BlackBerry n. The next wave in wireless devices, a BlackBerry combines an e-mail palmtop and cell phone into one handheld communication hub.

Leaky reply n. An e-mail reply sent to the wrong person. Leaky replies often occur by accidentally selecting the "Reply All" option.

Nooksurfer n. A person who myopically visits the same handful of favorite sites when online, ignoring all the rest the Web has to offer.

Remote Media Immersion n. The Memorex of the future, RMI promises high-definition video and surround-sound audio experiences to be delivered via the next generation of high-speed Internet.

Three-way call n. The nasty girl-clique practice (described in Margaret Talbot's New York Times Magazine article, "Girls Just Want to Be Mean") of calling a friend and trying to goad her into saying bad things about another person, who, unbeknownst to her, is listening in on the other line.

Cyberathletes n. An elite group of teenage and 20-something males who play video and computer games professionally for money.

Hackademy n. The Paris-based Hackademy teaches students how to hack into computer systems in the name of improving network security. For more on this see Trend Watch.

Phone home v. When laptops equipped with tracking devices log on to the Internet, they phone home to indicate their physical location to a security service provider.

Sheepdip n. Normally conducted on a non-networked computer, a sheepdip is the process for checking a floppy disk or CD-ROM for viruses using at least two different antivirus programs.

Thumb tribe n. Young people in Japan call themselves the thumb tribe because they often favor their thumbs over their index fingers for performing tasks. The reason, researchers believe, is that under-25-year-olds' thumbs have been strengthened from a lifetime of using handheld technologies

Dark Net (n.) The 5 percent of the Internet that can't be accessed by a search engine or browser, dark net describes black holes in the fabric of cyberspace.

Link Farming (v.) Link farming is the practice of exchanging links with other Web sites to boost search engine ranking as well as the illusion of a site's popularity.

Same-day Service (n.) With instant information gratification one of the Web's defining features, same-day service is an ironic way of describing an unusually slow Internet connection.

Spamoflage (n.) Seemingly relevant subject lines and legitimate-sounding return addresses are just two of the many spamoflaging tricks that people use to get you to open junk e-mail.

Word of mouse (n.) When information is disseminated via e-mail or chat groups, it is said to be spread by word of mouse.

Cell yell n. The conspicuous habit many cell phone users have of speaking into their phones louder than necessary.

Flame v., n. The act of sending insulting e-mail or posting a scathing message on a newsgroup. In recent times, instant messaging has become a popular way for kids to conduct "flame wars" on the fly.

Mousetrapping n. A technological trick, often used by pornography and gambling sites, which traps users on a particular Web page, making it almost impossible to close or exit an offensive browser window.

PowerPointlessness n. Popularized by From Now On publisher Jamie McKenzie, this term takes aim at all those elaborate transitions and effects in a PowerPoint presentation that have no apparent educational benefit.

Three-fingered salute n. Also known in certain circles as the "Vulcan nerve pinch," the three-fingered salute-CTL-ALT-DEL-reboots a computer or program that freezes up on you

Born-digital adj. A way to describe paperless information, such as e-books and Web postings, that has remained digital since birth.

COWs n. COWs, or Computers on Wheels, are handy mobile carts that allow desktops and laptops to roam from classroom to classroom.

Diaper Change n. A repeat visit made by your resident technical support person to a particularly inept and ornery user.

Jumping the Shark v. A reference to an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie literally jumped over a shark, "jumping the shark" represents the defining moment when something that was once good-a television show or an Internet startup, for example-starts to go bad.

Vanity Plate n. Just like those quirky markers of driver identity slapped front and back of innocent vehicles, vanity plates of the digital variety are those incredibly slow-loading Web page images that serve no other purpose than to decorate a Web site.

Alpha Pups n. "Cool" boys aged 8 to 13 who market researchers recruit to set product trends among their peers. (See The New York Times Magazine, Aug. 5, 2001, "Here Come the Alpha Pups.")

Carnivore n. Named for the FBI's Internet surveillance program, a carnivore is an electronic wiretapping system that monitors digital transmissions over the Internet.

Facemail n. The courageous act of getting out of your chair, away from your computer and the temptation of e-mail, and walking down the hall to talk with someone face-to-face.

Nanostalgia n. The measurement of memory in seconds, nanostalgia identifies the experience of longing for events only just finished-or in Proustian terms, Remembrance of Things (Just) Past.

Test fatigue n. The result of asking students to fill in one too many bubbles with a No. 2 pencil, as in, "Johnny's test fatigue caused him to lose interest in learning."

Cam Girl n. Teenage girls who have created Web sites that display anything from photos and diaries to live shots of themselves; several have set up an online registry of gifts they'd like their fans to buy them.

Frankenbrowser n. Spotted in the August issue of PC World, a term for applications (such as NeoPlanet and CrystalPort) that "freakishly" change the appearance and functionality of your Internet Explorer browser.

Rain Dance n. Rituals thought to fix recurring computer problems, such as clicking the mouse three times to thaw screen freeze or spinning your monitor to help reboot.

Real Reality n. Once known as just plain reality, real reality is everything that is not virtual reality.

Yeardisc n. Replacing those gold-trimmed hard copies of yore, these are school yearbooks on CD-ROM.

Bats Similar to the flying mammals that share their name, electronic bats are able to communicate using ultrasound, charting the location and identity of objects and people. Based on this information, bat transmitters can then automatically grant authorized users access to services and devices.

Blog The latest rage in self-publishing, a Web log-known simply as "blog"-is a Web site that offers a frequently updated list of links to other sites, usually accompanied by journal-like commentary from the Weblogger. To create your own, free tools are available at www.blogger.com.

Honeypot If you bait them, they will come. Honeypots are decoy servers set up by network administrators so they can observe unsuspecting hackers in their "natural" environment and gather clues as to why and how they hack in the first place.

Just-in-time learning The idea that individuals should be taught skills at the moment they need them as opposed to acquiring knowledge outside the learning context (which has been dubbed just-in-case learning).

Monotasking Tired of being asked to multitask? If you don't have enough RAM or processing power, you may be stuck monotasking-only able to open one application at a time on your computer.

Killer App Short for killer application-one that is extremely useful and can drive technological and social change-this term arose in the mid-'80s to describe Lotus 1-2-3 (which spurred the IBM PC market) and, in the 1990s, the World Wide Web. Some speculate that the next killer apps for schools will be e-books and peer-to-peer technology.

Rollover Rollovers, also known as JavaScript rollovers, are those changes in appearance that occur when your pointer is "rolled over" a graphic on a computer application or on a Web page. The graphical transformation of your pointer into a hand when you roll over images online is a familiar example.

Text Messaging The sending of short electronic messages to and from mobile phones, pagers, and handheld computers. With the increase of cell phone-toting kids, text messaging may bring passing notes in class to a new level.

Trojan Horse The Greeks used it to sack Troy. A hacker created it to do the same to your hard drive. Like its mythological namesake, an electronic Trojan Horse is a deceptively benign program that, once downloaded and run, wreaks havoc on your operating system. The "ILoveYou" virus is one of our more recent Trojan Horses.

WYSIWYG Pronounced "whizzy-wig," what-you-see-is-what-you-get technology enables you to see screen images exactly as they will appear in print. For example, someone using a Web authoring tool can preview a work in progress by selecting the WYSIWYG function to get a realistic rendering of the "real thing."

bling bling Not really a tech phrase, but one you might hear students using a lot these days. Originally meaning how jewelry looks and sounds (L.A. Laker Shaquille O'Neal told his teammates that "the diamonds on [their] championship rings will go bling bling"), today it generally connotes "money" or "shiny and new." For example, a recent Wired article about Motorola two-way pagers was headlined "Putting the Bling-Bling in Your Ring."

cuspy Geekspeak for a software program that is well written and performs well. Based on "Commonly Used System Program," a term once used by the Digital Equipment Corporation to describe a utility used by many people.

lintel Computers based on the Linux operating system and the Intel microchip. Lintel began popping up in 1999 when Intel cast its eye toward Linux-based companies. The earlier incarnation of this word is "Wintel," which describes a Windows operating system and an Intel Pentium-level microprocessor, as well as the close alliance between Microsoft and Intel.

script kiddie Someone who breaks into a computer system, but is so inept (hackers would say infantile) at coding and programming that he can't be considered a real hacker. Last year's headline-grabbing script kiddie was "Mafiaboy," a Canadian teenager accused of breaking into the CNN and E*TRADE sites.

triplecast A program that is broadcast simultaneously on television, radio, and the Web. One of the first shows to do this, and the originator of the term itself, was NetTalk Live!, a weekly technology show in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Drill down - To focus in on something or break down the big picture into its granular details. In the world of technology, the term refers to moving through a hierarchy of folders on your computer or clicking through links on a Web page.

F2F - Short for "face-to-face," as in, "Let's get offline and work this out in an F2F meeting."

In the wild - Computer viruses that spread into the real world (as opposed to circulating within research laboratories) on and between the computers of unsuspecting users are said to be "in the wild." Reports on the latest viral threats can be found at The WildList.

Silicon cockroach - Small, wireless "smart" devices-from handheld computers to computerized clothing-that are predicted to multiply and infiltrate our daily lives within the next few years. These information appliances will be able to talk with one another and the Internet via short-range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth.

Splash page - A "lead-in" page to a Web site that typically displays a quick Flash presentation, a promotion, or information about what technology is needed to view the site, then moves to the home page. Some developers and users, however, define the term as the actual home page (that creates a "splash" with multimedia effects).