|
 |
Boston
Public Library
Internet
Dictionary for Kids
Kids' Page
|
|
|
As you are reading, if you
click on words that are purple and underlined you can find out what they mean.
- address
- Internet addresses help you find people or information on the
Internet. People with e-mail addresses can have mail delivered right
to their computer. It's a lot like your street address which tells
the post office where to deliver letters. E-mail addresses usually
look like this: wpooh@poohcorner.org or bigbird@sesame.com.
- bookmarks
- Bookmarks help you mark a place on the Internet that you would
like to come back to another time. They are a lot like the bookmarks
you might use when you read a book. Bookmarks are kept in a list
by your computer, and you can add to the list anytime. Clicking
on a bookmark is a fast way to get back to a place you liked on
the Internet.
- browser
- A browser helps you to understand and use information you find
on the World Wide Web. Browsers make it
possible for you to see colorful pictures and even get sounds
or videos from the Internet. Mosaic, Lynx, and Netscape are examples
of browsers, but there are many others.
- bulletin board
- A bulletin board on the Internet is just like a real bulletin
board. With a real bulletin board, people put things up for other
people to see. By sending e-mail, people using an Internet bulletin board
can post messages for other people on the Internet to see.
- cyberspace
- Cyberspace is not a real place that you can visit in person.
You can only visit cyberspace on your computer. When you use the
Internet to get information or talk to friends, you are doing
these things in the place called cyberspace.
- disk
- A disk, or floppy disk, is small, square, and about the size
of a baseball card. It's usually made from plastic and metal,
and you can keep information on it. If you are listening to a
song on the radio and want to save it for later, you might use
a cassette to tape the song. A disk works in a similar way, but
with your computer.
- download
- Sometimes you see something on the Internet that you want to
keep and use later. If you have a disk,
you can save the information by downloading it. It's like videotaping
a TV show onto a tape so you can watch it later. Downloading takes
the information from your computer screen and puts in on your
disk so you can look at it whenever you want to.
- e-mail
- E-mail is electronic mail, or mail that you send to someone
using a computer. While mail that the post office delivers can
be very slow, e-mail is often extremely fast.
- emotion
- See smiley.
- file
- If you have ever been to someone's office, you probably know
what a file cabinet looks like. Inside the cabinet there are usually
file folders, which hold information that the office workers have
saved there so they can find it quickly later. A file on a computer
is like a file in an office, and your computer is like the file
cabinet. In a computer file, you can save anything from a school
report you typed to a picture you found on the Internet.
- ftp
- FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol, which just means "how
to get files from another computer to your computer without
leaving your chair." For example, imagine you want to try
a cool computer game before you buy it. Using the Internet and
FTP, your computer asks another computer for a copy of the game.
The other computer sends the game right to your computer so you
can play it. With FTP, you can also get things such as an electronic
book to read, free software, or the text
of a famous speech.
- hardware
- Your computer is made of hard pieces of metal, plastic, and
glass. Sometimes people will call your computer, or parts of your
computer, "hardware." That doesn't mean that there is
a hammer or nails inside your computer! Those are found in a hardware
store, not in your computer's hardware.
- home page
- Just as a home is a place where someone lives, a home page is
a place where a person, group, or company "lives" on
the World Wide Web. If you have a home page
on the Web, you can put fun pictures, sounds, and information
on it. Other people can visit your home page, look at the pictures,
listen to the sounds, and read the information. Lots of people
and groups have home pages, including the Walt Disney Company,
Socks (Chelsea Clinton's cat), and maybe even your school.
- http
- Many addresses on the Web
start with http://. This is a short way of saying Hypertext Transfer
Protocol. Sounds confusing, doesn't it? This protocol
is a set of rules that your computer needs to follow when you
are using the World Wide Web. Any time your computer sees http://,
it knows that it will be looking for something on the Web. E-mail
has its own set of rules (or its own protocol) and so does FTP.
Just as card games or chess have rules you need to follow to enjoy
the game, computers on the Internet also have rules they have
to follow.
- hypertext
- Hypertext may sound like a weird word, but without it we wouldn't
be able to use the World Wide Web. "Hypertext" means there
are shortcuts, or links, built into pages on the Web. These links
will take you to another page quickly and easily. If you look
at the page you are reading right now, there are lots of blue,
underlined words. These are hypertext links, and if you click
on them they will take you someplace new.
- Internet
- The Internet is made up of computers all over the world. These
computers are connected by phone lines or cables. They all share
a common language and understand a set of Internet rules so they
can relay information whenever you need it. You can use the Internet
to send e-mail to a friend across the world,
or watch a movie clip on your computer, or finish a homework project
about the solar system.
- Internet service provider
- A company that helps you get your computer hooked up to the
Internet is an Internet service provider.
This company might give you an e-mail address
so other people can send you mail on your computer.
- links
- Links are usually a different font color from the page and underlined.
They are used on the World Wide Web as shortcuts to information.
If you click on a link, you will quickly jump to a new page. Click
on the word GO to try a link: GO.
- listserv
- See mailing list.
- mailing list
- Sometimes a group of people who are all interested in the same
subject have discussions using the Internet. For example, a group
of Star Trek fans might want to share ideas about their favorite
shows. One way they could talk about this would be to join a mailing
list. Everyone on the list sends e-mail messages to the person
in charge of the mailing list. This person then sends a copy of
each message to all the people on the list.
- modem
- A modem lets you use your telephone to get on the Internet.
Usually, a modem is a small box that sits between your computer
and the telephone line coming into your house. It makes it possible
for your phone line to send information instead of just sending
your voice.
- 'Net
- "The 'Net" is a nickname for the Internet. You might
also hear or read about other names for the Internet: the Information
Superhighway, the Infobahn, the I-way, and so on.
- netiquette
- Netiquette is the name for manners on the Internet.
- network
- When several computers are connected together by lines or cables,
this makes a network. For example, if you visit your local library,
you might find that the library has some computers that you can
use to look for books. These library computers are probably connected
to each other so they can share information.
- newsgroup
- See bulletin board.
- online
- When you send mail or find information with your computer, you
are using phone lines or cables to get onto the Internet. "Online"
time is the time you spend using the phone lines to work or play
on the Internet. "Offline" is the time when you are
not using the phone lines to get onto the Internet.
- protocol
- Protocols are the rules that computers have to follow when you
ask them to do a certain job. For example, if you ask your computer
to e-mail a message, it has to follow the
protocol (or rules) for e-mail.
- smileys
- :) If you look at these marks sideways, they look like faces.
Smileys are fun to create, and can make e-mail
messages seem friendlier.
Try these:
:-) happy
:D very happy
:-{ sad
;) winking
8-] glasses
{:-{ worried
:O surprised
:-\ confused
- software
- Hardware is your computer itself: the
machine and its parts. Software is what you use with your machine
to make it fun and interesting. There are many different kinds
of software, some of which are for work, some for play, some for
kids, and others for adults. If you ever bought a computer game
on a disk and brought it home to play on your computer, you have
used software. The computer game you bought is software, and so
is the word processing program you might use to write school reports.
- TCP/IP
- The language that computers on the Internet use to talk to each
other. TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol, which is just a long way to say "the language of
the Internet."
- telnet
- How can you use a computer in California when you are in Boston?
Using telnet, your computer pretends that it is the computer in
California. You can look for information that might be kept in
the computer in California without ever leaving Boston. Telnet
doesn't work for all computers, but there are many library catalogs
you can search using telnet. For example, you could find out if
your favorite book is owned by a library on the other side of
the U.S.
- URL
- A URL (you say it like "earl" or say the letters U-R-L)
is a short way of saying "an address
on the World Wide Web." URL stands for
Uniform Resource Locator, but that's just another way of saying
Web address. URLs usually look something like this: http://www.computername.org.
- World Wide Web
- The World Wide Web (WWW) is part of the Internet. On the Web,
bits of information are linked together -- just like strands in
a real spider web -- to make things easier to find. You can go
anywhere on the Web just by clicking on a link,
which is a shortcut to information.
For more information about the Internet, try one of these:
My Rules for Online Safety
About the Internet
More Tips About Netiquette
Exploring the World Wide Web
HelpWeb: A Guide to Getting Started on the
Internet |
|
|
|
|
