The main network connections on the Internet.

An electronic message center. You can dial into a BBS, view messages left by others and leave your own messages and replies. Standalone bulletin board systems have been largely supplanted by Web-based boards.

BINary HEXadecimal: A method of converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII. This is needed because Internet email can only handle ASCII.

Binary digIT
A bit is the smallest unit of measure for computer data. Bits are represented by binary digits, and can be either on (1) or off (0). Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second (bps).

started out as a joke in the software industry: there was "Leading Edge" technology, and then "Bleeding Edge." This was the stuff that was so new, so sharp, it might cut you when you tried to use it. In the past few years or so it's come to stand for the very newest of the new tools: things that no one's quite sure are going to make it to mainstream.

A Windows 95/98 or Windows NT error that turns your computer screen blue while displaying an error message. It's sometimes called "blue screen of death" because it can cause an operating system to "freeze" or "lock up," requiring a reboot (restart) and deleting all unsaved data.