Match the terms in Table A with the statements in Table B.

Table A

a SMTP

b 'Push' operation

с POP

d 'Pull' operation

eIMAP_

Table В

i An email transfer process in which the connection is initiated by the sending computer rather than the receiving computer.

ii A mail transfer protocol that initially only retrieves the message headers.

iii An email transfer process in which the receiving computer initiates the connection.

iv A simple mail transfer protocol that is used to send messages between servers.

v A message-retrieval protocol that downloads all email messages at the same time.

Text 9

I. Read these hints on choosing an ISP. Then decide which of the options available offer the best deal to these users. Be prepared to defend your choice.

1 a student looking for a cheap package

2 a small business

3 someone who enjoys online gaming

4 someone who sends occasional emails

Choosing an ISP (Internet service Provider)

Using an ISP requires no new technology - all you need is a computer, a modem, a telephone line (preferably broadband), and the appropriate software (which is available free of charge when you sign up with the service).

Most of the services are very similar, but it is still worth looking around for a service that offers at least the following features:

High speed

Connection can be provided by standard dial-up using an ordinary modem or by using a broadband connection. Standard dial-up is the slowest at 56 Kbps. Broadband such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) provides different speeds for uploading (sending data) and downloading (receiving data) ranging from 256 Kbps to 2 Mbps.

High Usage Allowance

The amount of data that you are allowed to upload or download in a given time period may be limited. Sending email, browsing the Web or downloading images does not require high usage allowances, downloading MP3 music files requires more. Online gaming and viewing video online will require a high usage allowance. Usage allowance is normally quoted as GB per month.

Good Value Packages

Various packages are available offering different options that can be paid monthly, annually, bi-annually etc. With these packages, after paying the initial fee, Internet access is usually unmetered. You can also opt for pay-as-you-go packages. Look for a package where the initial rate is reduced. You have to compare ISP offers carefully to find a package that provides what you want at the cheapest cost.

CD-ROM or Online sign up

Some ISPs require you to sign up for their service online (which obviously means you already need to have an Internet connection and some experience with setting up a dial-up networking connection). If you are a complete beginner, you'll need an ISP which can provide its sign-up software on CD-ROM that will automatically configure your computer to access the Internet.

Local rate calls

Nearly all ISPs provide local call access numbers. Any ISP that uses a national rate number or charges an initial set up or administration fee should be avoided.

Having several email accounts is very useful - you can separate business and personal email for example, or provide an address for each member of your family. Many ISPs also offer only Web-based mail which is great if you need to gel into your computer on the move as you can access it from any computer with Internet access. POP3 email, however, is faster and more efficient and can be downloaded to your PC to read offline - a combination of the two is ideal.

Junk mail filtering and virus checking Spam (unsolicited email) is very common. It fills up your storage space and is time consuming to deal with. It is also one of the main sources of viruses that attack your computer. Look for an ISP that provides good filtering services to remove junk mail and viruses before they reach your computer.

Free Web space

A decent amount of free Web space would be around 25-50Mb. This would be sufficient for most of your own personal website developments. Also check to see if there are any restrictions on your use of web space, since some ISPs will not let you use the space for commercial purposes.

Customer Support

The accessibility and quality of customer support provided by ISPs varies greatly and some ISPs make an additional charge for support.

Reliable Service

Of course all the features in the world won't make a scrap of difference if the ISP is unreliable and you find it impossible to log on. Look out for recommendations from friends and shop around.

Text 10

I. Find the answers to these questions in the text.

1. What languages were derived from SGML?

2. What type of language is used to structure and format elements of a document?

3. Name two metalanguages.

4. What elements of data is XML (but not HTML) concerned with?

5. What is meant by the term ‘extensible’?

6. What makes XML a more intelligent language than HTML?

7. What does the HTML markup tag <p> indicate?

8. Why are search engines able to do a better job with XML documents?

9. What type of website is particularly likely to benefit from XML?

XML Takes on HTML

Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is the language that spawned both HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and X M L {extensible Markup Language). SGML is not a true language, it is a metalanguage, which is a language from which you can create other languages. In this case, it is the creation of a markup language (a system of encoded instructions for structuring and formatting electronic document elements). HTML is an application-specific derivation of SGML. It is a set of codes, generally used for webpages, that creates electronic documents according to rules established by SGML. IITML is a language that is all about the presentation of your information, not what the actual data is. You can. therefore, say that HTML is a presentation language.

XML is a subset of SGML, but it is also, like SGML, a metalanguage. XML defines a specific method for creating text formats for data so that files are program independent, platform independent, and support internationalisation {able to read different languages, etc.). In fact, because X M L is an extensible language, you don't even have to have a browser to interpret the page. Applications can parse the XML document and read the information without any human intervention.

X M L, unlike HTML, is concerned with the identity, meaning and structure of data. XML is extensible because it lets website developers create their own set of customised tags for documents. This ability to define your own tags is the main feature of XML, and it is what gives developers more flexibility.

By defining your own markup tags, you can explicitly define the content in the document. This makes XML a more intelligent markup language than HTML. For example, in HTML, you could have a paragraph tag <p> preceding a paragraph about baseball. Your Web browser sees this tag and knows to present the following text as a paragraph. All your browser knows about the text, however, is that it is text; it doesn't know that it is specifically about baseball. In an XML document, you could define a <BASEBALL> tag to refer specifically to the text in the paragraph in your document. This way, when your XML browser examines the document, the document knows what data it contains, and that makes the content more intelligent. Search engines that make use of XML data can do a better job of finding the pages you are looking for because of the intelligent nature of XML content.

XML. by design, does not deal with how the data is displayed to the end user. Because HTML is a

presentation language, XML documents use HTML tags to help handle the visual formatting of the document. Also, you can use X M L in your H T M L documents to provide metadata, which is data about data in the document.

XML will do to the Web and e-commerce what HTML originally did to the Internet. XML and its associated applications have the potential to blow the roof off the Internet and how we do business.

II. Re-read the text to find the answers to these questions.

1 Mark the following statements as True or False:

aHTML is no longer useful for creating webpages.

b S G M L is more complex than X M L .

c XML files can only be used on Unix systems,

d XML files can only be read by browser programs,

eHTML is a markup language.

f Internet searches will be better with XML files.

2. Match the terms in Table A with the statements in Table B.

Table A

a Metadata

b Metalanguage