Biometrics: An authentication method that uses fingerprints, retinal scans, or other morphological factors to confirm identity.

Certificate: An encrypted electronic message from a trusted authority that verifies the identity and sometimes the rights and privileges of the certificate holder. Using certificates is easy. Being a certificate authority (one who issues certificates) is difficult. We suggest outsourcing certificate services.

Corporate portal: A customized Web site that provides access to applications, news, and resource material for employees and associates of a specific business. The portal can include services that make existing applications browser-accessible.

cXML: Commerce XML; an industry initiative for a set of lightweight XML document type definitions for the exchange of transaction information. These document types include purchase orders, change orders, acknowledgments, status updates, ship notifications, and payment transactions.

VPN: Virtual private network; a service used mostly for remote access and site-to-site connections that encrypts your packets and ensures their delivery across the Internet or your intranet. You can build your own or outsource.

XML: eXtensible Markup Language; a Web document markup language that has more built-in business features than HTML. XML provides better automation for e-business applications. See also cXML

Three Laws of Robotics

Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov is often given credit for being the first person to use the term robotics in a short story composed in the 1940s. In the story, Asimov suggested three principles to guide the behavior of robots and smart machines. Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, as they are called, have survived to the present:

1. Robots must never harm human beings.

2. Robots must follow instructions from humans without violating rule 1.

3. Robots must protect themselves without violating the other rules.

Artificial intelligence

AI (pronounced AYE-EYE) or artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning (the acquisition of information and rules for using the information), reasoning (using the rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions), and self-correction. Particular applications of AI include expert system, speech recognition, and image recognition.