There are a few tech terms everyone should know. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should help you sound truly cool at this weekend’s BBQ…
1. API
You may have heard of API’s with regard to having one programme or software application receive automatic updates from another – like your company’s website getting a live news or CRM feed.
API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a formal specification of how one software module should interact with another. For example, your IT department might set up an API that tells software A to return the content of webpage B so that it shows up in a window of Software A. This can be set to update at specified intervals (i.e. every 5 minutes, every day, once a week).
In other words, API’s offer a simple, standardised way to provide functionality to a programme, without requiring a lot of intricate coordination.
How to use at the BBQ this weekend: ‘The kids appear to be communicating through some sort of API. Why aren’t they talking out loud?’
2. DNS
Servers on a network locate and identify each other using their IP addresses, which are dot-separated numbers like 107.23.22.73. Our human brains don’t remember numbers as well as words however, so servers are given human-readable domain names like www.vtsl-is-the-best-voip-provider.net.
DNS stands for Domain Name Service and is a distributed global directory that converts human-readable domain names into machine-friendly IP addresses. When you type www.vtsl-is-the-best-voip-provider.net into your browser’s address bar, the browser contacts a DNS server to ask it to translate that name into an IP address, and then sends the original request to that IP address. So basically, a DNS is a domain to IP address translation.
How to use at the BBQ this weekend: ‘If only I had something like a DNS to convert the word my 8 month old was saying into English!’
3. Open Source
Most software is written by programmers in a high-level computer language like C++, Java or Python, and then converted into low-level machine instructions that computers understand. In conventional commercial software projects, the source code is proprietary and secret.
Open source projects however make their source code publicly available. This allows users to read the code in order to debug the software, to modify and improve it, and to re-use parts of the code for other things. It is a more hippie, less commercial way of development—but filled with benefits, primarily that other people improve your software, for free!
How to use at the BBQ this weekend: ‘This salad was developed from an open source recipe—the whole neighbourhood has added their wisdom to improve it.’
4. Voice over IP (VoIP)
VoIP means voice over internet protocol. This means your voice is packaged up and travels over the Internet rather than over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) during a phone call. The steps involved in originating VoIP telephone calls are similar to traditional digital telephony and involve signaling, channel setup, the digitalising of the analog voice signals, and encoding. Instead of being transmitted over a circuit-switched network however, the digital information is put into ‘packets’ and transmitted over a packet-switched network.
How to use at the BBQ this weekend: ‘You should really get a VoIP telephone system from VTSL because it is the future of the business telephone!’
To learn more about VoIP call VTSL today on 020 7078 3200, or email info@vtsl.net.
