URL

URL means "Uniform Resource Locator", which, in english, means "way to access stuff that's always understandable the same way"

There's lots of parts of URLs. The first part is the protocol:

    ftp:// 

or

    http://

that means "get the file with File Transfer Protocol" or "Hypertext Transfer Protocol".

The next part is the server:

     www.nbtsc.org

That's the "www" machine in the "nbtsc.org" network. Incidentally, the server you're using now, and also known as "Paradoxical".

After that is the path to the file you want:

     /wiki/TheUnschoolersDictionary

That means "the file TheUnschoolersDictionary" in the "wiki" directory[0].

After that could be a "query string", or "what the page should do".

     ?diff

in this case, that tells the page to show the recent entry in red if it can. These depend totally on the page, but that's an idea of how it works.

                 --Ari

Cool! (Sez the uninformed, yet interested Carrie) Wonder if there's anything else you'd like to explain..

[0] That's "folder" for you poor Windows 9x and Mac users.