PawPrint.net Glossary of Terms

A simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.

The Set of rules to provide system management tools to monitor activity and create messages/alerts as required. Network devices that employ SNMP are frequently referred to as "Managed" devices.

An extensible file format for the lossless, portable, well-compressed storage of raster images. PNG provides a patent-free replacement for GIF and can also replace many common uses of TIFF. Indexed-color, grayscale, and truecolor images are supported, plus an optional alpha channel for transparency. Sample depths range from 1 to 16 bits per component (up to 48bit images for RGB, or 64bit for RGBA).

An address referring to a document on the Internet. This can be used to reference a web page via HTTP or a file to be accessed via FTP, for example. The reason for a URL (rather then just the address) is to define completely what a computer must do, and where it must go, to access a document (sometimes even on it's local hard drive in the case of 'file:')

The syntax of a URL consists of four elements:

Protocol://address/path/document - here are a few examples:

http://w...

A compressed graphic format suited for flat color images (illustrations) and drawings. It compresses images by referencing areas of the same colour thus it is less suitable then JPEG for photographic images (where there are colour gradients)

Originally created by CompuServ it was the subject of proposed law suits and patent discussions which have largely been dropped.

The Rank nominated by Google with their PageRank system. Google assigns a "popularity" rating to each page in their index on a scale of 1-10 so what they consider to be a good page might start around the 4-6 ranking mark an excellent page might be 7-10.

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast Link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a Link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for ...