- cache - 1. An area
of RAM (Random Access Memory) set aside to hold data or
instructions that would normally be read from disk, in
order to speed up access to it. Disk access is slower
than RAM. Almost all the web browsers use this technique
to load the pages faster. The browser first looks in the
cache for the page you have asked (by pressing 'back'
button in the browser) before going to the server. If the
page is available in cache, it is loaded.
- CAD - Computer Aided
Design , the idea of doing your technical drawing on
computer instead of on a piece of paper.Mainly used by
architects and other 3-D artists to do their design work.
- cafe - This normally
means a public eating place but in the world of internet,
this refers to a place that offers online access to
Internet in addition to food. Other related terms include
cybercafe, internetcafe, etc.
- cancelbunny -
You post a message to a newsgroup / usenet and
cancelbunny cancels it, just for the heck of it.
Basically, a mischievous person.
- carrier - In
simple terms, this means telephone connection. If you
want highly technical definition, here it is - A
continuous sinusoidal signal, applied to a communications
medium, which does not convey information until altered
in some fashion, such as having its amplitude changed (AM
- amplitude modulation), its frequency changed (FM -
frequency modulation) or its phase changed (phase
modulation). The changes convey the information. The
earlier simple definition is more digestible, isn't it?
- case sensitive -
Some computers or programs interpret lower case letters
and upper case letters differently. This attitude is
called 'case sensitive'. Nothing to do with any sensitive
case. Case insensitive computers will interpret YOU and
you in the same way.
- CD-I - Compact-Disk
Interactive : Hardware system allowing interactive use of
the data on a CD-ROM disk rather similar to web page
interaction, but much faster and more multi-media
capable.
- CD - ROM - Compact
Disk formatted to act as data storage for a PC. The
"ROM" part (Read-Only Memory) is a reminder
that, just like a music CD, information from it is read
to you, but new information cannot be written to it.
Recently, though, writable CDs have hit the market.
- cell - A 'cell' in a
table on a web page. Each 'rectangular' block
(intersection of a row and column) is called a cell.
Other terms that are related are : cellpadding (space
around the contents of a cell) and cellspacing (space
between two cells).
- CERN - (Center
European pour la Recherche Nucleaire) The European
laboratory for particle physics, where WWW (world-wide
web) originated in the year 1989.
- CGI - (Common Gateway
Interface) - A standard for programs to interface with
web servers. The CGI specification lets web servers
execute other programs and incorporate their output into
the text, graphics and audio sent to a browser. CGI
programs work the magic behind processing forms, looking
up records in a database, sending e-mail, building
on-the-fly page counters and dozens of other activities.
Without CGI, a web server can only give static documents
and links to other pages or servers. Other related
expression you will often see is "cgi-bin"
which is nothing but CGI-binary and normally refers to
the directory that stores all the CGI programs
('scripts')
- chatroom - A
place in the internet where you can discuss any specific
topic (observe 'netiquette') with other surfers. This is
nothing but a program provided by the server through
which whatever you type appears on the screens of
everyone who has logged onto the 'room' and vice-versa.
- checkbox - A box
which can be 'checked off', meaning 'selected'. Normally,
you will see this on a form. The checkbox can be toggled
between checked and unchecked states with the mouse
click.
- class - A template
for creating objects in a java program or any other
object-oriented language like C++.
- client pull - A
very simple type of web animation in which a series of
pages is loaded in succession, governed by concealed
coding in the headers of the HTML files.
- client/server
software - An arrangement of computers in such a
way (most common example is the web browser) that the
'small' desktop machine (client) requests information
from a much bigger and more powerful machine (server) and
handles or displays it locally.
- clipboard - A
scratch-pad area in the memory where you can store
temporarily any piece of text, graphics, etc. You
normally write on the clipboard by selecting the piece of
text or graphics and using the 'cut' (Ctrl-X) or 'copy'
(Ctrl-C) functions. You use the 'paste' (Ctrl-V) function
to write the contents of the clipboard somewhere else. I
wonder why there is no facility by which an incremental
copy to clipboard is made possible. Currently, any
subsequent copy overwrites the earlier contents of the
clipboard.
- cobweb site - This
term refers to a webpage which is not regularly updated
or updated before a very long time. Basically, an old
webpage that is almost dead.
- .com - A type of
internet domain assigned to indicate that it is a
'com'mercial organization. Other domains are .edu
('edu'cational institutions), .org (non-profit
'org'anizations), .net.
- COM - Used to denote
the 'COM'munications port in the PC. Have you not heard
COM1, COM2,etc. These are the serial ports that are used
for communications. Other recent usage of this term is
'Component Object Model' - a binary standard developed by
Microsoft to represent software components in a
distributed environment.
- communications
software - A program that makes the modem work
properly - the way it is intended to work.
- content window - The
portion of the screen in the browser in which actual page
content is seen as opposed to the control and information
portions (this term is normally used for 'Netscape')
- context-sensitive
- This term is normally associated with 'help'
and 'menu' . The relevant help screen or the menu that
appears depending on the place in the screen from where
the mouse is right-clicked.
- cookies - Have you
ever wondered as to how some of the sites record your
personal preferences and adjust their information
whenever you visit their site. It is through the
machanism of 'cookie'. 'Cookies' are pieces of
information recorded on your local disk by the site.
Whenever you go to the site, the site first verifies your
hard-disk to see whether any cookie is present and acts
accordingly. Cookies are potentially dangerous in that a
mischievous program can alter your local disk
contents.Some sites ask for your permission to write
cookies.
- coordinates -
A set of measurements that define the position of a point
in however many dimensions are in use. As used in web
graphics, the x,y co-ordinates of a point on an image are
the horizontal and vertical distances from a point of
origin at the top left corner of the image, measured in
pixels.
- CORBA - (Common
Object Request Broker Architecture) - The industry
standard for representing distributed objects.
- cornea gumbo - A
visually messy and over-designed web page.
- CPU - Central
Processing Unit. The brain of the computer.
- CRC - Cyclic
Redundancy Check. A method of detecting errors in a
message by performing an involved mathematical
calculation on the bits in the message and then sending
the results of the calculation at the end of the message.
The receiving computer performs the same calculation on
the data as it is being received and compares its result
against that transmitted at the end of the message.
- cropping - Cutting
an unwanted portion from a photograph or a clip-art or an
artwork.
- cross-platform - A
term used to indicate the software can work on any
operating system platform.
- cybercafe - See
cafe.
- cyberspace -
Fanciful term coined by William Gibson in the novel
Neuromancer to describe the computer-accessible
information in the world.