Output Devices

System Software - Consists of two major types One to control system components and one to control devices.

Operating System - Users can interact with the operating system directly or indirectly. It's a set of programs that may include, applications to configure devices, monitor performance, establish an internet connection, memory management and a user interface.

Operating System Functions
Cold boot - Turning on a computer that has been powered off completely.
Warm Boot - Using the operating system to restart a computer.

POST - Power on Self Test - Tests your computer to check basic functions are working correctly.

Boot Drive - is the drive from which your computer starts.

A recovery disk contains a few system files that will start the computer.

User Interface - Controls how you ender data and instructions and how information is sdisplayed on the screen. GUI - You interact with graphical interfaces through menus and visual images.

With a command line interface, a user uses the keyboard to enter data and instructions.

Dos is an example of a command line interface.

Memory management optimizes the user of the RAM.

Virtual Memory is a portion of a storage medium functioning as addition RAM - Though this allot slower than using the RAM by itself.

Driver is a small set of instructions used to tell the operating system how to use the piece of hardware. While other new hardware devices are plug and play for supported OS as the operating system already knows how to use the device.

Operating Systems will provide the user with an ability to manage files, search for files, view images, delete files or options on how to secure your computer.

Three types of an OS; Stand-Alone, Server or Embedded. For a list of current OS systems and their share of the web connected market click on this link.

Stand-Alones: Windows 7, Mac OS X, Unix, Linux.
Server Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008, Unix, Linux, Solaris, NetWare.
Embedded Operating Systems: Windows Embedded CE, Pal OS, iPhone OS, Google Android, Ciscos.

Sound

There are two types of Audio recordings Analog and Digital Audio. Digital audio involves capturing the sound waves through an analog interface and the other is via a MIDI interface - Musical Instrument
Digital Interface.

In Digital Audio there are three sampling frequencies that are often used which include, 44.1kHz, 22.05kHz and 11.025kHz. The higher the bit rate the higher the quality of the clip.

Digital Audio resolution determines the accuracy with which sound can be digitized. Size of a monophonic digital recording = sampling rate x (bit resolution / 8) x 1.

Size of a stereo recording = sampling rate x duration of recording in seconds x (bit resolution/8) x 2.

Exam - Calculating CD Audio quality. 

Steps - 1 x 2 x 44.100 x (16/8) = 176, 400 Bytes / 1024.
    So -  172 KB's for one second.

One minute would be - 10, 336 KB - 10.1MB.

 Analogue to Digital (and Back)

• Soundwaves we hear are analogue. The Computer stores data only in digital form (numbers computer code)

The process of converting between analogue and digital involve using a sound card interface usually built into your computer motherboard.

An audio files is created by sampling a sound and recording the amplitude of the wave at periodic intervals along the waveform.

Effects of Digital Sampling

The reconstructed wave is not an exact replica of the sampled wave.

Digitalization Process (1) -  The first step is to measure the amplitude as set intervals (Sample Frequency)

Key Concept

Computers store all information in a binary digital form, which means all data - text, photographs, audio or whatever else - is comprised of collections of ones and zeroes. The fundamentals building block do digital audio is binary numbers.

4 Steps in the Digitalization process; 1. Sampling a sound (from the analogue sound wave), 2. Recording the amplitude of each sample, 3. Store each record sequentially in a digital file, 4. Reconstruct the waveform from the digital file.

MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) 

This is the most common form of compress sound sequence into a small file. An MP3 format file will be 1/10 1 /112 the size of the standard wave format file from which it was derived.

MP3 format preserves the original level of sound quality when it is played (reconstructed).

Ideal for web, Samaller file size -> Less time to download. 

Copyright issues!

Midi AUDIO (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

Enables computers and digital instruments to create sound from scratch. A sequence of software and sound synthesizer is required in order to create MIDI scores.

Since they are small, MIDI files embedded in web pages load and play promptly.

Which is better? Analogue or Digital? Neither is best. There are pros and cons of both. All depends on it's application, is it for web, dvd, cd etc.

With Midi, it is difficult to playback spoken dialog, while digitized audio can do so with ease. 

Online News: Journalism's Strands Converge

Convergence - Definitions

• One conglomerate operating different media in one area. 
• Cross-promotion of the same product across different media.
• Reporting a story in different ways to suit different media.

Convergence and the Tampa model allow journalists to work together across different media platforms in one building.  This allows for shared content, new advertisers, possibilities for increased revenue and improved quality of reporting.

Flaws in this model of convergence:

Few journalists are capable of working across three or four different media platforms.Inappropriate content is produced for each medium.

The influence of the web:

Such a powerful tool at the disposal of news organisations world-wide. Each medium is able to use the web to increase it's audience.

It offers an interactive environment where people can comment on stories or correct facts by emailing the journalist.

Part of the uptake in online media is driven by faster internet.

Working in a traditional medium, plus the web is the logical scenario. Multi-skilling is important for job satisfaction.

New Technology on Mass Media


New technology provides new challenges. The concept of news-on-demand. The online audience can "cherry-pick" its news. Ordinary people can submit their footage of news events using their digital cameras and mobile phones.

Matt Drudge was a well-known citizen-journalist. Tradition media no longer having a monopoly of news. 400, 000 hits a day on the news story.

Repurposed web content, news portals, immediacy - no time restraints. Content supplied to PDAs and mobile phones.

Writing news for the Web

Standard news reporting rules apply. Short paragraphs, no set work length, use of language - international audience, careful word use. Awareness of cultural and ethnic differences.

Advertising and Converging online makes more money. News consumers will mould the future.