My topics

The topics i am doing are:
- Digital Televisions
- Piracy and Copyright
- Secondary Storage: Blu-ray Disks, Flash Drive
- Bluetooth

Assessment Outline

What do i need to research?

1. What is it? What do we use it for?
2. How is it a part of our multimedia world?
3. Are there different types? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each type?
4. A "simple" explanation of how it works.
5. A rough indication of the cost of the device (only where a device is being researched)
6. Future directions, what is waiting around the corner, what is the next "new" technology in this area?

How should i present my research:

Research should be:

• easy to read, font, colour
• easy to find
• in a logical format

Some suggestions include:

• question-answer format
• headings
• paragraphs
• dot points

ProtoPage

Our group is not going to use Proto page for our assessment task because it is too difficult to use and it also has many limitations. Also the page loads very slowly and takes too much time to add anything into the page.
Collabarating with Proto page is fairly simple as all we need to do is have one login and not edit it at the same time because we will override the other person's work. This makes it too difficult to do our Assignment therefore we are not using it.

Multimedia Task 1

Today i decided that i was going to work as a pair with Vera Asuncion.
The topics we're thinking of doing are:

• Digital Televisions
• Netbooks
• Piracy and Copyright
• Social Networking
• Secondary Storage; Blu-ray Disks, Flash Drive
• Motherboards
• Bluetooth
• XML

Hand-held Computing

Using the sites below answer the following questions:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/10/intel-explains-mid-vs-umpc/
http://www.umpcportal.com/products/

1. What are MID & UMPC devices? How do they differ. List atleast three examples of both types of devices & include images.
An MID is a mobile internet device and a UMPC is the ultra mobile portable computer. The difference between both devices is that the UMPC is a business-class device thats for enterprise users and the MID is a consumer-class lifestyle device. The UMPC runs a "heavy" OS (Operating System) like Vista and the MID runs a "lightweight" OS with a fast startup such as Linux. The UMPC is optimized for office-use things like Excel or Word, whereas the MID is for media playback and websurfing.
Examples of MID: Dell Streak, Archos 5 Internet Table & Huawei Smakit S7
Examples of UMPC: Viliv N5, Archos 9 & Sony Vaio

Watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQgiZd0-DxI&feature=related
and answer the following question:

2. What are the differences between a Notebook handheld computing device and a Netbook handheld computing device?
The screen size of a Netbook would usually be around 7", 9" & 10" but a Notebook's size would be 12.1", 13.1", 13.3", 14.1", 15.4" & 17". The size difference is obvious so the Netbook would be much smaller. But you still get some tradeoff's. Power, Memory and Storage.
The Notebook is running with Vista and it can run XP it has a dual core processor with a large regular hardrive and it can have up to 80 to 320 GB worth of storgae space onboard. The Netbooks usually have very a small storage space, usually 4 to 80 GB sometimes even bigger. The Netbook wouldn't be a place to store a lot of movies or videos maybe only a few pictures, songs because you can play music on it. It wouldn't be a place to put on games or applications, there won't be Photoshop or Word or Excel. The whole point of it is the Net-Centric Computing. For example, sufing the web, checking your email and running web applications. You shouldn't run complex programs on this because it wil run very slowly because of the processor, it has an Intel Atom 1.6GHz (very small and does the basic stuff).
A notebook can do everything a normal computer would do and includes a DVD disk drive. The netbook battery life lasts about 3 to 4 hours and the Notebooks waste their power much more quickly and will only go for about 2 to 4 hours. With Netbooks you can ungrade the batteries which give you 6 to 10 hours of battery life.

3. Using the following sites, describe the design & features of the Apple Ipad then discuss how it compares with a Netbook.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMo4BcvPbA
With the Ipad there are no usb ports so you can't plug in usb's or other things with a usb cord. However the Ipad has many other features that a Netbook won't have such as applications and very small weight. It also has more storage space included in it.
The ipad has no webcam, no multitasking and no HDMI port and no flash. It is called a purpose filled device, it can watch videos very well and web browsing. The internet speed is much faster and is there to surprise you.

4. Of the three handheld devices - Notebook, netbook & Ipad – which one would suit your needs and why?


5. If I was looking for a UMPC device with a screen size of 10 in or less, which would you recommend? Justify your choice.


6. View some of the videos at this link http://www.umpcportal.com/
How would you envisage students five years from now using one of these devices at school. Select any UMPC / MID device that you have researched that would meet a students needs, justify your choice.

Bits & Bytes

1. What is a digit?

A digit is the 1 or 0 in a bit.

2. “normal” counting numbers used in everyday life a based on what sequence of numbers?


0 to 9 ten does not count since its made up of two existent numbers

3. Where does the word bit originate from?

4. Binary numbers don’t use base 10. What base do they use? What digits are available in base 2?

They all count in two's

5. If 6,357 can be written as;
(6 * 1000) + (3 * 100) + (5 * 10) + (7 * 1) = 6000 + 300 + 50 + 7

 How would you write 4,321
(4*1000) + (3*100) + (2*10) + (1*1) = 4000 +300+20+1

6.Write the following numbers in binary (base 2)

21 = 101000

24 = 101000
30= 1010000

7. What is a byte?


8. How many bytes in a kilo, mega, giga and tera bytes.


9. Complete the following conversions;

1000 Mb = 1Gb
500 Gb = 5000Mb
5000 Kb = 5 Mb

The CPU

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor.htm
http://www.intel.com/technology/atom/index.htm

1. What is the function of the CPU?
This is where all computations are carried out before being transferred to memory storage. The CPU accepts input data, processes the information and sends it to the component that is in charge of executing the action.
The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is the brains of the computer. This is where all the processing of data, computations, and operations are done. The CPU contains the memory, the hard drives, and ports as well that connect all the computer parts and allow each one to function. Without the CPU, one would not be able to do anything with the computer. 2. What was the name of the first CPU?

The first microprocessor to make it into a home computer was the Intel 8080, a complete 8-bit computer on one chip, introduced in 1974.
 3. Referring to the graph on page 2 of the article, describe how the speed of CPU’s has changed.
From the table you can see that the speeds of the CPU's have increased everytime a new CPU has been created. From the first CPU called the 8080 it had a clock speed of 2 MHz and the number of MIPS was only 0.64, to the most recent CPU it's called Pentium 4 "Prescott" it has a clock speed of 3.6 GHz and the number of MIPS is more than 7000. From these results you can see that there has been a large change from the first one ever to the most recent.

4. What does MIPS measure?
MIPS stands for "millions of instructions per second" and is a rough measure of the performance of a CPU. Modern CPUs can do so many different things that MIPS ratings lose a lot of their meaning, but you can get a general sense of the relative power of the CPUs from this column. Modern processors can often execute at a rate of two instructions per clock cycle. That improvement is directly related to the number of transistors on the chip and will make more sense in the next section.
5. Research (Google it) what is a dual core processor, what is multitasking and how do the two work together.
A Dual Core Processor is a multi-core processor is a processing system composed of two or more independent cores. It can be described as an integrated circuit to which two or more individual processors have been attached.
Multitasking is the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks (programs) under the control of an interrupt-driven operating system.
Dual-core processors contain two processing cores, residing on one chip, that perform calculations on two streams of data to increase efficiency and speed while running multiple programs and the new generation of multi-threaded software. For end-users this means a significant increase in response and performance when running multiple applications simultaneously. True multitasking allows users to switch from one program to another without always pausing for the computer to catch up and reducing annoying processing pauses.


CPU QUIZ - http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p5W5_hA1fzBBssbjctBFoBA&hl=en_GB

The World of Multimedia task :)

CLIPS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/618226/microsoft_surface_computing_the_possibilities/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/555998/another_version_of_the_intel_umpc_vision_video/
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9vti5_google-voice-for-mobile_tech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS9AbePnE08

QUESTIONS:

1. Where do you commonly use multimedia in your daily life, list as many examples as you can.
Home, School, Businesses and Public Places.

2. What multimedia device or service would you find it hardest to be without? Discuss.
The Internet and Computers/ Laptops.

3. The video on future directions (third video) has already to some extent come true. What multimedia technologies displayed in this video are already commonly used?

MULTIMEDIA

The World of Multimedia presentation :)

The World of Multimedia on Prezi

Scanned Storyboard

This is the scanned version of the storyboard, the typed & drawn one will be up soon.

Some of the frames used in this storyboard isn't same ones as we used in the actual filming so this would still be a draft of the storyboard.

Scanned Script

This is the scanned version of our script, we will type up the final one soon.

Some of the lines written we either didn't use, or changed so this would still be considered a draft of our script.

Video Assesment Task 3

We finally managed to meet up on the weekend before the assessment was due and film our video, the script and storyboard were both complete so we relied on both of those while filming. We were able to finish recording the whole video so it was good, that way we didn't have to worry about wearing the same clothes, same area to film etc. The videos that we filmed are in different clips and parts, that way the camera won't move too much or we wouldn't have to wait until the next person was ready to talk. First we tried to film it all in one go, but that didn't work so well because either the next person forgot their lines or jumbled up what they were saying and we had to start it all again. After a while we changed to filming it bit-by-bit , this plan worked better than what we were doing previously. During the clips the video camera lost its battery and we had to use the digital camera to film the rest of the video. This meant that we had to use our hands to film instead of keeping it steady on a stand with the video camera. It also meant we had to limit our ability to get good angles of the person talking. Soon we got the filming complete and it meant we were able to relax for the rest of the day. All we have to do for the remainder of this week is edit the clips and put the whole video together complete with other shots of professional games, transitions and some special effects. This would have to be done during out lessons this week or at lunchtimes as there are Windows 7 computers available at the library.

Video Assessment Task 2

For this date: Saturday, June 12, 2010

On the long weekend our group thought of meeting up at vera's house (because she had the camera) and finalize the script so we could continue filming. Me and sangeeta were given the job to do the script while rowena and vera were supposed to do the storyboard. We aimed to mainly focus on our filming rather than the script and storyboard. We also decided to change our plan of how to do make-up to how to play basketball because collecting all the props for the make-up idea would be too much of a hassle. I knew most of the basics for basketball but we also did some reaserch to back up these rules. After meeting up at vera's house for a short while, we wrote most of the script and vera & rowena's jobs are still mainly the same but i was the one to complete the final draft of the script and write it out. We would hope to film next week and get it all done in one day because we didn't like the idea of having to wear the same clothes and film at the same area more every single time. We will have the script & storyboard done by next week so we can commence filming :D

Other parts of the video

This is the song that would be playing in the background in most of the scenes that either show a game or quiet shots or demonstrations.

It's called Kobe Bryant by Lil' Wayne but is edited to suit a time limit of around 2-3 minutes. It was edited on Audacity by me.

Here's the link to listen to the song :)

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7gq7o18Qv3gN2RjMDk5NTQtMTQ0Mi00OWE3LWE4N2MtOTlmMGZiZTQ3NDUw&authkey=CN3RvL4C&hl=en

Here are the lyrics to the song incase you don't understand the words that he speaks.

"OK, Kobe doin' work, Two-four on my shirt

He the greatest on the court and I'm the greatest on the verse

Going for the 4th ring like it was his first Gotta get the bling, do it for Kareem!

Two-four so nice, my flow so mean

Catch me at the game sitting next to Goldstein

Kobe Bryant Nikes, purple gold strings,

Kobe in the game dunking on your team
You know where is goin, its goin down yo,

This is the Lake show, but don't drown though I call him King Bryant, now let the crown show.

Yeah, you better guard me with caution

And watch I work 'em like an auction

No such thing as exhaustion, no time for resting

'Cause I don't take breaks, I just break records, and I prefer the ball with 3 seconds

And I bet we gona win it all in 3 seconds Ya dig? That is a guarantee, apparently

And please tell your defence, don't ever man to man with me

Double team, triple team, your defenders sick of me

But, I never let 'em get to me, literally
Step back and give 'em a three, ain't no defending me.

Call me Mr Clutch or Mr Automatic, I can post 'em up, or Lamar go get the alley

I'm going for the ring, I'm going for the ring

I went to Beijing, and came back with the bling

Who they want? They want Kobe, and what he want? He want the trophy

The victory, and the glory, No Shaq, No Robert Horry

Now break 'em off, Kobe break 'em off

You better be where that Laker don't

Yea, just give him the ball and he take it off

Or he properly dishing it to Gasol, or give it to D-Fish on the wing,
yeah or just let lil' Ariza do his thing, yeah

'Cause I'm great, and so is my team, do it for Magic

It's showtime baby, I see nothing wrong with doing it four times baby

I'm the best yes, and he the best yeah

Don't worry LeBron - get 'em next year

Now what's defence, to an assassin? Killer instinct, murder the basket

Then steal the ball back, hold it for ransom

It's more than a game, this is a passion, been a all-star, been a champion

Free throw line, you hear 'em chanting MVP, MVP

Kobe Bryant aka Envy Me

In knee deep, smash any D

Whoever he is he can't guard me

He can't guard me, KOBE BRYANT! "

There is also certain parts of a youtube video that we wanted to add into our video. We downloaded the video & here it is..

Rules for Basketball

BASKETBALL

RULES:

• Two teams of five players each try to score by shooting a ball through a hoop elevated 10ft above the ground. The game is played on a rectangular floor called the court, and there is a hoop at each end. The court is divided into two main sections by the mid-court line.
• If the offensive team puts the ball into play behind the mid-court line, it has ten seconds to get the ball over the mid-court line. If it doesn't, then the defence gets the ball.
• Once the offensive team gets the ball over the mid-court line, it can no longer have possession of the ball in the area in back of the line. If it does, the defence is awarded the ball.
• The team with the ball is called the offense. The team without the ball is called the defence. They try to steal the ball, contest shots, steal and deflect passes, and garner rebounds.
• When a team makes a basket, they score two points and the ball goes to the other team. If a basket, or field goal, is made outside of the three-point arc, then that basket is worth three points. A free throw is worth one point. Free throws are awarded to a team according to some formats involving the number of fouls committed in a half and/or the type of foul committed.
• Each game is divided into sections. All levels have two halves. In high school and below, the halves are divided into eight (and sometimes, six) minute quarters.
• Each team is assigned a basket or goal to defend. This means that the other basket is their scoring basket. At halftime, the teams switch goals. The game begins with one player from either team at centre court. A referee will toss the ball up between the two. The player that gets hands on the ball will tip it to a teammate. This is called a tip-off. In addition to stealing the ball from an opposing player, there are other ways for a team to get the ball.

FOULS:

o Personal fouls: Personal fouls include any type of illegal physical contact.
• Hitting
• Pushing
• Slapping
• Holding
• Illegal pick/screen -- when an offensive player is moving. When an offensive player sticks out a limb and makes physical contact with a defender in an attempt to block the path of the defender.

o Personal foul penalties: If a player is shooting while a being fouled, then he gets two free throws if his shot doesn't go in, but only one free throw if his shot does go in.
One & one. If the team committing the foul has seven or more fouls in the game, then the player who was fouled is awarded one free throw. If he makes his first shot, then he is awarded another free throw.
Ten or more fouls. If the team committing the foul has ten or more fouls, then the fouled player receives two free throws.

o Charging. An offensive foul that is committed when a player pushes or runs over a defensive player. The ball is given to the team that the foul was committed upon.

o Blocking. Blocking is illegal personal contact resulting from a defender not establishing position in time to prevent an opponent's drive to the basket.

o Flagrant foul. Violent contact with an opponent. This includes hitting, kicking, and punching. This type of foul results in free throws plus the offense retaining possession of the ball after the free throws.

o Intentional foul. When a player makes physical contact with another player with no reasonable effort to steal the ball. It is a judgment call for the officials.

o Technical foul. Technical foul. A player or a coach can commit this type of foul. It does not involve player contact or the ball but is instead about the 'manners' of the game. Foul language, obscenity, obscene gestures, and even arguing can be considered a technical foul, as can technical details regarding filling in the scorebook improperly or dunking during warm-ups.

VIOLATIONS:

Walking/Travelling. Taking more than 'a step and a half' without dribbling the ball is travelling. Moving your pivot foot once you've stopped dribbling is travelling.

Carrying/palming. When a player dribbles the ball with his hand too far to the side of or, sometimes, even under the ball.

Double Dribble. Dribbling the ball with both hands on the ball at the same time or picking up the dribble and then dribbling again is a double dribble.

Held ball. Occasionally, two or more opposing players will gain possession of the ball at the same time. In order to avoid a prolonged and/or violent tussle, the referee stops the action and awards the ball to one team or the other on a rotating basis.

Goaltending. If a defensive player interferes with a shot while it's on the way down toward the basket, while it's on the way up toward the basket after having touched the backboard, or while it's in the cylinder above the rim, it's goaltending and the shot counts. If committed by an offensive player, it's a violation.

Backcourt violation. Once the offense has brought the ball across the mid-court line, they cannot go back across the line during possession. If they do, the ball is awarded to the other team to pass inbounds.

Time restrictions. A player passing the ball inbounds has five seconds to pass the ball. If he does not, then the ball is awarded to the other team. Other time restrictions include the rule that a player cannot have the ball for more than five seconds when being closely guarded and, in some states and levels, shot-clock restrictions requiring a team to attempt a shot within a given time frame.

PLAYER POSITIONS:

Centre. Centres are generally your tallest players. They generally are positioned near the basket.
Offensive -- The centre’s goal is to get open for a pass and to shoot. They are also responsible for blocking defenders, known as picking or screening, to open other players up for driving to the basket for a goal. Centres are expected to get some offensive rebounds and put-backs.
Defensive -- On defence, the centre’s main responsibility is to keep opponents from shooting by blocking shots and passes in the key area. They also are expected to get a lot of rebounds because they're taller.

Forward. Your next tallest players will most likely be your forwards. While a forward may be called upon to play under the hoop, they may also be required to operate in the wings and corner areas.
Offensive -- Forwards are responsible to get free for a pass, take outside shots, drive for goals, and rebound.
Defensive -- Responsibilities include preventing drives to the goal and rebounding.

Guard. These are potentially your shortest players and they should be really good at dribbling fast, seeing the court, and passing. It is their job to bring the ball down the court and set up offensive plays.

Offensive -- Dribbling, passing, and setting up offensive plays are a guard's main responsibilities. They also need to be able to drive to the basket and to shoot from the perimeter.

Defensive -- On defence, a guard is responsible for stealing passes, contesting shots, preventing drives to the hoop, and for boxing out.

Gantt Chart :)

This is the Gantt chart that we will be working by:

(Right Click on image, and choose Open Link, for a clearer view)

Video Assessment Task 1

In this lesson we got told about our video assessment task and the groups we were going to work in. The group i'm in includes:

• Me (Zeenia)
• Sangeeta
• Vera
• Rowena

The assessment task asked us to make a video for "how to" do something, known as instructional. We were also given a time limit to complete it in which is 3-5 minutes. Some ideas that we thought up of were:

• How to make cupcakes
• How to bake a cake
• How to train your dog
• How to get ready for a party
• How to play basketball

The first 2 ideas were Sangeeta's but no one seemed to happy to be doing these. We also agreed that training a dog would be difficult to do without actually knowing how to do it. To get ready for a party meant that we would need many key factors for it, especially the dress, shoes, make-up and a suitable hairstyle. We thought that it would be too hard to find all of these things and then the last idea of how to do basketball was the most simple to complete.
By the end of the week we would hope to finish doing the storyboard and the gantt chart has already been completed by me so in the next post i will upload the gantt chart. Hopefully, by the end of the week we can complete all the major parts of the assessment task and be editing this weekend. We will try and make this video the best we can.

p.s This post was meant for the date of Tuesday May 11 2010.

My videeeoo

i made this slideshow video on windows movie maker. first i found the pictures then i added them to the movie maker and put animations and music on it. did you know, you can save the video in different resolutions? well i just put it on simple otherwise the movie size would be too large. i also had to trim the music so it wouldnt go on for too long, have fun and enjoooooy :)

Camera Phones.

There are many different features that are on a camera phone.

The first one is called Autofocus. Autofocus helps the camera to focus on the subject correctly. It also helps prevent blurred shots. It does not matter how many megapixels the phone has, without autofocus the shots would turn out very bad. Not all phones have autofocus, so when buying your phone make sure the phone includes that feature.

The second feature is called Dual LED or Xenon flash. A high quality flash is needed for a great photo to be taken. The best type of flash is Xenon, it produces a brighter burst of light which helps you take great pictures even in the dark. A Dual LED flash is twice as bright as a normal LED flash but only 1/1000th of Xenon.

The Xenon flash is the brightest flash by far, it produces the best quality low light pictures and the photos are less blurred. However the Xenon flash is expensive, its very heavy on the battery and it doesn't work well with videos.

Xenon Flash

The Dual LED flash is twice as bright as the normal LED flash, its cheaper than the Xenon, the low light pictures are okay and the videos work great. But it doesn't work well with still pictures and the pictures may be blurred.

Dual LED flash

The Single LED flash is very cheap but also useless.

Single LED flash

The third feature is White balance, Exposure and Preset Scene Modes. If you prefer taking pictures outside in the sun you would need a camera phone that lets you tweak white balance or exposure settings. With over-exposed shots they would look washed out and the sky looking almost white even if its blue. When you're able to control the white balance, it will cut down the effect.
At the least your camera phone has to include:

• Cloudy
• Sunny
• Incandescent- use indoors
• Fluorecent- indoors with fluorecent light

Another feature is called Image Stabilization. If you want photos that are not blurred, it's essential that you have Image stabilization. It's easier to move the picture when holding a camera phone with your hand so you definately need it rather than if it's on a stand like proper cameras. Image stabilization can't prevent blurred pics completely but it's very helpful to try and stop blurring the pictures.

Another feature is Mobile Phone Gizmos. A camera phone isn't only a camera but also a phone. This means you can upload pics from your phone to many different shariing sites. You need 3 key features to make a practical phone:

• Fast Internet connection- At least Wi-Fi and 3G, but cameras with 8 megapixels you need HSDPA as well, this gives you faster data transfer speeds and you need this when you increase the megapixels, also the pics take up a lot more space.
• Built-in support for image sharing sites- your phone wil need built-in for apps like Flickr, Youtube or Facebook. The easier it is to upload your pictures, the more you'll use the app.
• An easy to use interface- if the phone is difficult to use, you won't bother upoading your pics.

Geo-tagging could also be helpful, this stamps the location of the shot as well as the time and date. Sometimes you are able to edit pictures on your phone, but not much can be done on a 3" screen. You also do not need to use the removal of red eye's on your phone if you can do the same thing online on websites such as Picnik.

Another feature is Megapixels. A good quality 3 megapixel camera takes better shots than a poor quality 8 megapixeller. 5 megapixels is the practical baseline as to which phone to get. These have the best detail of pics.

The features you need in a camera phone include these:

• 5 or 8 megapixels
• Autofocus
• Image stabilization
• Range of preset scene modes
• Xenon or dual LED flash
• Good quality optics
• Fast internet connection
• Easy to use interface

A camera phone that i found that is practical and caught my attention is the Sony Ericsson Cyber- Shot K850. This phone features Digital camera capabilities, a 5 mega pixel camera, 40 MB of internal memory along with a Memory Stick (micro). This phone comes with Sony Ericsson's BestPic multi-shot feature to select the best photo and the Photo Fix system to touch things up on the go. It includes a built-in Xenon flash and the use of a dedicated shutter button. You can also take QVGA video's at 30 fps. And it comes in two colours, luminous green (shown below) and velvet blue.

term 2.

hellooo ! its the first lesson of term 2, today we discussed our term 1 assignment and then started talking about our new topic for the term. so far we talked about our video and the tasks we have to complete , today we should be able to finish the first task and then start the second task later. the task is about camera phones and we are supposed to post about some information we find in the article. also we have to find a good camera phone that works. the task will be in my next blogpost. byee :)