Brian's On-Line Computer Terms

Hacking

The art of penetrating a computer's security for reasons of curiosity and not to make mischief or damage the system in any way, shape or form. That is true hacker ethic.

Cracking

Another lower form of breaking into a computer, usually by guessing of sysadmin or root passwords, with the intention of destroying, damaging, or changing the system for personal gain, revenge, or a thrill. Crackers are looked down upon by real hackers and they are the ones seen on the news for causing billions of dollars in damages.

Phreaking

The act of hacking phones. There are many forms of phreaking, be it stealing from the phone company or adding a neat light that flashes when your phone rings. Phreaking is essentially the art of exploiting bugs and glitches in the telco's system.

Warez

Distributing and copying commercial software that is protected by copyright. For example, putting a game like Doom on your homepage for other people to download illegally. Also known as pirated software.

Portal

This is an Internet site that's supposed to be so attractive, that users stick to it like flies in honey, or dinosaurs in tar. A portal is like the roach motel, users check in, but they don't check out. I can only hope that my Web-site becomes a portal for Webmasters and Web-Page designers someday.

Push Technology

Another reworked version of the word portal, (known as the push concept), is a system in which users passively wait for information to be sent to them.

Winzip

A popular program that "zips" (Compresses) a series of files before sending them over phone lines. Winzip or a similar program then "unzips" (decompresses) them on the other end, so they are again readable. Compressing files before you send them speeds up the time it takes to send them. Winzip is a shareware program that can be downloaded for free over the internet.