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Talkin' the talk: Some high-tech buzzwords explained.

By Randall Couch and Teresa Leo

Those new (and some not-so-new) to computing and networking are faced with a bewildering amount of jargon. This article introduces a few terms particularly relevant to Penn's electronic environment and a few just for fun. For more information, check the "Hacker's Dictionary" in the Internet Sampler folder on gopher.upenn.edu, "A Glossary of Networking Terms," and "Glossary for Internet Users" in PennInfo, or the recently released PennNet Passport. These sources and others were used in compiling the definitions that follow.

alias. An easy-to-remember name defined as shorthand for another name that is long and difficult to remember. An alias might be used, for example, to replace a complete Internet address with a simple code word.

Archie. See Gopher.

ASCII. American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard data transmission code introduced to achieve compatibility between unlike data devices. ASCII consists of 7 information bits, allowing 128 combinations (characters), and an eighth bit that is either set to 0 or used as a parity bit for error checking. "ASCII" is often used to refer to a mode of file transfer (via Kermit or FTP) that is contrasted to binary transfer mode. In an ASCII or "text" transfer, no special characters (such as curly quotes), special formatting commands (bold, italic, underline), or proportionally spaced fonts (Times, Helvetica) are used. Most word-processing programs can save text in ASCII format as well as in their "native" format.

asynchronous. See Ethernet.

bang. Verbal shorthand for "!" (exclamation point). Used to specify exact characters; e.g., "foo!" would be spoken as "eff oh oh bang." "Bang" is also an exclamation signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!" or "The dynamite has cleared out my brain!" Synonyms include "shriek," "boing," and "wow."

binary. A coding system employing the binary digits 0 and 1 to represent a letter, digit, or other non-alphabetic character. Used to refer to a mode of file transfer (via Kermit or FTP) that is contrasted to ASCII (text) transfer mode. In a binary transfer, the bit sequence of the file is preserved so that the original and the copy are identical. When the transfer is between like systems, binary mode allows executable programs and other special information to be exchanged. If, on the other hand, a Macintosh computer transferred a file to an IBM system in binary mode, the file could, in most cases, not be read because the document format and processor instructions used by the Macintosh would not be intelligible to the IBM hardware.

Buckley Amendment. Another name for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). This legislation protects the privacy of educational records, establishes students' rights to inspect their records, provides guidelines for correcting inaccurate or misleading data through informal and formal hearings, and permits students to file complaints with the FERPA office concerning alleged failures of the institution to comply with the Act. Penn abides by the Buckley Amendment, which also applies to student information published electronically, such as e-mail addresses.

client/server. A network paradigm in which a desktop client application (which requests a service from another computer) has the necessary intelligence to access servers (computers that share their resources) to request information or to perform queries. This paradigm requires that both client and server observe an agreed-upon communication protocol.

dial up. To connect to a computer via a telephone circuit. As an adjective, refers to the kind of connection you establish when using communications software and a modem over a phone line; i.e., a temporary, as opposed to dedicated, network connection.

dot. Verbal shorthand for "." (period). Used to convey periods, as in an IP or e-mail address; e.g., "dolphin.upenn.edu" would be spoken as "dolphin dot you penn dot edu."

download. The process of transmitting programs or data from a central or host computer to a remote computer such as an individual workstation. The opposite of "download" is "upload."

e-mail. Electronic mail. Messages sent between users of computer systems, where the computer systems are used to hold and transport the messages. Sender and receiver(s) need not be online at the same time, or even on the same computer, to communicate. At Penn, Elm, a command- driven, host-based mailer, is recommended for widespread student use and for faculty and staff without Ethernet connectivity. The word "emailed" is actually listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and is derived from the French word "emmailleure," or network.

ENIAC. A computer in the School of Engineering and Applied Science used as an e-mail and news server. Named after the world's first general- purpose electronic digital computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, developed by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert Jr. at Penn in 1946. That machine was originally designed for the production of ballistic tables for WWII, but was not completed until after the war had ended. The academic and commercial computing world will join Penn in celebrating ENIAC's 50th anniversary in 1996.

Ethernet. A standard for local area network transport media in which computers communicate quickly at speeds up to 10 megabits per second. On-campus computers are increasingly being connected to PennNet (Penn's data communications network) via Ethernet wiring. Contrasted at Penn to a slower method of data transmission called "asynchronous" or "start- stop" transmission. Ethernet media can transport both TCP/IP protocols and proprietary networking protocols such as AppleTalk.

flame. To express strong opinion and/or criticism of something, usually as a frank inflammatory or provoking statement in an electronic message. Particularly used of angry or snide replies to a naive or ignorant posting to a news group. People who frequently write flames are known as "flamers."

FTP. File Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol that defines how to transfer files from one computer to another, even if the transfer is between unlike systems on a network. The verb "ftp" is used to express the actual movement of a file from one computer to another, e.g., "I'm going to ftp a copy of Wuthering Heights from the archive." The UNIX application that executes such a transfer is also called FTP; Fetch for the Macintosh and Rapid Filer for Windows are other popular FTP applications.

Gopher. A menu-based information retrieval system for exploring Internet resources, which began as the University of Minnesota's campus- wide information system (like Penn's PennInfo, MIT's TechInfo, and Princeton's PNN). Like these systems, Gopher supports different "client" interfaces, including VT100 terminal, Macintosh, and others. Unlike these systems, which rely on one central computer to store the menus and documents, Gopher is designed to interconnect numerous "servers" into one seamless web of information. "Veronica" is a service that maintains an index of titles of Gopher items, and provides keyword searches of those titles. "Archie" is a system that provides keyword indexing of public FTP servers on the Internet. To view or retrieve information located by Archie requires FTP client software (unless the FTP server is also a Gopher server).

GUI. Graphical User Interface. Pronounced "gooey." An interface similar to the point-and-click MacOS and MS Windows interfaces as distinct from the command-style DOS interface.

host. A computer that is attached to a network and that provides services to other computers and users on the network. Host computers range in size from microcomputers to mainframes; the term is frequently used for a time-sharing computer that is the destination of a remote log-in session.

Internet. An international collection of networks united by their use of theTCP/IP suite of networking protocols. The Internet began with the network of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, growing to include that of the National Science Foundation and thousands of other research and educational entities. Now including commercial organizations, the Internet is the largest computer network in the world.

logical. Notional; having the role of. A physical device may be referred to by an arbitrary "logical" name. A logical device may span several physical devices. In humorous usage, a graduate student substituting for Professor Smith in a lecture might be called the "logical" Professor Smith.

news (NetNews). A distributed conferencing service composed of a huge collection of discussion groups, both moderated and unmoderated. News originated as a service of USENET (Users' network), a global cooperative network of participating computers. News is now distributed to most Internet sites, including Penn. The news system allows each user to access articles from a single server at his or her site, thus avoiding the cost of storing redundant copies of articles. Users can post articles for distribution at their local site, within their region, or worldwide. News groups exist for literally thousands of topics.

PARIS. Penn Automated Registration Information System. This voice- response system allows students to register for or drop courses and receive grades by telephone. To reach PARIS during open periods, dial 573-PENN. If you have questions about using PARIS, call 898-9446.

patch. Program code that corrects a fault (bug) or security vulnerability in operating system or application software.

PennInfo. Penn's campus-wide online information service, based on MIT's TechInfo software. Providers of Information from many campus organizations contribute and maintain information about their topic areas. PennInfo can be accessed from the annex: prompt by typing t penninfo; with a TCP/IP Telnet client by typing telnet penninfo.upenn.edu; directly using client software available on the server ftp.upenn.edu or from the CRC; or through Gopher software using the Gopher ->: PennInfo gateway.

pico. Pronounced "peeko". The default text-editing program available on several of Penn's electronic mail host computers, including dolphin.upenn.edu, pobox.upenn.edu, mail.sas.upenn.edu, and eniac.seas.upenn.edu. Pico is a relatively easy-to-use editor that operates within the UNIX operating environment.

SLIP. Serial Line Internet Protocol. This convention allows computers to implement the high-speed Internet Protocol suite over serial lines such as telephone circuits. With SLIP client software and a high-speed modem, you can dial in to PennNet and use application software to access services such as telnet, ftp, news, PennInfo, and Gopher directly from your home computer. For further details, consult the article "SLIP" in Penn Printout, November 1992.

Smilies. Keyboard symbols used to convey emotion in electronic communication such as e-mail. These little pictures are especially useful to flag humorous or ironic passages that might otherwise be ambiguous, thus avoiding angry or hurt reactions in readers who lack tone-of-voice cues from the sender. The most common version, :-), looks like a smiling face when you turn your head sideways to the left. Many variations are employed to express a wide range of moods:

:-( sadness, disappointment
;-) knowing wink
:-o oh, no!

and so on.

Superuser. Originally a class of UNIX account having all system modification privileges, thus by extension an expert user or system administrator. Used at Penn to mean any system or network administrator or knowledgeable support person. The Office of Information Systems and Computing sponsors a Superuser Group that meets monthly to explore issues of interest to the computing support community.

TCP/IP. Short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, usually representing the entire Internet protocol suite. These conventions define a wide-area networking standard in which each participating computer is a peer, and in which a data transmission can take one of many routes to the addressee. TCP/IP is used for Internet services such as FTP and Telnet. To participate in PennNet's TCP/IP network, you need a direct Ethernet connection with a dedicated IP address, a ResNet connection with a dynamically assigned IP address, or a high-speed modem with SLIP software and a telephone line.

Telnet. The Internet standard protocol for remote terminal connection service. Telnet allows a user to interact with a remote host as if the user's computer were a terminal directly attached to that host. The term is also used as a command to invoke a telnet application, for example at PennNet's annex: prompt. It is also used informally as a verb ("telnet to a host") or adjective ("a telnet session"). See "Internet Resources I: Telnet" in Penn Printout, April 1991.

Upenn. The Internet's Domain Naming System allows each host computer to be accurately identified for e-mail routing and other purposes. The top-level domain appears at the end of a host name or e-mail address; for educational institutions this is "edu." Preceding it is an institutional prefix. For the University this is "upenn," yielding a domain name of "upenn.edu." As networking and e-mail become more familiar on campus, "upenn" is becoming a vernacular synonym for Penn-- as in "No Nittany Lions at upenn."

Veronica. See Gopher.

VT100. Originally a specific model of Digital Equipment (DEC) computer terminal. The capabilities (character set, number of columns, etc.) of this terminal became a common standard for terminal emulation software. A successor, the VT102, forms the basis for the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard terminal. Generic versions of server software on networked host computers often prompt users for terminal type; "vt100" is usually an acceptable response (be sure your communications software is configured to this setting).

Whois. Penn's online electronic mail directory, named after an Internet program that allows users to query a database of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, hosts, etc. Penn's Whois provides e-mail addresses when queried by a person's name. Whois is accessible by telnet to whois.upenn.edu and from within PennInfo, Gopher, and many e-mail programs in use on campus.