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Glossary A
 ActiveX is the name Microsoft has given to a set of "strategic" object-oriented programming technologies and tools. The main technology is the Component Object Model (COM). Used in a network with a directory and additional support, COM becomes the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). The main thing that you create when writing a program to run in the ActiveX environment is a component, a self-sufficient program that can be run anywhere in your ActiveX network (currently a network consisting of Windows and Macintosh systems). This component is known as an ActiveX control. ActiveX is Microsoft's answer to the Java technology from Sun Microsystems. An ActiveX control is roughly equivalent to a Java applet.
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 ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) is an application program interface from Microsoft that lets a programmer writing Windows applications get access to a relational or non-relational database from both Microsoft and other database providers. For example, if you wanted to write a program that would provide users of your Web site with data from an IBM DB2 database or an Oracle database, you could include ADO program statements in an HTML file that you then identified as an Active Server Page. Then, when a user requested the page from the Web site, the page sent back would include appropriate data from a database, obtained using ADO code.
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 An algorithm (pronounced AL-go-rith-um) is a procedure or formula for solving a problem. The word derives from the name of the mathematician, Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi, who was part of the royal court in Baghdad and who lived from about 780 to 850. Al-Khwarizmi's work is the likely source for the word algebra as well.
A computer program can be viewed as an elaborate algorithm. In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm usually means a small procedure that solves a recurrent problem.
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 In sound and image generation, aliasing is the generation of a false (alias) frequency along with the correct one when doing frequency sampling. For images, this produces a jagged edge, or stair-step effect. For sound, it produces a buzz.
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 Antialiasing is the smoothing of the image or sound roughness caused by aliasing. With images, approaches include adjusting pixel positions or setting pixel intensities so that there is a more gradual transition between the color of a line and the background color. With sound, aliases are removed by eliminating frequencies above half the sampling frequencies.
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 Apache is a freely available Web server that is distributed under an "open source" license. Version 2.0 runs on most Unix-based operating systems (such as Linux, Solaris, Digital UNIX, and AIX), on other UNIX/POSIX-derived systems (such as Rhapsody, BeOS, and BS2000/OSD), on AmigaOS, and on Windows 2000. According to the Netcraft (www.netcraft.com) Web server survey in February, 2001, 60% of all Web sites on the Internet are using Apache (62% including Apache derivatives), making Apache more widely used than all other Web servers combined.
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 An application program interface (API - and sometimes spelled application programming interface) is the specific method prescribed by a computer operating system or by an application program by which a programmer writing an application program can make requests of the operating system or another application.
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 Apple Computer, Inc. is a prominent hardware and software company best known for its Macintosh series of personal computers. Introduced in 1984, the Macintosh was the first widely sold personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). That feature and others -- such as an improved floppy drive design and a low-cost hard drive that made data retrieval faster and more reliable -- helped Apple cultivate a reputation for innovation, which the company still enjoys today. The Apple headquarters are located in Cupertino, CA, at 1-5 Infinite Loop. Apple borrowed the name for the circular road around their office buildings from programming, where an infinite loop is the term for a code sequence lacking a functional exit.
Apple was founded by Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak. Jobs and Wozniak had been friends in high school and in 1975 were members of The Homebrew Computer Club, a now-legendary group where electronics enthusiasts met to discuss the Altair 8800 (the only personal computer available at the time) and other technical topics. Wozniak designed his own microcomputer and offered his plans to Hewlett-Packard, where he was working as an engineering intern. After HP turned him down, Wozniak joined forces with Jobs to manufacture personal computers in Job's garage. That endeavor started out as a shoestring operation, but quickly became successful. The pair introduced a relatively modern-looking computer in a plastic case in 1977 and incorporated as Apple Computer that same year. By 1980 the company had grown to include over 1000 employees.
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 An applet is a little application. Prior to the World Wide Web, the built-in writing and drawing programs that came with Windows were sometimes called "applets." On the Web, using Java, the object-oriented programming language, an applet is a small program that can be sent along with a Web page to a user. Java applets can perform interactive animations, immediate calculations, or other simple tasks without having to send a user request back to the server.
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 The term application is a shorter form of application program. An application program is a program designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application program. Examples of applications include word processors, database programs, Web browsers, development tools, drawing, paint, image editing programs, and communication programs. Applications use the services of the computer's operating system and other supporting applications. The formal requests and means of communicating with other programs that an application program uses is called the application program interface (API).
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 An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a Microsoft Web server before the page is sent to the user. An ASP is somewhat similar to a server-side include or a common gateway interface (CGI) application in that all involve programs that run on the server, usually tailoring a page for the user. Typically, the script in the Web page at the server uses input received as the result of the user's request for the page to access data from a database and then builds or customizes the page on the fly before sending it to the requestor.
ASP is a feature of the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), but, since the server-side script is just building a regular HTML page, it can be delivered to almost any browser. You can create an ASP file by including a script written in VBScript or JScript in an HTML file or by using ActiveX Data Objects (ADOs) program statements in the HTML file. You name the HTML file with the ".asp" file suffix. Microsoft recommends the use of the server-side ASP rather than a client-side script, where there is actually a choice, because the server-side script will result in an easily displayable HTML page. Client-side scripts (for example, with JavaScript) may not work as intended on older browsers.
For Web service applications, Microsoft provides a new version of ASP support called ASP.NET.
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 ASP.NET (originally called ASP+) is the next generation of Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP), a feature of their Internet Information Server (IIS). Both ASP and ASP.NET allow a Web site builder to dynamically build Web pages on the fly by inserting queries to a relational database in the Web page. ASP.NET is different than its predecessor in two major ways: it supports code written in compiled languages such as Visual Basic, C++, C#, and Perl, and it features server controls that can separate the code from the content, allowing WYSIWYG editing of pages. Although ASP.NET is not backwards compatible with ASP, it is able to run side by side with ASP applications. ASP.NET files can be recognized by their .aspx extension.
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 Authentication is the process of determining whether someone or something is, in fact, who or what it is declared to be. In private and public computer networks (including the Internet), authentication is commonly done through the use of logon passwords. Knowledge of the password is assumed to guarantee that the user is authentic. Each user registers initially (or is registered by someone else), using an assigned or self-declared password. On each subsequent use, the user must know and use the previously declared password. The weakness in this system for transactions that are significant (such as the exchange of money) is that passwords can often be stolen, accidentally revealed, or forgotten.
 For this reason, Internet business and many other transactions require a more stringent authentication process. The use of digital certificates issued and verified by a Certificate Authority (CA) as part of a public key infrastructure is considered likely to become the standard way to perform authentication on the Internet.
Logically, authentication precedes authorization (although they may often seem to be combined).
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