We all have spent some time on the internet daily for months, sometimes years. We have come across some terms that leave us scratching our foreheads in wonder. I am a collector of that type of knowledge I love it. Some of it is a shock value; most people would not expect a woman, let alone a blonde to know what the words mean.
Internet
The internet is a group of connected computers, talking and interacting to each other. These other computers can be as close as your neighborhood to a computer on the other side of the world. Its not just two or three computers it is millions of computers interacting with each other. A bunch of computers connected together is a network, and this is essentially, what we are all doing as we surf the internet. We are networking with all types of people around the world.
IP number
Every one who surfs the internet does so under an IP number. The IP number is an identifying number that can be traced back to you should you be ‘bad’ on the internet.
If you are using a dial up connection your IP number changes each time you dial in, but it can still be traced back to you thru your ISP (Internet service provider). If you have a steady connection such as broadband, you keep the same IP number as long as you keep the service.
URL
Each web site has its own address on the internet so we can find them easier. This address is the url or Universal Resource Location. As the internet got bigger, someone realized we needed specific addresses to find things. A URL is to a web site, as your street address is to your home.
Web site is a collection of web pages on the same server. My web site, which is www.bahamachick.com, has several pages on it. These other pages end in things like html, asp or htm. I have not changed anything there in months, so it may not even be available and longer. However back when I first got the site, there were over two hundred pages on it. That was when you could have lyrics and music on a web site and not have to worry about being arrested. The pages scrolled lyrics as a midi file played the song. It was a huge karoke site that worked pretty cool, until all the differences in online speeds came about as well.
Web page, a page made up of images, and text that allows us to buy, learn, or whatever we choose to do. There are many different types of pages out here; it is the language, which they are created that, makes the difference.
Some web pages allow us to learn about a subject, and today I use a web page (pizza hut) to order and pay for lunch for the kids and me. Pages on eBay allow us to bid on items we want to buy, and shopping sites allow us to buy things right away. Some pages allow us to cook a fancy dinner or make us laugh. Simply put web pages let us do things.
Technology is an awesome thing.
Chat software also called instant messengers allows us to text chat with old friends and new friends alike. There are tons of chat programs out here for free download. Some of the most popular ones are yahoo, aim and msn. If you have, friends on each of those chat programs, you could download a multi chat program, and it would load your entire friends list so you did not have to have each individual program open. Pretty cool huh?
Blogs are free for the most part. Blogs can allow you to make like a personal online diary ad have others read it and comment on it. Now days blogs can have advertising on them so they can make some money. There are hundreds of places one can get a free blog and there are millions of blogs about every conceivable subject out there. Cooking, decorating, medical issues, and even blogs on writing, see there is a blog for every interest you may have. The first blog was introduced back in 1997 and is still popular today for technology geeks around the world.
RSS feeds
Some blogs and web pages have RSS feed which is Really Simple Syndication. This technology is not new either although some people think it is new. It came out of a need to have self-updating web pages and has really taken the internet world by storm. There are RSS feeds for every imaginable topic out there.
Chat portals
Chat portals are a great place to meet other people who think as you do. There are chat rooms for every conceivable topic. If one does not meet your needs then move along and you will find the perfect one eventually. Most of these are free to join but require you to join the site in order to participate.
Email, short for electronic mail, is what most people get a computer for. It is one of the first things they learn after they figure out how to get on the internet. Everyone likes to stay in touch and pen and paper are things of a bygone era it seems. Now if there was a way we could separate the junk mail (spam) from the good stuff easily we would be set. I know there are spam filters but some how some spam slides in under the radar.
