Monday, May 5, 2003		ITerminology

XSD: Short for XML Schema Definition, a way to describe and validate data in an XML environment. A schema is a model for describing the structure of information. XSD is a recommendation of the W3C. XSD has advantages over earlier XML schema languages, such as DTD. Because XSD is written in XML, there is no need for a parser. XSD defines a richer set of data types such as booleans, numbers, dates and times, and currencies — which is invaluable for e-commerce applications.

Controller Area Network: Abbreviated CAN, a serial bus network of microcontrollers that connects devices, sensors and actuators in a system or sub-system for real-time control applications. There is no addressing scheme used in controller area networks, as in the sense of conventional addressing in networks (such as Ethernet). Rather, messages are broadcast to all nodes in the network using an identifier unique to the network. Based on the identifier, the individual nodes decide whether or not to process the message and also determine the priority of the message in terms of competition for bus access. This method allows for uninterrupted transmission when a collision is detected, unlike Ethernets that will stop transmission upon collision detection.

Troll: To deliberately post derogatory or inflammatory comments to a community forum, chat room, newsgroup and/or a blog in order to bait other users into responding.