Definitions by LarsTaiT

ISSN 

Integrated Special Services Network

In a phone system (notably AT&T), controls special user features and customer control options. Not to be confused with ISSN, the serial number used by the Library of Congress used to register magazines.

ISSN by LarstaiT November 6, 2003

isp 

(Internet Service Provider)

The local networks most normal people have to dial itno to reach the Internet; ISPs, in turn, make deals with such Internet backbone owners as MCI in order to connect to the Internet.

I have a crap ISP

isp by Larstait November 6, 2003

ISDN 

Integrated Services Digital Network.

Technology to completely digitize the phone service that was abandoned after much work (it began in the early 1980s) in the early 1990s becayse it was too expensive. It is currently used for high-speed Internet access, slower than T1 but faster than a modem. It is widely used by phone networks in some areas.

I don't have ISDN access

ISDN by Larstait November 6, 2003

immerse 

To plunge, dip, dunk, sink

immerse by Larstait November 6, 2003

locked 

1 - When a computer system shuts down and stops operation, usualyl without the operator wanting it to happen.

2 - A protected program.

3 - A file that has been changed by the OS so that it cannot be changed or deleted; often very easy to unlock.

4 - A floppy disk which has been physically locked to prevent accidental alteration or to prevent stupid people from modifying the contents.

The system is locked.

locked by Larstait November 6, 2003

ASCII art 

Art done in plain text. This is fairly difficult. Portraits of people done in ASCII art usually only work if the person has some major distinguishing characteristics.

From American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the set of bits created in the 1980s to represent characters.

ASCII art by LarstaiT November 6, 2003

avatar

An icon which represents a user in a virtual reality/Internet setting, currently attempted with varying success. The term is adopted from Neal Stephenson; another word used for the same concept is Rudy Rucker's term "tuxedo."

First used from an Internet perspective in 1992 in SNOW CRASH, by Neal Stephenson, in one of those self-fulfilling SF prophecies. Stephenson got the name from the Hindu concept of avatars, which are the personification of various deities or entities.

avatar by LarstaiT November 6, 2003