Vector Vs Bitmap

Both vector and bitmap are two different types of image files. Vector is used for simple images such as logo's and maps, these can be edited through things such as size whereas bitmap is better use for more detailed images such as photographs. Bitmap uses lots of different colours to make the images more detailed than a vector image, but due to this the main problem is that the size can't be adjusted without the image getting "Pixelated ".

Bitmap

These images are also known as raster images and are made up of all different pixels of colour on a grid, all these dots are what you see in the whole image. By doing this they are creating much more detail. Even the images that seem to be one whole block of colour are also made up of individual colour pixels. With a bitmap image the larger the resolution the more detailed the image is, due to this when you rescale an image the pixels are effected and the image looks less detailed, this also takes effect when you zoom in to the image, you can see that the pixels are bigger so the image starts to look fuzzy and different.

Also another effect of this is when drawing a diagonal line, because it is entered on to a grid it looks like a lot of squares so in order to make it look more like a line you have to make it more detailed, for example in a picture you would have to have the pixels on either side of the image a shade lighter so that the image doesn’t just have block squares and blends well together.

Due to the detail of each picture that in made in a bitmap form your printer has to be able to cope with printing with a lot of image data, in fact your printer has to cope with more than the screen does. The printer needs to be able to handle 150-300 in order  to print off bitmap images correctly and detailed, many people face problems with this as the images on the screen can turn out different to what actually comes out on paper. This is because of DPI and PPI, PPI stands for pixels per inch and initially accounts for what is on the screen, where as DPI stands for dots per inch and is a term used on printers. Pixels are the individual colours made up on the screen whereas dots are the number of drops of ink that the printer is laying down on the paper, so the higher the DPI the better the printer is and the more detailed images it can print. The PPI is simply the number of pixels per inch on the screen that consist of different colours to make a whole colour, this in effect will mean that one pixel could be made up of three dot of colour when printed.

Although bitmap is good for detail it does not easily support transparency saying that only two file formats are best these are .GIF and .PNG. Even so both of these formats have problems,  .GIF is has limitations on the number of colours you can use and .PNG was created after .GIF to eliminate these problems and is not always supported. Also with .GIF you have no choice to make it slightly transparent you either have the pixel coloured or transparent. Which can cuase problems if you later decide that you want to colour in the background as only the transparent pixels will be coloured and the coloured could leave the edge of the picture a completely different colour to the rest.

(Please double click on image to activate .gif)

Vector

Vector images are not as commonly used as bitmap images as they do not provide as much detail but are better suited to making things such as logos. Vector images allow you edit things whereas you face problems with bitmap when you try to due to the pixels. With vector images you can rescale objects and fill them with different colours you can also draw curves. This has allowed us to use fonts which are a type of vector image, you are able to rescale an image to a large size and still have smooth edges to the lines and curves.

One of the main advantages of using vector images compared to bitmap images is that you can place images over the top of each other and you will be able to see the image underneither. An example of mthis is when the background is coloured and you place an image over it if it is in vector format then the background will show through around the edge of the picture but in a bitmap format the pixels would stop the colour being around the edges as they are restricted to a rectangular shape.

The main problem users face when using vector images is that due to the lack of detail enabled you are not able to make things look realistic be cause they are made up of solid colours whereas photos are made up of gradients of colour that add shadows and depth to the picture. BUT vector images are becoming much better and advanced in technology so its only a matter of time before we are able to edit pictures professional with them without having a cartoon like image.

The things about vector images is that they are made up of matimatical number and such which is what allows you to rescale their size,  as they are more or less individual objects.

So overall with all the improvements that are being made to vector images it won’t be long before their able to do everything that a bitmap image can do and more.  The only problem that needs to be solved before a lot more people start using it is how to make it more detailed. Regardless at the moment both of these file formats have issues that limit what you are and are not able to edit on them.

Using Video Conferencing

Recently we have been introduced to a form of video conferencing, it was easy to understand but a lot more complex than what MSN allows you to do. It allows you to place someone in charge of the group and also to use web cam,one of the main things we found out was that compared to a lot of other Internet socialising sites it allows to to kick people out.Something a lot of people in the group found amusing, luckily we were all able to get a grasp of how the software worked before that happened.

Voiceover Internet Protocol

Voiceover internet protocols of VoIP are basically a way of making free phone calls at the same time. This works through changing analogue audio signals and changing them into digital data which can be sent over the internet. There are three basic ways of doing this, one is to have an adapter and your normal house phone, and another is to have brought a special phone that changes the data itself. But the easiest and cheapest is to have brought a few small things to use on your computer; these include a microphone, speakers and a soundcard. It is all done over the internet and depending on what software you download can often be free. A lot of people are starting to use this as it saving them money meaning that the phone companies are losing money.

Broadband- ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) Cable

Broadband is the most common type of internet access as it uses the telephone cable, it is able to work at high speeds as the analogue line is changed to a digital line. If you look into subscribing to an ADSL line you will be given a higher download speed compared to the upload speed, this is because the ADSL line is set so that information arrives at your computer faster than you can upload it. There are a lot of good points about using a ADSL line and one of them is that using it does not effect you phone line so you can use both at the same time. This is the most popular type of internet service provided as it is used by 99% of homes and businesses across the UK.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is used a lot in everyday technology; it is often used in printers and laptops and is almost certain to be in the latest mobile phones. The thing about Bluetooth is that it allows the user to communicate through devices without wires. Mobiles use a lot of Bluetooth for things like sending pictures and audio to one another and also to use a wireless head set, both of these examples need two things to communicate and are able to do it wirelessly due to Bluetooth. The one down point about Bluetooth is that it is only able to work across small distances, meaning you most of the time need to be in the same room as the other device. Bluetooth was thought about by many companies but in the end only one was able to make it first, that company was Ericsson Mobile Communication who were able to discover it in 1994 and name it Bluetooth. Although Bluetooth is very popular today there are still a lot of people that worry about the radiation that it produces as they are the same as a microwaves.

Last Lesson....Again

Today we had to do our evaluation, this consisted of a group and an individual evaluation. We had already done a paragraphs worth of and individual review so we decided that that would be alright as our individual review because there wasn't really much more we could add to it. Today I wrote out the evaluation whilst the others gave me their views to add to it and check what I had wrote to make sure that they agreed with it, we printed it out and that was the final part of our project production file so we were ready to hand it in today.

Complete

Today in Jackies lesson we checked what we had to do and found that really all the work had been done, so Zoe made a questionnaire and I when on photoshop and made a banner for my blog, I found the first version of photoshop frustrating because the buttons kept changing what they were doing, in the end I managed to complete one, it was pretty simple to do at the end but I found that the image was to small so the banner is at the side on my posts. Once I'd done this I sat with Zoe and Louis and they got a few people to answer the questions about the Website so that we can include feedback in the production file.

Extension

Today was a difficult lesson as we found it hard to find stuff to do as we had done all the written work we needed to do, Julian looked over our production file and we changed it according to what he said needed changing and tried to add in what he said was missing.

Last lesson

Today we had our last lesson on the project, we hoped to complete the project so that we wouldn't have to worry about it over the weekend, me and Zoe managed to complete the paperwork and spend some of our free time organising it in to the correct order and print off any new work. All that was left was the website and adding the videos to it.

Last lesson with Julian

Today we had our last lesson with Julian, I went out with Zoe to take some pictures for the location reece. We've managed to start tying up the loose ends of the production file so it's difficult to find things to do. I sent Zoe a screen shot of the email that she emailed me back so we can use both emails as our communication evidence. I also edited the budget sheet to show how much we ended up spending,  We have another lesson tomorrow with Jackie in which we need to do the treatment and the others need to write their review otherwise I won't have time to print it off. Me and Zoe are going to sort out the production file, adding in the sketches and the booking forms and putting things in the right place ect. This is so that we can check if anything is missing and what else we can add to it.

Emails and paperwork

Today we were trying to finish up all the paperwork, I sent an email to everyone asking whether they could write a review to add to the production file. Today Julian put up a list of what we needed to put in the production file, I highlighted what we had done on the list so that we could see what we still needed to do. Zoe also went over the paper work whilst Louis did the website and Josh sorted out the cut aways on the videos.

Undecided!!

This lesson since we were in Jackies room and Louis is mostly in charge of making the website I decided that it would be a good idea to make a page on all the changes we've made to the website idea since the beginning so that it's easier to understand why a lot of stuff is different to the actual website at the end. Zoe wrote up the location reece to add to our production file, Josh made a start on the treatment and Louis was able to continue with the website as he has flash on his laptop.

Although I feel like everyone has put the same amount of effort in to the project and worked hard in each lesson, it seems like there is still a lot to do before it will be finished. We're hoping that we will be able to complete it all in the rest of the lessons we have, which is about two/three if not I'm certain that everyone would be willing to come back another day on one of our days off for a few hours just to wrap up the loose ends.

Vector vs Bitmap!!

Both vector and bitmap are two different types of image files. Vector is used for simple images such as logo's and maps, these can be edited through things such as size whereas bitmap is better use for more detailed images such as photographs. Bitmap uses lots of different colours to make the images more detailed than a vector image, but due to this the main problem is that the size can't be adjusted without the image getting "Pixelated ".

What we've got so far!

Me and Zoe went to the LG in the break between our lesson to print off all the paper work that we had both done, since our main efforts were focused on the written side of the project and the boys were focusing more on the other work we both had most of the paper work between us. We were able to print off:
the budget,
the blogs page,
the front cover,
the buttons page,
the storyboard,
the schedule,
this is most of the paperwork required for the project, all we need  is for Josh to print off the proposal and for the whole group to meet up and write out the treatment.

Editing, re-editing and cut aways

Today I found out that Zoe and Louis came in on Friday in order to film some cut aways for the interviews that me and Zoe continued editing today, we looked over some of the videos that we had already edited to see where we could add the cut offs to make the video's more interesting to the viewers so that it wasn't all just talking and to provide more information. Josh is looking through the cut aways and Louis is working on the flash website.

More work

Today we had some time in Jackie's lesson to try and do some work and since we'd only had one other lesson this week it was a good time to put our heads down and try and do as much work as possible. Due to the fact that we didn't have access to flash and premier we had to do what ever we could find that needed doing. This lesson I managed to fill out a front cover for all of our written work, I included the units, the 3 assignments and the people in the group. Since this only took a few minutes I was also able to do a page with our blog addresses and write about what the blogs were for and how they helped us. Zoe updated her schedule of the lessons that we have done, and we started sending stuff through emails.

With the lack of lessons this week and half term last week it seems like we've hardly even started on the project so in the next couple of weeks there will probably be a lot of work.

Video Editing

Today me and Zoe started editing the videos that we had, taking out the pauses and any other unnecessary information that we didn't need. Louis did the photoshop mock up and started making the website whilst Josh also did video editing.

Site Maps

Today we looked at the site map layout of the happiness factory ready for us to make out on site maps for our website. I had already started doing the site map and had a few extra minutes to edit it.

Discussion forum and blogs

Discussion forums tend to be questions of something that the user wants to ask peoples opinion on whereas blogs seem to be a way of telling people something. For example on a discussion forum you could post “What mobile phone is the best?” but on a blog you would post “This is the best mobile?” Questions can also be asked on blogs but the main blog overall is normally telling you about something with one person in control of what is on the site with a discussion forum the only thing you really get to do is start it off and contribute .

Email vs IM

Emails are similar to text messages only they don’t cost the user anything. The best thing about Emails is that they are like sending a letter only they take a few seconds to arrive. Also the same email can be sent to a number of different people at the same time. In order to receive e-mail you have to use an e-mail client, it’s simple and free to sign up to certain providers like Hotmail.

Vs

IM is the same as being part of a chat room; you can have conversations with people over the internet. With IM you can send a message to a friend but only if they are on the good thing about this is that you don’t end up sending a tonne of E-mails to someone who isn’t going to reply. One of the main thing that makes IM so popular is that it allows you to use a webcam and talk to people rather than just by written text.

My own personal opinion is that I prefer E-mails as for me to use IM it becomes disorientating when I’m talking to so many people at the same time and the sad thing is that it stresses me out. With E-mails you can take your time and you don’t have to rush the message you write back. But the main reason I don’t use IM is because I HATE text talk, I prefer it when people write the whole word especially when the text version of the word is longer than the real spelling of the word.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

Multimedia messaging service is similar to SMS (Short Messaging Service) as it allows messages to be sent from one mobile to another mobile. There is one advancement that has been made and that is that MMS can sent not only text but sound, images and videos. MMS works by uses a combination of WAP and SMS in order to send it across to another mobile phone user. The research site explained it as "when the message is sent from a mobile phone, a mobile phone connects to an MMSC via WAP and transmits the MMS message content to an MMSC & the MMSC then takes responsibility for further delivery".  So in short MMS only works by using a lot of other protocols to make it work.

Brands

Brand logos are something that represents a company, they can often be assosiated with something of quality. The logos are usually displayed on all the different things produced by that company so it can range from things like trainers to tracky bottoms although that same company tends to stick to the same type of product. For example nike do sports clothing so you wouldn't see the nike logo on a can of drink unless it's in a sports bottle. I think that these logos are important as you are able to easly identify the products just by looking at the logo imprinted on it and you know that the company obviously pride their products as they are willing to put their insignia on it. This is why a lot of people like to buy branded items and why they are associated with quality.

Storm Tracker 7!

Today we spend time improving our skills on Photoshop by following Julian's online tutorial that showed us how to do things such as make lightening, 3D writing, and clouds. It was really interesting to do and helped us get to know photoshop better.

Work, Work, Work!!!

Today we all sat down at a computer and did different tasks since we had this lesson spare before we had to show Julian our interviews tomorrow. I managed to do the story board for the website and start a flow chart of the buttons on the site. Zoe worked on the photoshop mock up and came out with me to find out all the names of the buildings, Lewis started building the website on flash and Josh edited the videos.

3G-Zoe's blog

I learned a lot from Zoe's blog, the first thing I learned was that although 3G was a good development and is very popular today to begin with it wasn't as popular. I know that the reason for this was because of how expensive it was to buy. I also learned that it is the reason video calls and internet access is allowed on a mobile which was the reason it was so expensive. In order to look at web pages on their mobiles a load of new "mobile friendly" pages needed to be made.

Lastly I learned that Zoe is a shopaholic!

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)

GPRS stands for General Packet Radio Service, the main thing that GPRS does is allow 2G mobiles to send and receive information faster. The information travels at 32-48kbps and allows use during phone calls due to this it is now available on newer types of phones. The main reason this was developed was to make phones that are 2G closer to the standards of 3G phones. GPRS was introduced in 2000 this was called phase one, this phase only allowed information to be sent to one device at a given time. The plan is for GPRS to allow mobiles to send the same information to several devices at the same time this will be the second phase of GPRS.

Group discussion

We all went up to the Student Lounge to discuss what we had and had yet to do in our classes with Julian, the reason for  this was because we were unable to get on a computer with the correct software to start editing the interviews and making the website.

Filming the Interviews

Today we took out the camera and the rest of the equipment we would need to film all the interviews, Zoe had got hold of a lot of people and asked them to meet us for an interview. We had a few problems with some of the equipment but once we got used to doing the interviews we were able to do them in a short amount of time. We were trying to make it as organised as possible but it got to the stage where we were just grabbing who ever we could to interview. We were able to get all the interviews we needed in about an 2 hours which was a lot less time than we thought we would need.

GSM (Global System For Mobile Communication)

GSM stands for global system for mobile communication, the GSM is a competitive mobile internet sevice there are three other providers these are EDGE, CDMA and TDMA. GSM is the most popular service as it allows internet access and clear phone calls in most parts of the world.

WAP (Wireless Appilaction Protocol)

WAP the wireless application protocol is sometimes called the mobile internet, the reason for this being that it allows the user to access the internet via their mobiles. WAP is avaliable on most mobile phones, smartphones and PDA's. Because each of these devices tend to have a small screen the internet is displayed in the most basic form which allows it to be downloaded faster. Due to how popular WAP has become you are able to go on almost any sites and all of them are free of things such as java images and adds.

Using Discussion Forums

Using discussion forums is very simple to do you can learn how to use one in only a few minutes, I also found that it was a really good way to share information with other people and to comunicate without talking to each other.

What important information I learned from W3C that I will take in to account when creating a website

Reading the information on W3C's website I will take into account the disabilities that other people have and develop my website so that it best suits as many of those problems as possible. Since reading the information on W3C I have started to think of ways that I can make it possible for everyone to use it. I will take in to account things such as the font size and the background colour and adapt it to suit those who don'thave perfect eyesight. I will also make sure that anything I put on the Website doesn't flash more than 3 times in a second so that it doesn't cause any problems. Overall I think that reading the W3C information has made me more considerate of the limitation on the web for those with disabilities and how simply we can change it.

Group Meeting, The Plan and The Treatment

For the lesson we sat up in the student lounge and discussed our ideas and took notes over what we thought should be in each section. We also wrote down who we were going to ask to interview and what subjects we were going to aim to get an interview for. For the last fifteen minutes of the lesson we split into two groups and took some photos of the college buildings to use on the 3D overlay. We also agreed on what each of us was going to do between now and our next lesson together.

Group Meeting

Today we had a group meeting in M:019 we discussed different ideas that we all had for our Weymouth College website on flash and then decided on one main idea that was developed slightly by adding new ideas to it. We also were able to plan what we are going to do in tomorrows lessons so that we don' t waste any time, we all agreed that it would be best to start taking images straight away so in the first lesson we're going to write out the plan and any other written work we need to do and then take the camera's out and take the necessary pictures.

SMS

SMS stands for Short Message Service, these are devices such as Mobile phones and the web that use a form of written comunication known as a text message. These are a quick way to communicate with freinds but can also be used by the phone companys to contact their customers to tell them about new deals they offer, similarily companys can use emails to update their workers. I think that SMS is one of the best ways to communicate with people as it is cheaper than phoning them or sending them a letter, the best thing about it is that it allows long distance communication.