This Microsoft-based technology was built to link desktop applications to the World Wide Web. Using ActiveX development tools, software developers can create interactive Web content for their applications. For example, Word and Excel documents can be viewed directly in Web browsers that supports ActiveX. While ActiveX is a useful technology, the downside is that you need to have a up-to-date version ActiveX installed on your machine in order to use ActiveX-enabled content.
Just like the human backbone carries signals to many smaller nerves in the body, a network backbone carries data to smaller lines of transmission. A local backbone refers to the main network lines that connect several local area networks (LANs) together. The result is a wide area network (WAN) linked by a backbone connection.
The Internet, which is the ultimate wide area network, relies on a backbone to carry data over long distances. The Internet backbone consists of several ultra-high bandwidth connections that link together many different nodes around the world. These nodes route incoming data to smaller networks in the local region. The fewer "hops" your data needs to make before reaching the backbone, the faster it will get sent to the destination. This is why many Web hosts and ISPs have direct connections to the Internet backbone.
A captcha is program used to verify that a human, rather than a computer, is entering data. Captchas are commonly seen at the end of online forms and ask the user to enter text from a distorted image. The text in the image may be wavy, have lines through it, or may be highly irregular, making it nearly impossible for an automated program to recognize it. (Of course, some captchas are so distorted that they can be difficult for humans to recognize as well.) Fortunately, most captchas allow the user to regenerate the image if the text is too difficult to read. Some even include an auditory pronunciation feature.
By requiring a captcha response, webmasters can prevent automated programs, or "bots," from filling out forms online. This prevents spam from being sent through website forms and ensures that wikis, such as Wikipedia, are only edited by humans. Captchas are also used by websites such as Ticketmaster.com to make sure users don't bog down the server with repeated requests. While captchas may be a minor inconvenience to the user, they can save webmasters a lot of hassle by fending off automated programs.
The name "captcha" comes from the word "capture," since it captures human responses. It may also be written "CAPTCHA," which is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart."
Del.icio.us, pronounced simply "delicious," is a community bookmarking website in which users can save Web pages they find and share them with other users. Because users' bookmarks are made public and viewable by other users, other people often bookmark Web pages that they find within other users' bookmarks. Del.icio.us keeps track of how many people bookmark each site and posts the most popular websites on its home page.
Common Web pages bookmarked by Del.icio.us users include news stories, online learning resources, and tech support pages. Since other users add useful pages to their bookmarks, the best Web pages eventually rise to the top of the popularity chain. The result is a collection of Web pages that are helpful and worthwhile visiting.
Users can either browse or search the database of bookmarks on Del.icio.us. When a user saves a bookmark, he or she can add a description and tags (keywords) that are pertinent to the Web page. This help the page show up for relevant searches. The results of Del.icio.us searches are often of higher quality than a regular search engine since the sites have all been chosen by users. Apparently, other Web surfers agree, since the website became so popular that Yahoo! bought the Del.icio.us at the end of 2005.
The domain name "del.icio.us" is a creative modification of the standard domain syntax, where "del" is the domain prefix and "icio.us" is the domain name, with "us" being the domain suffix.
E-commerce (electronic-commerce) refers to business over the Internet. Web sites such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, and eBay are all e-commerce sites. The two major forms of e-commerce are Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). While companies like Amazon.com cater mostly to consumers, other companies provide goods and services exclusively to other businesses. The terms "e-business" and "e-tailing" are often used synonymously with e-commerce. They refer to the same idea; they are just used to confuse people trying to learn computer terms.
A gateway is either hardware or software that acts as a bridge between two networks so that data can be transferred between a number of computers. For example, when you send an e-mail to a friend or when you log in to a Web site, there is a gateway that allows the connection take place. Often, your connection to a Web site will involve many smaller connections to other servers along the way. In these cases, a number of gateways are used.
In a completely unrelated story, Gateway is also the name of a popular direct-order PC manufacturer.
ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers)
Stands for "Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers." The ICANN is an non-profit corporation that is responsible for allocating IP addresses and managing the domain name system.
Every computer connected to the Internet, from servers to home PCs, has an IP address. However, it would be unrealistic for the ICANN to directly assign each computer an individual IP address. Instead, the ICANN allocates blocks of IP addresses to companies, educational institutions, and Internet service providers. These organizations then allocate IP addresses to computers that use their Internet connections.
While the ICANN is a US-based organization, it is also a global Internet community. According to ICANN's website, the organization is "dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes" (icann.org).
