by Joy Arrieta angelenensis@hotmail.com

CheaperNet

This is the popular name for the Ethernet local-area-networking standard more officially known as 10Base-2. This standard could move 10 megabits per second on a cable up to 200 meters long. It was called "cheaper" because the cable it employed didn't cost as much as the standard Ethernet cable. Because the cable was also a thin coaxial design, 10Base-2 also earned the name ThinNet.

e-Book

An e-book is a book you read on your computer. Some e-books are nothing more than screen after screen of text, which you scroll through with your mouse. Others are wildly interactive affairs, with special navigational controls, multiple story lines from which to choose, animated illustrations, and so on. Soon, this term will probably redefine itself to mean one of those books you read on a pocket-sized computer designed specifically for reading e-books.

Aglet

An aglet is an "agile applet"--a tiny program that can move among computers in a network, performing actions automatically based on computer system events.

Jello

A "jello" page presents everything within a fixed-width column that is always centered within your browser window, no matter how wide you make the window.

DCC

DCC stands for "digital content creation"--a name recently given, by computer companies, to the "target market" of folks who create audio/visual media for the Web. Computer companies have bothered to name this group because as a rule, digital content creators are in the market for the fastest, most powerful computers and monitors available.

CAE

CAE stands for "computer-aided engineering," a class of software that lets engineers analyze engineering designs created with a CAD (computer-aided design--from yesterday's tip) application. For example, an engineer can use a CAD program to draw a bridge and then use a CAE program to see if the bridge holds up under various stresses and conditions.

Digitizing tablet

A digitizing tablet is like an electronic pad of paper: You draw on the pad with an electronic pen (usually called a "stylus"), and your drawing appears on the computer screen. Most graphic artists consider the digital tablet a more intuitive drawing tool than the mouse.

WAP

WAP stands for "wireless application protocol," a technical specification for enabling people to securely access digital information (such as messages, e-mail, faxes, and so on) via their mobile phone, pager, personal digital assistant (PDA), or other wireless device.

PRAM

PRAM stands for "parameter RAM" (RAM, as we've probable told you many times, stands for "random-access memory," the memory in your computer). You can find PRAM in a Macintosh computer (probably an OLDER Macintosh computer). It's a small amount of memory, with its own battery power, that stores system parameters--such as the arrangement of items on the desktop--when the computer is shut down.

Chad

Chad--a collective noun--consists of the little rectangular pieces of paper punched out of computer punch cards. Someone named Chadless invented the Chadless keypunch--a device that punched little u-shaped holes into computer cards, eliminating the mess of the little rectangular pieces of paper. And since this new punch was called "Chadless," computer geniuses immediately deduced that the old punch produced "chad."