COMPUTE

R

TERMS

PART 4

HASHTAG

A hashtag is a number symbol (#) used to label keywords in a tweet. The name "hashtag" was coined by Twitter and combines the word "hash" (another name for the number symbol) and "tag," since it is used to tag certain words. In order to tag a keyword in a Twitter post, simply type a number symbol (Shift+3) immediately before the word. For example, you can tag the word "tech" in a tweet by typing "#tech.“

Twitter automatically turns hashtagged words into links to a dynamic feed. This feed is updated in real-time and lists all recent tweets containing the same hashtag. When you post a tweet with a hashtag, your tweet will show up in the public feed. Besides clicking on hashtags within tweets, you can also search for hashtags using Twitter's search feature.

TWEET

For most of history, "tweet" has been the sound a bird makes. However, with the advent of Twitter, the word "tweet" has taken on a whole new meaning.

A tweet is an online posting, or "micro-blog" created by a Twitter user. The purpose of each tweet is to answer the question, "What are you doing?" However, tweets can contain any information you want to post, such as your plans for the weekend, your thoughts about a TV show, or even notes from a lecture. You can publish a tweet using a computer or a mobile phone. Once published, the tweet will appear on the Twitter home pages of all the users that are following you. Likewise, your Twitter home page will display the most recent tweets of the users that you are following.

HTTP

Stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol." This is the protocol used to transfer data over the World Wide Web. That's why all Web site addresses begin with "http://". Whenever you type a URL into your browser and hit Enter, your computer sends an HTTP request to the appropriate Web server. The Web server, which is designed to handle HTTP requests, then sends to you the requested HTML page.

HYPERLINK OR LINK

A hyperlink is a word, or image that you can click on to jump to a new document or a new section in the document. Hyperlinks are found in nearly all Web pages, allowing you to click your way from page to page. Text hyperlinks are often blue and underlined, but don't have to be. When you move the cursor over a hyperlink, whether it is text or an image, the arrow should change to a small hand pointing at the link. When you click it, a new page or place in the current page will open.

IMPRESSION

Impressions track how many times a webpage or element on a webpage is viewed. It is one of the standard metrics used in website analytics software. The term "impressions" most often refers to page impressions, which is synonymous with page views. Each time a page is viewed, a page impression is counted. Therefore, a single visitor can rack up multiple impressions on a website by visiting multiple pages.

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is an online photo sharing service. It allows you to apply different types of photo filters to your pictures with a single click, then share them with others. While is a rather basic service, Instagram's simplicity has helped it gain widespread popularity.

LAG

Lag is a slow response from a computer. It can be used to describe any computer that is responding slower than expected. However, the term is most commonly used in online gaming.

Video game lag is generally caused by one of two factors – 1) a slow computer or 2) a slow Internet connection. If you are playing an online multiplayer game and your computer cannot process the incoming data in real-time, it may slow the game down for everyone. If your Internet connection is slow or inconsistent (which is common with a shared wireless connection), your system may not send and receive enough data to keep up with other players. This lag may produce choppy frame rates and cause a delay between your input and what happens on the screen.

LEADERBOARD

As the average computer screen size has grown larger, the size of online advertisements as grown as well. The leaderboard ad has a standard size of 728 pixels wide by 90 pixels tall (728x90).

Leaderboards can contain text, images, or even animations. When a visitor clicks on a leaderboard, he or she is directed to the advertiser's website.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a social networking website designed for business professionals. It allows you to share work-related information with other users and keep an online list of professional contacts.

Like Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn allows you to create a custom profile. However, profiles created within LinkedIn are business-oriented rather than personal. For example, a LinkedIn profile highlights education and past work experience, which makes it appear similar to a resume.

MEME

A meme is a concept or behavior that spreads from person to person. Examples of memes include beliefs, fashions, stories, and phrases. In previous generations, memes typically spread within local cultures or social groups. However, now that the Internet has created a global community, memes can span countries and cultures across the world. Memes that are propagated online are called "Internet memes."

IPV4

IPv4 is the most widely used version of the Internet Protocol. It defines IP addresses in a 32-bit format, which looks like 123.123.123.123. Each three-digit section can include a number from 0 to 255, which means the total number of IPv4 addresses available is 4,294,967,296.

Each computer or device connected to the Internet must have a unique IP address in order to communicate with other systems on the Internet. Because the number of systems connected to the Internet is quickly approaching the number of available IP addresses, IPv4 addresses are predicted to run out soon because there are over 6 billion people in the world.

IPV6

IPv6, also called IPng (or IP Next Generation), is the next planned version of the IP address system. (IPv5 was an experimental version used primarily for streaming data.) While IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, which increases the number of possible addresses by an exponential amount. For example, IPv4 allows 4,294,967,296 addresses to be used. IPv6 allows for over 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 IP addresses. That should be enough to last awhile.

PINTEREST

Pinterest is a social networking website that allows you to organize and share ideas with others. You can share your own content as well as things that other Pinterest users have posted.

INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK

FORCE

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards, in particular the standards that comprise the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. All participants and managers are volunteers, though their work is usually funded by their employers or sponsors.

DNS

Stands for "Domain Name System." Domain names serve as memorable names for websites and other services on the Internet. However, computers access Internet devices by their IP addresses. DNS translates domain names into IP addresses, allowing you to access an Internet location by its domain name.

Thanks to DNS, you can visit a website by typing in the domain name rather than the IP address. For example, to visit the Tech Terms Computer Dictionary, you can simply type "techterms.com" in the address bar of your web browser rather than the IP address (67.43.14.98). It also simplifies email addresses, since DNS translates the domain name (following the "@" symbol) to the appropriate IP address.

To understand how DNS works, you can think of it like the contacts app on your smartphone. When you call a friend, you simply select his or her name from a list. The phone does not actually call the person by name, it calls the person's phone number. DNS works the same way by associating a unique IP address with each domain name.

PHISHING

Phishing is similar to fishing in a lake, but instead of trying to capture fish, phishers attempt to steal your personal information. They send out e-mails that appear to come from legitimate websites. The e-mails state that your information needs to be updated or validated and ask that you enter your username and password, followed by even more information, such as your full name, address, phone number, social security #, and credit card #.

Phishing is a con game that scammers use to collect personal information from unsuspecting users. The false e-mails often look surprisingly legitimate, and even the Web pages where you are asked to enter your information may look real.

PHISHING

However, the URL in the address field can tell you if the page you have been directed to is valid or not. For example, if you are visiting an Web page on eBay, the last part of the domain name should end with "ebay.com." Therefore, "http://www.ebay.com" and "http://cgi3.ebay.com" are valid Web addresses, but "http://www.ebay.validate-info.com" and "http://ebay.login123.com" are false addresses, which may be used by phishers. If URL contains an IP address, such as 12.30.229.107, instead of a domain name, you can almost be sure someone is trying to phish for your personal information.

PHARMING

Pharming is yet another way hackers attempt to manipulate users on the Internet. While phishing attempts to capture personal information by getting users to visit a fake website, pharming redirects users to false websites without them even knowing it.

One way that pharming takes place is via an e-mail virus that "poisons" a user's local DNS cache. It does this by modifying the DNS entries, or host files. For example, instead of having the IP address 17.254.3.183 direct to www.apple.com, it may direct to another website determined by the hacker. Pharmers can also poison entire DNS servers, which means any user that uses the affected DNS server will be redirected to the wrong website. Fortunately, most DNS servers have security features to protect them against such attacks.

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