Monday, December 2, 2002		ITerminology

Digital ink: Refers to technology that digitally represents handwriting in its natural form. In a typical digital ink system, a digitiser is laid under or over an LCD screen to create an electromagnetic field that can capture the movement of a special-purpose pen, or stylus, and record the movement on the LCD screen. The effect is like writing on paper with liquid ink. The recorded handwriting can then be saved as handwriting or converted to typewritten text using handwriting recognition technology.

BREW: Short for Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, an open-source on-line application development platform for wireless CDMA devices from Qualcomm. BREW is designed to allow developers to write in whatever language they choose. Native BREW applications are written in C or C++, and BREW supports programming in other languages, such as Java and XML. Using BREW, developers can create portable applications that will work on any CDMA device.

Network appliance: A typically inexpensive personal computer, sometimes called a thin client, that enables Internet access and some business-related activities but lacks many features of a fully equipped PC, such as a hard drive or CD-ROM. Applications used on network appliances typically are housed on a Web server accessed by the appliance. Network appliances are used to ease remote management and cut costs.