Web Programming Step by Step
Discussion Section 1: The Internet / WWW

This section is about the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Most sections will have exercise problems to work on, but since we have just begun our course, this one is more casual and conversational in nature.

Internet Ballparking:

1. What do you think are the top 10 most visited sites on the web today? How would you find out what they actually are?
2. What is one of your favorite web sites not listed among those top 10, and why? Do you have a favorite web "meme"?
3. What is one of the WORST sites on the web, and why? (Difficulty: no MySpace)
4. What is one major change that you think will happen to the web within the next 5-10 years?
5. Visit a popular web site, then View its Source in the browser. What does it look like? Are you surprised by the look of the HTML code you see?

Terminology / Jargon:

How many of the following internet/web terms do you know? Pick a term and explain what it is.

1. bandwidth, latency, throughput, broadband
2. blog
3. bookmark
4. browser plug-in
5. cache
6. cookie
7. domain name
8. firewall
9. flame war
10. Foxkeh
11. frag
12. frame
13. gopher
14. guild
15. ISP
16. Linux
17. mashup
18. mirror
19. open source
20. ping
21. podcast
22. portal
23. proxy
24. RFC
25. rick roll
26. RSS feed
27. script
28. spawn camper
29. spyware
30. tag cloud
31. tweet
32. VoIP
33. web crawler (or web spider)
34. wiki

Some dictionaries of web slang:

• http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html
• http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Glossary.html
• http://www.netlingo.com/dictionary/