Glossary

Internet, computer and design terms

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B

Term	Definition
Bandwidth	How much information you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page English text is about 16,000 bits
Banner Ad	An advertisement on a webpage which usually links to another page or external website. Banner ads' are the most common form of advertising on the web.
Binary	Information consisting entirely of ones (1) and zeros (0). Also used to refer to files that are not simply text files, eg; images.
BIT	(Binary DigIT) A single digit number in base-2, in other words either a 1 or zero. The smallest unit of computerised data. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second.
Bitmap (BMP)	A file format whereby a value is assigned to every pixel on the screen, as opposed to Vector mapping where only the differences are stored. Bitmaps, also called Raster images, are very large files. Some audio formats also use bitmapping.
Blog	Blog, a contraction of ‘web’ and ‘log’, describes a website consisting of date-related entries (or posts). Blogs are typically of a personal nature, although their use by companies as a marketing tool is increasing.
BPS	Bits Per Second A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 56K modem can move about 57,000 bits per second.
Broadband	Short for: Broad Bandwidth A high -speed, high-capacity data transmission channel that sends and receives information on coaxial or fibre optic cable (which has a wider bandwidth than conventional telephone lines), giving it the ability to carry video, voice, and data simultaneously. As the definition suggests, broadband is primarily used to send different types of signals simultaneously, using the same FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) technique used for cable TV. In theory, broadband makes possible a whole new set of Internet applications, such as streaming video, due to speeds up to 20 times as fast as conventional modems. It is measured in kilobits, megabits, or gigabits per second
Browser	A client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources. Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape are good examples of Browsers. To look at this website your computer is using Browser software.
Byte	A set of Bits that represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte, sometimes more, depending on how the measurement is being made.

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