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off-line
reader
online
operating
system |
off-line
reader
Most people use the Web by logging on, jumping
from place to place, and then logging off. An off-line
reader lets you log on, log off, and then
read what you want. Most work like this: You go
online and find stuff you'd like to have your reader
check on for you. The next time you're ready to
look at those Web pages again, you'll send your
off-line reader to fetch them. Once it logs itself
off, you can read the pages without racking up those
phone bills -- and since the pages are now stored
on your hard drive instead of somewhere on the Net,
they load into the browser really fast. Neat, hmm?
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online
Being online means being connected to another
computer, presumably via phone line. When you
log onto your ISP for Internet access, you are
online. A computer that is active on a network
can also be said to be online. Another meaning
is the status of an Internet server: when online,
its network connection is live, and authorized
users can access its resources. A printer can
also be online; in this instance, it will accept
data from its host computer.
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operating
system
An operating system is what gives your computer
its personality and patterns of behavior. There
are several kinds of operating systems; yours
may be the Macintosh operating system, the DOS-based
Windows system (tech geeks will tell you that
Windows is actually an operating environment,
but you can ignore them), or one of the many types
("flavors") of Unix.
One of the toughest challenges computer programmers
face is making their programs understandable to
more than one operating system -- that is, making
them "cross-platform" programs. One
of the most important things about the Web is
that many people have worked hard to make browsers
for many platforms, which means that the Web pages
I create on the PC can be read by our Mac-using
friends and vice versa. Many tech-heads are hoping
that the Web will hasten the day when many kinds
of computer programs are "cross-platform."
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