Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Web Vocabulary #10
"New Search Tool Aims at Answering Tough Queries, but Not at Taking on Google"
The article introduces a new online search service on a market – WolframAlpha. The biggest question is whether it can beat Google or not. A creator of WolframAlpha, Stephen Wolfram says that “Despite the online chatter comparing it to Google, his service is not intended to dethrone the king of search engines.” There is a big difference between those two. Mainly, WolframAlpha does not search through Web pages, “instead it computes the answers to queries using enormous collection of data the company has amassed.” Whereas Google find information that already exists online. “When a user types in a query, WolframAlpha tries to determine the relevant area of knowledge and find the answers often performing calculations on its data.” However, “in its current state there are many queries that WolframAlpha can not answer, either because it does not understand the question or because it does not have the requisite data.” WolframAlpha is based on program Mathematica, which Mr. Wolfram had created.
I think that this new search engine has a potential where it comes to finding specific information from a specific field that has been already gathered. It would really save us a lot of time if we could find the exact answers to our questions Well, we will have the opportunity to test it next week and we’ll see how effective it is.
WolframAlpha is launching next week at www.wolframalpha.com
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Web Vocabulary #9
Network File System (NFS) – a network file system protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1984, allowing a user on a client computer to access files over a network as easily as if the network devices were attached to its local disks. NFS, like many other protocols, builds on the Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call (ONC RPC) system. The Network File System is an open standard defined in RFCs, allowing anyone to implement the protocol. Click here for source
POP – short for point of presence, an access point to the Internet. ISPs have typically multiple POPs. A point of presence is a physical location, either part of the facilities of a telecommunications provider that the ISP rents or a separate location from the telecommunications provider, that houses servers, routers, ATM switches and digital/analog call aggregators. Click here for source
Socket – in UNIX and some other operating systems, a software object that connects an application to a network protocol. In UNIX, for example, a program can send and receive TCP/IP messages by opening a socket and reading and writing data to and from the socket. This simplifies program development because the programmer need only worry about manipulating the socket and can rely on the operating system to actually transport messages across the network correctly. Note that a socket in this sense is completely soft - it's a software object, not a physical component. Click here for source
Real Time Web – a phrase used by some people to distinguish sites which publish content on a frequent basis from those web sites that publish less frequently. News web sites and active blogs are usually classed as part of the real time web where as a regular company web site is not.
What separates and helps define the real time web from the ordinary web is the speed at which their content is indexed by search engines such as Google.
Sites which are classed as part of the real time web are indexed very frequently (e.g. hourly) where as other sites may only be indexed every two weeks. Click here for source
Slip - short for Serial Line Internet Protocol, a protocol for connection to the Internet via a dial-up connection. Developed in the 80s when modem communications typically were limited to 2400 bps, it was designed for simple communication over serial lines. SLIP can be used on RS-232 serial ports and supports asynchronous links.
A more common protocol is PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) because it is faster and more reliable and supports functions that SLIP does not, such as error detection, dynamic assignment of IP addresses and data compression.
In general, Internet service providers offer only one protocol although some support both protocols. Click here for source
"Losing Popularity Contest, MySpace Tries a Makeover"
The article is about the “fight” between two big social portals – MySpace and Facebook. It says that Facebook popularity is growing while the number of MySpace users is decreasing. The author of the article also notices that MySpace “draws disproportionate numbers of teenagers, twentysomethings and people whose household income is less than $25,000 a year.” For this reason higher-end advertisers are more attracted by the other social sites like Facebook where “audience tends to be more affluent.” This is true that MySpace has been criticized for its clunky and sometimes raunchy appearance. However, important is to distinguish one site from the other by its purposes. David Bank, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets says that “MySpace is where you go to express yourself, while Facebook has been a place where you go for two-directional conversation.”