Packet, Packet, Who's Got the Packet? In order to retrieve this article, your computer had to connect with the Web server containing the article's file. First, you open your Web browser and connect to our Web site. When you do this, your computer sends an electronic request over your Internet connection to your Internet service provider (ISP). The ISP routes the request to a server further up the chain on the Internet. Eventually, the request will hit a domain name server (DNS). This server will look for a match for the domain name you've typed in (such as www.howstuffworks.com). If it finds a match, it will direct your request to the proper server's IP address. If it doesn't find a match, it will send the request further up the chain to a server that has more information. The request will eventually come to our Web server. Our server will respond by sending the requested file in a series of packets. Packets are parts of a file that range between 1,000 and 1,500 bytes. Read more at: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet2.htm

packet First use: 15th century Origin: Middle English pekette, pakat, from Anglo-French pacquet, of Germanic origin; akin to Middle Dutch pak pack More information at: http://www.memidex.com/packet+collection#etymology

The term byte was coined by Dr. Werner Buchholz in July 1956, during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer. It is a respelling of bite to avoid accidental mutation to bit. Early computers were designed for 4-bit BCD code (binary coded decimal) or 6-bit code for printable "graphic set", which included 26 alphabetic characters (only uppercase), 10 Numerical digits, and from 11 to 25 special graphic symbols. To include the control characters and allow digital devices to communicate with each other and to process, store, and communicate character-oriented information such as written language, and lowercase characters, a 7-bit ASCII code was introduced Since with just only one bit more an eight bits allows two four-bit patterns to efficiently encode two digits with binary coded decimal, the eight-bit EBCDIC character encoding was later adopted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte

Documentaries to look for
The documentary “Buck,” which won a Sundance audience award this year and opened in June in New York and Los Angeles, details his shaman-like skills around horses and the people who ride them. Mr. Brannaman, who has been riding since before he could reach the stirrups, uses a mystical empathy to calm horses, forgoing the casual violence that is so much a part of horse breaking. For three decades in clinics all over the country Mr. Brannaman, 49, has taught that riding a horse is like dancing, a combination of wooing, leading and mutual respect. A cult figure among both the horsey set and working cowboys, he is about to reach a much wider audience courtesy of "Buck," an 88-minute documentary distributed by Sundance Selects from a first-time director, Cindy Meehl. The movie may gallop along on four legs, but it is not about horses so much as the two-legged creatures who saddle them. A minute into the film he states it plainly: “A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I’m helping horses with people problems.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/movies/buck-brannaman-horse-whisperer-and-now-movie-star.html?pagewanted=all

The documentary El Bulli: Cooking in Progress Revolutionary Spanish eatery El Bulli is a Michelin three-star restaurant in Roses, Spain (two hours northeast of Barcelona); each night, it serves a tasting menu of 30+ courses, prepared by over 40 chefs, to a single seating of up to 50 guests. For the current season, its last before transforming into a culinary academy, over two million requests were received for the 8,000 available seats. For six months of the year, renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adrià closes his restaurant El Bulli — repeatedly voted the world's best — and works with his culinary team to prepare the menu for the next season. An elegant, detailed study of food as avant-garde art, the fllm is a rare inside look at some of the world's most innovative and exciting cooking. The documentary opens at New York's Film Forum July 27 before being released to other cities. See a list of playdates at: http://www.elbullimovie.com/ Note that the kitchen will close indefinitely this month.

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
From: Millie Webb Subject: Wainwright Def: One who builds or repairs wagons.
My host brother in Germany (I was an exchange student in high school, many years ago) is a master wainwright (in effect - Stellmacher actually translates to wheelwright) in Northern Germany today. For a while, our family despaired he was ever going to find a career that suited him. This was perfect! There are only a few such positions left in the whole country, and one apprenticeship opened up at exactly the right time for him. He loves it, and has worked on carriages for the royal families of Europe, including England. The detail-work is amazing.
From: Mark Newlands Subject: Wainwright
The Lake District National Park in the UK contains some of the world's most beautiful mountains (more commonly called fells). The principal fells are known as wainwrights after the famous writer Alfred Wainwright who produced the legendary hand-written guide books to the Lake District fells So here in the UK a wainwright describes multiple nouns and is also an eponym
From: Steven Frais Subject: wainwright
Probably the best known incidence of the use of the word wain for wagon is in John Constable's 1821 painting The Hay Wain.
From: Janet Rizvi Subject: occupations as surnames
I particularly liked this week's theme for the reason that my maiden name was Clarke (Clark, Clerk) and my mother's was Smith. As well as your examples of Baker, Gardener and Cook, people continue to follow the calling of Mason and Farmer, even Fisher and Shepherd; while there remain but few professional Carters and Thatchers. Most obsolete of all as a profession is perhaps Fletcher [also see fletcherize]. No enormous demand for arrow-featherers these days, unless possibly the makers of arrows for archery as a sport continue to be identified by the term?