Deffinitions of the important multimedia stuff :)

Server

A server is a type of computer program that provides services to other computer programs and their users. Almost the entire structure of the internet is based upon a client-server. There are millions of servers connected to the internet.

Browser

A web browser is a software application which enables the user to display the internet through images, text, music and other information. There are lots of different types of browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.

Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform which has become a popular method for creating and adding animation. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web pages. Flash can manipulate vector and raster graphics and contains a scripting language called ActionScript. However only 98% of internet users have the the plugins to use Flash; depending if you're a business then this may effect the users of your site having a bad experience - this may end in them not buying your product, so although you're website may look eyecatching a percentage of your visitors can't see your site.

ASP

ASP or Active Server Pages is a web application network that allows programmes to build websites, web applications and web services. The default scripting language used for writing ASP is VBScript although you can also use Java Script. ASP pages have the extension .asp instead of .htm, when a page with the extension .asp is requested by the browser the web server knows to interpret any ASP contained within the web page before sending the HTML produced to the viewer.

PHP

PHP is a scripting language for making dynamic web pages. PHP is a widely used scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It can be embedded on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free od charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.

CGI

CGI or also known as the common gateway interface is a standard external gateway program to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers. A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return data. The prgram could be written in any programming language such as Jave Script etc. CGI programs are the most common way for a web servers to interact with users.

URL

URL or Uniform Resource Locator is the global address of documents and othe resouces on the world wide web. The first part of the address is called a protocol identifier and it indicates what protocol to use, and the second is called the resource and it specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located.

W3C

The world wide web consortium or W3C is the main international standards organization for the world wide web. As of February 2008 the W3C had 434 members. The W3C also develops software and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web.

CSS

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a way of controlling the presentation in a web document. The main advantage of CSS over presentational HTML is that the styling can be kept entirely seperate from the content. Also it's possible; for example to store all the presentaional styles for a 10,000 page website in a single CSS file.

DHTML

DHTML or dynamic hyper text markup language is a new way of looking at and controlling the standard of HTML codes and commands. DHTML is used to create interactive and animated websites bu using a combination of a static markup language such as HTML and a client-side scripting language such as Jave Script, a presentation definition language such as CSS and the document object model.

Shockwave

Shockwave enables web pages to include multimedia objects. Adobe Shockwave was the first most successful multimedia player before Flash became popular. But Shockwave can only be viewed if the web browser has the shockwave plug-in installed.

Plug-in

A plug-in consists of a computer program that interacts with a host of applications to provide a certain function. These are a few examples of plug-ins: Rockbox; which is a digital audio player to play games and use a text editor and Adobe Photoshop to edit images.