GainMomentum = The high-end $10,000 hypertext and hypermedia authoring software package from Sybase (800-879-2273). Features of this amazing, albeit expensive, software are reviewed in Morph's Outpost, September 1994, p. 1 ff, and in NewMedia 1995 Tool Guide, p. 25. Sybase is the first leading-edge vendor to offer serious database networking utilities for hypermedia and cross-platform utilities between UNIX, Windows, and Windows 2000. The main competitor at the high-end level will be ScriptX, although at this juncture it is not certain that ScriptX will match GainMomentum in database, networking, and Windows 2000 capabilities. (See also Cross-platform, Authoring, and ScriptX)

Games = Interactive entertainment programs that can be played back on computers or special playing machines connected to television sets. Some games are sold on compact discs that can either be played in CD-ROM drives connected to computers or CD players that are proprietary. For example, Sega games play on Sega players, Data Discman games play on Data Discman players, CD-I games play on CD-I players, etc. Games are generally authored by game vendors and cannot be modified or updated for education uses by users. Educators who think that their students are spending many hours in computer labs for academic purposes may discover that a large portion of computer lab time is taken up with game playing. More research needs to be conducted on the fascination of games so that educators can make better use of building these motivational factors into more serious learning materials. According to Pereira (1994), CD-ROM games are overtaking market leaders such as Sega and Nintendo that captured the early game markets with players that were not compatible with PC, Mac, or other desktop computers. Games are popular and addictive, in part, due to the release of endorphins in the brain, especially among women according to Carlton (1994a). (See also MUDs)

Gateways = Are connectors between two or more dissimilar networks that facilitate communication in such instances. Gateways have their own processors to perform both protocol and bandwidth conversions. Gateways between the Outernet and the Internet translate different protocols such as e-mail protocols of different networks into Internet protocols. (See also Internet, Mosaic, Finger Gateway, Whois Gateway, and Outernets)

GDI = Graphics Device Interfaces link graphics hardware devices with the CPU. Much of the power of graphics processing depends upon whether the system has 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bit graphics power. Limitations of customer hardware often detract from the ability to develop operating systems to take full advantage of graphics power. For example, when developing Windows Chicago for 32-bit processors, Microsoft Corporation had to leave 16-bit GDI capacity on its 32-bit operating system.

GDS (See Desktop Search)

Gershwin = The name given to Apple's planned operating system 9.0 for Mac and PowerPC computers. New features were to include advanced speed recognition, interfacing that adapts to individual users, and new microkernal architecture. However, the System 9.0 has been abandoned in favor of an entirely new operating system called Rhapsody. Apple's hopes are riding heavily upon the evolution of a new operating system called Rhapsody that is a revolutinary operating system based upon NEXTStep technology. (See also Mac, PowerPC, Operating system, Copeland, Gershwin, and Rhapsody)

GIF = This acronym stands for Graphic Interchange Format, a commonly used file compression format developed by CompuServe for transferring graphics files to and from online services. This is an extremely popular standard because it is so widely read in graphics software alternatives and is commonly used as the "GIF" file extensions of images carried on bulletin boards and transported across networks. A major drawback is the loss of color depth in GIF compression. Animated GIFs are popular at web sites. Click here for some links to Animated Gif Construction.  (See alsoJPEG)

GINA = A graphical interface (formerly known as GUIDE) for the Internet. This is a low-cost option for graphically interfacing with e-mail, bulletin boards, databases, library catalogs, news services, and conferencing. Contact California Technology Project, P.O. Box 3842, Dept. PRG, Seal Beach, CA 90740-7842 (310-985-9631). The e-mail address is kvogt@eis.calstate.edu.

Gnutella/Napster = (See Napster/Gnutella )

Gopher = A menu-driven and user-friendly system of Internet sites that facilitate searching and browsing of documents and files around the world. Gopher has been largely overtaken by more modern web browsers (see Web browsers). Gopher was the first system that communicated easily between different types of operating systems and computer installations. The term "Gopher" arises from the fact that the system originated with graduate students at the site of the "Golden Gophers" at the University of Minnesota. The Gopher is one of the most popular of various menu-driven systems such as WAIS and World Wide Web. NOTIS Systems (708-866-0150) developed a Windows' front end to Gopher that is described in THE Journal, March 1994, p. 39. A graphical interface called WinGopher is available from NOTIS Systems Inc., 1007 Church Street, Evanston, IL 60201-3665 (800-556-6847). Gopher became very popular on the Internet, but it is now being replaced by a similar and more graphics-oriented system called Mosaic that has Gopher services available. (See also GINA, Mosaic, Internet, and SLIP)

Gopherspace = A term used to describe the entire gopher network.

GPS = Global Positioning System hardware that facilitates navigation via satellites. There are now versions for automobiles that have LCD screens to show maps and present vehicle location.

Grants = (See Funding)

Graphics = Computer images that contain pictures, drawings, and other forms of imagery other than text. Popular file extensions for graphics files are bmp, pcx, tif, and cgm. See CGM for a discussion of graphics that will cross platforms between Mac and PC computers. The best-buy graphics software options are ranked in PC Computing, December 1994, p. 205. Software options for 3-D rendering on the web are reviewed in the NewMedia, May 5 1998, pp. 52-64. The NewMedia web site is at http://www.newmedia.com Those authoring packages rated as "Awesome" include Live Picture Reality Studio at http://www.livepicture.com (800-724-7900) and Platinum Technology VRCreator at http://www.platinum.com (800-442-6861).  There are many other options rated as "Thumbs Up" or "Does the Job."  (See also 2-D, 3-D, SVG, and Paintbrush software)

Graphics adapter = The hardware inside a computer that enables the computer to display graphics on the screen. In contrast to Mac computers, PCs have a larger variety of graphics adapters that complicate compatibility between different PCs. In the early days, the PC standard was the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) that, by today's standards, is low resolution and low in color combinations. This was replaced by EGA Enhanced Graphics Adapter and then VGA Video Graphics Array having a standard 480 lines vertical and 640 pixels horizontal resolution. Today Super VGA extensions (to at least 600 lines vertical and 800 pixels horizontal) are the choice among most PC users for whom graphics displays are important. Be aware, however, that there are different Super VGA resolutions and monitor options that can affect the compatibility of graphics images among different PCs. Also be aware that LCD panels are not able to handle the higher resolutions of cathode ray monitors; therefore, images may not look as good during class delivery as they did on a monitor during the authoring process. The top-rated graphics adapters at the end of 1994 are Impression Plus (Rank 1) with 4Mb of video RAM from Matrox (514-685-2630), Imagine-128 (Rank 2) with 4Mb of video RAM from Number Nine (800-438-6463), and Graphics Pro Turbo (Rank 3) with 4Mb of video RAM from ATI (905-882-2600) according to PC Computing, December 1994, p. 140. A good company with computer to video interfaces isExtron. (See also AB style switches and LCD)

Grid Computing 

IBM Bets Future on Grid Computing

Whatis Definition of Grid Computing --- http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/ 

Grid computing (or the use of a computational grid) is applying the resources of many computers in a network to a single problem at the same time - usually to a scientific or technical problem that requires a great number of computer processing cycles or access to large amounts of data. A well-known example of grid computing in the public domain is the ongoing SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) @Home project in which thousands of people are sharing the unused processor cycles of their PCs in the vast search for signs of "rational" signals from outer space. According to John Patrick, IBM's vice-president for Internet strategies, "the next big thing will be grid computing." Grid computing requires the use of software that can divide and farm out pieces of a program to as many as several thousand computers. Grid computing can be thought of as distributed and large-scale cluster computing and as a form of network-distributed parallel processing. It can be confined to the network of computer workstations within a corporation or it can be a public collaboration (in which case it is also sometimes known as a form of peer-to-peer computing). A number of corporations, professional groups, university consortiums, and other groups have developed or are developing frameworks and software for managing grid computing projects. The European Community (EU) is sponsoring a project for a grid for high-energy physics, earth observation, and biology applications. In the United States, the National Technology Grid is prototyping a computational grid for infrastructure and an access grid for people. Sun Microsystems offers Grid Engine software. Described as a distributed resource management (DRM) tool, Grid Engine allows engineers at companies like Sony and Synopsys to pool the computer cycles on up to 80 workstations at a time. (At this scale, grid computing can be seen as a more extreme case of load balancing.) Grid computing appears to be a promising trend for three reaons: (1) its ability to make more cost-effective use of a given amount of computer resources, (2) as a way to solve problems that can't be approached without an enormous amount of computing power, and (3) because it suggests that the resources of many computers can be cooperatively and perhaps synergistically harnessed and managed as a collaboration toward a common objective. In some grid computing systems, the computers may collaborate rather than being directed by one managing computer. One likely area for the use of grid computing will be pervasive computing applications - those in which computers pervade our environment without our necessary awareness.

Also see CFML, Database, DTP, GainMomentum, JDBC, Middleware, Relational database management, SAP, Resource Description Framework, and 4GL Database Languages.

Group = A collection of users.

Group rights = Rights given to a collection of users.

Groupware = software applications that facilitate shared work over long distances on documents and information. Groupware supports person-to-person collaborations and includesLotus Notes,Livelink from Open Text Intranets, E-mail, Silent Meeting Systems, Videoconferencing, etc. A good reference for groupware is found in http://www.collaborate.com/chapt1.html. Netscape's discussion of groupware is at http://home.netscape.com/.../faq.html. See also Collaboration and CMC.

GSM = (See Wireless Glossary of Terms)

GUI = An acronym for Graphical User Interface, this term refers to a software front-end meant to provide an attractive and easy to use interface between a computer user and application, which historically gave rise to the icon-based operating system of Apple Corporation computers. The GUI concept actually had its origins in Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the early 1970s. However, it was Apple Corporation who eventually exploited the technology that is now the fundamental basis of Mac, Windows, and other GUI operating systems that perform commands based upon bit-mapped graphics icons. This paved the way for object-oriented systems of the 1990s. (See also Mac and Windows) A decade of the revolution in GUI and hypermedia Mac computing is celebrated in a book by Levy (1994) that is given an extensive review in Time Magazine, January 31, 1994, pp. 93-94. (See also America Online)