Geek definitions for the digg newbie

WallStreetFighter sounds like a savvy investor, but he had some questions about geeky words found on Digg.

With geek culture getting more and more exposure on the leading edges of the internet, this is a not-uncommon occurence, I think. So here’s the comment I posted in response:

Surely you jest. (I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not. However …)

In case of seriousness, voila:

Avatar:
Humaniform icon that represents a person, usually in a game like Second Life.

Ajax:
Web technology for making web pages and apps quicker and more responsive. The essay that popularized the name.

web 2.0:
Read-write web … if you’re blogging, you’re web 2.0-ish

Pirate Bay/Party:
Got me. I think it’s a software piracy group. (Actually, after a quick google, it’s an index and/or search engine to BitTorrent – a technology for streaming stuff from someone’s else’s computer to yours, and vice-versa.) Which probably isn’t too far off from software piracy. Or music “sharing.”

MySQL:
Open source database. More info.

Splash page:
An annoying page before you actually get to the real website. Often has noisy jiggly flashy things going on. Newbies and kids love them; web veterans despise them.

Congressional Electronic Masturbation:
Don’t want to know. My guess: getting staffers to post fawning comments on blogs and social networks.

Zune:
iPod wannabee.

Diggnation:
You got it! (He said it meant “lemming.”)

[tags] definitions, geek, web2.0, john koetsier [/tags]