Monday, February 5, 2001		Bits & Bytes

ARPANet: A predecessor of the Internet. Started in 1969 with funds from the Defence Department’s Advanced Projects Research Agency.

BITNet: Another, academically oriented, international computer network, which uses different set of computer instructions to move data. It is easily accessible to the Internet users through e-mail and provides a large number of conferences and databases. Its name comes from "Because it’s Time"

CGI: Common Gateway Interface: The scripting technology that enables dynamic and interactive Web pages

Daemon: An otherwise harmless Unix program that normally works out of sight of the user. On the Internet, you’ll most likely encounter it only when your e-mail is not delivered to the recipient — you’ll get back your original message plus an ugly message from a daemon"

Finger: An Internet program that lets you get some bit of information about another user, provided they have first created a .plan file. Not enabled on VSNL servers.

Get a life: What to say to somebody who has, perhaps, been spending a wee bit too much time in front of a computer

Killfile: A file that lets you filter Usenet postings to some extent, by excluding messages on certain topics or from certain people