PawPrint.net Glossary of Terms

A protocol developed to enable the transfer of files across a network. It provides a reletively insecure username and password  security but has been more recently enhanced to allow for SSL encryption to provide a secure password exchange.

To some extent the use of FTP has been superceeded by SFTP (a component of SSH) or the secure file transfer protocol.

RAM is a type of computer storage whose contents can be accessed in any order. This is in contrast to sequential memory devices such as magnetic tapes, discs and drums, in which the mechanical movement of the storage medium forces the computer to access data in a fixed order. It is usually implied that RAM can be both written to and read from, in contrast to read-only memory or ROM.

Computers use RAM to hold the program code and data during execution. In the first electronic computers, RAM wa...

A measure of image resolution - typical screen resolution is 72 dip whereas printing presse print at 300dpi.

When measuring the resolution of an image you need to know both the physical size and the resolution (in DPI) to acertain the actual amount of data. For example:

An image that is 10 inches wide...

at 72dpi would be 720 pixels wide
at 300dpi would be 3000 pixels wide (roughly 3.5 times the resolution)

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://www.pawprint.net/in...

A lens of variable focal length. For example, in an 50-500mm Zoom Lens, the focal length can be vaired between the lower limit of 50mm and the upper of 500mm. This affects the scale of the image on which the lens is focused without throwing the image out of focus.

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 page B...