1895 - The birth of cinema. The Lumiere brothers show 20 x 1 minute clips of moving images to a paying public. Movies have come a long way since these humble beginnings.
1906 - The first full length narrative feature film, "The Story of the Kelly Gang" was released in Australia. See a short clip of the film below.
1927 - The birth of the 'talkies' or films involving dialogue with the release of the movie "The Jazz Singer".
1929 - The first full-length full-colour and sound movie "On With the Snow" was produced.
1933 - The first Drive-In movie theatre.
1937 - The first full-length animated feature, Disney's "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs" was released.
1939 - TV was formally introduced at the New York World Fair. This was also the year many 'classic' movies were released including "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz".
1952 - First 3D movie released.
1955 - Movie back catalogue released to TV.
1956 - The first practical videotape recorder was released.
1959 - Two interesting but short lived ideas emerged; percepto-vision where viewers were given a small electric shock during crucial moments in horror films & Aroma-Rama or smell-a-vision.
1963 - The first Multiplex cinema opened. Also the first consumer version of a video recorder was released.
1967 - Sony introduced the PortaPak, the first portable video camera system.
1969 - Sony release the VCR.
1970 - The first IMAX is built.
1972 - Pay TV is introduced.
1985 - The first blockbuster video store is opened.
1986 - Pixar released the first fully computer-generated and computer-animated film.
1995 - Toy story was the first totally computer-generated feature length animated film.
1997 - DVD's are released.
1999 - TiVO released.
2001 - BMW releases a series of short films promoting their cars on the internet.
2002 - Movielink is introduced, a large bank of movies you could legally download from the internet.
2005 - Blue Ray discs are introduced.
2006 - YouTube creates a new place for video's to be viewed from.
2007 - For the first time a movie was released online before its DVD was released. The film was the sequel to Jackass.
2009 & beyond - The movie industry probably needs to work more with the internet as many people are now illegally downloading TV shows & movies off the internet rather than paying for them at the cinema or on DVD. Who knows where it will take film in the future...
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tute Week 4
1. What is the weight of the worlds biggest pumpkin? How long did it take to grow?
The worlds biggest pumpkin weighed in at 1528 pounds and took 4 1/2 months to grow (http://www.worldamazingrecords.com/2008/10/worlds-biggest-and-heaviest-pumpkin.html)
2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Lilly Allen?
I would have thought it would be twitter but I can't find anything on the internet to substantiate this. All I could find it this bogus website where you pay to find out her contact details (http://www.contactanycelebrity.com/trial/do/celebrityView?name=Lily-Allen&id=58697).
3. What is the length of a Giraffe's tongue?
46 centimeters!!! (http://www.ask.com/bar?q=How+Long+Is+a+Giraffe%27s+Tongue&page=1&qsrc=6&ab=0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sandiegozoo.org%2Fanimalbytes%2Ft-giraffe.html).
4. How would you define the word 'glycomics'? In your own words what does it really mean? What does the term 'seagull manager' refer to?
Glycomics is an area of biology concerned with the study of the structure & function of chains of sugars (http://www.ask.com/bar?q=glycomics+definition&page=1&qsrc=2417&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bio-medicine.org%2Fbiology-definition%2FGlycomics%2F).
A 'seagull manager' is a manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, then leaves (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=seagull+manager).
5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film? Which of his movies had Blondie in it?
Cronenberg's first feature film was Shivers in 1975 (http://www.ask.com/movies/people/David-Cronenberg/86249). His movie Videodrome featured Blondie (http://www.scifimoviepage.com/video.html).
6. When was the original 'Hackers Manifesto' written?
1986 (http://www.docdroppers.org/wiki/index.php?title=Hacker_Manifesto).
7. Why do phone numbers in Hollywood films start with 555?
Because the telephone numbers from 555 0100 to 555 0199 do not exist. They have been reserved especially for use in Hollywood movies. This is to avoid actual phone numbers being used in movies, which will eventually result in fans prank calling the number (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/geekend/?p=2438).
8. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Sydney?
After searching Countrylink, Greyhound & Webjet I found the cheapest way would be to fly with Jetstar. They have flights from $52 (http://www.webjet.com.au/flights/). Realistically though, hitchhiking would be the cheapest (but maybe not the safest) way.
9. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1965?
"Help!" by The Beatles (http://tsort.info/music/6hsv00.htm).
10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards & vocals?
The Black Assassins (http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Lecture Week 3 - Language of the Screen
Head Room
Head room describes how a person is centered in a frame in relation to their head. If the person does not have enough head room, their head is cut off in the shot, which makes them appear larger than they are. If the person has too much head room (or available space above their head) it makes it appear as though they are very short. The perfect amount of head room is a relatively small amount of available space above their head, which asks as a buffer so that the top of their head does not get cut off in the shot. A characters head room should remain constant throughout a film, or the audience will get confused as it will appear as though the character is growing/shrinking throughout the film.
Talking Room
Talking room refers to the amount of space in front of a person as they are speaking in a shot. If the person does not have enough talking room, their mouth will be very close to the edge of the shot. This will make it appear as though the person is right next to the person they are talking to. If the person has too much talking room, it will appear as though they are very far away from the person they are talking to. The right amount of talking room is to have more available space in front of the person than behind them to indicate a reasonable & normal distance between them & the person they are speaking to.
The Rule Of Thirds
The rule of thirds states that if you divide a shot up into 9 equal parts, the points of interest or focus of the shot should occur either 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up, rather than in the centre. This apparently creates a more aesthetically pleasing shot.
The 180 Degree Rule
This rule states that if you are filming shots of two people talking, you can only use shots from one side of the conversation. You must imagine that there is an invisible line between the two people, lets call them A & B. When filming the conversation between A & B you can use any number of shots of these two people that fall either 180 degrees to the left or to the right of them. If you used shots that covered the entire 360 degrees it would become confusing to the audience, as it would appear as though A & B had switched sides half way through.
See the below video for further explanation of the 180 degree rule.
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
Movies use different shots to answer each of these questions. For our exercise I have chosen the first episode of the popular TV series "How I Met Your Mother" to see how it uses different shots to answer each of these questions.
These first six screen shots above show the montage that begins the episode. It introduces Ted (WHO). From the images we gather he is single, an architect and in his 20's. The first two shots are Medium Close Ups showing the character from chest up.
There WHEN question is also easily answered by the narrator on the screen. But the shots above also help to show when as from the surroundings and clothing, we can see that its set in the present day.
The WHAT in this episode is that Ted is worried that he is getting older and wants to hurry up a find a girl he can get married to. Ted describes his feelings to his friend Barney in this shot which we can see is a Medium Shot.
The WHY in this episode refers to why Ted suddenly feels the need to get married. Ted feels this way because his best friend Marshall (who he lives with) is proposing to his college girlfriend Lilly (also Ted's friend). We can see this is another example of a Medium Shot.
The HOW refers to how Ted is going to attempt to get married. He does this by taking a girl he meets, Robin, out to dinner. This shot is shown above in the WHERE explanation.
As I said earlier, this show did not seem to use many of the common shots to answer the who, what, when, where, why, how questions. However they did use these techniques throughout the episode and I have some examples below.
These two shots are good examples of Medium Close Ups. Both of these shots actually start from further away and slowly get closer to the character. Doing this for both the characters makes the shot intimate, and we start to feel like the characters do, gazing upon eachother for the first time.
I thought this was a good example of a Medium Long Shot. We are still close enough to the characters to see their expressions (which is necessary to display the awkwardness in this shot) but the distance that is able to be shown between the characters emphasises the awkwardness they are experiencing.
This is a sharp contrast to the shot before, where the two same characters were shown in a Close Up, about to kiss. The closeness of this shot reflects how close the characters are to eachother, both physically and emotionally. The characters go from nearly kissing to sitting awkwardly on the couch (above) after Ted tells Robin, who he's been on only one date with, that he loves her. Poor Ted!
Head room describes how a person is centered in a frame in relation to their head. If the person does not have enough head room, their head is cut off in the shot, which makes them appear larger than they are. If the person has too much head room (or available space above their head) it makes it appear as though they are very short. The perfect amount of head room is a relatively small amount of available space above their head, which asks as a buffer so that the top of their head does not get cut off in the shot. A characters head room should remain constant throughout a film, or the audience will get confused as it will appear as though the character is growing/shrinking throughout the film.
Talking Room
Talking room refers to the amount of space in front of a person as they are speaking in a shot. If the person does not have enough talking room, their mouth will be very close to the edge of the shot. This will make it appear as though the person is right next to the person they are talking to. If the person has too much talking room, it will appear as though they are very far away from the person they are talking to. The right amount of talking room is to have more available space in front of the person than behind them to indicate a reasonable & normal distance between them & the person they are speaking to.
The Rule Of Thirds
The rule of thirds states that if you divide a shot up into 9 equal parts, the points of interest or focus of the shot should occur either 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up, rather than in the centre. This apparently creates a more aesthetically pleasing shot.
The 180 Degree Rule
This rule states that if you are filming shots of two people talking, you can only use shots from one side of the conversation. You must imagine that there is an invisible line between the two people, lets call them A & B. When filming the conversation between A & B you can use any number of shots of these two people that fall either 180 degrees to the left or to the right of them. If you used shots that covered the entire 360 degrees it would become confusing to the audience, as it would appear as though A & B had switched sides half way through.
See the below video for further explanation of the 180 degree rule.
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
Movies use different shots to answer each of these questions. For our exercise I have chosen the first episode of the popular TV series "How I Met Your Mother" to see how it uses different shots to answer each of these questions.
These first six screen shots above show the montage that begins the episode. It introduces Ted (WHO). From the images we gather he is single, an architect and in his 20's. The first two shots are Medium Close Ups showing the character from chest up.
An interesting feature in these shots is the fact that there is also a voice over narrating the montage. The narrator introduces the setting or WHERE (New York). Interestingly, there is no shot of the city itself in the episode (possibly because it was the pilot?) and the only other WHERE that is answered is in the different settings the characters are in. For example, the bar, and a restaurant (see below). The first shot is a Medium Long Shot as you can see most of the characters, but not their feet. The second I would say is a Long Shot as you can see both the characters head & feet in the frame, but they are still relatively large in the overall shot.
There WHEN question is also easily answered by the narrator on the screen. But the shots above also help to show when as from the surroundings and clothing, we can see that its set in the present day.
The WHAT in this episode is that Ted is worried that he is getting older and wants to hurry up a find a girl he can get married to. Ted describes his feelings to his friend Barney in this shot which we can see is a Medium Shot.
The WHY in this episode refers to why Ted suddenly feels the need to get married. Ted feels this way because his best friend Marshall (who he lives with) is proposing to his college girlfriend Lilly (also Ted's friend). We can see this is another example of a Medium Shot.
The HOW refers to how Ted is going to attempt to get married. He does this by taking a girl he meets, Robin, out to dinner. This shot is shown above in the WHERE explanation.
As I said earlier, this show did not seem to use many of the common shots to answer the who, what, when, where, why, how questions. However they did use these techniques throughout the episode and I have some examples below.
These two shots are good examples of Medium Close Ups. Both of these shots actually start from further away and slowly get closer to the character. Doing this for both the characters makes the shot intimate, and we start to feel like the characters do, gazing upon eachother for the first time.
I thought this was a good example of a Medium Long Shot. We are still close enough to the characters to see their expressions (which is necessary to display the awkwardness in this shot) but the distance that is able to be shown between the characters emphasises the awkwardness they are experiencing.
This is a sharp contrast to the shot before, where the two same characters were shown in a Close Up, about to kiss. The closeness of this shot reflects how close the characters are to eachother, both physically and emotionally. The characters go from nearly kissing to sitting awkwardly on the couch (above) after Ted tells Robin, who he's been on only one date with, that he loves her. Poor Ted!Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Video and Other Cool Stuff
Above is a video I took in class using the computer and then uploaded onto my blog. Below are some more cool things I've stumbled across during my time in cyberspace.
The Somewhat Ambitious is a blog by Paul Verhoeven (who does the Nerds of a Feather segment on Triple J) and others and pretty much just has a whole bunch of nerdy yet usually pretty interesting stuff.
For example, a recent post was about the different ways that people cause their Sims (characters in the popular computer game The Sims) to die.
Another website I like is for the TV show Good News Week. The show is hilarious, and you can see behind the scenes/extra footage, bloopers or watch the episodes again. Love it!
The Language of the Screen
ECU - Extreme Close Up
This shot involv
es framing a small detail of the subject, which is often enlarged more than life size. This shot is often used to create an intimate relationship with the subject. Eyes are often the focus of this type of shot. BCU - Big Close Up
This shot shows more of the face than an extreme close up but still does not show the entire face. This shot is mainly used for impact or to show detail.
CU - Close Up
Close ups focus o
n a detail in the overall subject or action. Common close ups involve the head or hands of a character. The closer a shot gets to its subject, the more of the background is lost. Therefore these shots are often used to emphasize the subject or character.MCU - Medium Close Up
This shot frames a person from about chest level to above their head. This is sometimes referred to as a talking head shot as this type of shot is often used when shooting a single person talking, eg a newsreader.
MS - Medium Shot
Medium shots as a ge
neral rule, show about half a persons body in the shot (generally from the waist up). Medium shots are often used when showing characters having a conversation. These shots still allow for subtle performances and detailed actions to be seen.MLS - Medium Long Shot
This shot usually frames someone from their head to about their knees. This allows for more of the background to be shown and allows the character more room to move. This shot is good for introducing a character as you can show nearly the whole character in the shot, while still being close enough to show necessary detail.
LS or Long Shot
In long shots, the whole s
ubject is in the frame. As a general rule, the characters head and feet should be nearly touching the top and bottom of the frame. Because alot of background can be shown in this image, these shots can be good for framing action scenes.VLS or Very Long Shot
In this shot, the subject is small in the overall image. This is sometimes known as the establishing shot and is often used for emphasising the background or environment the character is in and for setting the seen.Here's an image I found that sums it all up. Click here to go to the website where I found it.
Timeline - History of the Computer
1822 - Charles Babbage invents the Difference Engine to calculate mathematical tables (http://www.gizmag.com/go/1288/).
1842-1843 - Ada Byron annotated a translation of Charles Babbage's paper and in her notes, theorised the first computer program (http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html).
1939-1940 - Alan Turing, with the help of teams of mathematicians & cryptographers devised the first working computer, The Bombe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe#History_and_use).
1950 - Alan Turing proposed the Turing Test to judge computer intelligence (http://www.turing.org.uk/publications/testbook.html).
1950's - Computers first commercially produced for government, military & corporate work by IBM (http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/2009_08_02_archive.html).
1965 - Gordom Moore propounded Moore's Law; the capacity of microchips doubles every 2 years ( http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/2009_08_02_archive.html).
1972 - Think tanks at Zerox PARC invented concepts such as the mouse, the graphical user interface (GUI) & pull down menus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_PARC).
1975 - World's first personal computer (PC) is released. Its called the Altair (http://www.warbaby.com/FG_test/Timeline.html).
1975 - Bill Gates writes a computer language for the Altair called BASIC & created Microsoft (http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Bill_Gates.htm).
1976 - Apple 1 released. This computer was developed by Apple founders Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs (http://www.apple-history.com/).
1978 - Apple 2 is released (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Apple).
1979 - Apple release their 'killer application' Visicalc', essentially a spreadsheet application. (http://www.bricklin.com/visicalc.htm).
1980 - IBM meets with Bill Gates who agrees to write the operating system for the PC they are about to release (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm).
1981 - IBM release their PC on the market (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm).
1985 - Microsoft released Windows 1.0 (http://www.investingvalue.com/investment-leaders/bill-gates/index.htm).
1991 - Linus Torvalds puts his operating system Linux on the internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds).
1842-1843 - Ada Byron annotated a translation of Charles Babbage's paper and in her notes, theorised the first computer program (http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html).
1939-1940 - Alan Turing, with the help of teams of mathematicians & cryptographers devised the first working computer, The Bombe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe#History_and_use).
1950 - Alan Turing proposed the Turing Test to judge computer intelligence (http://www.turing.org.uk/publications/testbook.html).
1950's - Computers first commercially produced for government, military & corporate work by IBM (http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/2009_08_02_archive.html).
1965 - Gordom Moore propounded Moore's Law; the capacity of microchips doubles every 2 years ( http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/2009_08_02_archive.html).
1972 - Think tanks at Zerox PARC invented concepts such as the mouse, the graphical user interface (GUI) & pull down menus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_PARC).
1975 - World's first personal computer (PC) is released. Its called the Altair (http://www.warbaby.com/FG_test/Timeline.html).
1975 - Bill Gates writes a computer language for the Altair called BASIC & created Microsoft (http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Bill_Gates.htm).
1976 - Apple 1 released. This computer was developed by Apple founders Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs (http://www.apple-history.com/).
1978 - Apple 2 is released (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Apple).
1979 - Apple release their 'killer application' Visicalc', essentially a spreadsheet application. (http://www.bricklin.com/visicalc.htm).
1980 - IBM meets with Bill Gates who agrees to write the operating system for the PC they are about to release (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm).
1981 - IBM release their PC on the market (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm).
1985 - Microsoft released Windows 1.0 (http://www.investingvalue.com/investment-leaders/bill-gates/index.htm).
1991 - Linus Torvalds puts his operating system Linux on the internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds).
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Week 2 Lecture - History of the Computer & the Internet
The History of the Computer
The first stage of the computers development started with Charles Babbage's Difference Engine which was designed in the 19th century to calculate mathematical tables. Ada Byron drew upon Babbage's work in her studies, and she envisaged a machine that could be of everyday use by playing music & producing graphics & also conceived the first computer program.
Next, Alan Turing wrote a paper discussing the idea of a machine which could compute numbers. He and a team of mathematicians and cryptographers devised the first working computer called "The Bombe" which was used to break secret German codes.
The first computers were very large & expensive machines and were only used by government, military & corporate work. Computers were not commercially produced until the 1950's when IBM entered the market.
In 1965 Gordom Moore theorised that the capacity of a microchip would double every two years. 40 years on this law is still true.
Concepts such as the mouse, a graphical user interface (GUI) and pull-down menus weren't developed until the early 70s. They came about due to a think-tank at Xerox PARC.
1975 saw the release of the first personal computer; the Altair. The main flaw with its design however was that it didn't have a language which the user could use to communicate with the computer. It was Bill Gates who came up with an answer to this problem. He dropped out of uni, moved to Albuquerque in New Mexico & wrote a computer language called BASIC for the Altair. Now, computers could be used to do word processing, basic accounting & some games. This was the start of Microsoft.
Meetings of computer hobbyists were common around this time and at one of these, Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak met & hence started Apple. Out of wanting their own personal computer to play with, they developed the Applie 1. It had no case & no keyboard & they only sold 50.
Two years after the Altair was launched the Apple 2 was released at the West Coast Computer Fair in 1978. During the next 2 years demand for the product was huge and the company grew exponentially.
In 1979 Apple bought an application from Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston at the Harvard Business School that they believed was so good, people would buy a computer just so they could use this program. They paid $100.00 for Visicalc (a virtual spreadsheet program) & the program turned out to be even more popular then they anticipated. At this time, Apple held over 50% of the market.
At this time, IBM realised that this was a market they wanted to get into. In 1980 IBM called in the help of Bill Lowe, who promised the company a product in one year. Lowe's ide realied on the concept of open architecture whereby products from a range of companies are purchased but IBM would put them together & market them as a package.
The first problem IMB faced was getting the two types of software required for a computer; the language and the operating system. So IBM set up a meeting with Bill Gates, but Microsoft only had the language, not an operating system. IBM then went to Kidall, but they would not sign a non-disclosure agreement so IBM went back to Microsoft. So Microsoft agreed to create an operating system. They bought one from Tim Patterson called Kudos and re-developed it into PC DOS 1.0.
Through the Microsoft/IBM partnership, IBM slowly gained more & more of the market share. IBM soon developed their own user-friendly icon-based graphical user interface that had made Apple so popular in the beginning, it was called Windows.
In 1991 Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer created his own operating system so he could try out some of his own ideas on it. He then put his operating system on the internet & it became known as GNU/Linux. This operating system is still free to download today.
The Internet
The internet is a network of networks or what is also known as an internetwork. These networks can include servers, mainframes & PC's that are interconnected by the telephone system/broad-band cables/satellite services to link people around the world to an information-sharing system.
The idea of the internet was developed by the RAND corporation in the 1960's. They developed a scheme for a communication, commarnd & control network that could survive a nuclear ware because it had no central control. At the same time, a group of researchers from the US were working on a system called "Packet Switching" which broke down messages into small chunchs & transmitted them from one computer to another. These two worked together to create the early stages of the internet.
The US Department of Defence originally funded the proget for obvious military functions however the system was hi-jacked by researchers and ARPANET was developed. It was originally used to doenload academic data but other functions such as email , Bulletin Board Servers & Multiple User Domains were soon added.
The World Wide Web
The internet is not the same thing as the Web. The Web is just one use of the internet that came about in the 1990's. The Web included all the internet sites that people have made available on servers around the world. The Web became more accessable after the invention of browers such as Netscape in the early 1990's.
To distinguish between the internet and the web, think of the internet as a collection of computers, and every website on the internet is a collection of files that exist on a computer somewhere. When you look at a website, you are just looking at only those 'webpage' files and not the other files on the computer. The internet allows us to do other things like use MSN, but MSN is not part of the Web. The Web is just websites, it is just a small part of the internet.
Cyberspace
A conceptual space where words, relationships, data, welath & power are manifested by people using computer mediated communication technologies. Cyberspace is the sum of user's imaginations as they use the internet.
Early Internet Applications
Email is a virtual mail system which sends documents from one sender to another. Mail software systems include Microsoft Outlook. However email can also be accessed via webmail providers such as Hotmail. Just about anything you can have on a computer, you can send via email. Email is often said to be a good example of an "Asynchronous" medium whereby people can send emails that the other person can read whenever they please. In this sense, email exhanges may not necessarily occur in real-time.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a system which allows you to directly upload or download files from another copmuter onto your computer. This application formed the basis for the Peet-to-Peer file sharing programs that became popular in the late 1990's such as Napster.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a real time chat system what was popular in the 1990's as it allowed people to type to eachother in real time. It is an example of Synchronous communciaton. It is mainly used for chatting but it can also be used for file transfers.
MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes etc are variants on the same kind of program, usually known as MUDs. The term MUD originally stood for Multiple User Dungeon as it was used for Dungeons & Dragons. These were the original role playing games and were text only.
The first stage of the computers development started with Charles Babbage's Difference Engine which was designed in the 19th century to calculate mathematical tables. Ada Byron drew upon Babbage's work in her studies, and she envisaged a machine that could be of everyday use by playing music & producing graphics & also conceived the first computer program.
Next, Alan Turing wrote a paper discussing the idea of a machine which could compute numbers. He and a team of mathematicians and cryptographers devised the first working computer called "The Bombe" which was used to break secret German codes.
The first computers were very large & expensive machines and were only used by government, military & corporate work. Computers were not commercially produced until the 1950's when IBM entered the market.
In 1965 Gordom Moore theorised that the capacity of a microchip would double every two years. 40 years on this law is still true.
Concepts such as the mouse, a graphical user interface (GUI) and pull-down menus weren't developed until the early 70s. They came about due to a think-tank at Xerox PARC.
1975 saw the release of the first personal computer; the Altair. The main flaw with its design however was that it didn't have a language which the user could use to communicate with the computer. It was Bill Gates who came up with an answer to this problem. He dropped out of uni, moved to Albuquerque in New Mexico & wrote a computer language called BASIC for the Altair. Now, computers could be used to do word processing, basic accounting & some games. This was the start of Microsoft.
Meetings of computer hobbyists were common around this time and at one of these, Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak met & hence started Apple. Out of wanting their own personal computer to play with, they developed the Applie 1. It had no case & no keyboard & they only sold 50.
Two years after the Altair was launched the Apple 2 was released at the West Coast Computer Fair in 1978. During the next 2 years demand for the product was huge and the company grew exponentially.
In 1979 Apple bought an application from Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston at the Harvard Business School that they believed was so good, people would buy a computer just so they could use this program. They paid $100.00 for Visicalc (a virtual spreadsheet program) & the program turned out to be even more popular then they anticipated. At this time, Apple held over 50% of the market.
At this time, IBM realised that this was a market they wanted to get into. In 1980 IBM called in the help of Bill Lowe, who promised the company a product in one year. Lowe's ide realied on the concept of open architecture whereby products from a range of companies are purchased but IBM would put them together & market them as a package.
The first problem IMB faced was getting the two types of software required for a computer; the language and the operating system. So IBM set up a meeting with Bill Gates, but Microsoft only had the language, not an operating system. IBM then went to Kidall, but they would not sign a non-disclosure agreement so IBM went back to Microsoft. So Microsoft agreed to create an operating system. They bought one from Tim Patterson called Kudos and re-developed it into PC DOS 1.0.
Through the Microsoft/IBM partnership, IBM slowly gained more & more of the market share. IBM soon developed their own user-friendly icon-based graphical user interface that had made Apple so popular in the beginning, it was called Windows.
In 1991 Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer created his own operating system so he could try out some of his own ideas on it. He then put his operating system on the internet & it became known as GNU/Linux. This operating system is still free to download today.
The Internet
The internet is a network of networks or what is also known as an internetwork. These networks can include servers, mainframes & PC's that are interconnected by the telephone system/broad-band cables/satellite services to link people around the world to an information-sharing system.
The idea of the internet was developed by the RAND corporation in the 1960's. They developed a scheme for a communication, commarnd & control network that could survive a nuclear ware because it had no central control. At the same time, a group of researchers from the US were working on a system called "Packet Switching" which broke down messages into small chunchs & transmitted them from one computer to another. These two worked together to create the early stages of the internet.
The US Department of Defence originally funded the proget for obvious military functions however the system was hi-jacked by researchers and ARPANET was developed. It was originally used to doenload academic data but other functions such as email , Bulletin Board Servers & Multiple User Domains were soon added.
The World Wide Web
The internet is not the same thing as the Web. The Web is just one use of the internet that came about in the 1990's. The Web included all the internet sites that people have made available on servers around the world. The Web became more accessable after the invention of browers such as Netscape in the early 1990's.
To distinguish between the internet and the web, think of the internet as a collection of computers, and every website on the internet is a collection of files that exist on a computer somewhere. When you look at a website, you are just looking at only those 'webpage' files and not the other files on the computer. The internet allows us to do other things like use MSN, but MSN is not part of the Web. The Web is just websites, it is just a small part of the internet.
Cyberspace
A conceptual space where words, relationships, data, welath & power are manifested by people using computer mediated communication technologies. Cyberspace is the sum of user's imaginations as they use the internet.
Early Internet Applications
Email is a virtual mail system which sends documents from one sender to another. Mail software systems include Microsoft Outlook. However email can also be accessed via webmail providers such as Hotmail. Just about anything you can have on a computer, you can send via email. Email is often said to be a good example of an "Asynchronous" medium whereby people can send emails that the other person can read whenever they please. In this sense, email exhanges may not necessarily occur in real-time.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a system which allows you to directly upload or download files from another copmuter onto your computer. This application formed the basis for the Peet-to-Peer file sharing programs that became popular in the late 1990's such as Napster.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a real time chat system what was popular in the 1990's as it allowed people to type to eachother in real time. It is an example of Synchronous communciaton. It is mainly used for chatting but it can also be used for file transfers.
MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes etc are variants on the same kind of program, usually known as MUDs. The term MUD originally stood for Multiple User Dungeon as it was used for Dungeons & Dragons. These were the original role playing games and were text only.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Cool Stuff I Found on the Interweb...
Here are some of my favorite sites I go to on the net and some other things I've found recently that I think are worth looking at.
I think Homestar Runner is hilarious! Strongbad's email replies are the best. This one's a classic!!!
I found this site one day while I was aimlessly searching for 'something interesting' and came across this. Not only was it entertaining its also a bit educational and somewhat inspirational. The site is called Gapingvoid.
This guys draws little witty cartoons on the back of business cards. He also writes a really interesting blog. Here are a few of my favorite cartoons of his below.
I think Homestar Runner is hilarious! Strongbad's email replies are the best. This one's a classic!!!
I found this site one day while I was aimlessly searching for 'something interesting' and came across this. Not only was it entertaining its also a bit educational and somewhat inspirational. The site is called Gapingvoid.
This guys draws little witty cartoons on the back of business cards. He also writes a really interesting blog. Here are a few of my favorite cartoons of his below.
Examples of Convergent Technologies
The original iPhone was release in America on June 29 2007. It was names invention of the year by Time magazine the same year. iPhones do much more than just allow users to make phone calls. It includes functions such as a camera, text messaging, video calling, media player, email, web browsing & a multitude of games & fun & random applications.
Click here to see the full size image.
Facebook is another example of convergent technologies. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with two of his fellow roommates and computer science majors. It originally started as a way for Harvard students to stay in touch, but was eventually expanded to include all uni students, and finally everyone over the age of 13.
Click here to see the full size image.
Another example of convergent technology is the T-Shirt television. These shirts were created in 2004 & have 11 inch screens inbuilt into a T-shirt. The shirts are used for advertising campaigns in an effort to reach young audiences who are so used to television, that static advertisements no longer appeal to them.
Click here to see the full size image.
One final example of convergent technologies is a Robot Seal! This is used in nursing homes & by autistic & disabled children. They have sensors beneath its fur & wiskers that respond to petting by opening & closing its eyes and moving its flippers.
Click here to see the full size image.
Edited Pictures
In this example I've made the second image blurry by adjusting the sharpness.
In this example I have changed the second image by adjusting the tint.
In this example I altered the second image by adjusting the sepia level.
Finally I have altered the second image by adjusting the contrast level.
Definition of Convergence
According to the Motive Internet Glossary, "Convergence is the process by which mediums such as TV, cellular networks and internet-based applications are draw together or networked (http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/convergence.php).
Babylon also has a useful definition, "The occurrence of two or more things coming together" (http://dictionary.babylon.com/Convergence).
I would describe convergence in relation to new communication technologies as the coming together of a variety of communication forms including telephone, television, radio, internet, computers into one device.
The best example of this is a smart phone or iPhone. These devices combine technologies of the internet, computers and mobile phones. This allows you to make calls, send text, video call, take photos, watch movies, listen to music, surf the web, send emails etc!
Babylon also has a useful definition, "The occurrence of two or more things coming together" (http://dictionary.babylon.com/Convergence).
I would describe convergence in relation to new communication technologies as the coming together of a variety of communication forms including telephone, television, radio, internet, computers into one device.
The best example of this is a smart phone or iPhone. These devices combine technologies of the internet, computers and mobile phones. This allows you to make calls, send text, video call, take photos, watch movies, listen to music, surf the web, send emails etc!
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