Internet Terms-E

e-book a book available for downloading to a computer via the Internet. Stephen King recently made Riding The Bullet, a short horror novel, available free on amazon.com. In some cases, special software such as Adobe Acrobat is required to accommodate the material. The possibilities with e-books are enormous as information requiring periodic updating (such as college textbooks) could be easily published online and downloaded by students as needed.

e-commerce short for electronic commerce. A business that offers goods and services, as well as having the ability to accept payment for them, online. Many conventional brick and mortar companies are presently scrambling to establish an online presence and capitalize on the hoopla associated with being an ebusiness.

e-mail see email.

Easter egg a hidden surprise buried in a program or within a Website. In some instances, after executing a tricky series of commands, the user might find a funny message or the names of the programming team. On a Website an Easter egg might be an unusual game or a free offer of some sort.

Ecash a proprietary online system of payment offered by the Mark Twain Bank where a user first deposits money with the bank and then, using software provided by Mark Twain, may make purchases online, debiting the account accordingly.

ECP (Extended Capabilities Port) a kind of parallel port for PCs that allows for rapid bi-directional communications with devices such as a printer.

ecruiting the use of Internet resources by corporate headhunters to locate, evaluate, and hire individuals.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) the exchange of information between two or more companies with mutual interests over a network.

edit to make changes in a file using one or more of the edit features available in an application.

editor a program similar to a word processing application that allows a user to create or modify text files.

effector key a key, such as the Shift key, that when pressed, changes the function of another key.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) a non-profit, non-partisan, San Francisco based organization founded in 1980 working in the public interest to protect privacy and freedom of expression in the area of computers and the Internet.

electronic mall a virtual shopping mall where the user may browse and shop online.Many Internet business opportunities offered by various promoters allow entrepreneurs the chance to purchase a storefront, which is the entrepreneur's exclusive entry to an electronic mall. Under this plan, many individual storefront owners have an entry to the same mall. Using this business model, it is the storefront owner's responsibility to promote the site and drive shoppers to the mall. For online shoppers, using a mall may offer the ultimate in shop-athome convenience, however, as with any other shopping experience, evaluating a wide range of goods, services, and prices is wise.

electronic publishing providing a wide range of information in electronic form delivered via Website, email, or one of the many public forums such as bulletin boards and chat rooms.

elevator bar an onscreen scroll bar located on either side of a window frame or on the bottom of the frame that allows a user to view the part of the document too large to display otherwise. The bar is activated by placing the mouse cursor on it and clicking. This moves the page either up and down or from side to side.The same function may be accomplished by using the arrow keys on the keyboard.


eMachines a popular home computer retailer that sells high-quality, low-priced personal computers, to develop ongoing Internet-based consumer relationships.

email (e-mail) short for electronic mail. The transmission of messages both personal and commercial using a special program over a network. Email is an easy, convenient, and virtually free (at present) way to communicate using a computer within a business environment, across town, or around the world.Messages may be read immediately upon receipt, saved, or printed. The term email can be used either as a noun as in, "I received an email from the president today," or as a verb, "I'll email her tonight and set up a time for our meeting." There is some discussion as to the proper spelling of the word, but email, without the dash, seems to be emerging as the more common choice.

Email, along with other online communication forums has prompted the development of many clever abbreviations and acronyms.

email address distinguished from a domain name by the at sign @, a name that identifies an electronic mail recipient such as travelinguy@hotmail.com (one of the author's email addresses).

embedded command a pre-programmed sequence of characters within a document that causes the document to display and consequently print out in a particular way.

embedded font a type style that is included within a file to ensure that the printer has the proper resources available when the time comes to reproduce the document.

embedded object an object included in a file that was created using a different software application, yet still has a link to the authoring software.

embedded system a microprocessor that functions independently of a computer.Automobiles, telephone equipment, satellites and a number of everyday appliances contain embedded systems that perform important functions for the device.For example, an automobile's imbedded microchip might be responsible for letting the owner know when routine maintenance is due.

emoticon (icon representing emotion) sometimes called smileys, a series of keyboard punctuation characters that create smiling faces, sad faces, winking faces, etc. Emoticons are used in email and on bulletin and chat boards to express particular emotions. These are a few: :-) :-( ;-) :-O see Emoticons: Put A Smile in That File! on page 228.

emulation the resources of a program or a device to imitate another program or device. Often, lesser-known printers are designed to emulate some of the more common printers so they can share drivers.

 encryption one of many methods of securing data by encoding information so that it is only able to be read by the individuals or computers it was intended for.Usually a keyword or passcode is necessary to access the data.

End key a keyboard key that has different functions depending on the program running. For example, in some word processing programs pressing the Ctrl- End keys provides a shortcut to the end of the document. see Special Key Functions, page 281.

end user the individual or company intended as the ultimate user of a computer or software product.

Energy Star guidelines proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1990s designed to reduce the amount of energy used by Personal Computers.

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) developed at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1940s by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert, ENIAC was the first digital, general-purpose, electronic computer. It occupied 1,800 square feet, weighed 30 tons, housed 18,000 vacuum tubes, and performed simple calculations.

Enter Key the keyboard key that moves the cursor to the next line. It also initiates a function or command. For example, when a program displays a prompt such as Save, pressing the Enter key confirms the command. Pointing the mouse cursor to the Save button and left clicking would accomplish the same function. see Return key, and Special Key Functions,.

environment the condition of a computer or computer system as determined by several factors including the hardware and operating software it is running.For example, Windows compatible applications run in the Windows environment.

ergonomics the science of developing equipment and working environments that are safe, comfortable and efficient for humans. Ergonomics evaluates the design of machines and workspaces with the goal of reducing muscle and eyestrain.

Ergonomic concerns also address proper posture and seating to reduce neck and back strain, mouse and keyboard position to minimize the occurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome, as well as monitor placement, and lighting.

Escape key a keyboard key usually labeled Esc. In the Windows environment, pressing the Escape key sometimes ends the present function and returns the user to the previous function. The term sometimes is used here because at other times, pressing Esc does absolutely nothing. This usually means more dramatic measures must be taken to end the function. see Special Key Function

etailing (electronic retailing) using the Internet to sell goods and services. see ecommerce.

Ethernet a local area network (LAN) first developed by Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe and D.R. Boggs while working for Xerox in the 1970s. Transmission of data takes place by radio signals broadcast over one of several types of coaxial cable.see LAN, LAWN Eudora one of the leading email software programs distributed by Qualcomm Enterprises. The Eudora email application is available for both Windows and Macintosh.

Excel a widely used spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft in the 1980s.

Excite a popular Internet search engine that indexes more than 50 million Web pages. Excite also reviews selected Websites and rates them using a 5 star system.

EXE file the .EXE suffix tells the computer to open or execute a particular file.

execute to carry out a command.

exit to quit the present application. Most applications programs prompt the user to save work before exiting.

expansion board a printed circuit, sometimes called a card, that can be plugged into a computer giving it enhanced capabilities such as audio and video. see SCSI.

Explore a component of the Windows 95, 98, and 2000 operating system that allows the user to view the system's directory. Explore is the equivalent of the File Manager in earlier versions of Windows. To activate Explore, right click on the Start button, choose Explore and left click the mouse.

Explorer (Microsoft Internet Explorer) an important component of Windows 95, 98, and 2000. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is among the world's leading Web Explorer browsers supporting a wide variety of graphics including Gif, Jpg and Tiff. It also allows the user to bookmark favorite Websites and includes an email program called Outlook Express. Free upgrades for registered users of Internet Explorer are available for downloading on the Microsoft Website.

export to save a file in a manner that allows it to be opened in another application.In many Windows programs selecting the "Save as" option under the File drop down menu offers many choices for saving work in other applications.For example, documents created in Microsoft Word can be formatted for use in Word Perfect and Macintosh.

extension the suffix or the characters following the period in a filename such as mountain.jpg. This file might be a photograph (or other graphical representation) of a mountain in the form of a bitmap. The name "mountain" indicates that the file contains the image, and jpg indicates the type of file, which in this case is a bitmap. The software application a computer is currently running must be configured to execute particular file formats or they will be rejected.


external viewer a program associated with a Web browser that allows the user to look at an image or graphic presented in a particular format. Adobe Acrobat is an external viewer.

extranet the linking of two or more intranets via the Internet primarily for the purpose of sharing mutually beneficial commercial information.

ezine (e-zine) often pronounced zine, an electronic magazine published on a Web page or distributed through email. Ezines cover many topics from computers and electronics to investing, sex and beyond.