browsable on the Internet.

WebLedger= An online accounting system in which a vendor of accounting services (e.g., bookkeeping, receivables management, bill paying, inventory management, financial statement preparation, and tax services) are provided to multiple firms by a WebLedger vendor. The CEO of Oracle was a pioneer in this area when he formed NetLedger that has since changed its name to NetSuite. You can read more about WebLedgers and alternative vendors at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/webledger.htm

Weblog (Blog) Also see RDF and RSS

Weblog = Blog = What?

Also see Podcasting at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#ResourceDescriptionFramework

Answer from Whatis.com ---

A Weblog (which is sometimes written as "web log" or "weblog") is a Web site of personal or non-commercial origin that uses a dated log format that is updated on a daily or very frequent basis with new information about a particular subject or range of subjects. The information can be written by the site owner, gleaned from other Web sites or other sources, or contributed by users. A

Web log often has the quality of being a kind of "log of our times" from a particular point-of-view. Generally, Weblogs are devoted to one or several subjects or themes, usually of topical interest, and, in general, can be thought of as developing commentaries, individual or collective on their particular themes. A Weblog may consist of the recorded ideas of an individual (a sort of diary) or be a complex collaboration open to anyone. Most of the latter are moderated discussions.

In April 2007 the blog search engine Technorati reported that it was tracking 70 million blogs, with 120,000 new ones arriving every day --- http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html
Technorati --- http://technorati.com/

Search for Blogs (Weblogs) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#Blogs
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

Listing of Accounting Blogs
Among the millions of Web logs permeating the Internet, there are some by and for accountants worth checking out. This article includes an Accounting Blog List that you can download, bookmark or print.
Eva M. Lang, "Accountants Who Blog," SmartPros, July 2005 --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x49035.xml

July 14, 2007
It's Been Ten Years Since the Blog Was Born Out of Something Called a Weblog --- http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog
Google has a blog search tool --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#Blogs

I fit into the category of an original NWAL blogger category meaning that I'm a Nerd Without A Life blogger. Now of course there are millions of bloggers who also have a life. I'm still stuck in the NWAL category.

To celebrate this tenth "blogiversary" on July 14, 2007, The Wall Street Journal on Pages P4-P5 ran a special column by Tunku Varadarajan that highlighted some of the leading blogs ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/onlinetoday/2007/07/14/pursuits-extras-for-saturday-july-14-2/

The WSJ blogiversary highlights the impact of some of selected blogs.

Christopher Cox, Chairman of the SEC, recommends searching for blogs at Google and Blogdigger --- http://www.blogdigger.com/index.html
He points out that Sun Microsystems CEO Jack Schwartz in his own blog challenged the SEC to consider blogs as a means of corporate sharing of public information.
Jensen Comment
But more recently CEO John Mackey of Whole Foods got in trouble with the SEC for his anonymous blog.
See "Mr. Mackey's Offense," The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2007; Page A12 --- Click Here

Christopher Cox, a strong advocate of XBRL, gives a high recommendation to the following XBRL blog:
For fast financial reporting, a recommended blog is Hitachi America, Ltd XBRL Business Blog --- http://www.hitachixbrl.com/

One of the great bloggers is one of the all-time great CEOs is Jack Bogle who founded what is probably the most ethical mutual fund businesses in the world called Vanguard. He maintains his own blog (without a ghost blogger) called The Bogle eBlog --- http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/

Nobel laureate (economics) Gary Becker runs a blog with Richard Posner called the Becker-Posner Blog --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Actress and humanitarian Mia Farrow maintains blogs on her visits to troubles pars of the world.
See http://www.miafarrow.org/
One of her favorite blogs (not one that she runs) is BoingBoing.net --- http://www.boingboing.net/
She is also a heavy user of satellite phones --- http://www.gpsmagazine.com/

James Toranto discusses the powerful impact that blogs have had on politics and government.
He recommends the following political blogs:
KausFiles.com from the liberal/progressive UK media outlet called Slate --- http://www.slate.com/id/2170453/
InstaPundet.com from a liberatarian law professor --- http://www.instapundet.com/
JustOneMinute.typepad.com --- http://www.justoneminute.typepad.com/

Jane Hamsher founded a political blog at http://www.firedoglake.com/
She recommends the following leftest-leaning blogs:
CrooksAndLiars.com --- http://www.crooksandliars.com/
TBogg.blogspot.com --- http://www.tbogg.blogspot.com/
DigbysBlog.blogspot.com --- http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/

General Kevin Bergner is a spokesman for the Multi-National Force in Iraq and generally gives straight talk a world of distorted and biased media --- http://www.mnf-iraq.com/
Some of his favorite blogs are as follows:
Small Wars Journal --- http://smallwarsjournal.com/index.php
Blackfive --- http://www.blackfive.net/
The Mudville Gazette --- http://www.mudvillegazette.com/

Newt Gingrich recommends the following conservative-politics blogs:
RedState,com --- http://www.redstate.com/
Corner.NationalReview.com --- http://corner.nationalreview.com/
Powerline Blog --- http://www.powerlineblog.com/

Dick Costolo is a Group Product Manager at Google. He likes the following blogs:
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs by an imposter --- http://www.fakesteve.blogspot.com/
New Media and the Future of Online Publishing --- http://publishing2.com/
Photo Blogs --- http://www.photoblogs.org/

Tom Wolfe (popular novelist) grew "weary of narcisstic shrieks and baseless information."

Xiao Qiang, the founder of Chna Digital Times, recomments the following blogs:
ZonaEuropa for global news with a focus on China --- http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm
Howard Rheingold's tech commentaries on the social revolution at http://www.smartmobs.com/
DoNews from Keso (in Chinese) --- http://blog.donews.com/keso
(Search engines like Google will translate pages into English)

Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist recommends the following blogs:
One of the first tech blogs --- http://slashdot.org/
Metafilter (a wiki community blog that anybody can edit) --- http://www.metafilter.com/
Tech Dirt --- http://www.techdirt.com/

Elizabeth Spiers is the founding editor of the news/gossip blogs called Gawks/Jossip and the financial blog Dealbreaker.. She recommends the following blogs:
The liberatarian Reason Magazine blog --- http://www.reason.com/blog/
MaudNewton blog on literature and culture (and occasional political rants) --- http://maudnewton.com/blog/index.php
Design Observer --- http://www.designobserver.com/

How did they fail to overlook the following NWAL blogs?
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Bob Jensen's favorite free blogs (other than major newspaper, magazine, and accountancy blogs that I track):
Aljazeera --- http://english.aljazeera.net
Commentary --- http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
New Republic --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse
Inside Higher Ed --- http://www.insidehighered.com/
The Finance Professor --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
Financial Rounds --- http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/
Consumer Reports Web Watch --- http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/
Issues in Scholarly Communication --- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Knowledge@Wharton --- http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/
Multi-National Force --- http://www.mnf-iraq.com/
NPR --- http://www.npr.org/
PC World --- http://www.pcworld.com/columns/
PhysOrg --- http://physorg.com/ (Good coverage of happenings in science and medicine)
WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/
Wired News --- http://www.wired.com/ (not as good as it used to be)
WorldNetDaily --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ (watch for bias and the mixing of adds with news)
Y-Net News --- http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3083,00.html

I will probably be adding the following blogs on a less regular basis:
The Bogle eBlog --- http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/
Becker-Posner Blog --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/
CrooksAndLiars.com --- http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Small Wars Journal --- http://smallwarsjournal.com/index.php
Blackfive --- http://www.blackfive.net/
The Mudville Gazette --- http://www.mudvillegazette.com/
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs by an imposter --- http://www.fakesteve.blogspot.com/
New Media and the Future of Online Publishing --- http://publishing2.com/
Photo Blogs --- http://www.photoblogs.org/
Tech Dirt --- http://www.techdirt.com/

For Newspapers and Magazines I highly recommend Drudge Links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/DrudgeLinks.htm
In particular I track Reason Magazine, The Nation, The New Yorker, Sydney Morning Herald, Sky, Slate, BBC, Jewish World Review, and The Economist

For financial news I like The Wall Street Journal and the Business sub-section of The New York Times

For Book Reviews I like --- http://www.booksindepth.com/period.html
Also see the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors ---
http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/

Much more of my news and commentaries comes from online newsletters such as MIT's Technology Review, AccountingWeb, SmartPros, Opinion Journal, The Irascible Professor, T.H.E. Journal, and more too numerous to mention.

And I also get a great deal of information from various listservs and private messages that people just send to me, many of whom I've never met.

I would love to learn about your favorite blogs!

Potential Roles of ListServs and Blogs
Getting More Than We Give --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

Bloggers will love TagCloud
Now, many bloggers are turning to a new service called TagCloud that lets them cherry-pick articles in RSS feeds by key words -- or tags -- that appear in those feeds. The blogger selects the RSS feeds he or she wants to use, and also selects tags. When a reader clicks on a tag, a list of links to articles from the feeds containing the chosen keyword appears. The larger the tag appears onscreen, the more articles are listed.
Daniel Terdiman, "RSS Service Eases Bloggers' Pain," Wired News, June 27, 2005 --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67989,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_8

Weblog software use grows daily -- but bloggers abandon sites and launch new ones as frequently as J.Lo goes through boyfriends. Which makes taking an accurate blog count tricky --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,54740,00.html

Some eight million Americans now publish blogs and 32 million people read them, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. What began as a form of public diary-keeping has become an important supplement to a business's online strategy: Blogs can connect with consumers on a personal level -- and keep them visiting a company's Web site regularly.
Riva Richmond, "Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back," The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005; Page B8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963746474866537,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Want to start your own blog? BlogBridge --- http://www.blogbridge.com/

What Blogs Cost American Business, Ad Age
What Blogs Cost American Business In 2005, Employees Will Waste 551,000 Work Years Reading ThemBy Bradley Johnson LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Blog this: U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs. About 35 million workers -- one in four people in the labor force -- visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week engaged with them, according to Advertising Age's analysis. Time spent in the office on non-work blogs this year will take up the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs. Forget lunch breaks -- bloggers essentially take a daily...
Bradley Johnson, "What Blogs Cost American Business, Ad Age, October 25, 2005 ---
http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=46494#

Time Magazine's choice of the 50 Coolest Websites for 2005 --- http://www.time.com/time/2005/websites/

How do we come up with our 50 best? Short answer: we take your suggestions, probe friends and colleagues about their favorite online haunts and then surf like mad. This year's finalists are a mix of newcomers, new discoveries and veterans that have learned some new tricks

The List: Arts & Entertainment
The List: Blogs
The List: Lifestyle, Health & Hobbies
The List: News & Information
The List: Shopping

Question
Does blogging hurt my chances for advancement?
See "Serious Bloggers," by Jeff Rice, Inside Higher Ed, February 20, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/02/20/rice

Blog Navigation Software
Blog Navigator is a new program that makes it easy to read blogs on the Internet. It integrates into various blog search engines and can automatically determine RSS feeds from within properly coded websites.
Blog Navigator 1.2 http://www.stardock.com/products/blognavigator/

It's easy to start your own blog. Jim Mahar's great blog was set up at http://www.blogger.com/start
You too can set one up for free like Jim had done.
There are many other alternatives other than blogger.com for setting up a free blog. See below.

BlogBridge --- http://www.blogbridge.com/

Microsoft will open a free consumer blogging service, its latest attempt to attract more users to its MSN online service and away from rivals such as Google.

Question
A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the year.
What is that word?

Answer

BLOG
The other nine top words are discussed at CNN, November 30, 2004 --- http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/11/30/words.of.the.year.reut/

April 22, 2005 letter from Amy Dunbar [Amy.Dunbar@BUSINESS.UCONN.EDU]

I would like some advice on what news aggregator to use for RSS feeds. I read the BusinessWeek Online article on blogs this morning, and it piqued my interest

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm?c=bwinsiderapr22&n=link1&t=email

The BusinessWeek Online blog, http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/ gave a link to various blog RSS feed in a side menu:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/Technical_Services/Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/News_Readers/

Is anyone using blogs in classes? Any advice on how to set up links to RSS feeds?

Thanks,
Amy Dunbar
UConn

Reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Amy,

I don’t use blogs in class and only find time to visit a few each week

For RSS feeds, look at the left hand column at http://www.rss-specifications.com/blog.htm

Bob Jensen

"MBA Blogs," Business Week, September 12, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/MBAblog

You're invited you to join BW Online's new MBA Blog feature as a guest blogger

STORY TOOLS Printer-Friendly Version E-Mail This Story

Our upcoming MBA Blog feature is an online community where you can interact and share your pursuits of an MBA, job search, life as a grad student, and much more. Whether you want to create your own web log online, exchange advice, or launch a professional network - come join our MBA Blog --- http://mbablogs.businessweek.com/

The innovation that sends blogs zinging into the mainstream is RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. Five years ago, a blogger named Dave Winer, working with software originally developed by Netscape, created an easy-to-use system to turn blogs, or even specific postings, into Web feeds. With this system, a user could subscribe to certain blogs, or to key words, and then have all the relevant items land at a single destination. These personalized Web pages bring together the music and video the user signs up for, in addition to news. They're called "aggregators." For now, only about 5% of Internet users have set them up. But that number's sure to rise as Yahoo and Microsoft plug them.
Business Week, April 22, 2005 --- , http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/

"Controversy at Warp Speed," by Jeffrey Selingo, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2005, Page A27

The deluge of messages left Mr. Corrigan wondering how so many people had found out about such a small skirmish on his campus. So his assistant poked around on the Web and discovered that six days after the protest, a liberal blog (http://sf.indymedia.org) run by the San Francisco Independent Media Center had posted an article headlined "Defend Free Speech Rights at San Francisco State University" that included Mr. Corrigan's e-mail address.

It was not the first time that Mr. Corrigan has been electronically inundated after a campus incident. Three years ago he received 3,000 e-mail messages after a pro-Israel rally was held at the university.

EVERYONE HAS A BEEF

Conflicts on campus are nothing new, of course. But colleges today are no longer viewed as ivory towers. Institutions of all sizes and types are under greater scrutiny than ever before from lawmakers, parents, taxpayers, students, alumni, and especially political partisans. Empowered by their position or by the fact that they sign the tuition checks, they do not hesitate to use any available forum to complain about what is happening at a particular institution.

In this Internet age, information travels quickly and easily, and colleges have become more transparent, says Collin G. Brooke, an assistant professor of writing at Syracuse University, who studies the intersection between rhetoric and technology. Many universities' Web sites list the e-mail addresses of every employee, from the president on down, enabling unencumbered access to all of them.

"That was not possible 10 years ago," Mr. Brooke says. "Maybe I'd go to a library, find a college catalog, and get an address. Then I'd have to write a letter. Now it's easy to whip off a couple of sentences in an e-mail when it takes only a few seconds to find that person's address."
Continued in article

Student Blogs

"What Your College Kid Is Really Up To," by Steven Levy, Time Magazine, December 13, 2004, Page 12

Aaron Swartz was nervous when I went to interview him. I know this is not because he told me, but because he said so on his student blog a few days afterward. Swartz is one of millions of people who mainstream an Internet-based Weblog that allows one to punch in daily experiences as easily as banging out diary entries with a word processor. Swartz says the blog is meant to help him remember his experiences during an important time for him --- freshman year at Stanford. But this opens up a window to the rest of us.

Continued in the article.

See http://www.aaronsw.com/

"Microsoft Begins Free 'Blogging'," by Robert A. Guth, The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2004, Page D7 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110194455538888633,00.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news

Microsoft Corp. today will open a free consumer "blogging" service, its latest attempt to attract more users to its MSN online service and away from rivals such as Google Inc.

Called MSN Spaces, the service will allow consumers to create Web logs, or blogs, that include pictures, music and text. Blogs are personal Web sites and opinion journals that have gained popularity in recent years. Early blogs focused largely on technology and politics, but millions of computer users have now at least experimented with the form.

It's been said that newspapers write the first draft of history, but now there are blogs. These days, online scribes often get the news before it's fit to print --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56978,00.html

Blogs Help You Cope With Data Overload -- If You Manage Them," by Thomas E. Weber, The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2004, Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,personal_technology,00.html

If you're an information junkie, you've probably discovered the appeal of reading weblogs, those online journals that mix commentary with links to related sites. Obsessive blog creators scour the Internet for interesting tidbits in news stories, announcements and even other blogs, culling the best and posting links. A good blog is like the friend who always points out the best stories in the newspaper.

More and more, though, the growth of blogs is increasing rather than reducing information overload. By some estimates, the number of blogs out there is nearing three million. It isn't just amateurs either: Start-up media companies are creating blogs, too. Gawker, for example, publishes the gadgets journal Gizmodo ( www.gizmodo.com ) and Wonkette ( www.wonkette.com ), devoted to inside-the-Beltway gossip.

To help juggle all those blogs, I've started playing around with a relatively new phenomenon called a newsreader. Rather than forcing you to jump from one blog to another to keep up with new entries, newsreaders bring together the latest postings from your favorite blogs in a single place.

That's possible because many blogs now publish their entries as news "feeds." These are Web formats that make it easy for a newsreader program (or another Web site) to grab and manipulate individual postings. For a blog publisher, it's like sending out entries on a news wire service. To tell whether a site offers a news feed, look for a small icon labeled "RSS" or "Atom."

I've tested a number of popular newsreaders. At their best, they give you a customized online newspaper that tracks the blogs you're interested in. But using them is only worthwhile if you're willing to invest some time upfront getting organized.

Newsreaders come in several varieties. One is a stand-alone software program you install on your PC. In that category, FeedDemon ($29.95 from Bradbury Software) is especially powerful, with extensive options for customizing the way news feeds appear on your screen.

Other newsreaders integrate news feeds into your e-mail on the theory that mail has become the catchall information center for many users. NewsGator ($29 from NewsGator Technologies) pulls feeds into Microsoft Outlook, while Oddpost (www.oddpost.com) combines blog feeds with an excellent Web-based e-mail service for $30 a year. For Mac users, Apple just announced it will include newsreader functions in the next version of its Safari Web browser -- a sign of how important the news-feed approach is becoming.

Overall, I had the best experience with a service called Bloglines, and I recommend it, especially for beginners. Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) works as a Web service, which means there's no software to install and you can catch up with your blogs from any Web browser. You're no longer tied to the bookmarks on a particular PC, so you can check postings from home, work or on the road. The service is also free. Mark Fletcher, CEO of Trustic Inc., which operates Bloglines, tells me the site will use unobtrusive Google-style ads to bring in revenue.

After starting an account, you enter the blogs you want to track. When you visit Bloglines, your blog list will appear on the left side of the screen, along with a notation telling the number of new postings since your last visit; clicking on a blog pulls the new postings into a right-side window. The beauty of this is that you don't waste time visiting blogs that haven't posted new entries.

Of course, it's all pointless without interesting blogs to read. The best way to find great blogs is to follow your curiosity, tracking back links on blogs you visit. Here are a few to get you started:

GENERAL INTEREST: Boing Boing (www.boingboing.net) is one of the Web's most established blogs, and one of its most popular, too. By "general interest," I mean of general interest to your average Internet-obsessed technophile. The focus isn't explicitly on technology, but expect it to skew in that direction -- over a recent week, posting topics included robots, comic books and a cool-looking electric plug.

ECONOMICS: EconLog (econlog.econlib.org) offers a thoughtful and eclectic diary of economics, tackling both newsy developments (the real-estate market, taxes) and theory. It also includes a list of other good economics blogs -- there are more than you might think.

GADGETS: Engadget (www.engadget.com) can be counted on for a good half-dozen or more news morsels each day on digital cameras, MP3 players, cellphones and more. When it isn't the first to stumble across something good, it isn't shy about linking to another blog with an interesting post, so it's usually pretty up to date.

POLITICS: WatchBlog (www.watchblog.com) has stuck with an interesting concept for more than a year now. It's actually three blogs in one: separate side-by-side journals tracking news on the 2004 elections from the perspective of Democrats, Republicans and independents.

TECHNOLOGY: Lessig Blog (www.lessig.org/blog). OK, this one's about politics too. More specifically, it covers the intersection between regulation and technology. Its author, Stanford law professor and author Lawrence Lessig, weighs in on copyright, privacy and other challenging topics in high-tech society.

"Choosing Who Can See What on Your Blog: Web Service Offers Features For Privacy, Adding Media; Registration Is a Turn-Off ," by Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, November 22, 2006; Page D7 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/the_mossberg_solution.html

A big problem with blogs is privacy. While some people -- especially MySpace fans -- don't mind posting personal news, photos and videos for anyone to read, many of us hesitate to leave details about our personal lives online.

This week, we tested a new, free blogging service called Vox, www.vox.com, from Six Apart Ltd., a blogging software company. One of Vox's best attributes is its ability to label each individual post, or entry, with a different privacy filter, so that instead of setting your blog to be entirely private or entirely public, you can pick and choose what you want to share.

Vox also excels at making it easy to add photos, audio, videos and book links to your blog without any prior expertise. It lets you incorporate content from Web sites like YouTube, Amazon and photo-sharing site Flickr in only a couple of steps. Viewing of each multimedia element can also be restricted to people you choose. Vox is supported by ads that aren't intrusive or distracting.

We each made a blog in Vox, and updated them several times. We found the process to be quick and simple, and the results to be attractive. We liked the privacy features. But while its intentions are good, Vox has a few downsides. Its idea of making each blog post visible to different groups is useful. But everyone who views your privacy-protected entries must also be registered with Vox, a quick process, but one that will discourage many potential users.

Also puzzling are Vox's categories for labeling those who view your blog. Everyone must be labeled as friends, family or neighbors, but the filters that determine who can view your posts don't include neighbors at all.

Vox also doesn't do a great job of implementing many features that are standard in blog services. These features include interactive elements on a page such as drag-and-drop organizing.

We got started by signing up for Vox -- a process that involved entering our email address, creating a password and URL, and entering personal information. A Design section walked us through choosing a layout and theme from numerous choices. Katie chose the Cityscape Washington, D.C., theme, which includes the Capitol and Washington Monument. Walt chose Firefly Night, which includes the moon and stars and a silhouette of a tree.

To prompt you to blog, the Vox homepage always offers a Question of the Day, or QOTD. With one click, you can optionally answer the QOTD in your own blog. When you post your answer, or enter any post, a drop-down menu lets you choose who can view it: The World (Public), Your Friends and Family, Your Friends, Your Family or Just You. If, for example, you choose to allow only your friends to see a post, other groups won't know that they're not seeing the friends-only post.

If you see another person's Vox blog and would like to bookmark it so that his or her latest entries are constantly updated on a special page just for you, you can add that blogger to your neighborhood. Friends and family are automatically part of your neighborhood, but when choosing who can see your content, neighborhood isn't an option. Vox plans to make the neighborhood concept more understandable in an updated version due out by December.

Continued in article

Blogging we will, blogging we will go! In Iran?
So what would a really interesting and exciting piece of qualitative research on blogging look like? And how would it get around the problems of overfamiliarity with the phenomenon (on the one hand) and blogospheric navel-gazing (on the other)? To get an answer, it isn’t necessary to speculate. Just read “The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging: On Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogestan,” by Alireza Doostdar, which appears in the current issue of American Anthropologist. A scanned copy is available here. The author is now working at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, where he will start work on his Ph.D. in social anthropology and Middle Eastern studies. “Weblogestan” is an Iranian online slang term for the realm of Persian-language blogs. (The time has definitely come for it to be adapted, and adopted, into Anglophone usage.) Over the last two years, Western journalists have looked at blogging as part of the political and cultural ferment in Iran — treating it, predictably enough, as a simple manifestation of the yearning for a more open society. Doostdar complicates this picture by looking at what we might call the borders of Veblogestan (to employ a closer transliteration of the term, as used specifically to name Iranian blogging). In an unpublished manuscript he sent me last week, Doostdar provides a quick overview of the region’s population: “There are roughly 65,000 active blogs in Veblogestan,” he writes, “making Persian the fourth language for blogs after English, Portugese, and French. The topics for blog entries include everything from personal diaries, expressions of spirituality, and works of experimental poetry and fiction to film criticism, sports commentary, social critique, and of course political analysis. Some bloggers focus on only one of these topics throughout the life of their blogs, while others write about a different topic in every new entry, or even deal with multiple topics within a single entry.”
Scott McLemee , "Travels in Weblogestan," Inside Higher Ed, March 29, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/03/29/mclemee

Top Executives Are Finding Great Advantages to Using and Running Blogs

"It's Hard to Manage if You Don't Blog Business embraces the new medium as executives read—and write—blogs," by David Kirkpatrick, Fortune Magazine, October 4, 2004 --- http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,699971,00.html

Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO of Sun Microsystems, has recently criticized statements by Intel executives, mused that IBM might buy Novell, and complained about a CNET.com article—all by writing a blog on a Sun website.

Yep, blogs—which are a way to post text to a website—have found their way into business. Schwartz is the highest-ranking executive yet to embrace the new medium, which is burgeoning globally. About 35,000 people read his blog (http://blogs.sun.com) in a typical month, including customers, employees, and

competitors. Schwartz encourages all Sun's 32,000 employees to blog, though only about 100 are doing it so far. But they include at least three senior managers other than Schwartz as well as development engineers and marketers.

The company's most popular blogger is a marketer known as MaryMaryQuiteContrary. Her blog ranges from rhapsodies about "proxy-based aspect-oriented programming" to musings about her desire to become a first-grade class mother. Says Schwartz: "I don't have the advertising budget to get our message to, for instance, Java developers working on handset applications for the medical industry. But one of our developers, just by taking time to write a blog, can do a great job getting our message out to a fanatic readership." He adds, "Blogs are no more mandated at Sun than e-mail. But I have a hard time seeing how a manager can be effective without both."

Over at Microsoft, some 1,000 employees blog, says a spokesman, though no top executives do. Robert Scoble, Microsoft's most prominent blogger, says via e-mail that "I often link to bloggers who are not friendly to Microsoft. They know I'm listening, and that alone improves relationships." Other tech companies with company blogs include Yahoo, Google, Intuit, and Monster.com. Even Maytag has a blog.

But businesses are learning—sometimes the hard way—that this new medium has pitfalls. David Farrell, Sun's chief compliance officer, notes that the company will soon require employees to agree to specific guidelines before starting blogs. Companies are also worried about unflattering portrayals and leaks. Last year a Microsoft contract employee posted a photo of the company receiving a dockful of Apple computers; he was promptly fired. A Harvard administrator and a software developer at Friendster were also recently fired after personal blog postings. (Microsoft, Harvard, and Friendster declined to comment.)

But some managers find that even more important than writing blogs is reading them. During a recent conference for Microsoft software developers, top company executives huddled backstage reading up-to-the-minute blogs written by the audience to get a sense of how their messages were being received.

While most people agree on Web logs' value for promoting student expression and critical thinking in schools, there's no consensus on the amount of control over access and content that educators should exercise. Blogs may become more of an issue in college courses when and if students begin to keep Weblogs of day to day classes, teacher evaluations, and course content.

"Classroom Blogs Raise Issues of Access and Privacy," by Kevin J. Delaney, The Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2004 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109882944704656461,00.html?mod=technology%5Ffeatured%5Fstories%5Fhs

First graders at Magnolia Elementary School used a Web log earlier this year to describe their dream playgrounds. Monkey bars were heartily endorsed, and live animals and bumper cars also made the cut.

Students in a handful of other classes at the Joppa, Md., school also used blogs, some trading riddles about book characters with peers at a school in Michigan.

Now, county administrators have frozen the use of blogs in the classroom amid concerns about oversight of what students might post online. Michael Lackner, a teacher who jump-started blog use at Magnolia last year, is optimistic that a technological fix will be found.

But the school's experience highlights some of the issues that educators and parents face as blogs -- simple Web sites that follow a diary-like format -- gain entry into the nation's classrooms. While most agree on blogs' value for promoting student expression, critical thinking and exchange, there's no consensus on the amount of control over access and content that educators should exercise. As blogging spreads, it could revive debates over student expression similar to those that have cropped up around school newspapers.

The issues surrounding blogging and related technology in the classroom are "pretty much uncharted," says Will Richardson, an educational-blogging advocate and supervisor of instructional technology and communications at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, N.J.

The use of blogs in schools remains limited but is growing, as scattered programs piloted by tech-savvy educators generate buzz and followers. Teachers are attracted to blogging for some of the same reasons blog use has exploded among techies, political commentators and would-be pundits. Blogs are cheap, thanks to free or inexpensive software packages and services -- Hunterdon, for example, pays just $499 a year for software to run hundreds of student blogs. And their simple format makes them easy to set up. Using tools from Six Apart Ltd., Google Inc. and others, consumers can create a blog in less than 10 minutes and post messages to it over the Web or by e-mail. By some estimates, five million or more Americans already have created their own blogs, with some prominent bloggers even influencing the news and political agendas.

Students in Mr. Richardson's high-school journalism classes, for example, never turn in hard copies of their homework. They post all assignments to individual blogs. Their blogs also notify them when other students complete writing assignments, so they can read and comment on them.

Meredith Fear, 17 years old, has created two blogs for classes taught by Mr. Richardson. The 12th grader says posting her work online for others to see motivated her to do better and increased her parents' involvement in her education. "I don't often get a chance to talk with her about school, so having the opportunity to check her blog and see what she was up to was a great way for me to keep up on things," says Jonathan Fear, Meredith's father. He adds that was one factor in overcoming his wife's original concerns that ill-intentioned outsiders could see Meredith's writings through the blog.

Recognizing such worries, some teachers at Hunterdon protect blogs with passwords so only they and their students can see them, particularly for creative-writing classes for which the subject matter is more likely to be personal. There are other blogging precautions: Parents have to sign releases giving permission, and only students' first names are used online. Mr. Richardson says the school has hosted more than 500 student blogs in the past three years without incident.

Mr. Richardson is planning a session with parents later this fall to teach them about the technology and set up blogs and Web-text feeds so they can gain access to a broader range of information from teachers and see what their children are up to. "Kids like it. And I can see more enhanced learning on their part," Mr. Richardson says.

At Magnolia, teachers were happy with their classroom blogging and had plans to expand it this school year. But Harford County public school officials notified them this summer that such projects appeared to fall afoul of policies regulating student communication. In particular, they were concerned that students and others could post comments to the blogs before they were reviewed by a teacher.

"What we want to see is a Web log where a teacher has final control, acts as a filter for any postings or comments," says Janey Mayo, technology coordinator for Harford County Public Schools. "We're trying to be very cautious with this because we're working with kids." School administrators also want to see further research on whether blogging has educational value at the elementary-school level, but so far haven't found any.

Mr. Lackner believes there is potentially a quick technical fix to the problem: A blogging service could add a function that would forward any online comments to a teacher for review before posting them.

Continued in the article

July 1, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]

THE EDUCATED BLOGGER

According to David Huffaker (in "The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom," FIRST MONDAY, vol. 9, no. 6, June 2004), "blogs can be an important addition to educational technology initiatives because they promote literacy through storytelling, allow collaborative learning, provide anytime–anywhere access, and remain fungible across academic disciplines." In support of his position, Huffaker provides several examples of blogs being used in classroom settings. The paper is available online at http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/huffaker/index.html.

First Monday [ISSN 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to publish original articles about the Internet and the global information infrastructure. It is published in cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA; email: ejv@uic.edu; Web: http://firstmonday.dk/.

-----

Suzanne Cadwell and Chuck Gray of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill's Center for Instructional Technology have compiled two feature comparison tables that describe three blogging services and four blogging applications.

Blogging Services Feature Comparison

Using a blogging service generally doesn't require any software other than a web browser. Users have no administrative control over the software itself, but have some control over a blog's organization and appearance. Depending on the particular service, blogs can be hosted either on the service’s servers or on the server of one’s choice (e.g., www.unc.edu). Users purchasing a paid account with a service typically will have no banner ads on their blogs, more features at their disposal, and better customer support from the service. The Blogging Services Feature Comparison chart is available http://www.unc.edu/cit/blogs/blogcomparison/services/.

Blogging Applications Comparison

Downloadable blogging applications require the user to have access to server space (e.g., www.unc.edu). Most of these applications are comprised of CGI scripts that must be installed and configured in a user’s cgi-bin folder. Although they are packaged with detailed instructions, applications can be difficult to install, prohibitively so for the novice. Blogging applications afford users fine-grained control over their blogs, and most applications are open-source or freeware. The Blogging Applications Comparison chart is available at http://www.unc.edu/cit/blogs/blogcomparison/applications/.

Question
What services are available to help you create a blog?

Answer from Kevin Delaney

"Blogs Can Tie Families, And These Services Will Get You Started," by Kevin J. Delaney, The Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2004, Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,personal_technology,00.html

Online Web logs, or blogs, have long been a bastion of techy types, those prone to political rants, and assorted gossips. But now they're making inroads among families who want to keep up on each other's doings.

Blogs are personal Web sites where you can post things, including photos, stories and links to other cool stuff online. They resemble a journal, with information arranged chronologically based on when you post it. The simple form is a major virtue -- you don't have to think too hard about how to organize your blog.

I've used a variety of Web sites in recent years to share photos of my children with their grandparents and other family far way. Lately, I've wondered if it wouldn't be better to put photos, digital videos and other links I want to share with my family on one Web site, making it easier to manage and access them from afar.

With this in mind, I've been testing three of the most popular blogging services, which are available free or for a small monthly fee.

Blogger, a free service from Google at www.blogger.com, promises you can create a blog in "three easy steps." After selecting a user name and password, I chose a name and a custom Web address. Then I selected a graphic look -- "Dots," a simple design with a touch of fun that seemed right for a family site -- from 12 attractive templates. After that, Blogger created my blog. Within a few minutes, I was able to put a short text message on the site and have Blogger send e-mails to alert my wife and father of the blog's existence.

Blogger, like the other services, lets you further customize the organization and look of your site and put several types of information on it. Sending text to the blog is as easy as sending an e-mail. (In fact, Blogger and the other services I tested even let me post text to my blog using standard e-mail.) A Blogger button on Google's toolbar software, which must be downloaded and activated separately, offers the useful option of posting links to other Web sites on your blog as you surf the Web. Another nice feature lets you designate friends or family members who can post to the main blog.

To put photos on any blog hosted by Blogger, you have to download another free software package from Picasa called Hello. Hello blocks connections to computers operating behind what's known as a proxy server, which is a pretty typical corporate configuration. As a result, I couldn't upload photos from my work PC, though I was able to do so from home.

Blogger lacks some advanced features other services offer. But its main shortcoming is that it doesn't let you protect your site by requiring visitors to use a password to enter. I don't want strangers to look at photos of my kids or search notes I'm writing for family members. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on any plans for such a feature, citing restrictions related to the company's planned initial public offering.

TypePad from Six Apart, at www.typepad.com, provides a higher-powered service for creating blogs that does let you password protect your site. You can also upload a broader range of files, including video clips. But the tradeoff is a level of complexity that is unnecessarily frustrating.

The company offers three monthly subscription rates starting at $4.95. It costs $8.95 a month for the version that allows you to create photo albums, a feature that I consider essential for a family blog. Albums allow you to avoid filling up the main blog site with strings of photos. If you choose to password protect your blog, though, TypePad won't let you link your blog directly to photo albums. It's a surprising shortcoming, and Six Apart doesn't disclose it on its site. Its support staff gave me complicated instructions for another way to make such a link, but they never worked for me.

Six Apart Chief Executive Mena Trott says the photo-album-linking problem is a bug the company is working to fix. She acknowledges that parts of the service could be easier to use, and says improvements will be made. She also says that in practice Six Apart lets most users exceed the company's miserly limits on blog storage space, which are 100 megabytes for the $8.95-a-month plan.

AOL's Journals service, which requires an AOL subscription, is about as simple to use as Blogger. It allows you to restrict public access to your blog and provides nice albums for grouping photos. If you do decide to restrict access, your visitors will have to register with AOL. That registration is free, though, and many people already have an AOL "screen name" because they use the company's instant messaging service.

But other advanced features, such as the button in Blogger for easy linking to Web sites, are missing. In addition, the layout templates aren't nearly as attractive graphically as Blogger's and TypePad's. AOL says it's working on all of these issues, and expects to add a Web linking button and phase out the registration requirement later this year.

I'm not completely satisfied with Journals, and I would be happy to use Blogger or TypePad if they manage to work out their issues with photo albums and passwords. In the meantime, though, I've chosen AOL's Journals to create my family blog.

"WEBLOGS COME TO THE CLASSROOM," by Scott Carlson, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 28, 2003, Page 33

They get used to supplement courses in writing, marketing, economics, and other subjects

Increasingly, private life is a public matter. That seems especially true in the phenomenon known as blogging. Weblogs, or blogs, are used by scores of online memoirists, editorialists, exhibitionists, and navel gazers, who post their daily thoughts on Web sites for all to read.

Now professors are starting to incorporate blogs into courses. The potential for reaching an audience, they say, reshapes the way students approach writing assignments, journal entries, and online discussions.

Valerie M. Smith, an assistant professor of English at Quinnipiac University, is among the first faculty members there to use blogs. She sets one up for each of her creative-writing students at the beginning of the semester. The students are to add a new entry every Sunday at noon. Then they read their peers' blogs and comment on them. Parents or friends also occasionally read the blogs.

Blogging "raises issues with audience," Ms. Smith says, adding that the innovation has raised the quality of students' writing;

"They aren't just writing for me, which makes them think in terms of crafting their work for a bigger audience. It gives them a bigger stake in what they are writing."

A Weblog can be public or available only to people selected by the blogger. Many blogs serve as virtual loudspeakers or soapboxes. Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential contender, has used a blog to debate and discuss issues with voters. Some blogs have even earned their authors minor fame. An Iraqi man--known only by a pseudonym, Salaam Pax--captured attention around the world when he used his blog to document daily life in Baghdad as American troops advanced on the city.

Continued in the article.

"Weblogs: a history and perspective," Rebecca Blood, Rebecca's Pocket, September 7, 2000 --- http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of "other sites like his" as he found them in his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on Camworld, and others maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for inclusion on the list. Jesse's 'page of only weblogs' lists the 23 known to be in existence at the beginning of 1999.

Suddenly a community sprang up. It was easy to read all of the weblogs on Cameron's list, and most interested people did. Peter Merholz announced in early 1999 that he was going to pronounce it 'wee-blog' and inevitably this was shortened to 'blog' with the weblog editor referred to as a 'blogger.'

At this point, the bandwagon jumping began. More and more people began publishing their own weblogs. I began mine in April of 1999. Suddenly it became difficult to read every weblog every day, or even to keep track of all the new ones that were appearing. Cameron's list grew so large that he began including only weblogs he actually followed himself. Other webloggers did the same. In early 1999 Brigitte Eaton compiled a list of every weblog she knew about and created the Eatonweb Portal. Brig evaluated all submissions by a simple criterion: that the site consist of dated entries. Webloggers debated what was and what was not a weblog, but since the Eatonweb Portal was the most complete listing of weblogs available, Brig's inclusive definition prevailed.

This rapid growth continued steadily until July 1999 when Pitas, the first free build-your-own-weblog tool launched, and suddenly there were hundreds. In August, Pyra released Blogger, and Groksoup launched, and with the ease that these web-based tools provided, the bandwagon-jumping turned into an explosion. Late in 1999 software developer Dave Winer introduced Edit This Page, and Jeff A. Campbell launched Velocinews. All of these services are free, and all of them are designed to enable individuals to publish their own weblogs quickly and easily.

The original weblogs were link-driven sites. Each was a mixture in unique proportions of links, commentary, and personal thoughts and essays. Weblogs could only be created by people who already knew how to make a website. A weblog editor had either taught herself to code HTML for fun, or, after working all day creating commercial websites, spent several off-work hours every day surfing the web and posting to her site. These were web enthusiasts.

Many current weblogs follow this original style. Their editors present links both to little-known corners of the web and to current news articles they feel are worthy of note. Such links are nearly always accompanied by the editor's commentary. An editor with some expertise in a field might demonstrate the accuracy or inaccuracy of a highlighted article or certain facts therein; provide additional facts he feels are pertinent to the issue at hand; or simply add an opinion or differing viewpoint from the one in the piece he has linked. Typically this commentary is characterized by an irreverent, sometimes sarcastic tone. More skillful editors manage to convey all of these things in the sentence or two with which they introduce the link (making them, as Halcyon pointed out to me, pioneers in the art and craft of microcontent). Indeed, the format of the typical weblog, providing only a very short space in which to write an entry, encourages pithiness on the part of the writer; longer commentary is often given its own space as a separate essay.

These weblogs provide a valuable filtering function for their readers. The web has been, in effect, pre-surfed for them. Out of the myriad web pages slung through cyberspace, weblog editors pick out the most mind-boggling, the most stupid, the most compelling.

But this type of weblog is important for another reason, I think. In Douglas Rushkoff's Media Virus, Greg Ruggerio of the Immediast Underground is quoted as saying, "Media is a corporate possession...You cannot participate in the media. Bringing that into the foreground is the first step. The second step is to define the difference between public and audience. An audience is passive; a public is participatory. We need a definition of media that is public in its orientation."

By highlighting articles that may easily be passed over by the typical web user too busy to do more than scan corporate news sites, by searching out articles from lesser-known sources, and by providing additional facts, alternative views, and thoughtful commentary, weblog editors participate in the dissemination and interpretation of the news that is fed to us every day. Their sarcasm and fearless commentary reminds us to question the vested interests of our sources of information and the expertise of individual reporters as they file news stories about subjects they may not fully understand.

Weblog editors sometimes contextualize an article by juxtaposing it with an article on a related subject; each article, considered in the light of the other, may take on additional meaning, or even draw the reader to conclusions contrary to the implicit aim of each. It would be too much to call this type of weblog "independent media," but clearly their editors, engaged in seeking out and evaluating the "facts" that are presented to us each day, resemble the public that Ruggerio speaks of. By writing a few lines each day, weblog editors begin to redefine media as a public, participatory endeavor

Continued at http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

The Weblog Tool Roundup, by Joshual Allen, Webmonkey, May 2, 2002 --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/18/index3a.html

But then personal sites went from being static collections of bad poetry and award banners to constantly updated snippets of commentary, photography, sounds, bad poetry, and links. The popularity of this format grew (for a good primer on where weblogs came from and how they evolved, try Rebecca Blood's Weblogs: A History and Perspective), and people started building applications to simplify the process of maintaining a content-heavy personal site.

These applications have grown in number and sophistication over the years, and with some major upgrades appearing over the past few months (Blogger Pro, Movable Type 2.0, Radio UserLand 8.0), I thought the time was nigh to talk about what they do, why you might care, which one would best suit your needs, and how they can keep you company on those long, lonely nights, so empty since you were abandoned for someone who could write Perl scripts.

Continued at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/18/index3a.html

"Will the Blogs Kill Old Media?" by Steven Levy, Newsweek, May 20, 2002, Page 52

From Yahoo Picks of the Week on December 3, 2002

blo.gs http://www.blo.gs/

Weblogs continue to grow in popularity, no doubt in part to their immediacy. Denizens of the Internet enjoy the opportunity to drop by and catch an up-to-the-minute account on their favorite blog. However, nothing is more frustrating than encountering a cobwebbed blog that hasn't been updated in weeks. To remedy such situations, this site offers a minute-by-minute account of over 50,000 weblogs. It doesn't get fresher than this! For utility's sake, the site offers a tiny java applet that sits on your desktop and continually refreshes, keeping the weblogs whirring. You can also stop by the most popular blogs to see what kind of content is piquing the interest of others. Whether you're a neophyte or veteran blogger, you're sure to find an intriguing site or two to scour.

Some time ago, Glenn Reynolds hardly qualified as plankton on the punditry food chain. The 41-year-old law professor at the University of Tennessee would pen the occasional op-ed for the L.A. Times, but his name was unfamiliar to even the most fanatical news junkie. All that began to change on Aug. 5 of last year, when Reynolds acquired the software to create a "Weblog," or "blog." A blog is an easily updated Web site that works as an online daybook, consisting of links to interesting items on the Web, spur-of-the-moment observations and real-time reports on whatever captures the blogger's attention. Reynold's original goal was to post witty observations on news events, but after September 11, he began providing links to fascinating articles and accounts of the crisis, and soon his site, called InstaPundit, drew thousands of readers--and kept growing. He now gets more than 70,000 page views a day (he figures this means 23,000 real people). Working at his two-year-old $400 computer, he posts dozens of items and links a day, and answers hundreds of e-mails. PR flacks call him to cadge coverage. And he's living a pundit's dream by being frequently cited--not just by fellow bloggers, but by media bigfeet. He's blogged his way into the game.

Some say the game itself has changed. InstaPundit is a pivotal site in what is known as the Blogosphere, a burgeoning samizdat of self-starters who attempt to provide in the aggregate an alternate media universe. The putative advantage is that this one is run not by editors paid by corporate giants, but unbespoken outsiders--impassioned lefties and righties, fine-print-reading wonks, indignant cranks and salt-'o-the-earth eyewitnesses to the "real" life that the self-absorbed media often miss. Hard-core bloggers, with a giddy fever not heard of since the Internet bubble popped, are even predicting that the Blogosphere is on a trajectory to eclipse the death-star-like dome of Big Media. One blog avatar, Dave Winer (who probably would be saying this even if he didn't run a company that sold blogging software), has formally wagered that by 2007, more readers will get news from blogs than from The New York Times. Taking him up on the bet is Martin Nisenholtz, head of the Time's digital operations.

My guess is that Nisenholtz wins. Blogs are a terrific addition to the media universe. But they pose no threat to the established order.

Mobile weblogging, or moblogging, is the latest trend in the world of blogs. New software allows users to update their weblogs remotely with cell phones and other handheld devices --- http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,57431,00.html

The meteoric rise of weblogging is one of the most unexpected technology stories of the past year, and much like the commentary that populates these ever-changing digital diaries, the story of blogging keeps evolving.

One recent trend is "moblogging," or mobile weblogging. New tools like Manywhere Moblogger, Wapblog and FoneBlog allow bloggers to post information about the minutiae of their lives from anywhere, not just from a PC.

The newest of these tools, Kablog, lets users update their weblogs remotely with cell phones and other handheld devices like wireless PDAs.

Kablog works on any device running Java 2 Platform Micro Edition, or J2ME, a version of Java for mobile devices. Those devices include cell phones running the Symbian operating system, many Sprint PCS phones, the Blackberry from RIM, and many Palm handhelds running OS 3.5, such as Handspring's Treo.

Todd Courtois, creator of Kablog, offers the program for free as shareware and says that word-of-mouth has already generated several thousand downloads in the short time it has been available.

What distinguishes Kablog from other moblogging software is that it does not use e-mail or text messaging for updating weblogs. Other programs such as FoneBlog enable users to e-mail posts from a cell phone or PDA to a server, which uploads the entry onto a site. Kablog lets those who use Movable Type as their weblogging software log directly onto their sites for updating.

Continued in the article.

September 2, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]

RHETORIC, COMMUNITY, AND CULTURE OF WEBLOGS

The Department of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota has created "Into the Blogsphere," a website to explore the "discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs." Educators and faculty can post, comment upon, and critique essays covering such areas as mass communication, pedagogy, and virtual community. The website is located at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/

For more information on weblogs in academe, see also:

"Educational Blogging" By Stephen Downes EDUCAUSE REVIEW, vol. 9, no. 5, September/October 2004, pp. 14-16, 18, 20-22, 24, 26 http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp

"The Educated Blogger" CIT INFOBITS, June 2004 http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/bitjun04.html#1

January 2005 Update on Blogs

Eric Rasmusen (Economics, Indiana University) has a homepage at http://www.rasmusen.org/
His business and economics blog is at http://www.rasmusen.org/x/
In particular he focuses on conservative versus liberal economics and politics

Gerald (Jerry) Trites (Accounting, AIS) has a homepage at http://www.zorba.ca/
He runs an e-Business blog at http://www.zorba.ca/blog.html
His site is a great source for updates on research studies in e-Business

Some Blog Directories

Blogarama

categorized directory of blogs and journals.

Category: Weblog Directories

www.blogarama.com - 17k - Cached - More from this site

BlogCatalog

a blog directory where users can submit and find blogs.

Category: Weblog Directories

www.blogcatalog.com - 23k - Cached - More from this site

Blogwise - Blog directory

... Weird is our choice blog this week, straight out of ... Blogwise often find a blog that stands out for its ... be featuring a new blog every week in this slot ...

Category: Weblog Directories

RSS: View as XML - Add to My Yahoo!

www.blogwise.com - More from this site

Blog Search Engine - MoBlog & Blogs Search

... Download the Blog Search Engine Toolbar. The blog Search Engine is a web search resource for finding ... Free Video Game and Online Game Directory Web Conferencing Small Business Forum ...

www.blogsearchengine.com - 15k - Cached - More from this site

GetBlogs

blog search engine and directory.

Category: Weblog Directories

www.getblogs.com - 7k - Cached - More from this site

Bloghub.com - Blog Search engine & Blog Directory

Bloghub.com - Your local blog directory! ... Bloghub.com is an international online blog directory and community where members from around the world gather here ... site to our directory, search our blog directory or join us for ...

www.bloghub.com - 64k - Cached - More from this site

Political Blog Directory

features a directory of political blogs covering all viewpoints.

Category: Political Weblogs

directory.etalkinghead.com - 9k - Cached - More from this site

Bloglines | Blog Directory

... My Subscriptions Search The Web Subscribe To URL. Directory. Share. Home > Feed Directory. See Also: Most Popular Feeds | Most Popular Links ... View: Feed Directory | User Directory ...

www.bloglines.com/dir - 19k - Cached - More from this site

Weblogs Compendium - Directories

... and trackback services, and a Blog O the Week feature. Blog Universe. Blog directory categorized by genre ... like you. British Blog Directory - BritBlog. A directory of blogs written ...

www.lights.com/weblogs/ directories.html - 16k - Cached - More from this site

Blog - definition, information, sites, articles.

The BLOG page at Marketing Terms.com - Internet Marketing Reference. ... Blog. weblog. ---------------------------- (Requires JavaScript ... eatonweb.com - blog directory and portal. ...

www.marketingterms

"The Bottom Line on Business Blogs: Entrepeneur.com, August 9, 2004 --- http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,316638,00.html
They've moved beyond the realm of diarists and techies to benefit mainstream businesses.

Anybody can go slogging, but it is most common among teenagers
Thomas Claburn discusses the new concept of "slogging," or slanderous blogging, about someone you know or wish you didn't. In my youth, we used to call this "gossip," and the cardinal rule was never to put anything in writing for fear our ill-tempered musings would be forever etched in stone and, worse, overheard or seen by the person being dissed. But getting "caught" by the subject is apparently the entire point of slogging, as I understand it. I would have thought in our overlitigated society that the voice of reason (if not politeness and/or basic human decency) would trump that of nastiness, but I would have been wrong.
InformationWeek Newsletter, August 31, 2005

Also see RDF and RSS

Webmaster= This term refers to the person in charge of administrating a World Wide Web site.

Web node= This term is synonymous with Web site or Web server.

Web page= An HTML document that is accessible on the Web.

Webspace= This term refers to the space created by the World Wide Web.

Web streaming= Live playback of media files on the web. The most common way to execute media files (audio and video) is to download those files into a local computer and then launch a plug-in or applications program to execute the media file in question. Users have an option of saving the files, although the usual default condition is only to store the file temporarily. Web streaming is quite different. In that case, audio or video files play in real time without having to wait for full downloads of the files. In general, web streaming playback is of lower quality than download playback, but streaming avoids downloading interruptions and the need for storage space in a local computer. However, these are not mutually exclusive options. Streaming can actually be in real time or in "pseudo" web streams. Pseudo streaming downloads a portion of a file sufficient to play it back in somewhat better quality than real time streaming on the fly. Some pseudo streaming software require beginning at the start of the file while others allow starting at various points in the file. MIDI technology is on the rise for audio web streaming. For more on MIDI solutions, see http://www.liveupdate.com from LiveUpdate. Two video pseudo streaming alternatives are Apple Corporation's QuickTime and Microsoft's ActiveX, both of which can be launched as plug-ins to browsers. ActiveX facilitates pseudo streaming of ActiveMovies embedded in AVI, QuickTime, or MPEG video files. Even 3D movies can be streamed back using OLiVR Corporation's interactive 3D movies from a QuickTime VR source. Two good software downloading web sites are http://www.microsoft.com/activex/controls/ and http://www.netscape.com/comprod/mirror/navcomponents_download.html from Netscape. High end video streaming alternatives are reviewed in NewMedia, September 22, 1997, 47-56. The NewMedia web site is at http://www.newmedia.com/ The top ranking "Awesome" alternative in terms of "overall value" was RealVideo from Progressive Networks at http://www.real.com/ The price is free at the time of this writing. Others reviewed include Microsoft's NetShow, Motorola's TrueStream, VSOnet's VDOLive, Viv's VivoActive, Vosaic's MediaServer, and VStreme's Web Theatre. Prices range from free to over $3,000. In the past, media playback was relatively free of virus risks. With the advent of Windows Scripting Host utilities, this is no longer the case. Precautionary advice is given under ActiveX.

Bob Jensen's threads on how to capture streaming media --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

Slingbox technology is explained at http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/slingbox1.htm

Precautionary advice is given under ActiveX. (See also Internet, Search engine, Webcasting (Netcasting, Castanet), World Wide Web, and Web surfing backwards)

Web surfing backwards= Once you have your web documents up and running, you may want to learn more about who is using these documents. A free service is available from http://www.webcrawler.com/WebCrawler/Links.html from Webcrawler. One of the most popular commercial software options for building professional databases regarding facts about who uses corporate web documents is called Hit List Pro. You can learn more about it from "PCMagazine," November 19, 1996, p. NE19 and from http://www.marketwavecom/ (See also Internet, Search engine, World Wide Web, and Web surfing)

WebTV = a way of accessing Internet and email service via a set-top box, a television set, a standard phone line, and a subscription-based online service called WebTV Network. WebTV is a failure is the opinion of one professional who writes in Information Week, July 15, pg. 12.

Whois Gateway= A source listing of email addresses around the world on the Internet. (See also Mosaic)

Wide area network= A network that encompasses a large geographical area.

Wide-screen TV= Television sets with a 16:9 movie theater aspect ratio for home theater systems. Standard broadcast aspect ratios are 4:3. The W-VHS is a wide-screen HDTV recorder and tape deck introduced by JVC in Japan that will record the Japanese version of HDTV as well as standard TV signals.

Wiki =

Question
What is a wiki and why is it becoming more important?

Answer
A wiki allows readers on a browser such as Internet Explorer to interact with and easily make changes in Websites provided the Webmasters agree to Wiki revisions. One of the best known sites is Wikipedia that allows readers to add to, correct, and insert new entries into the free multilingual multilingual online Wikipedia encyclopedia --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
For a short while some of my definitions in the accounting theory were in Wikipedia, but then the Webmaster decided that I was hogging too much space with hundreds of pages of detail so he shut me off. I'm not angry, however, because I understand that Wikipedia cannot simply provide free gigabites of storage for each kook like me.

You can still look up my definition of "accounting reform" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_reform
I will perhaps update this someday if I can just find the time. Any of you can update this definition from Internet Explorer or some other Web browser. Simply click on the tab "Edit this Page" and type away.

March 3, 2005 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]

MAKING THE CASE FOR A WIKI

The Wiki.org site defines a Wiki as "the simplest online database that could possibly work." It is a "piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly." Some uses of Wikis in education include collaborative writing projects, discussion forums, project spaces/libraries, and interdisciplinary projects.

In "Making the Case for a Wiki" (ARIADNE, issue 42, January 2005) Emma Tonkin explains what a Wiki is and how to choose and deploy a Wiki implementation. The article is available online at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/ .

Ariadne is published every three months by the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN). Its purpose is "to report on information service developments and information networking issues worldwide, keeping the busy practitioner abreast of current digital library initiatives." For more information, contact: Richard Waller, Editor; email: ariadne@ukoln.ac.uk ; Web: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/

"'Wiki' May Alter How Employees Work Together," by Kara Swisher, The Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2004, Page
B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109105974578777189,00.html?mod=technology_main_promo_left

Wiki is a Hawaiian word for "quick," and some say it has the potential to change how the Web is used.

A wiki is a type of Web site that many people can revise, update and append with new information. It's sort of like a giant bulletin board on an office wall to which employees can pin photos, articles, comments and other things.

A wiki can gather, in one place, the data, knowledge, insight and customer input that's floating around a company or other organization. And it's a living document, since workers who are given access to it can make changes constantly.

No elaborate programming skills are needed. Users can simply click an "edit" button to add comments or make changes.

Despite its speedy name, the wiki is not a new idea. It was pioneered in the mid-1990s by a programmer named Ward Cunningham, who wanted to create a platform for freewheeling collaboration in software development. He named his effort WikiWikiWeb. The idea first caught on among other techies, who used wikis to collectively work on engineering projects.

Now, venture capitalists are funding several startups that are attempting to take the idea to a bigger and more lucrative general-business audience. Their goal is to try to solve one of the workplace's most vexing problems: how to have employees collaborate and communicate better electronically.

Coming up with a good solution to this problem long has been a quest of the tech industry. Big tech companies have responded with heavy-duty collaborative software packages, such as Lotus Notes and Workplace from International Business Machines Corp. These products usually are expensive, controlled from the top and difficult to implement and use. And e-mail -- the most common way workers share information -- is hard to search, leaves important data deeply buried within it and is highly vulnerable to viruses. Some analysts have dubbed collaboration via e-mail "occupational spam" -- endless, time-consuming and often pointless.

Enter the wiki, which has aims to revive the idea of the "writable Web," which was how the medium itself was originally conceived by many of its earliest proponents. Using simple software, it allows anyone with Web access to post a page of information that is accessible to anyone else in the same group or organization. Others in the group can then modify, enhance or update it. To keep track of changes, old versions are retained. A wiki has been likened by some to a giant digital white board in a constant state of movement and creation.

Until now, most of the development of wiki software has been led by noncommercial, open-source efforts such as TWiki (www.twiki.org), whose free software has been downloaded by tens of thousands of people, who then typically unleash it within companies on their own. "Of course it comes from the bottom, since information technology departments in companies don't naturally embrace things they perceive they can't control," says Peter Thoeny, Twiki's founder.

But they should, say entrepreneurs who are now trying to improve and streamline wiki software so they can sell it to companies as the collaboration silver bullet.

Continued in the article

"Not Your Father's Encyclopedia," by Kendra Mayfield, Wired News, January 28, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57364,00.html

One of the Web's first open-source encyclopedias has reached a milestone, just two years since its inception.

Last week, the English-language version of Wikipedia, a free multilingual encyclopedia created entirely by volunteers on the Internet, published its 100,000th article. More than 37,000 articles populate the non-English editions.

Unlike traditional encyclopedias, which are written and edited by professionals, Wikipedia is the result of work by thousands of volunteers. Anyone can contribute an article -- or edit an existing one -- at any time.

The site runs on Wiki software, a collaborative application that allows users to collectively author Web documents without having to register first.

"People from very diverse backgrounds can agree on what can be in an encyclopedia article, even if they can't agree on something else," said Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.

Wikipedia topics range from Internet terms, such as spamming and trolling, to more mundane subjects, such as unicycling.

Each page on the site contains an "Edit this page" link, which users can click on to edit, reposition and revise passages created by other writers. Once a user has made an edit, those changes are posted immediately.

Users can also view older versions of a page, discuss the page, view links on a page or see related changes. These options allow contributors to constantly refine and comment upon entries.

All articles are covered by the Free Software Foundation's GNU Free Documentation License, which allows anyone to reuse the entries for any purpose, including commercially, as long as they preserve that same right to others and provide proper credit to Wikipedia. This open-content license ensures that Wikipedia's content will always remain free.

"It's a guarantee to contributors that their work is non-proprietary," Wales said. "It's not something that any one person or organization can take and restrict in any way. It really encourages people to contribute."

The project employs a Neutral Point of View policy, which encourages contributors to write articles without bias, represent all views fairly and to attribute controversial opinions, rather than stating them as fact.

"This makes it possible for political and philosophical foes to work together, often with excellent results," agreed Larry Sanger, co-founder and former chief organizer of Wikipedia.

But since neutrality is hard to maintain, "it's understandable if a sizeable number of articles have noticeable biases," said Sanger, who is also editor in chief of the free online, peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia.

Ensuring accuracy is also difficult. A core group of regular contributors help monitor the site's recent changes page to quickly correct any errors and ensure that entries aren't vandalized.

Continued at http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57364,00.html

The Wikipeda homepage is at http://www.wikipedia.org/

Wikipedia is a multilingual project to create a complete and accurate open content encyclopedia. We started on January 15, 2001 and are already working on 101702 articles in the English version. Visit the help page and experiment in the sandbox to learn how you can edit any article right now.

Note that Wikipedia also has news documents and biographies of people currently in the news.

Quality Problems in Wikipedia

"Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems," by Andrew Orlowski, The Register, October 18, 2005 --- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/18/wikipedia_quality_problem/page2.html

Traditionally, Wikipedia supporters have responded to criticism in one of several ways. The commonest is: If you don't like an entry, you can fix it yourself. Which is rather like going to a restaurant for a date, being served terrible food, and then being told by the waiter where to find the kitchen. But you didn't come out to cook a meal - you could have done that at home! No matter, roll up your sleeves.

As a second line of defense, Wikipedians point to flaws in the existing dead tree encyclopedias, as if the handful of errors in Britannica cancels out the many errors, hopeless apologies for entries, and tortured prose, of Wikipedia itself.

Thirdly, and here you can see that the defense is beginning to run out of steam, one's attention is drawn to process issues: such as the speed with which errors are fixed, or the fact that looking up a Wikipedia is faster than using an alternative. This line of argument is even weaker than the first: it's like going to a restaurant for a date - and being pelted with rotten food, thrown at you at high velocity by the waiters.

But the issue of readability poses even greater challenges. Even when a Wikipedia entry is 100 per cent factually correct, and those facts have been carefully chosen, it all too often reads as if it has been translated from one language to another then into to a third, passing an illiterate translator at each stage. (Possibly if one of these languages was Klingon, the entry might survive the mauling, but that doesn't appear to be the case very often).

Here the problems begin, because readability is a quality that can't be generated by a machine, or judged by one. It's the kind of subjective valuation that the Wikipedians explicitly hate: subjectivity is scorned for failing the positivist's NPOV test.

As a delicious illustration, Wikipedia appears to have a quality problem with the word "quality" itself. While Merriam Webster online offers us eight major definitions, including "a) degree of excellence : GRADE ... b : superiority in kind", and the Cambridge Dictionary three, of which two are "how good or bad something is and of a high standard" Wikipedia's sister project Wiktionary definition begins this. "1 - (uncountable) general good value"

Now is that General Good Value as in something plucked from a Wal-Mart sale? And "Uncountable"? Yes, indeed.

If this was a Marvel Comic, our superhero Objectivity would by now be ensared in the evil coils of Subjectivity. There appears to be no escape. Or is there?

Not good enough - so what do we wikkin' do?

Re-working Wikipedia so it presents the user with something minimally readable will be a mammoth task. Although the project has no shortage of volunteers, most add nothing: busying themselves with edits that simply add or takeaway a comma. These are housekeeping tasks that build up credits for the participants, so they can rise higher in the organization.

And Wikipedia's "cabal" has become notorious for deterring knowledgable and literate contributors. One who became weary of the in-fighting, Orthogonal, calls it Wikipedia's HUAC - the House of Unamerican Activities prominent in the McCarthy era for hunting down and imprisoning the ideologically-incorrect.

So right now, the project appears ill-equipped to respond to the new challenge. Its philosophical approach deters subjective judgements about quality, and its political mindset deters outside experts from helping.

This isn't promising.

One day Wikipedia may well be the most amazing reference work the world has ever seen, lauded for its quality. But to get from here to there it will need real experts and top quality writing - it won't get there by hoping that its whizzy technical processes remedy such deficiencies. In other words, it will resemble today's traditional encyclopedias far more than it does today.

For now we simply welcome the candour: at least Wikipedia is officially out of QD, or the "Quality Denial" stage.

Bootnote Of the many, many atrocious entries, we'd like to bring one more to the HUAC's attention, and it's our very favorite. As of the time of writing, whoever wrote the entry for soul legend Baby Washington has no idea who she is, but makes a wild guess, then gives up completely with the less-than-helpful advice: "Many have written inacurate information about Washington. She IS NOT "BABY WASHINGTON" from James Brown." (sic).

Indeed. But note that this entry has been edited no less than seven times and can be found replicated at Biography.com, Answers.com, Reference.com, InfoMutt, The Free Dictionary and hundreds of other sites.

Can Wikipedia Survive Its Own Success?
It's not easy being Wikipedia, a free web encyclopedia created and edited by anonymous contributors. Just ask founder Jimmy Wales, who has seen his creation come under fire in just a few short months as the site fends off vandalism and charges of inaccurate entries. But Wikipedia, founded in 2001 as a non-profit organization, has become a big enough presence that it raises a number of interesting questions, including: Just how accurate is free content, given recent events at Wikipedia? Does the aggregate 'wisdom of the crowd' trump the expertise of knowledgeable individuals? Does Wikipedia's policing mechanism work? And does the controversy over Wikipedia merely reflect further tension between old and new media? Wharton experts, along with Wales, offer some answers.
"Can Wikipedia Survive Its Own Success?," Knowledge@Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, January 2006 --- http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1361

Windows= A windowing (Mac-like) extended DOS operating system from Microsoft Corporation that allows users to have more than one application running at the same time. Because Windows ran on lower-capacity 386 and 486 chips, it captured huge market shares and had over 40 million adopters by the end of 1993. This has severely clouded the future of Apple Corporation whose graphical operating system lost its uniqueness and popularity as Windows operating systems spread across the world. Windows applications can be stacked in succeeding "windows" that have menu lines and, unlike Mac processors, have an ability to "minimize" multiple operating programs. Users can then dart back and forth between windows (applications) without having to reload. Popular windows programs include those on Macintosh computers and on PCs using Microsoft Windows, Works, and Enable. Finder is another windows program. It has become common for the word "Windows" in computer lore to refer to Microsoft Windows built upon the DOS foundation. Newer OS/2 and Windows 2000 (New Technology) shed the DOS foundation but require considerably greater hardware capacity than the older Microsoft Windows. (See also Operating system, OS/2, Windows Chicago, and Windows 2000)

Windows 95/98= (See Windows Chicago)

Windows Longhorn =

"First look at future of Windows," BBC News, October 28, 2003 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3220017.stm

Microsoft has given programmers a peek at the next version of Windows. Codenamed "Longhorn", the software was shown to developers by Bill Gates, the technology giant's chairman and chief software architect.

Microsoft said the new version will have better security, make it easier to organise and find files and need to be restarted much less often.

Although programmers are getting an early look at Longhorn, it is unlikely to go on sale before 2006.

Microsoft said the new version will have better security, make it easier to organise and find files and need to be restarted much less often.

Although programmers are getting an early look at Longhorn, it is unlikely to go on sale before 2006.

Programming peep

Longhorn was shown off on Monday at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

The audience for the demonstration was made up of 7,000 programmers many of whom will be writing applications that take advantage of the new technologies in Longhorn.

Some of the gloss was taken off the unveiling because early versions of Longhorn were leaked on to the net the day before the conference began.

Bill Gates said the release of Longhorn would be Microsoft's largest software launch this decade and would mean big changes to the way Windows works.

He said the creation of Longhorn had been conducted around four key areas:

Security and scalability Graphics File storage Web services The security changes aim to make Windows less vulnerable to malicious viruses and worms and will give system administrators features for limiting what machines can do and what users can do with particular files or documents.

Also included are technologies that speed up the installation of software and make programs launch quicker.

Longhorn will also have a completely re-written presentation system, called Avalon, that removes many of the memory and graphics limitations that remain from earlier, less powerful generations of machines.

Bill Gates said that Longhorn will have a unified storage system called WinFS. This will use web-derived technology to make it possible to search for and categorise any type of file with just one system instead of separate ones for every application.

Such a flexible system would be needed, said Mr Gates, because in the future people are likely to generate 'oceans' of information that they will need to search through quickly.

Finally, Longhorn will have built in many of the technologies needed to make it easy to set up sophisticated web services.

As well as outlining the new technologies in Longhorn, Microsoft also demonstrated how it would look.

One of the key features of the new desktop is a smart panel that sits at the side of the screen and can be configured to hold essential information such as instant messenger buddy lists, time, links to favourite websites as well as news and stock tickers.

Continued in the article.

Windows 2000 = the updated name for the Windows NT operating system from Microsoft Corporation that looks and feels somewhat like Microsoft Windows but is far more powerful in multitasking and computing speed of a 32-bit architecture memory access. NT has extensive networking capabilities as well as being a full 32-bit processor. Most present Windows users, however, will not be able to use NT without buying more powerful computers and becoming accustomed to its lack of object-oriented features. Many experts see Windows 2000 as the operating system of choice in future networks, although networking and efforts of Sun, Novell, to stay in the market have do not make it a sure thing. McGee (1994) reports that, although Hewlett-Packard would rather stay entirely in its popular UNIX networking operating system, the company recognizes Windows 2000 as such a threat to UNIX that Hewlett-Packard is also expanding its operating system to include Windows 2000. According the HP's CEO, "...three or four years down the road, NT-related systems could become significant revenue generators." (As quoted in McGee (1994), p. 22.) (See also Windows DNA, Windows Cairo, Windows Chicago, Operating system, Alpha processor, and OS/2)

Windows Alternatives= See Operating Systems and Scopeware

Windows Cairo= A planned upgrade (scheduled for 1996) of Windows 2000 from Microsoft Corporation that will have many of the Windows Chicago object-oriented features. Cairo was originally scheduled to ship in early 1995, but in May 1994, Microsoft Corporation announced that it would be delayed due to efforts to complete Daytona, the second release on Windows 2000.

Windows Chicago= The significant Version 4.0 upgrade of Windows to Windows 95 in year 1995. This was later upgraded to Windows 98 in 1998. Windows Chicago, Windows 95, and Windows Version 4.0 are synonyms for the first version of Windows attempting to free itself from the constrains of Microsoft DOS. Latest information on Copeland and other operating systems can be obtained at <http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/center/default.html>. Details are provided in Information Week, April 29, 1996, p. 15. In October 1994, Syllabus on Page 23 asserts "Windows 95 is expected to become the next major operating system for the mainstream desktop and portable PC." Between now and the time most users are using forthcoming native software designed for Windows Chicago (later called Windows 95), users may efficiently run their old 16-bit Windows applications on Chicago's operating system. Windows Chicago is a 32-bit multitasking operating system that satisfies a wider array of users than either Windows 3.1 or DOS. Microsoft spent millions of dollars studying how to make Windows Chicago easier to operate than its predecessors. It is designed to be a plug and play system with enhanced features for hardware setup and multimedia device operations. It also has Internet utilities but is not the full networking operating system of Windows 2000 that will eventually become the most widespread operating system in the world according to many analysts. At the end of 1993, there were over 40 million Windows 3.1 users as compared with 4 million OS/2 adopters and 250,000 adopters of the new Windows 2000 32-bit processors. Since Windows 2000 and even OS/2 are not well suited to most of the existing 386 and 486 computers in the world, Windows Chicago fills a big market niche until users replace older machines with higher speed and higher memory capacity PCs. In an article entitled "Chicago Blues" in Information Week, December 20, 1993, p. 14, however, it is reported that Microsoft will have to compromise on some of its 32-bit system promises for Chicago in order to allow the system to be squeezed into customer machines that only have 4Mb of RAM. This is the classical problem of having to compromise power of an operating system for hardware limitations of a large customer base. As a result, Windows Chicago may suffer from the same crashing problems as Windows and still be confined to 16-bit graphical device interfaces (GDI). (See also Operating system.) Bott (1994), however, denies that Chicago will have crashing problems. In an article comparing Windows Chicago with the other leading 32-bit systems, Bott (1994) calls it the "most promising software system in years" that will capture even greater market share than the earliest Windows version as a "sure thing." Whether or not Windows Chicago is truly better than the IBM and Apple competition operating systems may be a moot point if there are over 40 million Windows users that have installed or soon will install Windows Chicago. Market share determines the number of native software applications being developed for operating systems. Mac, UNIX, and other operating systems are losing the native software development war to Windows Chicago and Windows 2000. Windows Chicago is almost certain to become the PC operating system standard of choice until its upgrade called Windows Cairo rolls off the line and/or Windows 2000 with upgraded object-oriented programming features become the operating systems of choice among users having newer hardware speed and memory components. In answer to the question of whether Windows 95 (Chicago) will be a flop, Bott (1994), p. 139 contended: "You might as well put your money on Wile Coyote to finally catch Roadrunner." (See also Native, Windows, Windows Cairo, OS/2 and Windows 2000)

Windows Daytona = (See Windows 2000)

Windows DNA = Windows Distributed interNet Applications bundling of Windows 2000, Host Integration Server 2000, Application Center 2000, BizTalk Server 2000, Commerce Server 2000, SQL Server 2000, Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000, and Visual Studio 2000. Microsoft hopes that many companies will soon tire of integrating best-of-breed products and will opt for an integrated solution. That's why the software vendor is preparing to release the components that make up its Windows DNA 2000 product group. See Windows 2000.

Windows File System (WFS)

February 14, 2003 Exclusive: A Chat with Bill Gates --- http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,889423,00.asp

MM: What's WFS?

BG: It's the Windows File System. The new Windows file system is much, much, more than a file system. It's not just a database, and it's not just a file system. It's a new thing.

So, anyway, Tablet PC and SPOT—I love those. These are special projects of mine because they bring in some new concepts—new approaches that I am very excited about. Xbox Live has also been very neat to work on.

But the biggest thing has been building this one standard way of doing the plumbing that I've described. The centralized architectural approach I've described is something that requires an R&D budget on the scale of Microsoft's. It requires thinking about transactions, messaging, databases, the Office software suite, and management plumbing. The new architecture requires that you have all those things lined up.

Workflow, security, and even just keeping software up to date have been so hard to do well because there isn't one architecture to tie all those things together. People in computer science might look at the architecture I've described and say, "Isn't it very ambitious to take on these new protocols, a new messaging layer, managed code, new schemas, and then go to build everything around these?"

The answer to that is yes, it is ambitious, but even if you just gave me the challenge of building management software so that it's really good, or the challenge of doing e-commerce well, I would make all these architectural moves I've described. You need self-description, scalability, and auditability to do e-commerce well, for example.

Windows Scripting Host (WSH) = (See ActiveX.)

Windows XP= A significant revision (code named Whistler) of the entire Windows operating system from Microsoft Corporation. Windows XP is built on the Windows 2000 kernel but brings a nee look to the desktop that will also make it easier for users to scan or import images and to acquire music files on the Web and transfer them to portable devices. The new Windows will allow different users to have their own private sets of files. The Start Menu has been redesigned to make the most-used programs easiest to find. Windows XP will come in a Professional version and a Home Edition version.. More importantly, Windows XP is more stable than Windows 2000 and Windows NT. See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/default.asp

News from Microsoft --- http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/migrate/unix/default.asp

As the Windows platform continues to evolve to address changing business computing needs, many organizations currently on UNIX platforms are turning to Windows to run their new client and server business applications. They're discovering that moving to the Windows platform does not require abandoning existing investments in UNIX applications and infrastructure.

This section explains why customers should consider migrating to Windows from UNIX. It also provides detailed information for IT professionals and developers on how to move from UNIX systems to Windows XP, Windows 2000, and the upcoming Windows .NET Server and Microsoft .NET Web services platforms.

Why Migrate to Windows from UNIX and Linux

How to Migrate to Windows from UNIX and Linux

Migration Tools and Resources

Wintel = a combination of a Microsoft Windows operating system in an Intel CPU microprocessor. For years, Intel CPUs would only run on Windows 3.x and Windows 95 processors. Now they run on Windows 2000 as well. Only when Linux came about did Intel CPUs have some alternative other than Microsoft Corporation operating systems.

WinGopher= (See Gopher)

Wireless communications=

With 70,595 Wi-Fi hotspot locations in 103 countries, JiWire's global hotspot directory makes it easy to find places to connect wherever you go.
WiFi Hotspot Finder Widget --- http://www.jiwire.com/

"No Wires, No Rules," by Heather Green, Business Week, April 28, 2004 --- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_17/b3880601.htm?c=bwwireless_051304&n=link1&t=email

High-speed Internet access has been as rare as sunshine in winter in Campsie, a tiny village on the northern coast of Northern Ireland. The town is located in a sparsely populated rural area, which makes it too expensive to install traditional broadband technology. And the town is too far from larger cities like Londonderry to use their Internet facilities.

The people of Campsie shouldn't give up hope, though. Earlier this year, British telephone giant BT Group PLC (BT ) invited about 100 Web surfers in the village and three other rural areas to sign up for a promising new wireless Internet service. BT has installed a series of radio towers that beam signals across the countryside to small antennas on the sides of customers' homes. The system is about as fast as traditional broadband but much cheaper to set up. Why? BT is using less-expensive equipment and a free, unlicensed part of the radio spectrum, avoiding billions of dollars in fees. If the test in Campsie goes well, BT may roll out the service to consumers across Britain by next year. "This will revolutionize society, just as mobile telephony revolutionized society in the 1980s," says Mike Galvin, director of Internet operations at BT.

It's just one example of how the unlicensed portion of the radio spectrum is turning into a hothouse of technological innovation. For years, these radio frequencies were neglected, the lonely domain of cordless phones and microwave ovens. In the past few years, however, engineers at institutions from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Dutch giant Royal Philips Electronics (PHG ) have been hard at work on a grander vision for the unlicensed radio frontier. That tinkering is what sparked the creation of Wi-Fi, the wildly popular wireless Net technology that took off last year with the support of chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC ).

Wi-Fi is just the first step, though. Hard on its heels are four equally innovative technologies -- WiMax, Mobile-Fi, ZigBee, and Ultrawideband -- that will push wireless networking into every facet of life, from cars and homes to office buildings and factories. These technologies have attracted $4.5 billion in venture investments over the past five years, according to estimates from San Francisco-based investment bank Rutberg & Co. Products based on them will start hitting the market this year and become widely available in 2005. As they do, they will expand the reach of the Internet for miles and create a mesh of Web technologies that will provide connections anywhere, anytime. "Now you have a toolbox full of wireless tools that can help with each problem, whether it's reaching a couple of inches or a couple of miles," says Ian McPherson, president of Wireless Data Research Group, a market research firm in San Mateo, Calif.

These technologies will usher in a new era for the wireless Web. They'll work with each other and with traditional telephone networks to let people and machines communicate like never before. People in what have been isolated towns, be it in Ireland or Idaho, will find themselves with blazingly fast Net connections. Zooming down the highway, you'll be able to use a laptop or PDA to check the weather or the traffic a few miles ahead. Back at home, couch potatoes will be able to dish up movies from their PC and transfer them to the flat screen in the living room -- without any wires at all. And tiny wireless sensors will control the lights in skyscrapers, monitor utility meters in suburban neighborhoods, even track toxicity levels in wastewater. This will give rise to the Internet of Things, networks of smart machines that communicate with each other.

What are the technologies behind this vision of the future? ZigBee, along with its radio standard, is the technology that coordinates communication among thousands of tiny sensors. These sensors can be scattered throughout offices, farms, or factories, picking up bits of information about temperature, chemicals, water, or even motion. They're designed to use little energy because they'll be left in place for five or 10 years and their batteries need to last. So they communicate very efficiently, passing data over radio waves from one to the other like a bucket brigade. At the end of the line, the data can be dropped into a computer for analysis or picked up by another wireless technology like WiMax. Products based on ZigBee, which has been nurtured by giants Philips and Motorola, are expected to start hitting the market later this year.

HUGE HOT SPOTS
WiMax is similar to Wi-Fi. Both create "hot spots," or areas around a central antenna in which people can wirelessly share information or tap the Net with a properly equipped laptop. While Wi-Fi can cover several hundred feet, WiMax has a range of 25 to 30 miles. That means it can be used as an alternative to traditional broadband technologies, which use telephone and cable pipes. It's an early version of WiMax that's bringing the Net to Campsie. WiMax can't be used right now if you're moving, say in a car. But backers of the technology, including Intel and Alcatel (ALA ), plan to have a mobile version out within a few years. A similar standard, known as Mobile-Fi, will be available two or three years from now. It will let people surf the Net at speeds even faster than their home broadband links today -- while they're racing along on a train or in a car.

Ultrawideband serves a very different purpose. The technology lets people move massive files quickly over short distances. In the home, that will allow users to zap, say, an hourlong Sopranos show from a PC to the TV without any messy cords. On the road, a driver who has his laptop in the trunk receiving data over Mobile-Fi could use Ultrawideband to pull that information up to the handheld computer in the front seat. Although the standard hasn't been finished yet, Motorola already is selling chips based on an early version of the technology.

One reason for this flurry of innovation now is the nature of unlicensed spectrum. Traditionally, a big company like AT&T Wireless (AWE ) paid billions of dollars to the federal government for an exclusive license to use a swath of the radio waves. That allowed the company to provide mobile-phone service to its customers without any interference, but it blocked other players from using the same radio frequencies. By contrast, most of these technologies use unlicensed spectrum. That means that anyone -- really, anyone -- can try out any idea they can imagine on those frequencies. Think of it as open-mike night at the local pub. "The licensed world tends to move in this fairly ponderous way, but with unlicensed spectrum people can try out other things and learn there is a whole market sitting out there," says Kevin Werbach, an independent technology strategy consultant.

Wi-Fi set the pattern for stardom that these emerging technologies hope to emulate. A group of companies got together to establish a standard for the technology, touching off a virtuous cycle. High volumes brought the cost of Wi-Fi gear down, low costs boosted demand, and strong demand led to even higher volumes. Now, Intel, which stoked the frenzy with a $400 million marketing push last year, sells its Wi-Fi chips to computer makers for $20 each, down from $45 a year ago. Some 54 million laptops, PDAs, and other devices with Wi-Fi are expected to be sold this year, according to researcher In-Stat/MDR, four times as many as in 2002.

For all their promise, these new technologies face steep challenges. Giants are battling over the exact standards for Mobile-Fi and Ultrawideband, and a final resolution may not come before 2006. Until that happens, equipment makers won't be able to start mass production, meaning costs won't be driven down by economies of scale. Mobile-Fi, which is planned for licensed spectrum, may be subsumed by WiMax once it adds mobile capabilities.

What's more, these innovations aren't emerging in a vacuum. Cellular companies already are rolling out technology that will let their customers get speedy Net connections on their mobile phones or laptops. This third-generation, or 3G, gear will compete directly with WiMax and Mobile-Fi. Verizon Wireless installed its 3G networks in Washington, D.C., and San Diego last year, and it plans to add 98 more markets by the end of 2005. Other cellular companies are providing similar service in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The 3G technology may be slower than WiMax, but it has the benefit of being reliable -- and available. "WiMax, all of a sudden, has caught a lot of attention, but we have been commercial for two years," says John Hambidge, senior director of marketing at IPWireless Inc., which makes 3G equipment. "We have a huge time-to-market advantage."

Even if WiMax and its brethren can compete with 3G, another challenge looms: a spectrum shortage. As all these devices begin chattering away over the same radio frequencies, they may begin to bump into each other. To avoid such a shortage, Intel (INTC ), Microsoft (MSFT ), and other tech companies are lobbying the Federal Communications Commission for more spectrum. Their target? The major TV broadcasters, including ABC (DIS ), NBC (GE ), and CBS (VIA ), which are sitting on vast amounts of spectrum for transmitting TV programs. The FCC long has supported the development of technologies for unlicensed spectrum, but it's unclear whether the commission wants to take on the powerful broadcasters, especially in an election year. "The broadcasters hate it, but as demand just keeps going up, it gets harder and harder to defend policies that are restricting supply," says Michael Calabrese, program director at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington that advocates providing more spectrum for these new technologies. "Over the long haul, I am optimistic."

AUTOMATION ACCELERATION
One reason for such optimism is that these technologies offer benefits that could ripple through the economy. The wireless Internet promises to spur productivity by collecting data that could never be tracked before and by making information available exactly when it's needed. It will speed automation, allowing people stuck behind, say, a cash register to do more productive work. Already, J.C. Penney salespeople use Wi-Fi to check inventory and prices. Now the technology is moving into construction, rescue services, health care, and other markets. Combined, these technologies are expected to reach $17.3 billion in sales by 2007, up from $3.3 billion in 2003. "The next wave of personal productivity at work is about mobility, people wanting to get access anywhere," says Sean M. Maloney, executive vice-president and general manager of Intel's communications group.

Continued in the article

New wireless and mobile technologies --- http://www.thinkmobile.com/

"Before Going to Buy High-Tech Devices, Learn the New Terms," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

Draft N: This is a new, faster, longer-range version of the popular Wi-Fi wireless networking system, and many new Wi-Fi products are built to comply with it. It succeeds the common "G" flavor of Wi-Fi. But, there's a catch. As the name implies, this technology is based on a draft of the forthcoming new Wi-Fi standard, to be called "N." And the final standard could be different enough to make Draft N gear outdated in 12 to 18 months.

The Future of the E-Wireless Revolution Watch out, Asia and North America! Europe is defining message-delivery models for the years to come and quite possibly could become the e-wireless leader. http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=3580

Many web marketers are looking at the wireless web frenzy, wondering how they can jump aboard the hype train. http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=3586

From Information Week Newsletter on March 6, 2001

The future is wireless, or so we're told. While vendors work out the formula for devices and services that will put wireless clients into every consumer's hands, at least one wireless networking technology has moved out of the early-adopter stage. Wireless Ethernet, defined by the 802.11b standard, is coming into its own as a common technique to connect clients to networks. It is this genuine maturity that new technologies are pushed to achieve. This is the magic place on the product life curve when companies can begin ordering and installing the technology as a solution rather than as an experiment.

We took five separate 802.11b systems to the Review Bunker at the University of Hawaii's Advanced Network Computing Lab to see whether these products truly are as mature as they seem. We wanted to see whether the wireless networking systems would be easy to integrate into an existing network and easy to forget once they were installed. In short, we wanted to find out whether wireless networking systems can replace standard 10Base-T with no performance or management penalties for users and administrators.

Five companies accepted our invitation to this lab test. Cisco, Enterasys Networks, Intel, Proxim and Symbol Technologies brought network access devices, management software and wireless PC cards to the Review Bunker and helped us put the systems through their paces. In the end, we found that there's a lot of good news in wireless networking, along with one little detail that will cause you some trouble. --Curtis Franklin

Read on to find out how they performed: http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eCoW0Bdl6n0V30LWBN

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Providers Overcome Bluetooth Blues

Bluetooth--a technology that backers in the wireless and computer industry promise will enable cheap, short-range wireless networking--is set to become a reality after more than two years of development.

By this summer, wireless operators will be selling phones with Bluetooth transceivers, small chips that can communicate at distances up to 30 feet and wirelessly connect to PCs and PDAs.

Wireless service providers are excited about the prospects. They expect gadget fans and road warriors to use their cellular networks to connect Bluetooth-enabled devices to the Internet and corporate LANs.

The coming of age of Bluetooth means more traffic over the network and more demand for wireless services, say wireless operators. --Jonathan Collins, tele.com

Read on: http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eCoW0Bdl6n0V30LWCO

The Long Wait for Bluetooth --- http://www.msnbc.com/news/568898.asp

BLUETOOTH IS a short-range radio technology that allows wireless devices to communicate over distances of about 30 feet. It was a seductive idea when the Swedish telecommunications gearmaker Ericsson first came up with it. The idea was that it would be indifferent to the devices’ underlying operating systems—hence the name (Harald Bluetooth was a 10th-century Danish king who overcame his country’s religious differences). It would be a major technical advance over infrared transmission, the dominant technology for wireless communication between devices. Think of the Palm family of personal digital assistants. Not only must they be pointed directly at each other for the infrared connection to work, they must also be no more than about three feet apart. Bluetooth is designed to work at about 10 times that distance, and doesn’t require that the devices be within line of sight. A Bluetooth-enabled TV remote control could change channels from two rooms away. For all digital devices, the elimination of wiring is “similar to the way in which the mouse was eventually integrated [directly] into the laptop,” says a Motorola official. “Pretty soon you won’t even know it’s there.” The growing popularity of wireless has attracted rivals. A competing technology, commonly known by the exasperating alphanumeric monicker of 802.11b (pronounced eight-oh-two-dot-eleven-bee ), is capturing the corporate market. Designed as a wireless local-area-network (LAN) technology, 802.11b allows, for example, salespeople to log on to corporate intranets without using conventional telephone lines. Bluetooth is more of a consumer technology. But 802.11b may already be getting in its way. Last month Microsoft announced that it would not support Bluetooth in the initial release of Windows XP, planned for the end of summer, though last week the company hinted that the date may slip all the way to 2002. The Redmond, Wash., software giant will, on the other hand, support 802.11b, for one simple reason: it exists. Networks using 802.11b are up and running at places like Stanford University and the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.

What’s the difference between the two? Bluetooth is slower. It moves data at about 720 kilobits per second (Kbps), almost 13 times faster than the fastest dial-up modem speed today. But 802.11b is 14 times faster than that, at 11Mbps (megabits per second). On the other hand, 802.11b requires a network infrastructure. It does not allow individual devices to talk to each other. In geekspeak, 802.11b has a client-server architecture, while Bluetooth resembles peer-to-peer. This alone will make Bluetooth attractive to people who seek “personal area networks” in which all their devices communicate. One major problem: Bluetooth and 802.11b use the same slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, the unlicensed 2.4GHz portion used also by common devices like microwave ovens. There have been reports of interference when the two technologies operate in proximity. And as if the picture weren’t murky enough, a third wireless standard waits in the wings: 802.11a. The Sunnyvale, Calif., chipmaker Atheros says it will ship an 802.11a wireless kit this summer. And while full implementation of the technology won’t happen any time soon, it is a threat to both Bluetooth and 802.11b because it’s much faster—up to 54 megabits per second—and operates in a less crowded part of the spectrum.

(See PDA)

Forwarded by Scott Bonacker, CPA [scottbonacker@moccpa.com]

1. ==== IN FOCUS ====

(contributed by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor,

mark@ntsecurity.net)

* CAN OTHERS STUMBLE INTO YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK?

In the August 7, 2002, edition of Security UPDATE, I wrote about a new trend called warchalking. As you know, warchalking is the act of marking buildings in the vicinity of wireless networks. The idea is to provide a visual clue indicating the presence of wireless networks so that people can obtain a free Internet connection. Warchalkers use distinctive markings and include information about bandwidth and various connection perimeters.

http://www.secadministrator.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=26207

The trend is catching on, so much so that, according to VNU Business Publications, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently issued an unofficial warning that businesses should check the security of their wireless LAN (WLAN) equipment to ensure that adequate security is in place.

http://www.vnunet.com/news/1134451

Recently, I learned about a new Internet site, NetStumbler.com, that aids users in identifying and locating WLANs around the country. Among other features, the site hosts a national map that shows cities that have open WLANs and a searchable database that helps users query for information about specific locations.

http://www.netstumbler.com

NetStumbler.com also hosts a downloadable program called NetStumbler that lets users investigate a given WLAN's security. Security administrators can use it to test their sites. Anyone can download a copy (291KB) at the first URL below. According to the Web site, "NetStumbler is a Windows tool that allows you to [scan for] 802.11b (and 802.11a, if using Windows XP) wireless LANs. It includes [global positioning satellite (GPS)] integration and a simple, intuitive user interface. Though primarily targeted at owners of wireless LANs, it has been the de facto tool for casual users such as war drivers for over a year." The tool apparently even won a "PC Magazine" award earlier this year (see the second URL below), which named the tool its favorite innovative networking technology in the wireless software category.

http://www.netstumbler.com/download.php?op=getit&lid=22

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,3666,00.asp

NetStumbler runs on Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Win95 but doesn't work yet on Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows Me. To see what it was like, I downloaded a copy and installed the tool. NetStumbler has a typical GUI, lets you choose a wireless NIC to use for scanning, and has scripting capabilities. After you've scanned an area and discovered WLANs, you can save the NetStumbler output and upload it to the NetStumbler.com Web site, where an application on the Web site converts it to Microsoft MapPoint 2002-compatible output. The process helps you plot WLAN points on a graphical map.

http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/overview.htm

With resources such as NetStumbler and NetStumbler.com freely available, you should definitely take time to ensure that your WLAN security is adjusted to permit only authorized users access--unless you want to intentionally leave it open and available to anyone. The bottom line is that if you run a wireless network, you must keep it secure. If you don't, expect that someone will identify your network, chalk it up, and possibly submit it to the NetStumbler.com Web site--where everyone can find it quickly. For information about securing your WLANs, read Allen Jones' article, "Securing 802.11 Wireless Networks" (see the first URL below) and Paul Thurrott's article "Securing Your Wireless Networks" (see the second URL below).

http://www.secadministrator.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=24873

http://www.secadministrator.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=24521

Also see iSync

Wireless Glossary of Terms

Tom Hicks brought me up to date on wireless home firewall computers. He recommends Linksys products such as the one at http://www.linksys.com/splash/wcg200_splash.asp

The Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway is the all-in-one solution for Internet connectivity in your home. The Cable Modem function gives you a blazing fast connection to the Internet, far faster than a dial-up, and without tying up your phone line.

Connect your computer to the Wireless-G Cable Gateway via USB, or take advantage of the built-in 4-port 10/100 Ethernet Switch to jump start your home network. You can share files, printers, hard drive space and other resources, or play head-to-head PC games. Connect four PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. The built-in Wireless-G Access Point allows up to 32 wireless devices to connect to your network at a blazing 54Mbps, without running cables through the house. It's also compatible with Wireless-B devices, at 11Mbps. The Gateway's Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share that high-speed Internet connection.

To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Cable Gateway features an advanced firewall to keep Internet intruders and attackers out. Wireless transmissions can be protected by powerful data encryption. Safeguard your family with Parental Control features like Internet Access Time Limits and Key Word Blocking. Configuration is a snap with any web browser. With the Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway at the heart of your home network, you're connected to the future.

Glossary of Wireless LAN Terms

Access Point (AP): A device connected to the wired local area network that receives and transmits signals to wireless clients; this device must also be connected to the wired LAN if connections to external networks are required.

Authentication: A process that verifies that the user has permission to access the network; often associated with the process of joining a Bluetooth piconet or WLAN.

Channels: Another name for frequencies, especially within a defined band.

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS): A spread spectrum technique that uses a "chip" (redundant bit pattern for each bit to be transmitted) to encode the signal to ensure more reliable delivery; the technology employed in IEEE 802.11 implementations.

Frequently Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS): A spread spectrum technique that uses a range of frequencies and changes frequencies during the transmission; the technology employed in HomeRF (SWAP) implementations.

Industry, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) Band: An unregulated radio frequency that uses the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands for communication; these bands were approved by the FCC in 1985.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM): A multiplexing technique used in 802.11a WLANs; this technique minimizes the effect of multipath distortion encountered in 802.11b networks.

Spread Spectrum Transmission (SS): A technique that takes a narrow signal and spreads it over a broader portion of the radio frequency band.

Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) Band: An unregulated radio frequency that uses the 5 GHz band for communication; this band is divided into three sub-bands and are intended for use by short-range, high-speed wireless digital communication devices.

TiSP
Forwarded on April 2, 2007 by Aaron Konstam [akonstam@sbcglobal.net]

Google is at it again with a new service called TiSP, a free wireless internet system. The catch, you can read and find out. Just install the google toolbar and other things. Find out more,

http://www.google.com/tisp/

http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html

http://www.google.com/tisp/faq.html

Linux support is not there yet, but it is promised.

Those that have dual boot can try it out and hope that it works out.

Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity): Another name for IEEE 802.11b standard; this trademark is owned by WECA and devices that comply with it assure interoperability among vendors.

Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP): The IEEE specification for data encryption between wireless devices defined by the IEEE 802.1x standard.

Wireless Local Network (WLAN): A local area network that is not connected by wires but instead uses one of the wireless technologies.

Additional definitions from Network Computing July 10, 2000, p. 46

AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service): This basic analog cellular service in the United States and South America typically operates at 800 MHz and uses FDMA transmission technology. With AMPS, when one person grabs a segment of frequency for a call, nobody else within the cell can use it. Digital cellular technologies offer ways for carriers to allow more calls in a cell, using the same amount of bandwidth.

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access): The dominate PCS standard in the United States, this spread-spectrum technology, developed by Qualcomm, lets multiple callers share a segment of frequencies.

CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data): This packet-based technology allows either 9.6-Kbps or 19.2-Kbps data rates over standard analog channels in the 800- to 900-MHz range, by finding and employing unused channels. AT&T's Wireless IP is an example of a CDPD-based service.

FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access): Used in the AMPS system, FDMA is a method of coordinating radio traffic to prevent interference between users sharing a set of frequencies. Only one subscriber can access a given frequency at one time.

GSM (Global System for Mobil Communications): A variant of TDMA, GSM is the closest to a worldwide standard for cellular service. A single-frequency GSM cellular handset may work compatibly in Europe, Asia, India and Africa--though not in the United States.

PCS (Personal Communications Service): PCS refers to the three predominant digital cellular technologies operating in the 1.9-GHz band in the United States: CDMA, GSM and TDMA, all of which can allow data to be sent over cellular networks.

TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access): TDMA is a method of dividing a single analog channel into a number of time slots and assigning each user a distinct time slot within a given channel. This lets more users (usually three) access a channel at one time without interference. TDMA is one of the standard digital cellular technologies, along with CDMA. GSM is a variant.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol): This network-neutral protocol is used for sending data to and from WAP-capable devices, such as cellular phone handsets. You can read more about WQP in "The WAP Rap," Educause Review, January/February 2002, pp. 50-51 --- http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0206.pdf

For explanations of more wireless terms, see www.wirelessdata.org/primer/terms.asp .

Also see iSync

Workplace OS= (See OS/2)

Workstation= A networked personal computing device with more power than a traditional PC or Mac, although the term "workstation" is now used somewhat loosely to describe any site performing complex tasks such as an Amiga video workstation, a Mac AV workstation, a CD-ROM recording workstation, a videodisc recording workstation, a desktop publishing workstation, etc. Typically, a "workstation" has operating systems such as Unix, OS/2, or Windows 2000 that are capable of running several tasks (multitasking) at the same time. It has several megabytes of memory and a large, high-resolution display. Examples are SUN workstations and Digital DEC stations.

World of Boston= (See Networks)

World Wide Web= Hyperlinking system, also known as WWW or W3, that creates a point-and-click way of linking within documents, linking to other documents, and extremely popular searching of the Internet. Whereas the Internet commenced in 1969 with the linking of the Pentagon with four supercomputing centers at universities, the WWW was conceived in 1990 by particle physicists (notably Tim Berners-Lee) at CERN in Switzerland. The CERN group developed the HTML WWW coding language and the HTTP protocols for reading HTML at WWW sites. In 1993 there were only 50 WWW sites (mostly particle physicists) that exploded to nearly 10 million sites shortly after Mosaic and then Netscape added HTTP to browsers. Internet use has exploded in commerce, entertainment, and education since the advent of the WWW. Millions of individuals and organizations are setting up web sites (home pages). Web publishing is overtaking hard copy publishing. WWW shopping and education alternatives are exploding. Students can set up free web sites at <http://www.tripod.com/>. Virtual Servers Inc., for a monthly fee, will provide web server space to business firms and other parties wanting to set up network application servers. The Virtual Server home page is <http://vservers.com/>. For interactive computing on the web, see Distributed Network Computing. Software options for 3-D rendering on the web are reviewed in the NewMedia, May 5 1998, pp. 52-64. The NewMedia web site is at http://www.newmedia.com Those authoring packages rated as "Awesome" include Live Picture Reality Studio at http://www.livepicture.com (800-724-7900) and Platinum Technology VRCreator at http://www.platinum.com (800-442-6861). There are many other options rated as "Thumbs Up" or "Does the Job." (See also AVI, Browser, Internet, Cookies, Image map, FAQ, Finger, FTP, HTML, HTTP, Hyperlink, IRC, ISDN, ISP, Java, Smart agent, TCP/IP, Telnet, USENet, WAIS, Apple AV, Audio, JPEG, MIME, MUDs, PDA, QuickTime, Resource Description Framework, Search engine, and Web browsers)

Tim Berners-Lee Honored With $1.2M Prize http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/egXI0GMPWZ0G4X0CTzR0A1
The inventor of the web has been awarded the first Millennium Technology Prize for creating the ubiquitous World Wide Web.

Preserving One Web
The W3C hopes that its new tool will help developers build websites that will work well on any device, be it a phone or a video-game console . . . The overarching goal of the initiative, according to Berners-Lee, is to keep content available regardless of the devices available to a person. "I like being able to choose my hardware separately from choosing my software, and separately from choosing my content," Berners-Lee said at the conference. There needs to be just one Web, he explained, and it needs to work on phones.
Erica Naone, MIT's Technology Review, November 16, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19722/?nlid=671&a=f

Three quarters of the American population now have Internet access, with women slightly more likely than men to spend time surfing, a new survey says.

Wired News, March 18, 2004 --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62712,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html

How Web Pages Work --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-page3.htm

How Internet Infrastructure Works --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm

How Computer Things Work (including buying guides) --- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/

Personal technology reviews by Walter Mossberg --- http://ptech.wsj.com/

How Internet Stuff Works

HowStuffWorks --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/

"Keeping the Web Royalty-Free: W3C unveils its formal policy for handling Web patents," by David Legard, PCworld.com, May 22, 2003 --- http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110839,00.asp

The World Wide Web Consortium announced Wednesday its formal policy for ensuring that key Web technologies, even if patented, are made available on a royalty-free basis.

In a statement, the consortium said that the W3C Patent Policy is designed to reduce the threat that key components of Web infrastructure may be covered by patents which block further development.

The policy states that:

participants in the development of a W3C Recommendation must agree to license essential claims, such as those that block interoperability, on a royalty-free basis;

under certain circumstances, Working Group participants may exclude specifically identified patent claims from the royalty-free commitment, but these exclusions must be made known shortly after publication of the first public Working Draft to avoid later problems with surprise patents;

W3C members who have seen a technical draft of a standard must disclose their knowledge of any patents likely to be essential to the standard;

an exception-handling process will deal with any patent claims not available with terms consistent with the W3C Patent Policy.

Keeping Its Commitment

The policy formalizes a commitment to a royalty-free process which has driven the development of the Web since its beginning, according to W3C. The process has seen input from companies, researchers, and independent developers which have created technical interoperability standards upon which a worldwide information infrastructure has been built, W3C said in the statement.

"W3C members who joined in building the Web in its first decade made the business decision that they, and the entire world, would benefit most by contributing to standards that could be implemented ubiquitously, without royalty payments," Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, said in the statement.

Some concern has been raised that companies seeking royalty payments for their patented work--particularly in the area of Web services--may choose to bypass the W3C approval process and use another standards body such as the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards.

An Internet/Web portal with 14 channels on marketing and e-Commerce --- http://www.internet.com/home-d.html

Internet Technology

Ecommerce/Marketing

Web Developer

Windows Internet Tech.

Linux/Open Source

Internet Resources

ISP Resources

Internet Lists

Download

International

International News

International Investing

ASP Resources

Wireless

Other examples of portals and vortals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm

Question
How can you download an entire Website?

One answer
HTTrack Website Copier 3.32-2 http://www.httrack.com/

HTTrack is a free (GPL, libre/free software) and easy-to-use offline browser utility.

It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site's relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the "mirrored" website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system.

WinHTTrack is the Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP release of HTTrack, and WebHTTrack the Linux/Unix/BSD release.

See the download page.

Also see Semantic Web and RDF

WORM= Write Once Read Many depicts a write-once-read-many memory device that allows an author to store prepared files once into memory so that other users may read but not alter those files. Alternately WORM also depicts a computer program which replicates itself. The Internet worm was perhaps the most famous; it successfully duplicated itself on many of the systems across the Internet. More commonly, however, the term refers to WORM Drives such as CD-ROM recorders that will allow authors to record computer files one time on a compact disc but will not allow revisions or other materials to be added to the disc at a later time. Of course, it is often possible to download WORM files into hard drive discs and make revisions that can then be recorded on a new compact disc. The term WORM now has a somewhat bad connotation since so many destructive viruses transmitted over the email and the Internet are WORM viruses. (See also CD-ROM and Optical drive)

Also see Security.

Wrapper = a Java applette designed to display XML content embedded in traditional HTML documents.. The XML contents may either be authored into the HTML document explicitly (as when the XML is authored concurrently with the HTML document), or the XML content may be unknown implicit (as when the XML document is imported). In the first case it may be beneficial for the XML elements to inherit the style properties of the parent HTML document (e.g. via. Inheritance from the parent style properties or ID and CLASS attributes), in the second case the XML content should probably be "hidden" from the parent document. There may be multiple XML documents within the HTML document. A wrapper may use one or more "extracters" to extract data from unstructured XML files. Extractors utilize dictionaries to achieve sophisticated lingustic processing of unstructured text. Life is much easier for structured documents having XML markups. An illustration in terms of a web shopping guide is provided on Page 136 of The XML Handbook by Charles F. Goldfarb and Paul Prescod (ISBN 0130811521, Prentice-Hall Computer Books, 1998). Note that the issue of using an XML wrapper is quite different from using an XML compliant browser. One such wrapper uses <XMLDOC> tags. In XML, a tag beginning with the sequence XML is not allowed as these tags are reserved. XMLDOC however is not an XML tag it is an HTML tag.

Related to a wrapper is the concept of an XML "extractor" for generating XML from HTML documents and databases having no XML markups. In building a XML markups, we need to provide a way for the tool to generate XML documents from existing data sources. XML markup assembly is a process of locating data (e.g., product attributes) in repositories and merging them into an XML structure that is consistent with the some predefined schema. Asset repositories can be of various types (databases, filesystems, etc.) and the details of how information is retrieved from them may differ considerably. Life is much easier if the data sources have a fixed document type definition (DTD). An illustration is provided in Chapter 9 of The XML Handbook by Charles F. Goldfarb and Paul Prescod (ISBN 0130811521, Prentice-Hall Computer Books, 1998). In that illustration, the Junglee Shopping Guide extracted XML markups from book seller web sites that did not have XML tags.

Also see HTML and Resource Description Format.

W-VHS= (See Wide-screen TV)

WWW= (See World Wide Web)

WYSIWYG= What You See Is What You Get. The term is used mainly for newer types of software that display on the screen exactly what will appear after being printed. It is frustrating when what appears on screen is in code and what appears in print differs from what is on the screen. It was common in the past for word processors and spreadsheet software to be able to print graphics inserts but not to be able to display these inserts on the screen. Word processor, spreadsheet, and graphics programs have tried to overcome these frustrations by adding WYSIWYG options (e.g., the Print Preview menu in Word for Windows).

Return to Top of Document

Voice Recognition --- Go to Speach Recognition

X-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

X.25 / X.509 / XBRL / XFRML / XHTML / XMETAL / XML / XSL / XT / XML /

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

X.25= A communication protocol used on public data networks.

X.509 = (See Internet Messaging).

XBRL = (See HTML.)

XFRML = (See HTML.)

XHTML = (See HTML).

XMETAL = (See HTML.)

XML = (See HTML).

XSL = (See HTML)

XT= (See PC)

Y-Terms

YouTube --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Z-Terms

Zlango = (See Below)

Question
What are the meanings of the terms SMS and Zlango

Zune = Microsoft Corporation’s attempt to break the dominance of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod in the digital music market with the Zune player that went on sale November 14, 2006 --- http://www.zune.net/en-US/

Click here to view (in a new window) Bob Jensen's Listing of Other Technology and Networking Glossaries

Return to Top of Document

Return to Bob Jensen's Index

Book's Table of Contents


Read more about it at:
>	Terena offers a list of links to organizations working with grid computing.
>	Sun Microsystems provides a press release about its Grid Engine.
>	"Harnessing the Power of Grid Computing" describes simulations involving Einstein's General Relativity equations.
>	The Peer-to-Peer Working Group is fostering the advancement of infrastructure best practices.

GLOSSARY TERMS COMMENCING WITH LETTERS

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

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H-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

I-Terms

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Books

J-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

K-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

L-Terms

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M-Terms

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N-Terms

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O-Terms

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P-Terms

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A hidden agenda

The start of Intel's involvement

Q-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

R-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

S-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

The Secret Behind Twitter's Astonishing Growth The most popular Tweets in the world are CNN (Rank 1) and Britney Spears (Rank 2) It’s highly unlikely that Britney Spears does her own Tweets

First you may want to read about the explosive growth of social networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks Then you will appreciate the unique features of Twitter

"The Secret Behind Twitter's Growth," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, April 1, 2009 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/

T-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

The Secret Behind Twitter's Astonishing Growth The most popular Tweets in the world are CNN (Rank 1) and Britney Spears (Rank 2) It’s highly unlikely that Britney Spears does her own Tweets

First you may want to read about the explosive growth of social networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks Then you will appreciate the unique features of Twitter

"The Secret Behind Twitter's Growth," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, April 1, 2009 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/

U-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

V-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

W-terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

Not good enough - so what do we wikkin' do?

Voice Recognition --- Go to Speach Recognition

X-Terms

Click on a term or phrase below:

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Click o n a term or phrase below:

The Secret Behind Twitter's Astonishing Growth
The most popular Tweets in the world are CNN (Rank 1) and Britney Spears (Rank 2)
It’s highly unlikely that Britney Spears does her own Tweets

First you may want to read about the explosive growth of social networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks
Then you will appreciate the unique features of Twitter

"The Secret Behind Twitter's Growth," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, April 1, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/

The Secret Behind Twitter's Astonishing Growth
The most popular Tweets in the world are CNN (Rank 1) and Britney Spears (Rank 2)
It’s highly unlikely that Britney Spears does her own Tweets

First you may want to read about the explosive growth of social networks --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networks
Then you will appreciate the unique features of Twitter

"The Secret Behind Twitter's Growth," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, April 1, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/