| Terms or
phrases - (B) |
Glossary
Description |
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| B2B |
Business to business - websites aimed at other businesses |
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| B2C |
Business to consumer/customer - websites aimed at the eventual user/consumer of a product |
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| Backup |
To copy important data to an alternate storage device so to have a safe copy incase the data is lost or corrupted in the future. Backups can be run to other computers, CD's, zip disks or corporate solutions like DAT and DLT tapes. |
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| Bandwidth |
A measurement of the volume of information that can be transmitted over a network at a given time. Think of a network as a water pipe - the higher the bandwidth (the larger the diameter of the pipe), the more data (water) can pass over the network (through the pipe). |
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| Banner Advertising |
The placement of a advert in a prominent position of a web page in the hope that interested viewers will click on it and visit the advertiser's website |
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| Baud |
The number of signals (transitions) sent per second, usually by a modem although any type of signalling device can be used. Each transition is a change of state, so by defining different states and transitions between them higher data rates become possible. Baud rates should not be confused with bits per second, which is an absolute measure. |
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| Beta |
A software application that is made available prior to the official release for the purposes of testing. |
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| Binary |
The system by which combinations of 0s and 1s are used to represent any type of data stored on a computer. (positive and negative electronic currents) |
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| Binary file |
A file containing data in a binary format. Before this is of use it must be interpreted according to a set of rules for any particular type of file. For example an ASCII file is binary data interpreted as text. Similarly there are other types of file such as spreadsheets, video, images etc. |
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| BinHex |
An encoding standard allowing Apple Macintosh files to be encoded and sent across the Internet. Like all encoded files, BinHex files cannot be used until they have been decoded. The Macintosh file system holds information about the file type within the file itself rather than as an extension (.xxx .pdf etc.). This makes it easier for Macintosh files to be called by any name and for the appropriate application(s) which can use the file to be identified automatically. |
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| Bit |
A single information unit which can have just two states, on/off, zero or one, and forming the basic building blocks of the binary numbering system used in computers. Eight bits are called a byte, and ASCII code uses a byte to represent each character of text. |
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| Bookmark |
A mechanism used by Web Browsers to save the URL (location) of a site so you can go back there quickly and easily. Bookmarks are also found in other programs such as ftp e.g. Crystal. Also called "Favorites" by Microsoft Internet Explorer (another example of a certain company imposing its way?) and "HotList" by some Mosaic variants. |
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| BPS |
Bits Per Second - a measurement of the volume of data that a modem is capable of transmitting. Typical modem speeds today are 14.4K bps (14,400 bits per second) and 28.8K bps. ISDN offers transfer rates of 128K bps. |
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| Broadband |
A transmission method in which the networks range of transmission frequencies is divided into separate channels and each channel is used to send a different signal. Broadband is often used to send different types of signals simultaneously. |
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| Browser |
A program run on a client computer for viewing World Wide Web pages. Examples include Netscape, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mosaic. |
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| Byte |
Each byte consists of 8 bits and could be shown in binary bits as (for example) 10001000. In numerical terms a byte contains a decimal number in the range 0 to 255. Thus 1 byte can represent the 256 different characters in ASCII although not all of them are printable. |
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