01.05.2017 Views

632598256894

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Multimedia<br />

By the latter half of the 1990s, most personal computers came equipped to support multimedia, the<br />

ability to seamlessly display text, audio, and full-motion video. Computers were equipped with a highresolution<br />

monitor and a CD drive, and had audio capabilities. Because of the amount of storage that<br />

video requires, full-motion video was somewhat difficult to accomplish on these personal computers.<br />

In order to manage the large amount of storage that video processing requires, the video data was<br />

compressed. Data compression examined the data, and, using an algorithm or formula, reduced the<br />

amount of necessary storage space by eliminating redundancies in the data. Then, before the data was<br />

displayed, it was inflated back to its original form with little or no loss of picture quality.<br />

Today‟s personal computers with higher-resolution monitors, DVD drives, and fast processing<br />

speeds have very little trouble playing full-motion video from a DVD. Video clips can be viewed from<br />

a Web page or downloaded and played at a later time.<br />

Internet Multimedia<br />

The Internet provides an amazing plethora of information, and not just in text or still picture format.<br />

Streaming media, both video and audio, are becoming increasingly available on the Internet. There are<br />

several sites where one can obtain audio clips, listen to music, or listen to radio shows. For example,<br />

NFL football games and commentaries are available on the National Football League‟s or National<br />

Public Radio‟s respective Web pages. In addition, many music companies are allowing consumers to<br />

listen to music in the comfort of their homes before buying the CDs. Ruckus Network Inc. offered free<br />

and legal music downloads to college students from a library of nearly three million songs from<br />

various artists.<br />

The site best known for video is YouTube (now owned by Google). Users can view any video in the<br />

YouTube library of hundreds of millions of videos. With a free YouTube account, a user can post<br />

videos (picture and sound) to the library and share its existence with friends. By tagging the video<br />

with keywords, the user increases the chances that others might uncover the video and view it as well.<br />

A search of “fix computer” found nearly 8,000 videos with those keywords. There are videos to help<br />

the viewer learn to play the piano, the guitar, or the drums. There are many music videos from artists<br />

trying to be discovered. Organizations are putting videos on YouTube as well. Edmunds.com posted a<br />

video of a test drive of a 2010 Ford Mustang. Infomercials (of sorts) are also posted on YouTube.<br />

The Future—Today, Tomorrow, and Next Week<br />

The industrial revolution occurred toward the beginning of the nineteenth century and we are still<br />

feeling its effects today. The computer revolution began about 1950, and the microprocessor—the<br />

heart of the PC revolution—has been exploited for only the past 30 years. But think about how our<br />

everyday lives have changed as a result of these innovations. Remember, the microprocessor, the main<br />

component of a computer, is part of so many of our appliances, computers, automobiles, watches, and<br />

so forth. The impact of the computer revolution is just as large as, if not larger than, its precursor, the

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!