Web Words

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3-D

3-D is the illusion of a 3-dimensional space on a 2-dimensional surface. Essentially, this is the basis of virtual reality. Much of Avalon City's graphics are three-dimensional images.

E-mail

The main form of communication and the primary use of the Internet is e-mail. Electronic mail, or e-mail, is a simple tool for exchanging brief text messages between individuals or among a larger audience. List Servers and digests are special forums that address larger audiences, typically a specific group with common interests. For more information take a look at the Information Page on E-mail.

Eudora

E-mail software that is commonly used for the Macintosh.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

FTP is the protocol or way computers talk to each other that allows the user to copy a file from one computer to another. It is a widely used Internet tool.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

An ISP is the company who gives you your Internet access. Whether you go through America On Line (AOL), CompuServe, Prodigy, Delphi, Netcom, or a local service provider, you have to have an ISP in order to get Internet access.

Netscape

Netscape Communications Corp. is the hottest company on the Web. You are most likely using a Netscape Web browser to view this page. Netscape also sells products for Web servers, the computers that "serve" these pages for you. For more information, visit Netscape.

Search Engines

Search Engines are like automated Yellow Pages or directories. Yahoo! is the most popular. One can link to many other engines from Yahoo! and find one that suits your taste. Search engines make the Web navigable.

VRML

Virtual reality modelinglanguage is the standard for creating actual 3-D spaces on the Web. It is the up-and-coming medium for Web authoring and browsing, as soon as all the bugs are worked out.

Web Pages

Web pages are the individual pages that are loaded into the browser. This is one page. As you click on the links, the browser will load up the next page. Web pages are saved as ASCII text and have the extension .html or .htm.

Web Server

The Web server is the computer on the Web that holds the Web pages and images on its hard drive. Your browser will request the file and the server will send it. You browser then displays the page.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is part of the Internet. The World Wide Web is actually a protocol that the server sends the browser. The Web, as it is sometimes called, is capable of displaying video, images, formatted text, and layout. Upcoming projects are allowing browsers to run virtual reality and small applications. Other names for the Web are W3, WWW, and mistakenly, the Internet.

Avalon City Terminology

Agent

Small digital creatures that live between the bits of data. They are the keepers of the directories and databases. They are mischievous and prone to practical jokes. Some still cling to the traditional 2-bit names, although they have been upgraded to 64-bit and are now capable of organic life-form names.

Digital Realty

Commercial and noncommercial virtual real estate. Avalon City Digital Realty is the company that offers the real estate here at Avalon City. For more information check out Avalon City Digital Realty.

Link

A link is any word or image that connects the page you are currently viewing to another page, program, or image. Generally, links are highlighted or underlined and your mouse pointer will change to a hand icon when you are over them.

Level

The Avalon City levels are descriptions of how many links away a page is from the Avalon City home page. Each level has its own offerings of digital real estate.

Models

Models are 3-D rendering objects. When an artist creates a 3-D object or image on a computer, they build geometrically defined models which the computer records as a 3-D object. These objects can be viewed from all sides. 3-D images are created by taking "pictures" from virtual camera angles in the rendered space.

Renderings

Renderings are 3-D objects and spaces that the computer creates using sets of geometric rules to define the space and all the objects in it. You can move around this "space" using your computer screen as your "eyes" and take pictures from your point of view.

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