Advertising, usually 400 x 40 pixels in size, though some are 468 x 60 pixels. They can appear anywhere on a web page or site. An effective marketing tool for attaining hits or click throughs to your site. (animated banners receive 20% more hits.)

A method for converting non ASCII text files into text.

From the words "Binary Digit". The smallest unit of computerized data. Each bit has a value of 0 or 1. The computer interprets it as on or off.

Rates at which packets of data are sent and received through the network. The two terms are used interchangeably but technically they are different; for ease of understanding, however, they will be treated the same. Baud rates vary from 2400 bps ("turtles move faster") to 56,000 bps (56K --- "a hare") to 1,500,000 bps (T1 -- "go speed racer"). Cable modems and dsl are two newcomers on this scene and there speeds are tremendous, however, chances are it will be several more years before they get to your neighborhood. The networks which form the backbone of the Internet often use T3 or OS lines, which are capable of transmitting 45,000,000 bps. Any ardent nethead should have at the very least a modem capable of 28,800 bps (referred to as a "twenty eight eight" or 28.8). There were 2 types of 56k modems, Flex and US Robotics X2 technology but thankfully the V.90 standard has been agreed upon so this confusing mess will clear up in a matter of time. Check with your service provider to find out which one they support. The higher the baud rate, the faster the connection.

A build of the site or software that is transferred to and stored on the client server and can be accessed by beta testers. Beta builds are usually pretty close to being complete in terms of content and programming but most contain bugs which can be reported by testers. This is the build before a site or software is final. Yes, even after all that testing, some bugs might rear their ugly heads!

Software that allows you to view the Web. We fully endorse Microsoft's Explorer 6.0 . We find that these two browsers handle Java and style sheets better and more reliably than Netscape. If you have to use Netscape use 4.07. They are both free.

Annoying little occurrences or errors in a site or software that are usually fixed before the site or software is released. On rare instances some are missed, so if you find one squash it by reporting it. The bugs are then sent to the Quality department which validates the bug and ends it's measly little existence!

Graphical or Text "hot spots" on the screen that take you to another area or download a file when the button is clicked. Most Buttons either change your mouse pointer, change color or have motion so you know you have hit a hot spot.

A basic unit of information storage on a computer. This is usually 8 bits (7 regular bits and one parity bit for error correction) and is represents a single character, either 1 or 0.