The Internet - September 17

For September 17 we were required to read Jason Whitaker’s article, The Internet: The basics. Whitaker outlines many issues that have made the Internet so unique. Some important issues that he discusses are the differences of analog and digital, hypertext, digital imaging, and AV basics. These are the fundamental s of the Internet that we see, use, and work with everyday on a computer.

Digital and analog is now the huge difference in many subjects hence the conversion of our TV sets. Whitaker converses how "analog information, such as sound wave, is a continuous stream of data." On the other side there is digital "which is discrete, with distinct breaks between once piece of data and the next" (Whitaker 58). Digital technology helps information flow faster and keep it flawless while in transit. This is very similar to packet switching.

Whitaker discusses the essential component of the World Wide Web which is the hypertext. Hypertext is "the standard protocol for transmitting documents using the HTTP, the Web would not exist, and without a standard format for creating pages, including the ability to link between them (hyperlinks), web pages would lose a great deal of their usability" (Whitaker, 58). This perfectly sums of the importance of hypertext.

Digital imaging today has become an important asset to the Internet. An example of digital imaging used today is, social networking. Many social networks have digital images on their sites so people could express themselves. Digital imaging is a lot easier to share as well. There are several kiosks in store, malls, and shopping areas that allow easy development of digital photography. This is very different compared to the time when a picture from a 35mm camera and we had to send it out to get developed. Also with the digital imaging programs that are available it is very easy to alter digital photography. Whitaker explains that "the same way propaganda was used in written media we now have to second guess photographs as well."

Digital media often involves video which is sent in two different ways. Spatial and temporal compression differ in many aspects. Whitaker states that "spatial compression, sometimes referred to as run-length encoding, compacts the description of the visual areas of a frame by looking for patterns. This can reduce file size by over 50 percent" (Whitaker, 70). "Temporal compression compacts the description of scene changes during a sequence of frames so that there are fewer changes in sequence" (Whitaker, 70). This gives temporal compression less error as well as distortion.