The Fonzies Internet Abbreviated Jargon Glossary :: Pt.2 - Pt.1

MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is a method of communication
between digital instruments, usually synthesizers. It allows one synthesizer to
send performance information to the synthesis engine of the other. It stands for
Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and was created in 1982.

MISF: The Microsoft Internet Security Framework provides a comprehensive set
of public key security technologies that meet the needs of business, developers,
and users for secure exchange of information across public networks, access
control to resources and information, and electronic commerce.

MMX: A technology developed by the Intel Corporation which is the next step after
the famed Pentium Proccessor. This new CPU chip will enable greater handling of
multimedia such as video and audio on the desktop as well as over the Internet.

MP3: MP3 is short for MPEG Audio Layer 3, a compression method that allows for
CD quality sound and a very small file size. When people say "MP3s", they are
referring to sound files compressed in the MP3 format - usually music. MP3
generally gets a bad rap because it is most often associated with people who
have abused this technology by recording CD tracks and posting them on web
sites or trading them on FTPs.

MPEG: MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) is a group of people that meet
under ISO (the International Standards Organization) to generate standards for
digital video (sequences of images in time) and audio compression. In particular,
they define a compressed bit stream, which implicitly defines a decompressor.
However, the compression algorithms are up to the individual manufacturers,
and that is where proprietary advantage is obtained within the scope of a publicly
available international standard.

MIME: MIME means Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, and refers to an official
Internet standard that specifies how messages must be formatted so that they can
be exchanged between different email systems. MIME is a very flexible format,
permitting one to include virtually any type of file or document in an email message.
Specifically, MIME messages can contain text, images, audio, video, or other
application-specific data.

MGCP: The Media Gateway Control Protocol, developed by Telcordia and Level 3
Communications, is one of a few proposed control and signal standards to compete
with the older H.323 standard for the conversion of audio signals carried on telephone
circuits (PSTN ) to data packets carried over the Internet or other packet networks.

NCSA: The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University
of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign is the leading-edge site for the National Computational
Science Alliance (Alliance). In this capacity, NCSA anchors all Alliance teams and
oversees the administration of all Alliance programs. NCSA leads the Alliance in
its mission to maintain American preeminence in science and technology.

NNTP: Network News Transfer Protocol. A protocol for the distribution, inquiry,
retrieval, and posting of news articles. To configure your Web browser or newsgroup
reader software to connect to a news server you need to specify the NNTP server.

NOC: Network Operations Center. Responsible for the day-to-day operations of
the Internet's component networks.

NTFS: NT File System.One of the file systems for the Windows NT operating
system (Windows NT also supports the FAT file system). NTFS has features
to improve reliability, such as transaction logs to help recover from disk failures.
To control access to files, you can set permissions for directories and/or individual
files. NTFS files are not accessible from other operating systems such as DOS.

OS: Operating System. The low-level software which schedules tasks, allocates
storage, handles the interface to peripheral hardware and presents a default
interface to the user when no application program is running.

OSP: Online Service Provider. A company that provides customer only content
to subscribers of their service. Most OSPs now offer Internet access, but their
main feature is the privately maintained network that is only accessible to their
customers. This network is not part of the Internet, although some OSPs are
currently making some content available on the Web. Because OSPs control the
structure and content of their networks, they are more logical and user-friendly
environments especially for beginners. The most popular OSPs are:
AOL (America Online), CompuServe, MSN, and Prodigy.

P3P: P3P is the "Platform for Privacy Preferences," a new Internet protocol being
developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Protocols are the rules
around which Internet software is developed. This means that the P3P functions
will be implemented as part of the functioning of the World Wide Web, and most
likely it will be intergrated into Web browsers like Netscape and Internet Explorer.
P3P defines a standard way that the privacy practices of Web sites can be defined
and that a consumer's personal data can be requested.

PNG: PNG is an extensible file format for the lossless, portable, well-compressed
storage of raster images. PNG provides a patent-free replacement for GIF and can
also replace many common uses of TIFF. Indexed-color, grayscale, and truecolor
images are supported, plus an optional alpha channel for transparency.
Sample depths range from 1 to 16 bits.

PURL: A PURL is a Persistent Uniform Resource Locator. Functionally, a PURL
is a URL. However, instead of pointing directly to the location of an Internet
resource, a PURL points to an intermediate resolution service. The PURL resolution
service associates the PURL with the actual URL and returns that URL to the client.
The client can then complete the URL transaction in the normal
fashion. In Web parlance, this is a standard HTTP redirect.

RTSP: The Realtime Transport Protocol (RTP) is both an IETF Proposed Standard
(RFC 1889) and an International Telecommuncations Union (ITU) Standard (H.225.0).
It is a packet format for multimedia data streams. RTP is used by both RTSP and
H.323 for the data portion of these protocols.

PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Local Bus. Currently by far the
most popular local I/O bus, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus
was developed by Intel and introduced in 1993. It is geared specifically to
fifth- and sixth-generation systems, although the latest generation
486 motherboards use PCI as well.

PDF: Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is the open de facto standard
for electronic document distribution worldwide. Adobe PDF is a universal file
format that preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics, and color of any
source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it.
Adobe PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and
printed exactly as intended by anyone with free Adobe Acrobat Reader software.

PGP: Pretty Good Privacy. A freeware program developed by Philip
Zimmermann that allows a user to send e-mail messages to anyone in the world,
in complete privacy. In addition you can send authentication with your messages
so that the recipient can verify that the message really came from you. You can
encrypt sensitive files on your computer so that the files remain private even if
your computer and disks are stolen.

PING: Packet INnternet Groper. An Internet program used to determine whether
a specific IP address is accessible. It works by sending a packet to the specified
address and waiting for a reply. PING is used primarily to troubleshoot Internet
connections. In addition, PING reports how many hops are required to connect two
Internet hosts. There are many freeware and shareware PING utilities available
for personal computers.

POP: Post Office Protocol. Basically, POP3 is intended to permit a workstation
(client) to dynamically access a mailbox on a server and download mail messages.
It's among the most simplistic Internet protocols around.

PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol. Communication protocol used over serial lines
to support Internet connectivity.

RAM: One of the most important components in a computer is the memory.
Every time a computer is started up, programs are loaded into memory.
The memory into where these programs are loaded is called RAM. RAM is
an acronym for Random Access Memory. It is from the RAM that most
programs perform their functions and operate to give the user the required
results. Most RAM memory is housed in chips or integrated circuits (ICs)
that are either soldered or mounted onto the motherboard of the computer.

RFC: Request For Comments. The name of the result and the process for
creating a standard on the Internet. New standards are proposed and published
on line, as a "Request For Comments". The Internet Engineering Task Force is
a consensus-building body that facilitates discussion, and eventually a new
standard is established, but the reference number/name for the standard retains
the acronym "RFC", e.g. the official standard for e-mail is RFC 822.

RIPE NCC: Short for the Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre.
RIPE NCC is one of three regional Internet registries that supply and administer
IP addresses. Founded in 1989, RIPE NCC is a non-profit organization run by
volunteers. RIPE NCC provides IP numbers to Europe, the Middle East and
parts of Africa and Asia.

RGB: Red, Green, Blue. The three colors that create all other colors on a
computer screen.

S/MIME: S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), described
in [SMIME-MSG], provides a method to send and receive secure MIME
messages. In order to validate the keys of a message sent to it, an S/MIME
agent needs to certify that the key is valid.

S-HTTP: An extension to the HTTP protocol to support sending data securely
over the World Wide Web. Not all Web browsers and servers support S-HTTP.
Another technology for transmitting secure communications over the
World Wide Web -- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) -- is more prevalent. However,
SSL and S-HTTP have very different designs and goals so it is possible to use
the two protocols together. Whereas SSL is designed to establish a secure
connection between two computers, S-HTTP is designed to
send individual messages securely.

SDK: Software Developer's Kit. Specific software "tools" and specifications
provided by a software's manufacturer. This "kit" enables computer application
developers to create their own programs or "plugins" that will work
with or as an add on enhancement of a certtain piece of software.

SDRAM: Synchronous DRAM. A new type of DRAM that can run at much
higher clock speeds than conventional memory. SDRAM actually synchronizes
itself with the CPU's bus and is capable of running at 100 MHz, about three
times faster than conventional FPM RAM, and about twice as fast EDO DRAM
and BEDO DRAM. SDRAM is replacing EDO DRAM in many newer computers.

SGI: Silicon Graphics Incorporated . A company based in Mountain View,
California that provides computer hardware and software. SGI was founded by
Dr. James Clark in 1982 and had its initial public offering in 1986. It is best known
for products used to develop computer graphics such as those used to create
special effects and animation in motion pictures.

SGML: Standard Generalized Markup Language .SGML is an international standard
for the publication and delivery of electronic information.

SIG: Special Interest Group. People with a common interest who meet or exchange
e-mail messages on a particular topic in an organized way.
Not to be confused with a signature file or .sigfile.

SLIP: Serial Line Internet Protocol. Communication protocol used over serial lines
to support Internet connectivity.

SMDS: Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) is a high-speed,
packet-switched, datagram-based WAN networking technology used for
communication over public data networks (PDNs). SMDS can use
fiber- or copper-based media and supports speeds of 1.544 Mbps over
Digital Signal level 1 (DS-1) transmission facilities, or 44.736 Mbps over
Digital Signal level 3 (DS-3) transmission facilities.

SMTP: The objective of Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
is to transfer mail reliably and efficiently.

SQL: Structured Query Language (SQL) was created to shield the database
programmer from understanding the specifics of how data is physically stored
in each database management system and also to provide a universal foundation
for updating, creating and extracting data from
database systems that support an SQL interface.

SSI: SSI (Server Side Includes) are directives that are placed in HTML pages,
and evaluated on the server while the pages are being served. They let you add
dynamically generated content to an existing HTML page, without having to
serve the entire page via a CGI program, or other dynamic technology.

SSL: The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security protocol provides data
encryption, server authentication, message integrity, and optional client
authentication. Because SSL is built into all major browsers and web
servers, simply installing a digital certificate turns on their SSL capabilities.
Digital certificates encrypt data using SSL technology, the industry-standard
method for protecting web communications.

T-1: A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000
bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move
a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for
full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at least 10,000,000
bits-per-second. T-1 is the fastest speed commonly used to
connect networks to the Internet.

T-3: A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000
bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion video.

TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A very popular
data communications protocol, since it is available for most operating
systems and hardware platforms--so these computers (UNIX workstations;
PCs running MS-DOS, Windows, or OS/2; Apple Macintoshes, IBM Mainframes;
DEC Minicomputers; etc.) can all communicate.

TWAIN: Technology (or Toolkit) Without an Interesting Name. The de facto
interface standard for scanners. Nearly all scanners come with a TWAIN driver,
which makes them compatible with any TWAIN-supporting software.
Unfortunately, not all scanner software is TWAIN-compatible.

UCE: Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. Commonly referred to as spam.

UDP: (User Datagram Protocol) -- One of the protocols for data transfer that is part
of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. UDP is a stateless protocol in that UDP makes
no provision for acknowledgement of packets received.

URI: Short for Uniform Resource Identifier, the generic term for all types of
names and addresses that refer to objects on the World Wide Web.
A URL is one kind of URI.

UNIX: A computer operating system (the basic software running on a
computer, underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets).
UNIX is designed to be used by many people at the same time
(it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most
common operating system for servers on the Internet.

URL: (Uniform Resource Locator) -- The standard way to give the
address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web
(WWW). A URL looks like this:

UUNET: (UNIX to UNIX Network) The first commercial Internet service
provider, headquartered in Fairfax, VA. The company (www.us.uu.net)
was founded in 1987 by Rick Adams, one of the original developers of
ARPAnet, the precursor to the Internet. In 1996, UUNET merged with MFS
Communications, Inc., and later that year, WorldCom acquired both MFS
and UUNET. In 1998, WorldCom acquired Advanced Network Services
and CompuServe Network Services. UUNET is now a full-service provider.

USENET: A world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed
among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all USENET machines are on
the Internet, maybe half. USENET is completely decentralized,
with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.

UUENCODE: (Unix to Unix Encoding) -- A method for converting files from
Binary to ASCII (text) so that they can be sent across the Internet via e-mail.

VPN: (Virtual Private Network) -- Usually refers to a network in which some
of the parts are connected using the public Internet, but the data sent
across the Internet is encrypted, so the entire network is "virtually" private.

VERONICA: (Very Easy Rodent Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized
Archives) -- Developed at the University of Nevada, Veronica is a constantly
updated database of the names of almost every menu item on thousands
of gopher servers. The Veronica database can be searched from most
major gopher menus.

WAIS: ((Wide Area Information Servers) -- A commercial software package
that allows the indexing of huge quantities of information, and thenmaking
those indices searchable across networks such as the Internet. A prominent
feature of WAIS is that the search results are ranked(scored) according to
how relevant the hits are, and that subsequent searches can find more stuff
like that last batch and thus refine the search process.

WAN: (Wide Area Network) -- Any internet or network that covers an area
larger than a single building or campus.

WWW: (World Wide Web) -- Frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to
"The Internet", WWW has two major meanings - First, loosely used: the whole
constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP,
telnet, USENET, WAIS and some other tools. Second, the universe of hypertext
servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that allow text,
graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.

W3C: Short for World Wide Web Consortium, an international consortium of
companies involved with the Internet and the Web. The W3C was founded in
1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the original architect of the World Wide Web. The
organization's purpose is to develop open standards so that the Web evolves
in a single direction rather than being splintered among competing factions.
The W3C is the chief standards body for HTTP and HTML

XML: XML is the Extensible Markup Language. It is designed to improve the
functionality of the Web by providing more flexible and adaptable information
identification.It is called extensible because it is not a fixed format like HTML
(a single, predefined markup language). Instead, XML is actually a `metalanguage'
-- a language for describing other languages --
which lets you design your own customized markup languages for limitless different
types of documents. XML can do this because it's written in SGML, the international
standard metalanguage for text markup systems (ISO 8879).