Trends in Digital Media
July 18th, 2008
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U-Z
June 7th, 2008
Upload - term used to describe the transfer of electronic data between two computers or similar systems. More colloquially, they are sometimes applied to transfers to/from removable media such as CDs.
Vodcast - Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term is an evolution specialized for video, coming from the generally audio-based podcast and referring to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device.
Video Card - A video card, also referred to as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, graphics card, and numerous other terms, is an item of personal computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a display. It operates on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices.
Virtual Memory - is a computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory, while in fact it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage. Systems that use this technique make programming of large applications easier and use real physical memory (e.g. RAM) more efficiently than those without virtual memory.
Web Robots or Spiders - Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyses and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Each server can have a file called robots.txt, containing rules for the spidering of that server that the bot is supposed to obey.
Wiki - A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.[1][2] Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites
Web Programmer - A Web programmer translates the requirements of end-users and internal clients into a functional product. In other words, a programmer knows how to make a computer do what people want it to do. Usually, that product is an application which allows an end-user to do something on the Web-order a pizza, make a stock trade, or buy an airline ticket, for example. The programmer assesses the technical parameters of a project, decides how to approach the work, and then carries it out.
Webmaster - Webmasters are practitioners of web communication. Typically, they are generalists with HTML expertise who manage all aspects of Web operations.
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) -
Web Safe Palette -The “Websafe” palette is a bit controversial. It is a set of 216 colors that are, supposedly, guaranteed to appear as intended on all graphical displays when used in HTML, CSS, and images embedded in Web pages. Many Web developers believe that sticking to these colors is one of the holiest commandments in the Web design scripture. 
Windows Media - is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies.
XHTML - The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax.While HTML is an application of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a very flexible markup language, XHTML is an application of XML, a more restrictive subset of SGML. Because they need to be well-formed, true XHTML documents allow for automated processing to be performed using standard XML tools—unlike HTML, which requires a relatively complex, lenient, and generally custom parser. XHTML can be thought of as the intersection of HTML and XML in many respects, since it is a reformulation of HTML in XML. XHTML 1.0 became a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation on January 26, 2000. XHTML 1.1 became a W3C Recommendation on May 31, 2001.
XML - The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages.[1] It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own elements. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet,[2] and it is used both to encode documents and to serialize data.
Yahoo - 
Welcome to Yahoo!, the world’s most visited home page. Quickly find what you’re searching for, get in touch with friends and stay in-the-know
Zip Archive - The ZIP file format is a popular lossless data compression and archival format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce their file size, or stored as-is. A number of compression algorithms are permitted in zip files but as of 2008 only DEFLATE is widely used and supported.
Q-T
June 7th, 2008
Quicktime - is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation, music, and several types of interactive panoramic images.
Quick Mask Mode - Quick mask mode is a powerful way of selection in Photoshop. It is a selection based on the masking of the desired portion of an image. It is used for minute and accurate selections.
RGB - The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.
Rollover Button - a button that has been developed for a web page that usually reacts when the mouse is rolled over it.
RAM - Pronounced ramm, acronym for random access memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices, such as printers.
Root Folder - A folder name selector will display all folders beneath this folder.
Search Engine - A Web search engine is a search engine designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in newsgroups, databases, or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.
Scripting Languages - A scripting language, script language or extension language, is a programming language that controls a software application. “Scripts” are often treated as distinct from “programs“, which execute independently from any other application. At the same time they are distinct from the core code of the application, which is usually written in a different language, and by being accessible to the end user they enable the behavior of the application to be adapted to the user’s needs. Scripts are often, but not always, interpreted from the source code or “semi-compiled” to bytecode which is interpreted, unlike the applications they are associated with, which are traditionally compiled to native machine code for the system on which they run. Scripting languages are nearly always embedded in the application with which they are associated.
Scratch Disk Memory - Scratch space is space on the hard disk drive that is dedicated for only temporary storage. It cannot be used to permanently backup files. Scratch disks can be set to erase all data at regular intervals so that the disk space is left free for future use. The management of scratch disk space is typically dynamic, occurring when needed. Scratch space is commonly used in graphic design programs, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is used when the program needs more memory, and the amount of available system RAM is insufficient.
Scrolling - In computer graphics and television, scrolling or text crawling is the act of sliding a horizontal or vertical presentation of content, such as text, drawings, or images, across a screen or display window. Scrolling is often used to show large amounts of data that could not fit on the viewport all at the same time, this is commonly used in window-based computer displays.
Thumbnail - Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures, used to make it easier to scan and recognise them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words.
TIFF File - Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is a variable-resolution bitmapped image format developed by Aldus (now part of Adobe) in 1986. TIFF is very common for transporting color or gray-scale images into page layout applications, but is less suited to delivering web content.
Tone - Tone is any tint (relative lightness) or shade (relative darkness) of any similar colour.
Typography - is the craft, art, and science of type design, modifying type glyphs, and typesetting. Type glyphs (characters) are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. Details involved in the arrangement of type include the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), letter spacing, and kerning.
M-P
June 6th, 2008
Memory Stick - Memory Stick was developed to realise the convenience of recording different types of digital content and sharing and exchanging them among the widest possible variety of products. It is compact, light, reliable and easy to handle. A wide variety of digital content, from photos and computer data to music and moving images, can all be stored on a single stick.
Mouse - 
A contemporary computer mouse, with the most common standard features: two buttons and a scroll wheel.
Mash Up - a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source.
Meta Tags - are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a web page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of an HTML or XHTML document. Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other metadata not provided through the other head elements and attributes.
Mirror - a mirror is an exact copy of a data set. On the Internet, a mirror site is an exact copy of another Internet site. Mirror sites are most commonly used to provide multiple sources of the same information, and are of particular value as a way of providing reliable access to large downloads.
Monitor - A visual display unit, often called simply a monitor or display, is a piece of electrical equipment which displays images generated from the video output of devices such as computers without producing a permanent record.
Megabyte - As a measure of computer processor storage and real and virtual memory, a megabyte (abbreviated MB) is 2 to the 20th power bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes in decimal notation.
Nano Technology - refers to a field of applied science and technology whose theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, generally 100 nanometers or smaller, and the fabrication of devices or materials that lie within that size range.
Notebook - is a small mobile computer/laptop.
Network - an interconnected group of computers.
Network Security Administrator - The Security Administrator’s role is to ensure the secure operation of the in-house computer systems, servers, and network connections. This includes checking server and firewall logs, scrutinising network traffic, establishing and updating virus scans, and troubleshooting.
Non-Graphical Display Browser - a browser that allows people to view pages without graphics or images.
Navigation - The way users can move through your site. Web sites should have good navigation and they should be able to find all the sections of your web site from each page.
Noise - Randomly-spaced speckles (pixels) that can appear in digital images shot at high ISO numbers. Noise results in a reduction of photo detail and clarity.
OSP (Online Service Provider) -
Open Source - When the source code of a computer program is made available free of charge to the general public, it’s known as open source. The basis of open source software is to produce more useful and bug-free products for everyone to use
Opacity - Opacity refers to the amount of transparency a layer has. For instance, if a layer’s opacity is set to 100%, then that layer is completely opaque (in other words, you can’t see through it). If a layer’s opacity is set to 50%, then it is see-through, or moderately transparent, and layers behind it can show through. On the other end of the scale, if a layer’s opacity is set to 0%, then that layer is completely transparent (that is, invisible).
PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) - is a handheld computer, also known as small or palmtop computers. Newer PDAs also have both color screens and audio capabilities, enabling them to be used as mobile phones (smartphones), web browsers, or portable media players. Many PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi, or Wireless Wide-Area Networks (WWANs). Many PDAs employ touch screen technology.
Portal - A web portal is a site that provides a single function via a web page or site. Web portals often function as a point of access to information on the World Wide Web.
Path (file/folder path) - A path is the general form of a file or directory name, giving a file’s name and its unique location in a file system. Paths point to their location using a string of characters signifying directories, separated by a delimiting character, most commonly the slash “/” or backslash character “\”, or colon “:” though some operating systems may use a different delimiter.
Plug In - A plugin is a computer program that interacts with a host application (a web browser or an email client, for example) to provide a certain, usually very specific, function “on demand”.
Pixel - is the smallest piece of information in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a regular 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots or squares.is the smallest piece of information in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a regular 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots or squares.
PNG file - is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to improve upon and replace the GIF format, as an image-file format not requiring a patent license.
Pixellated - Describes an image in which individual pixels are apparent to the naked eye. Typically, the separate square pixels in bitmapped images such as GIFs do not appear individually. When the image is displayed too large or at a low resolution the image becomes pixelated (this is sometimes done purposely for special effect).
Proxy Server - a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program) which services the requests of its clients by forwarding requests to other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server provides the resource by connecting to the specified server and requesting the service on behalf of the client.
I-L
June 6th, 2008
iTunes - iTunes is a digital media player application, introduced by Apple Inc. on January 9, 2001 at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco,for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also an interface to manage the contents on Apple’s popular iPod digital media players as well as the iPhone.
Index Page - is the URL or local file that automatically loads when a web browser starts and when the browser’s “home” button is pressed.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) - is a circuit-switched telephone network system, designed to allow digital transmission of voice and data over ordinary telephone copper wires, resulting in better voice quality than an analog phone. It offers circuit-switched connections (for either voice or data) in increments of 64 kbit/s. Another major use case is Internet access, where ISDN typically provides a maximum of 128 kbit/s (which can be considered to be broadband speed, since it exceeds the narrowband speeds of 56k telephone lines).
ISP (Internet Service Provider) - is a company or business that provides access to the Internet and related services.
IP Address - is a unique address that certain electronic devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP)—in simpler terms, a computer address.
Javascript - A language that allows a web page to include commands to performed by the web browser. It is a script that is placed into the HTML of a web page and allows functionality a static HTML page cannot offer.
JPEG File - Pronounced “jay peg”, this is one of the most common types of image formats that is used on the Internet. The format is either abbreviated as JPG or jpeg from Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPG technology was designed for compressing either full-color or gray-scale images of natural, real-world scenes. It works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork and similar material. When a standard image is compressed into JPG format, some of the decompressed image isn’t quite as sharp as it was before.
Juxtapose - To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
Kilobyte - Unit of computer memory capacity. The more kilobytes a document or graphic is, the longer it will take the page to load.
Kbps - (Kilobits Per Second) -
Kerberos - is the name of a computer network authentication protocol, which allows individuals communicating over a non-secure network to prove their identity to one another in a secure manner.
Laptop - a portable computer that is of a size that it can sit in your lap.
LOWSRC attribute - Because some image files take so long to download, LOWSRC was created to download a smaller image first before the “main” image.
Lasso Tool - 
The lasso selection tools (shortcut L) are provided in three variations. The lasso tool and polygonal lasso tool which allow you to draw both freehand and straight edge selections, whilst the magnetic lasso is ideal for edges set against high contrast backgrounds. To change from one lasso to another press shift+L.
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) -
LED (Light emitting Diode) - 
Blue, green, and red LEDs; these can be combined to produce any color, including white. Infrared and ultraviolet (UVA) LEDs are also available.
LMS (Learning Management System) -
Lithium Ion - are a type of rechargeable battery. Lithium ion batteries are commonly used in consumer electronics. They are currently one of the most popular types of battery for portable electronics, with one of the best energy-to-weight ratios, no memory effect, and a slow loss of charge when not in use.
Lossy Compression - is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. Lossy compression is most commonly used to compress multimedia data (audio, video, still images), especially in applications such as streaming media and internet telephony.
E-H
May 9th, 2008
eMail - E-mail is mail that is electronically sent to your computer. E-mail (sometimes spelled email) is delivered instantly. This feature is one of the main reasons people seek to gain Internet access. E-mail is usually free to use and allows you to communicate worldwide.
Home Page - This is the the main or first page of a Web site.
eCommerce - Business transactions that take place by computers, generally used to refer to transactions via the Internet. When you purchase or sell goods on a site, you are using e-commerce.
Editable Text - text and other components that can be edited in digital software applications.
Encoding - a process of translating signals of different information from analogue to coded form.
Facebook - Facebook∞ is a social networking website, which began as a way for students to get to know each other. It is now made up of many networks where a wide variety of individuals and groups connect.
Fixed Wireless - operation of wireless devices in the fixed locations such as the home and offices.
Forms - pages with text and information “fields” that the user needs to fill in.
FTP Applications - Stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is a standard way of transferring files from one computer to another on the Internet. It is also used for uploading pages to a web site.
FTP anonymous server - Anonymous FTP is used to allow an open, yet controlled, environment for visitors to the domain to download and/or upload files to and from the domain account.
Freeze - Term for when a system is unresponsive or may “hang” from keyboard or mouse activity.
Feather - to soften the edges of an image to fade out to transparent.
Firewall - 
Format - format media for a particular system.
GIF File - Stands for Graphics Interchange Format. A compressed graphics file that is used to display images online. Normally, images on web pages are in GIF format, rather than JPG format, so they will load faster.
Gaussian Blur - named for Carl Friedrich Gauss, describes blurring an image by a Gaussian function. It is a widely used effect in graphics software, typically to reduce image noise and reduce detail.
Grayscale - Grayscale images are distinct from black-and-white images, which in the context of computer imaging are images with only two colors, black and white (also called bilevel, binary images); grayscale images have many shades of gray in between. In most contexts other than digital imaging, however, the term “black and white” is used in place of “grayscale”; for example, photography in shades of gray is typically called “black-and-white photography”.
Gigabyte - A gigabyte (derived from the SI prefix giga-) is a unit of information or computer storage meaning either exactly 1 billion bytes (10003, or 109) or approximately 1.07 billion bytes (10243, or 230).
HTML - Stands for Hypertext Mark-up Language. It is the language that web pages are written in. This language tells web browsers how to display a web page’s words and images. For example, it tells which fonts, font sizes, links, etc. to display.
Hyperlink - Stands for Hypertext Mark-up Language. It is the language that web pages are written in. This language tells web browsers how to display a web page’s words and images. For example, it tells which fonts, font sizes, links, etc. to display.
Helper Applications - support systems that are embedded into operating systems that the user may access for assistance.
Halo Effect - ghosting or fuzziness around an image.
Hue - Hue is one of the three main attributes of perceived color, in addition to lightness and chroma (or colorfulness). Hue is also one of the three dimensions in some colorspaces along with saturation, and brightness (also known as lightness or value). 
Hostname - A hostname (occasionally also, a sitename) is the unique name by which a network-attached device (which could consist of a computer, file server, network storage device, fax machine, copier, cable modem, etc.) is known on a network.
A-Z of Digital Media
April 21st, 2008
A-D
Animation - 
a sequence of frames that, when played in order at sufficient speed, presents a smoothly moving image like a film or video. An animation can be digitized video, computer-generated graphics, or a combination.
ADSL2 - (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) ADSL is a form of data communications technology utilizing copper telephone lines. It uses the frequencies that are not used by the telephone lines for voice calls.The unique characteristics of ADSL over other forms of DSL is that the Incoming data-flow is far greater than the outgoing data-flow. It is because of the Asymmetric nature of ADSL that it appeals to the home user market rather than businesses.
AOL -
AVI -
Adobe - 
Apple - 
Apply Inc. formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing consumer electronics and closely related software products. Established in April 1, 1976. Apple develops, sells and supports a series of personal computers, portable media players, mobile phones, computer software and computer hardware and accessories
Analogue -Analogue is everything before digital. Vinyl records, tape cassettes, music stereos, the telephone etc; these all use analogue signals to convey information. The radio frequency is an example of an analogue signal.
Active Server Pages - Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft’s first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages.
Alt Tags - Alt tags are Web page graphics containing text that appear on the screen when a user holds the mouse over an image. Alt tags are SEO tools with added value other than serving as a replacement for when images and non-textual elements cannot be displayed.
Bluray - Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.
Blackberry - A wireless email solution for mobile professionals. It provides easy access to your business email wherever you go.
Blog - an abridgment of the term web log is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.
Bitmap - A bitmap is one of many types of file formats for images stored in a computerized form. It carries the extension .BMP. Computers use bits of 1 and 0 to store data. A bitmap is literally a map of bits that form a particular picture when rendered to a display like a computer monitor.
Bracket <HTML> -
Browser - 
A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network.
Convergence - Technological convergence is the modern presence of a vast array of different types of technology to perform very similar tasks
Connectivity - is a perception related to using computer networks to link to people and resources.
CD - A Compact Disc (or CD) is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio.
Codecs - A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal.
Content Writer/Editor - A website content writer is a person who specializes in providing relevant text content to websites. Their expertise lies in adapting themselves to whatever particular website demands of them to compose. Most of their work centers on marketing particular product or service that sites are selling or endorsing.
CMYK - (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) - (short for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black),[1] and often referred to as process color or four color) is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, also used to describe the printing process itself.
Calibration - Monitor/Printer - The aim of color calibration is to adjust the colours of one output device to match that of another. The device that is to be calibrated is commonly known as calibration source; the device that serves as a comparison standard is commonly known as the calibration target.
Create a Podcast
Default - a value that a program or operating system assumes, or a course of action that a program or operating system will take, when the user or programmer specifies no overriding value or action.
DVD - an optical disk that can store a very large amount of digital data, as text, music, or images.
Download - downloading is a term used to describe the transfer of electronic data between two computers or similar systems. More colloquially, they are sometimes applied to transfers to/from removable media such as CDs.
Digital Media - Refers to any type of information in digital format including computer-generated text, graphics and animation, as well as photographs
Digital TV - is the sending and receiving of moving images and sound by means of discrete (digital) signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV. Introduced in the late 1990s, this technology appealed to the television broadcasting business and consumer electronics industries as offering new financial opportunities.
Dreamweaver - 
DSL - DSL or xDSL, is a family of technologies that provide digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop, although in recent years, many[who?] have adopted digital subscriber line as a more marketing-friendly term for the most popular version of consumer-ready DSL, ADSL. DSL uses high frequency; regular telephone uses low frequency.
Database Developer - High performance, reliable databases are an essential component in business technology solutions. Our database developers build sophisticated and logical relational databases that enable the efficient storage and structured retrieval of information.
Dynamically Generated Content - Website content that is generated by various script including asp, php, etc.
