DUMMIES DAILY: Nerd Word of the Day #3
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TODAY'S eTIP(TM):


*1. Plug It In, Plug It In


Today's Term: PS/2 Port
The IBM PS/2 line of computers, way back in the 
mid-80s, introduced a new socket size and shape for 
plugging in keyboards and mice. The PS/2 was very 
popular and soon most other PC makers added this same 
port to their machines. The PS/2 passed away but the 
port and its original name stayed. And that's still the
way most keyboards and supplied-with-the-computer mice 
plug in today. (A fair number of 
bought-it-separately-to-add-to-the-computer mice plug 
into a serial port or USB port instead.)


*2. The New Bus

Today's Term: USB
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a better way to 
connect goodies to a computer. If you want to connect a
mouse, a scanner, a printer, a keyboard, or all sorts 
of other "peripherals" to a computer, the USB cable and
socket is faster, smoother, and smarter than the older 
serial and parallel possibilities. USB is built into 
most new PCs and Macs alongside serial and parallel 
ports -- after all, many of us still have printers, 
mice, and whatnot that don't work with USB.


*3. This Hertz Us More Than You

Today's Term: RF
RF simply means Radio Frequency. That's all the 
electromagnetic vibrations from a mere 10KHz 
(ten-thousand cycles per second) to 3,000GHz 
(three-thousand billion cycles per second). When 
electromagnetism is cycling faster than that, you're 
looking at light.


*4. As In Acid Test, Not Jim Jones

Today's Term: Drinking the Kool-Aid
If you hear that the employees of an Internet or other 
high-tech outfit are "drinking the Kool-Aid," it isn't 
some macabre reference to the Jonestown Massacre of the
1970s. It's an allusion to the psychedelic parties of 
the '60s where LSD was put into communal barrels of 
Kool-Aid. Those drinking the potion had a 
"mind-expanding" experience and were said to see a 
different reality than the rest of the world. And so it
is with people totally convinced of some new Internet 
or high-tech business vision.


*5. Stranger In A Nerd Land

Today's Term: Grok
Robert Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange 
Land has been enormously popular with nerds. His 
newly-coined verb "grok" meant to completely observe 
and understand. And in Nerd World, it still does, even 
for those who've never heard of Heinlein or the book 
(and that the grokker protagonist was an Earthling 
raised on Mars).


*6. GSM Chasm

Today's Term: GSM
Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications is the 
transmission standard for mobile phones throughout most
of Europe and much of the rest of the world. That 
doesn't include the United States. This standardization
makes it possible for European phone porters to wander 
from one European country to another, talking and 
connecting to the net on their phones the whole time.


*7. 3G Reality

Today's Term: 3G
3G will succeed Global System for Mobile (GSM) as the 
mobile transmission standard for Europe. It should 
provide better security through encryption and improved
data access for Internet information on mobile phones.


*8. Any Portal In A Storm

Today's Term: Portal
A "portal" is a starting web site, the sort of web page
you go to first before going to others. Why do that? 
Because it brings together information you want -- such
as news, weather, sports, and such. Because it offers a
directory of other sites. Because it has a search 
engine feature. Or maybe because your company 
configures your computer so that one specific page 
appears first whenever you start your browser program.


*9. Vertical Takeoff

Today's Term: Vortal
If a "portal" is a starting point web page, with 
directories, frequently-requested information, and 
maybe a search engine command, a "vortal" is a 
"vertical portal," a portal devoted to, or at least 
focused on, a specific kind of information. Instead of 
taking on the entire web, a vortal might offer a 
directory and search engine for just Job-searching, or 
even for Jobs for Engineers in Ohio. Then there are 
sailors over 65, Coal Miners, Skateboarding Teens, and 
many, many more.


*10. Anchor's Away

Today's Term: Anchor
There are two places an Anchor could fall.
The most common place these days is in a web page. HTML
uses "anchors" to hyperlink one page to another. For 
example, the anchor a href://www.dmoz.org would 
anchor to the Open Directory page. Anchors can also 
open files, start e-mail, and provoke other 
operations.
The other anchoring place is in a desktop publishing or
word processor document. An anchor there is a special 
code that makes sure a section of text or an image 
remains in a specific place on the page.
