Three Tips A Day

What is a Podcast?

A podcast is a collection or series of audio and video files which can be distributed over the internet through feeds and downloads to computers and portable audio players. Podcast is different from a conventional download in the sense that it can be subscribed to, syndicated or automatically downloaded whenever there is an addition to content. Podcast is a portmanteau of the words 'iPod' and 'Broadcast' because Apple's iPod was the first music player with supporting scripts for a...

What is BTW?

Acronyms can be very annoying in any online conversation and can leave you bewildered. So in our effort to make your life simpler, here is another instalment in our acronym series. What is BTW? BTW stands for By The Way and is used for a sudden change of topic in any discussion. It is used to discuss anything which usually doesn't bear any relation to the present line of conversation. Now that you know it, use it to save your precious time! Related: What is...

What is the Google Sandbox?

Google Sandbox is one of the most debated and talked about topic on the internet. While most people deny Sandbox's existence, we can safely assume that some such filter exists at Google. Under this assumption let us understand what is the Sandbox. Image courtesy: Rankmagic.com What is the Google Sandbox? The Google Sandbox is a filter used to filter new blogs or websites by Google. This filter maintains the purity of search engine rankings by preventing any new website or blog from...

What are DVD Regional Codes?

DVD Regional Codes are region codes with which DVD video discs are encoded to restrict them to the area of the world in which they can be played. Discs without region coding are called all region or region 0 discs and these can be played on all DVD players. Likewise many DVD players are or can be modified to be region-free. However other DVD discs and players are locked with regional codes so that they allow playback in compatible regions only. Regional codes are used to: Price...

What is BRB?

Often in online conversations, your partner will make a quick exit or a timeout typing 'Brb" and leave you wondering what that mean? But we at Three Tips a Day understand how difficult is it to understand such acronyms. BRB stands for Be Right Back which means that the person is taking a break and will be right back. It means that the person is away on some errand and will be back as soon as it is over. Till then,  hang on! So now you know what 'Brb' means. Pass this knowledge(and our...

What is IMAP?

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol and is a standard protocol for accessing e-mail from a local server. IMAP is a protocol in which e-mail is received and held  on your Internet server. You can view this email using your email client before downloading it. You can create and manipulate multiple folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages, or search for certain parts within mails. IMAP is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval,...

What is FTW?

If you've heard this acronym in online conversations or mobile messaging and have wondered what it stands for, here it is - For The Win. Contrary to the sinister meaning of its evil twin - For The Win has a positive notion. FTW is used to express delight and enthusiasm about something new - a product, a service or a relationship. Samples of FTW usage might be: "I'm loving my new iPhone, Apple FTW!" "Hybrid Theory is an awesome album, Linkin Park FTW!" Now that you know what it means,...

What is XSL?

XSL stands for Extensible Style Language and is a family of transformation languages for expressing style sheets. XSL is the second style specification to be offered by the World Wide Web Consortium(W3C) after Cascading Style Sheets(CSS). An XSL style sheet is a file that specifies how to display an XML document of a given type. XSL family has three languages: XSLT: XSL Transformation which is a transformation language for XML documents. XSLT is widely used for general purpose XML...

What is CAPTCHA?

CAPTCHA stands for 'Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart' and are a test to ensure that the entity taking the test is a human. For example, this Word Verification on Blogger is a Captcha to filter out spam comments: A common Captcha requires users to identify letters or digits from a distorted image. Captchas philosophy is to allow a computer to administer a test to a user which can be only be completed by a human and not a computer. It is thus...

What is VoIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol(also known as Internet Telephony or IP Telephony) is a  general term used for technologies employed in transmission of voice signals over the Internet or other networks. VoIP is a technology which allows you to make voice calls over the internet, in the digital format, rather than traditional PSTN based voice communication. VoIP usually requires a decent internet connection(usually broadband or higher) and may sometimes require special VoIP phones. Image...