About Me

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A multimedia producer, keenly interested in the evolution of the Internet.

Visual Production is my favourite pastime and a serious hobby, too. And I like to travel now and then, preferably with a camera.

I write at Pushmind Publishing featuring interesting items from around the world; and also manage a collection of quality advertisements at ColorCodes.

Monday, August 20, 2007

beware of -ware - I

Abandonware: It refers to computer software that is no longer current. While the term has been applied largely to older games, other classes of software are sometimes described as such.
Adware: Software which is free to download and use but includes pop-up banner ads somewhere.
Annoyware / Nagware: A type of shareware that frequently disrupts normal program operation to display requests for payment to the author in return for the ability to disable the request messages.
Beerware: It is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek term for software released under a very relaxed license. It provides the end user with the right to use a particular program (or do anything else with the source code) if they buy the author a beer, or, in some variations, drink a beer in the author's honor.
Bloatware: Software that provides minimal functionality while requiring a disproportionate amount of diskspace and memory.
Catware: A type of otherware which requests the user to pet one or several cats.
Charityware / Careware: A variety of shareware for which either the author suggests that some payment be made to a nominated charity or a levy directed to charity is included on top of the distribution charge.
Citeware: Citeware is a software license that restrict a common license (like for example GPL) by providing an end user with the right to use a particular program for any purposes as long as the user cites an Academic paper of the author of the software.
Crippleware: Software that has some important functionality deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a working version.
Crudware: Pejorative term for the hundreds of megabytes of low-quality freeware circulated by user's groups and BBS systems in the micro-hobbyist world.
Demoware / Trialware: It is commercial software released for free in a version which is limited in one or more ways.
Donateware: It is a form of software distribution. Distributed as freeware, donateware stipulates that the user must donate to a charitable cause in order to "register" the software.
Donationware: It is a licensing model that supplies fully operational software to the user and requests a donation be paid to the programmer.
E-mailware: A type of otherware which requests the user to send an e-mail to the author.
Firmware: It is a computer program that is embedded in a hardware device such as ROM.
Foistware: It is software package bundled with completely unrelated programs.
Freeware: Freely-redistributable software, often written by enthusiasts and distributed by users' groups, or via electronic mail, local bulletin boards, or other electronic media.
Fritterware: An excess of capability that serves no productive end. The term describes anything that eats huge amounts of time for quite marginal gains in function but seduces people into using it anyway.

A good glossary of computer terms is found here.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

defining a computer bug

The problem of bugs in machines has existed since the time of inventor Thomas Edison, who described finding one in his phonograph. The word surfaced in an 1896 manual to describe faults in electrical apparatus. Radio technicians called an early gadget that traces radio interference a bug because of its roach-shaped body.

In 1945, Harvard University operators removed a moth fouling the guts of a primitive computer called the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator. They taped it to that day’s log book with the entry: “First actual case of bug being found.”

Computer bugs naturally spawned the term computer virus, notable for spreading nasties from one infected machine to another faster than you can sneeze. Bugs aren’t the only ‘creatures’ in computer, though. “Worm” describes a virus that contaminates computer networks, and some anti-virus software boasts “bait” or “goat” files that flush out viruses. via