Monday, December 18, 2000		Bits & Bytes

GUI: GUI Stands for "Graphical User Interface." This acronym is pronounced "gooey", not "gwi" or "gwee". It allows computer users to interact with their system by using a mouse instead of by typing in text at a command line. The two most popular operating systems —Windows and Mac OS — are GUI based.

I.P Address: I P Address or Internet protocol address is basically your virtual address and is made up of a code made up of numbers separated by four dots that identify a particular computer on the Internet. Every computer, whether it is a Web server or the computer connected to the Web, requires an IP address to connect to the Internet. IP addresses could be static IP addresses or dynamic address. A static IP address is the fixed IP address and does not change every time you connect to the Internet, whereas a dynamic IP address changes every time you connect to the Internet.

Internet Mail Access Protocol: More popularly called IMAP, Internet mail access protocol allows a client to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on a server. This should be viewed as a superset of the POP3. An IMAP4 server listens on TCP port 143. IMAP is definitely an emerging technology and functionally outperforms the older POP environment.

Mirror Sites: Sites that contain exact copies of the original site are called mirror sites. They are used to spread the load over several sites and to speed up the download for the customers by placing the server nearer them.

Digital Versatile Disk: DVD, or the Digital versatile disk is a new standard for recording video on CD-ROM’s using MPEG2, thus boasting better-than-broadcast TV quality. Costing little higher than the CDROM, DVD-ROM’s hold 8 to 40 times more data. DVD may eventually replace videocassettes, laserdiscs, CD-ROM’s and audio CD’s.