Mod-Perl is an add-on for the Apache web server software, which makes it possible to use the Perl language to add new features for the Apache server, and to increase the speed of Perl applications by as much as 30 times. In other words mod_perl is a perl interpreter which is built into the Apache web server. Mod_perl brings together Apache and Perl, two of the most powerful and mature technologies available to the online world today.

Mod_perl gives the Apache server the ability to execute Perl code directly without having to call a CGI which reduces the startup burden associated with running Perl scripts from the web server. It also allows variables to persist across multiple requests, and lets user authentication be extended to anything that can be written in Perl i.e authenticate web access against an SMB or RADIUS server without having to write an Apache module to do the job.

The name ‘Veronica’ actually stands for “Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide Index to Computerized Archives.” It’s a program that allows you to search the files of the internet’s Gopher servers using keywords. After you enter a particular keyword for searching, Veronica displays a list of gopher menus and articles containing the keyword you searched for. The more recent versions of Veronica can also search certain Web pages, newsgroups, and FTP sites.

Like Archie, which is Veronica’s equivalent program for FTP servers, Veronica is an indexing spider that visits the Gopher sites, reads all the directory and file names, and then indexes them in one large index but unlike other search engines it searches for keywords only in gopher server menu titles and doesn’t look through the entire text in the documents. While searching with Veronica, the use of logical operators like AND, NOT, and OR may help to narrow your search.

Token Ring is a type of computer network in which all the computers are connected in a star or ring topology. A token, which is a special bit pattern, travels around the circle. To send a message, a computer catches the token, attaches a message if it has one to send, and then lets the token go to continue around the ring. A token ring can be wired as a circle or a star, with the workstations wired to a central wiring center, or to multiple wiring centers.

In a Token Ring network, each computer is constantly in direct contact with the next node in the ring but a Token Ring network cannot communicate within itself if any one of the rings is broken.

The token ring network architecture was developed by IBM and later standardized as the IEEE 802.5 standard and is the second most widely-used protocol on local area networks after Ethernet.

MIME is a short for Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions. MIME is an extension of the original Internet e-mail protocol that enables people use the protocol to send and receive graphics, audio, and video files via the Internet mail system as well as the ASCII text handled in the original protocol, i.e the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). In addition, MIME supports messages in character sets other than ASCII.

There are many predefined MIME types, such as GIF graphics files and PostScript files. It is also possible to define your own MIME types. In addition to e-mail applications, Web browsers also support various MIME types. This enables the browser to display or output files that are not in HTML format.

Servers insert the MIME header at the beginning of any Web transmission. Clients use this header to select an appropriate “player” application for the type of data the header indicates. Some of these players are built into the Web client or browser, for example, all browsers come with GIF and JPEG image players as well as the ability to handle HTML files, while other players may need to be downloaded.

MIME was defined in 1992 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). A new version, called S/MIME, supports encrypted messages.