My OperaMultimedia Basics
Tuesday, April 19, 2005 12:15:14 AM
I am so glad I "came of age" in the era of WYSIWYG. It is however, very interesting and useful to know all the tech that goes on behind the scenes, from fonts to different files. In the KSlearn series, I am glad that the people I have had as instructors have melded in some of these details (eg., png vs. jpeg vs. gif, vector vs. bitmap, serif vs. sans serif) as this does give useful information for a maximized product. I can make beautiful webpages and multimedia presentations on my Alienware, with a 2.6 GHZ processor, 200 GB of hard drive space, cable internet, and THX certified sound card and speakers, but this does not do any good if my intended audience takes hours to download anything. However, I am glad that Photoshop, for example, has a powerful compression/maximization element. We do need a wake-up call that not everyone is equipped with state of the art technology, and that sacrifices made in quality may actually serve us well.
In creating my personal webpage, I am going to use "onload" commands that detect the browsers and capabilities of clients. This will mean me making several webpages, but that people with the right client technology can see the best I have to offer. It's also very important to understand the cost factor, and to try to find a webhost that does not charge on download bandwidth used per month. It seems to me these are relatively rare, as most companies have obviously found this trick and taken advantage of it... like cell phone companies!
I remember Dr. Bauer discussing about how, like the laundry detergent commercial, "Can you see the difference." Personally, I have my entire library of music in WMA which is considered slightly lossy but better sounding than MP3. I do however have MusicMatch platinum and the VBX sound processer, as well as Windows MediaPlayer with the Plus! Audio Enhancers. I can't tell the difference from the CD version... even with my finely tuned musician ear. I can however, tell where the graininess has entered when Image Ready maximizes my webpage... though I don't think my audience will see it. Functionality is important... and understanding compression is therefore quite useful.
In creating my personal webpage, I am going to use "onload" commands that detect the browsers and capabilities of clients. This will mean me making several webpages, but that people with the right client technology can see the best I have to offer. It's also very important to understand the cost factor, and to try to find a webhost that does not charge on download bandwidth used per month. It seems to me these are relatively rare, as most companies have obviously found this trick and taken advantage of it... like cell phone companies!
I remember Dr. Bauer discussing about how, like the laundry detergent commercial, "Can you see the difference." Personally, I have my entire library of music in WMA which is considered slightly lossy but better sounding than MP3. I do however have MusicMatch platinum and the VBX sound processer, as well as Windows MediaPlayer with the Plus! Audio Enhancers. I can't tell the difference from the CD version... even with my finely tuned musician ear. I can however, tell where the graininess has entered when Image Ready maximizes my webpage... though I don't think my audience will see it. Functionality is important... and understanding compression is therefore quite useful.
