Keep talking.

Voiceover Internet Protocol.

     Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) takes analogue signals and converts them into digital signals so they can be sent over the Internet. This can be very useful in the sense that calls are free and are not in connection with any phone company. This comes also with other not so obvious advantages...

     It can be used well in business if clients or members of a team are dispersed around a large area, they can talk over the Internet with video conferencing also. Also, VoIP can be used to enhance relationships with customers, but as well as uses for business, the protocol can be used for domestic use too.

    Although some problems with VoIP can be line connection, without a half decent connection its reliability goes down. As for other users there are other means of technology that mean the user can complete the same task, possibly in a way they are more familiar with.

     Currently in the UK, BT is a company which is investing in VoIP service but users do have to pay a monthly fee for it. It can be available for users who buy their routers. Other services such as Skype are free if you are calling to another Skype user. This uses video as well as audio in calling, it can be used for video conferencing also. (Users connect and can chat to each other for business or domestic use.)

ADSL Cable - Broadband

ADSL Cable

     Broadband refers to the ability to download information to you, usually via the internet. Today it is widely available in many countries, and there are different ways of accessing it. Broadband is also better for downloading large amounts of information at a quicker speed than a dial - up connection.      

     DSL (Digital Subscriber Line.) is available all over the world but there are many variations for different areas. For example here in sunny England we have ADSL (Asymmentrical Digital Subscriber Line.). It is the protocol that we use to access the internet with broadband. It can download much information quickly in one direction so web pages will load faster and files such as audio and video files. Up to 512 Kbps can be accessable with downstream content. Upstream it is possible to have 128 Kbps.

Teeth... that are blue.

     Bluetooth is a wireless protocol that lets you access and share information between you and others. (Most commonly Bluetooth is found on most modern phones.) This information can include sharing audio and video files and talking to each other. (All of this is without wires.)

     The tech spec; Bluetooth uses radio waves but unlike technology such as FM radios and televisions which can distribute information over miles, Bluetooth is for use in your personal space. (Up to 33 feet.) A device that has Bluetooth means that the device has a small computer chip inside of it containing the Bluetooth radio. (This is the technology that accesses Bluetooth technology and allows users to connect with wireless applications.

     The aim of Bluetooth technology was to replace technology that uses wires ultimately! Many electronic hand - held devices today have Bluetooth capability. 

Bits of Vector

Bitmap/Vector Image demonstration.

Bitmap and vector images are two different types of image that both have some similar properties, but above are useful for different applications. In a nut shell bitmap images are made up of pixels. (tiny squares that fill up your computer screen.) A basic use of this would be images from a digital camera. Whereas vector images are made up of different shapes and lines.

Images of the bitmap variety... Some basic pros of using bitmap images for the web is that you can have as many colours as there are pixels in the image. (That's usually quite a lot!)  Cons include the fact that you can never enlarge a bitmap image as it pixelates (Degrades the quality.) and you cannot turn a bitmap image into a vector, this works vice-versa though. Some formats for using bitmap images online include JPEG, (Smaller file sizes.) PNG, GIF, (Both formats for more simple images.) BmP, Tif and Psd (Photoshop.) On - screen bitmap images are displayed at at least 72 DPI (Dots per inch.) and print at at least 300 DPI.

Images of the vector variety... Pros include that you can scale the image to any size and not loose quality, they have smaller file sizes and you can convert them to bitmap images. BUT, to read vector images you must have a player (Such as Flash.) to view the images. Also the images are considered to be more simple than bitmap images as you can't have as many individual colours. (Well it's possible but in that case you may as well use a bitmap image.) Vector image file types include ai, eps, 3ds, Swf, Sug. Vectors are usually used for possibly logo's, (As they can be scaled.) maps and even diagrams.

Things learnt also:
Some other useful information I have learnt at college includes these;

R G B - On screen colours and light can make any colour..
e  r  l
d e u
   e e
   n

C M Y K - Colours used for print.
y  a  e  b
a  g  l   l
n  e  l   a
    n o  c
    t w  k
    a

Alpha - An images transparency.

From Email to IM...

Email and Instant Messaging (IM) both use the same concept. They both have the same basic function of messaging another person by using the Internet, although they have differences they can be used effectively in different situations.



IM can be used if the people involved in the conversation are all online at one time. Instant messaging is just that, typing usually short messages to each other and instantly sending them in a 'chat' window. Some popular programs for this include Windows Live Messenger, and even FaceBook chat.

Electronic mail! Email has the same principle as IM, sending messages to each other but the people involved do not need to online at the same time. Messages are displayed in an inbox for the user to view and email is considered to be more formal as it is used more for business related topics also.





IM window.



Email inbox





Directions please?

Sitemaps are the basic outline of a website that an information architect creates. It shows what pages should link where and can be very complicated. It is also known as the structure of the website, something for the rest of the web designers and creators to work to so it must be done correctly. My college group got asked to make sitemaps for a pre - existing site, the coca cola happiness factory site to try and get the gist of creating a sitemap. Well I found even this task difficult, so creating a sitemap from scratch should be a challenge!

Click to enlarge.

Brand Power!

Today, there are millions upon millions of different brand logos that signify different companies, infact we see them all the time, nearly constantly infact and we may not even notice it. The brand logo is the identity of a company and something that makes it different too all others. My college group had a recent lecture on the power of branding and how by even just seeing part of a logo, we can identify the company it is from. Give it a go yourself, look at the picture below and try and see if you can identify the brand.

Click for the answer here.

If you guessed right that is how branding works, generally the more advertisement of the company, the more people will recognise the logo. They will differ for different genres, for example a toy selling company may choose brighter colours that stand out more, appealing to their target audience. Whereas an insurance company may be more bland.

Creative Stylesheets

Moldy Media 7. . . An odd name but nonetheless it displays the techniques used from a three part tutorial on Youtube created by my college tutor to create 3D text, lightening effects and a great looking background. I found it to be very useful as I am relativly new to Photoshop CS4 but I think the outcome looks quite good.

The main effects in the tutorial involved gradient tools for the background (then putting a cloud effect in over the top with lower opacity.) and creating the 3D effect for the text. I did this by duplicating the moldy media layer several times and by adding a motion blur to them and positioning them behind the original moldy media part. The rest, the lightening and background text, were relativly easy to do. The lightening was just the cloud effect with edited hue/saturation and colour balance and the background text was made using the simple text tool and then I edited its opacity for the effect. To finish it all off I made the background look as if it is raining by adding noise and then blurring that layer.

Discuss on the Blog?

Both discussion forums and blogs can be very useful to the user to gain information from the creator or to contribute your own information. But they have differences.

Disscussion forums are generally used for people who are seeking help or wish to see people comment on the subject that they have presented. People can contribute usually in a very easy way and the comments are there for everyone to view.

On the other hand blogs are content all created by one user and the user has their own page. A blog post is generally about an informational subject or topic that people can read and get knowledge from. It is still possible to comment on blogs although the comments can be deleted by the blog creator and they are not always completely public to view.

Time to discuss...

On Weymouth College Moodle system (For students to see work, what lessons they have etc.)  we are now able to post on a new forum about tutorials or many other subjects about computing or digital communication. You can comment on other peoples posts aswel as creating your own posts to share knowledge and possibly seek help from others.

MMS, it's a fact.

MMS messaging logo.

MMS means Multi - media Messaging Service, this is different from SMS messaging which I have posted about previously because it can allow the user to send not just text in the message but also other items such as pictures, videos and sounds.

There are a good number of formats a sender can use for MMS.
Some formats include :
Text (Colour, type of text and size can be changed.)
Images (JPEG, GIF)
Video (MPEG)
Audio (MP3, MIDI)

Generally MMS messaging is used for mobile phones but it is also possible to send MMS to email addresses from a phone. Essentially MMS is just an advancement of the SMS protocol, so is roughly simular to use and reliable.
The first MMS capible phones were introduced in 2002 and it has continued to grow to be on many phones today. Although some companies such as Sony Ericson introduced EMS to their new phones, which has some features of MMS but is just an advanced version of SMS in simple terms.

3G - a little help from my friends...

The 3rd Generation protocol is one of the most up-to-date protocol, it allows the user of the phone to access the web fast, transfer data eaily and makes calls easier to hear. When your network coverage is minimal, 3G can also be used to call people who are out of range. Most modern phones will have 3G now, and can also come with a camera for video calling.
3G is also growing as it becomes more important to this day.

3G is still in its younger years and 4G is already being developed...

GPRS

GPRS stand for General Packet Radio Service. Used on mobile phones, they update 2G phones so that it can constantly download data and more rapidly. (usually around 32 - 48 kbps.) The phrase that your phone is 'always on' comes into GPRS as it can even transfer data whilst you are talking to someone on your phone. GPRS is more widely available on most new phones.

This service has diffferent classes, meaning that the better class you have, the more data can be transfered quicker. For example if you have class 2 GPRS with 3 slots this means you are limited to 8 - 12 kbps upload/ 16 - 24kbps download. If you have the higher class 12 with 5 slots you have 32 - 48 kbps upload/ 32 - 48 kbps download, there are also classes inbetween to suit your phone.

GSM

GSM mean Global Systems for Mobile communications. It is called a cellular network, mobiles can connect to it using cells in the immidiate vicinity. It was created in 1982 so that many people using this standard accross Europe could connect to the internet.

The basic principle for the creation of GSM was to allow the mobile broadband industry to grow so that many people can connect to broadband on more devices over a wider area. GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data. It operates at either the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band. (A wider range of freguencies also means that this is more widely availible.) 

GSM today is a huge corperation with over 690 mobile networks using it and it represents 82.4 percent of all global mobile connections. It is active in over 200 countries!

WAP... what's it all about?

Wireless Application Protocol is a standard that means different devices (Mostly mobile phones and PDA's) can use as a multi layered application to access the internet from. The WAP browser allows the user to access the internet or set up systems from a smaller device. The internet sites that the WAP browser enters usually have to be made using WML. (Wireless markup Language.)
Since the wireless application protocol many tasks we can do by phone now were not possible before. These are tasks such as emailing from a phone device, accessing the internet and dowloading files to store from the web.
WAP is a global operation, so it doesn't matter which country you are in as long as you are able to connect you can browse the web and use other applications from WAP.



Screen shot of WAP programming device for mobile phones.



W3C - what it does.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is about creating web standards, so that many people can operate the internet from more devices so that more people may access the internet from different places. The aim is to create 'one web.' Basically they design and publish protocols and guidelines for people to follow who contribute to the web. Tim Berners - Lee is the creator of the World Wide Web and leads the organisation along with other technical experts.

There are tools on the W3C site such as the web validator, to see if certain sites are valid and many guidelines to follow and consider before creating a website, useful for todays web. (W3C's work is advisable to follow nowadays for web developers.)

College Promo - A work in progress

It has begun, our Weymouth College Promotional video will start being shot as of tomorow (12/10/10) and we have decided upon the basics, who is doing what, where and when to film, and what type of shots the film will include to get the best view of college. Our video plan includes pan/zoom shots of the college in different locations, interviews from students and hopefully lecturers. Also incorperating information about success rates and such.
Once this is completed the next stages can begin:
-Film editing. (Due 19/10/10)
-Photoshop editing.
-Flash editing.

This will all come together for a finished product, the Weymouth College promotional website. More progress will be uploaded at a later date. (Alex Mold, Zac Hillwalsh, Nick Saunders, Kyle Briar.)

SMS, what is it?

'SMS' is a shortened term used for short messaging service. Short pieces of text than can be sent from one mobile phone to others in an instant. It is so widely used today, we all text as it is so easy and simple to do, also many of the abbriviations we use are because of it! We can keep in touch with everyone at our fingertips.

Tex messages are now to be considered lower and older technology as it has been around for a while whereas mulimedia messaging (Sending of text, images and videos.) Is now more advanced but SMS is where it all began. I can't imagine a mobile phone these days without SMS!