Appendix Glossary W

In the left margin you will find links to the glossary categorised alphabetically. Some of the pages are quite long and may take a few moments to load if you use a modem. This glossary is always being updated.

Glossary - W

W3 - Short for World Wide Web.

WAIS - Software that is used to index large text files in servers. On the client side, it finds and retrieves documents in databases, based on user defined words.

Wait State - An inactive period for the processor. Wait states result from the different clock speeds of the processor and memory, the latter being typically slower.

Wake On LAN - (WOL) Wake On LAN provides the capability to remotely power on systems supporting Wake-On-LAN by simply sending a wake-up frame. To enable Wake-On-LAN function, your system requires Ethernet LAN adapter card that can activate Wake-On-LAN function, a client with Wake-On-LAN capability, and software such as LDCM Rev. 3.10 or up that can trigger wake-up frame.

WAN - "Wide Area Network" A WAN is a connection of two or more computers that are not at the same physical location. Using a modem or a T1 line to connect multiple computers is a common application of a WAN. Without the presence of WAN technology, there could be no such thing as the Internet, which would indeed be quite sad.

Warez - Pirated commercial software made available to the public on the Internet or through personal contact.

WAV - Windows sound files.

Web Page - The individual HTML-based documents that together comprise the world wide web. Each web page has a specific textual address on the Internet at which it can be found by the browser, this is known as its "URL." The world wide web is made up of millions of websites, and each website consists of one or more web pages. A web page contains the textual content that is displayed by the browser, in addition to: coded instructions on how this text is laid out in the document, references to the graphic files that are also part of the viewable document, and link definitions to allow a user to connect to other pages or related files (within the same website or elsewhere on the Internet). Written in a tagging language called HTML, a web page often contains text, pictures, as well as links to other web pages or Internet resources.

Webring - A group of Websites with a common theme, configured in a loop, allowing a surfer easy access to subsequent sites in the ring by clicking on links. Some rings only allow users to access the next member in the ring or the previous member, thus maintaining the integrity of the ring concept. Others allow users to jump to the site of any member in no particular order. Many Webrings maintain standards for members so a user can expect a certain degree of uniformity and quality when visiting a member site.

Webmaster - The person who is responsible for the regular care and feeding of a website (e.g., fixing typographical errors and typing in new press releases). It is a highly glamorous and romantic position. That's why you see so many action movies and TV shows based on their daring exploits.

Website - A web site is a related collection of web files that includes an initial file called a home page. You can get to a web site by typing in the home page address, or URL, in your browser. From this home page, you can get to all the other pages on a web site.

Wildcard - A symbol that represents a character or series of characters. In DOS and Windows the asterisk (*) can represent a letter or combination of letters. This is useful in performing file and text searches.

Willamette - The successor to the PIII, officially known as the Pentium 4. Announced in June 2000, the first models (available in late 2000) run at speeds above 1 Gigahertz. (1000 Megahertz!)

Winchester Disks - Former code name for an early IBM hard disk model. Sometimes still used to refer to hard drives in general.

Window - This is an area on the screen where special information appears. It can be a graphic window like in the Microsoft Windows program, or it can be a text window, outlined with special graphic text characters.

Window Random Access Memory - (WRAM) Samsung Electronics' dual-ported (two separate data ports) memory typically on a video or graphics card. WRAM has a 25% higher bandwidth than VRAM but costs less.

Windows - Windows is the name given to a line of GUI operating systems offered by Microsoft Corporation. The Windows product group currently consists of Windows 3.1, Windows 98, and Windows NT. Collectively, the Windows systems are the most popular means through which personal computers are used. Hey, in order to have overtaken MS-DOS as the operating system of choice, you know Windows has to be pretty neat.

Windows NT - Windows NT is an operating system created and marketed by Microsoft Corporation. It was designed for use both as a server platform and an application environment. NT is available in two favours: Windows NT Server and Windows NT Workstation. As the names indicate, NT Server is oriented toward acting as a file server, print server, or database server; NT Workstation is dedicated to running applications in a stable 32-bit environment and could be viewed as a step up from the Windows 95 operating system. Incidentally, NT is an acronym for 'new technology'.

Wireframe - A three dimensional view of an image outlined using a wire-like frame.

Wireless Modem - A modem that accesses a wireless telephone system (as do cellular telephones) to provide a connection to a network.

Wizard - A utility included with a software application that helps a user perform certain functions. Wizards are often used to set a program up for installation. They also provide templates that allow a user to enter required information to create documents such as Web pages, letters and spreadsheets.

WMF - "Windows Metafile" An image file format that was to facilitate the exchange of graphic information between applications in the Microsoft Windows operating system. The WMF format is capable of storing a decent looking screen image and the complete vector data (precise mathematical definition) of a file. So far WMF has not yet gained the universal support among Windows applications that Microsoft was originally aiming for, but never bet against Microsoft.

Word Processor - This is a "typewriting" program. It creates documents, but much better than any typewriter. Special fonts or type sets can be set and graphics can be inserted, the results can even be printed in colour!

Word Wrap - The ability of a word processor to move a word from the end of one line to the beginning of the next while you are typing. This means the ability to type an entire paragraph without hitting ENTER at the end of a line!

Workgroup - Nodes connected to a hub or switch to form a small communication grouping for the purposes of networking.

World Wide Web - A subset of the Internet which supports hypertext-based documents. The world wide web or "web" is the portion of the Internet that is dedicated to displaying the "pages" of textual and graphic information published on the many web servers throughout the world.

World Wide Web Consortium - (W3C) founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994, an international group of companies that exists to create standards and enhance the Web. One of the main concerns of W3C is that the medium progresses together, in a single direction, rather than divide into many factions with different goals.

Worm - A program that enters a computer and replicates itself, often causing damage to the system.

Write Once - An optical disk technology that allows the drive to store and read back data but prevents the drive from erasing information once it has been written.

Write Protect - This is a way of protecting information on disk from being accidentally changed or erased. This is done by putting a write protect tab on a 5.25" disk, or by sliding the little tile off the hole of a 3/5" disk.

WWW - World Wide Web. The Internet's multimedia service containing countless areas of information, documentation, entertainment, as well as business and personal home pages.

WYSIWYG - "What You See Is What You Get" This is an old phrase that has received new life in the industry of electronic publishing. It refers to the attempt on the part of a computer program to effectively simulate the desired appearance of a document within the environment that is used to create it. When using a WYSIWYG layout program, the document on the computer screen very closely resembles the page that will ultimately come out on the printer or web browser. An example of this would be an HTML editing program that allows a user to construct a web page visually right on the screen, as opposed to simply typing the commands as text. Most people who use this term pronounce it "wizzywig", which is kind of cute the first few times, but gets old fast. Most of the time this feature comes pretty close to actually working!