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Definitions from the Sharpened Glossary
Open Directory Project
A directory project run by thousands of volunteer editors. The main URL is www.dmoz.org.
Operating System
Also known as an "OS," this is the software that communicates with computer hardware on the most basic level. Without an operating system, no software programs can run. The OS is what allocates memory, processes tasks, accesses disks and peripherials, and serves as the user interface. With an operating system, like Windows, the Mac OS, or Linux, developers can write code using a standard programming interface (known as an API). Without an operating system, programmers would have to write about ten times as much code to get the same results.
Optimization
Changes made to a Web page to improve the positioning of that page in search engines. Optimization may involve design/layout changes, new text for meta tags, headlines and Web page content.
Outbound Link
A link from a web site to a different web site.
Page View
Measurement of web page display frequency. Each time a page is displayed, count one page view.
PageRank
PageRank is Google's patent pending technology that rates the "importance" of a given web page. PageRank is used by Google (among other things) to determine a page's rank on Google's query results page.
Partition
A partition is a section of a hard drive. When you format a hard drive, you can usually choose the number of partitions you want
Password Protection
Ability to protect any web pages you do not want the general public to view. It is used for private pages, member-only sites and for security reasons. Password protection tools are available with an account free of charge.
Perl
Perl actually stands for "Practical Extraction and Report Language," but you don't really need to know that unless you want to impress your nerd friends. Perl is a scripting language which uses a syntax simliar to C/C++.
PFI
Abbreviation for Pay For Inclusion.
PHP
PHP (Parser Hypertext Preprocessor) is a server-side, HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. PHP can perform any task that a CGI program can do, but its strength lies in its compatibility with many types of databases. PHP was created sometime in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. During mid 1997, PHP development entered the hands of other contributers. Two of them, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, rewrote the parser from scratch to create PHP version 3 (PHP3). Today, PHP is shipped standard with a number of web servers, including RedHat Linux.
Ping
This term refers to a golf equipment brand, as well as the sound made by striking your glass with a spoon at the dinner table. However, it also has a computer-related meaning. A ping is a test to see if a system on the Internet is working. "Pinging" a server tests and records the response time of the server. Pinging multiple computers can be helpful in finding Internet bottlenecks, so that data transfer paths can be rerouted a more efficient way. A good way to make sure you do not get disconnected from your dial-up ISP for being idle is to send a ping every 5 minutes or so. There are a number of shareware Ping programs that will do this for you.
POP Email Accounts
POP (Post Office Protocol) is the method of sending e-mail from a server to an end user. Users have the option to retrieve e-mail directly from POP3 mailboxes on our mail server using an email program such as MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc. Each hosting account includes a Master POP account which can receive all email and control the settings for any optional configurable POP accounts. The additional POPs can be assigned unique id's and passwords to ensure privacy.
Port
This is a number that indicates what kind of protocol a server on the Internet is using. For example, Web servers typically are listed on port 80. Web browsers use this port by default when accessing Web pages, but you can also specify what port you would like to use in the URL like this: http://www.excite.com:80. FTP uses port 21, e-mail uses port 25, and game servers, like a Quake server or Blizzard.net use various other ports. It is good to know what a port is, but you seldom have to specify it manually, so don't worry if this is new to you.
Proxy Server
Most large businesses, organizations, and universities these days use a proxy server. This is a server that all computers on the local network have to go through before accessing information on the Internet. By using a proxy server, an organization can improve the network performance and filter what users connected to the network can access. A proxy server improves Internet access speeds from a network primarily by using a caching system. Caching saves recently viewed Web sites, images, and files on a local hard drive so that they don't have to be downloaded from the Web again. While your Web browser might save recently viewed items on your computer, a proxy server caches everything accessed from the network. That means if Bob views a news story at cnn.com at 1:00 and Jill views the same page at 1:03, she'll most likely get the page straight from the proxy server's cache. Though this means super-fast access to Web pages, it also means users might not be seeing the latest update of each Web page. The other main purpose a proxy server is to filter what is allowed into the network. While HTTP, FTP, and Secure protocols can all be filtered by a proxy server, HTTP is the most common. The proxy server can limit what Web sites users on the network can access. Many organizations choose to block access to sites with objectionable material such as hacking information and pornography, but other sites can be filtered as well. If an employer notices workers are spending too much time at sites like eBay or Quicken.com, those sites can be blocked by the proxy server as well.
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