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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3-D: In computers, 3-D (three dimensions or three-dimensional) describes an image that provides the perception of depth. When 3-D images are made interactive so that users feel involved with the scene, the experience is called virtual reality. You usually need a special plug-in viewer for your Web browser to view and interact with 3-D images. Virtual reality experiences may also require additional equipment.
3-D image creation can be viewed as a three-phase process of: tessellation, geometry, and rendering. In the first phase, models are created of individual objects using linked points that are made into a number of individual polygons (tiles). In the next stage, the polygons are transformed in various ways and lighting effects are applied. In the third stage, the transformed images are rendered into objects with very fine detail.
Popular products for creating 3-D effects include Extreme 3D, LightWave 3D, Ray Dream Studio, 3D Studio MAX, SoftImage 3D, and Visual Reality. The Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) allows the creator to specify images and the rules for their display and interaction using textual language statements.

ACRONYMS: There are many hundreds of acronyms used when describing Internet and related technologies. An acronym, such as IP (standing for Internet Protocol) uses the first letter from each word of a phrase to save time when composing text and in subsequent readings. This glossary contains many of the most commonly used acronyms.

ACTIVE X: ActiveX is the name Microsoft has given to a set of "strategic" object-oriented program technologies and tools. The main technology is the Component Object Model (COM). Used in a network with a directory and additional support, COM becomes the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). The main thing that you create when writing a program to run in the ActiveX environment is a component, a self-sufficient program that can be run anywhere in your ActiveX network (currently a network consisting of Windows and Macintosh systems). This component is known as an ActiveX control. ActiveX is Microsoft's answer to the Java technology from Sun Microsystems. An ActiveX control is roughly equivalent to a Java applet.
If you have a Windows operating system on your personal computer, you may notice a number of Windows files with the "OCX" file name suffix. OCX stands for "Object Linking and Embedding control." Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) was Microsoft's program technology for supporting compound documents such as the Windows desktop. The Component Object Model now takes in OLE as part of a larger concept. Microsoft now uses the term "ActiveX control" instead of "OCX" for the component object.
One of the main advantages of a component is that it can be re-used by many applications (referred to as component containers). A COM component object (ActiveX control) can be created using one of several languages or development tools, including C++ and Visual Basic, or PowerBuilder, or with scripting tools such as VBScript.
Currently, ActiveX controls run in Windows 95/98/NT and in Macintosh. Microsoft plans to support ActiveX controls for UNIX.

ADDRESS: The location of an Internet resource. An email address may take the form of alias@domain.com.jo. A web address looks something like http://www.joinnet.com.jo.

ADN: (Advanced Digital Network) -- Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased-line.

ADSL: ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology for transmitting digital information at high bandwidths on existing phone lines to homes and businesses. ADSL is asymmetric in that it uses most of the channel to transmit downstream to the user and only a small part to receive information from the user. ADSL simultaneously accommodates analog (voice) information on the same line. ADSL is generally offered at downstream data rates from 512 Kbps to about 6 Mbps. A form of ADSL, known as Universal ADSL or G.Lite, has been initially approved as a standard by the ITU.
ADSL was specifically designed to exploit the one-way nature of most multimedia communication in which large amounts of information flow toward the user and only a small amount of interactive control information is returned. Several experiments with ADSL to real users began in 1996. In 1998, wide-scale installations began in several parts of the U.S. ADSL and other forms of DSL are expected to become more widely available in 1999 and 2000. With ADSL (and other forms of DSL), telephone companies are competing with cable companies and their cable modem services.

ALWAYS-ON: see CONNECTION

ANCHOR: Either the starting point or destination of a hyperlink. The letters at the top of this page are all anchors - clicking one takes you to another part of this page.

ANONYMOUS FTP: Using the Internets File Transfer Protocol (FTP), anonymous FTP is a method for giving users access to files so that they dont need to identify themselves to the server. Using an FTP program or the FTP command interface, the user enters "anonymous" as a user ID. Usually, the password is defaulted or furnished by the FTP server. Anonymous FTP is a common way to get access to a server in order to view or download files that are publicly available.
If someone tells you to use anonymous FTP and gives you the server name, just remember to use the word "anonymous" for your user ID. Usually, you can enter anything as a password.

APPLET: An applet is a little application program. Prior to the World Wide Web, the built-in writing and drawing programs that came with Windows were sometimes called "applets." On the Web, using Java, the object-oriented programming language, an applet is a small program that can be sent along with a Web page to a user. Java applets can perform interactive animations, immediate calculations, or other simple tasks without having to send a user request back to the server.

ARCHIVE: 1) An archive is a collection of computer files that have been packaged together for backup, to transport to some other location, for saving away from the computer so that more hard disk storage can be made available, or for some other purpose. An archive can include a simple list of files or files organized under a directory or catalog structure (depending on how a particular program supports archiving).
On personal computers with the Windows operating system, WinZip is a popular program that lets you create an archive (a single file that holds a number of files that you plan to save to another medium or send someone electronically) or extract the files. WinZip also compresses the files that are archived, but compression is not required to create an archive. A WinZip archive has the file name suffix ".zip".
In UNIX-based operating systems, the tar (tape archive) utility can be used to create an archive or extract files from one. On mainframe operating systems such as IBMs MVS and OS/390, procedures for archiving or backing up files are often automated as a daily operation.
2) On Web sites as well as in libraries, an archive is a collection of individual publications that are often cataloged or listed and made accessible in some way. Magazines, journals, and newspapers with Web sites sometimes refer to their back issues as an archive.
3) Web and FTP sites that provide software programs that can be downloaded sometimes refer to the list of downloadable files as an archive or as archives.

ARJ: Allows the user to store one or more files in a compressed format in an archive file. This saves space both in the compression and in the saving of disk sector clusters. Particularly strong compressing databases, uncompressed graphics files, and large documents. Named after the creator, American programmer Robert Jung.

ARPANET: (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) -- The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late 60's and early 70's by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear war.

ASCII: ASCII is the most common format for text files in computers and on the "Internet". In an ASCII file, each alphabetic, numeric, or special character is represented with a 7-bit binary number (a string of seven 0s or 1s). 128 possible characters are defined.
UNIX and DOS-based operating systems (except for Windows NT) use ASCII for text files. Windows NT uses a newer code, Unicode. IBMs System 390 servers use a proprietary 8-bit code called EBCDIC. Conversion programs allow different operating systems to change a file from one code to another.
ASCII was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

ASP: An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a Microsoft Web server before the page is sent to the user. An ASP is somewhat similar to a server-side include or a common gateway interface (CGI) application in that all involve programs that run on the server, usually tailoring a page for the user. Typically, the script in the Web page at the server uses input received as the result of the user's request for the page to access data from a database and then builds or customizes the page on the fly before sending it to the requestor.
ASP is a feature of the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), but, since the server-side script is just building a regular HTML page, it can be delivered to almost any browser. You can create an ASP file by including a script written in VBScript or JScript in an HTML file or by using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) program statements in the HTML file. You name the HTML file with the ".asp" file suffix. Microsoft recommends the use of the server-side ASP rather than a client-side script, where there is actually a choice, because the server-side script will result in an easily displayable HTML page. Client-side scripts (for example, with JavaScript) may not work as intended on older browsers.

ASPI: Advanced Scsi Programming Interface.

ATX: ATX is an industry-wide open specification for a desktop computer's motherboard. The most current version (December, 1996) is Specification 2.0.
ATX improves the motherboard design by taking the small AT motherboard that has been an industry standard and rotating by 90 degrees the layout of the microprocessor and expansion slots. This allows space for more full-length add-in cards. A double-height aperture is specified for the rear of the chassis, allowing more possible I/O arrangements for a variety of devices such as TV input and output, LAN connection, and so forth. The new layout is also intended to be less costly to manufacture. Fewer cables will be needed. The power supply has a side-mounted fan, allowing direct cooling of the processor and cards, making a secondary fan unnecessary. Version 2.0 incorporates improvements suggested by chassis and power supply vendors.
Almost all major computer manufacturers, including IBM, Compaq, and Apple are building desktops with ATX motherboards. IBM is using ATX in both Intel and PowerPC platforms.

AUTHENTICATION: A security measure for checking a user's identity (userID). Some Web sites require a user's identity to be authenticated before they can enter. This is usually done with a password and or username.

AUTORESPONDER: An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically returns a prewritten message to anyone who submits e-mail to a particular Internet address, whether an individual or a Web site. Autoresponders are widely used by Web sites for the purpose of responding to visitor comments and suggestions in a preliminary way and, in cases where traffic is heavy, as the sole way to communicate with user inquiries.
Publishers of ezines and other online e-mail newsletters typically use an autoresponder to respond to people who subscribe or cancel their subscriptions.