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Multimedia and Digital Commentary Online
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Provo, UT 84602
Featuring thought on digital and multimedia technologies, book recommendations, and interesting and useful links.
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Important Note!A while back, after a very long absence, I began updating this site (which was in effect a blog before blogs existed). Rediscovering the transient nature of the Web, I have recognized that some of the links do not work. Rather than try to fix this old version, however, I have now decided to convert to Wordpress on another site. Stay tuned! Places to GoA friend of mine in the multimedia industry once told me he was setting a trend by being the first to announce that he was NOT reading Wired. We don't always like their style, but they do know what is going on. The Los Angeles Times provides excellent coverage of what is happening with the impact of digital technology on life in general and on the media in particular. Check out the Internet.com site for a lot of up-to-date information on Internet technologies. Simba and Cowles have put together SimbaNet, a Web site that looks very interesting for "media professionals." On the WebLanguage Learning via the Web shows how the World Wide Web is experiencing exponential growth through its primary use as a means of accessing information. Unfortunately many educators were a bit late in considering its potential for education. World Wide Web Technology: What's Hot and What's Not. In 1996 we were feeling bad about almost missing the "Internet Revolution" but then we realized that Bill Gates had almost missed it as well. |
MPEG-7Most people have heard of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. Where those standards specify how video should be encoded and compressed, MPEG-7 specifies an XML schema for describing video content. Our interest at Brigham Young University (BYU) stemmed from our work on standard approaches for video asset descriptions (VAD).Our work with Japanese National Television and Motorola was incorporated into Part 9 of the standard, essentially a subset of the incredibly huge full MPEG-7 standard, known as the Core Description Profile. Random RipsCheck out these mini-essays on topics of
interest. You can even talk back, sound-off with your own ideas! Digitally SpeakingSeveral years we became quite interested in
the brouhaha surrounding the DOJ vs. Microsoft battle and published our first
piece on "Gates Hate" over ten years ago! Read previous essays on digital technologies in the Historical Perspectives section. |
Recent ArticlesHere is a piece that a colleague and I wrote on what we have been promoting as "tool and content malleability." Conference
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George Glider is an author that Bill Gates reads. No foolin'! George Gilder Said:TV defies the most obvious fact about its
customers -- their prodigal and efflorescent diversity: People perform scores
of thousands of different jobs; pursue multifarious hobbies; read hundreds of
thousands of different publications. TV ignores the reality that people are
not inherently couch potatoes; given a chance, they talk back and interact.
People have little in common except their prurient interests and morbid fears
and anxieties. Necessarily aiming its fare at this lowest-common-denominator
target, television gets worse and worse every year. Gilder GoldGilder published his "Telecosm Series" of articles in his new book, Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World. Buy it! Other ReadingCheck out our previous recommendations This is our "must read" list. It will be hard to anticipate what will be happening with digital technology if you have not read a significant part of the works listed here! |
Note: The background of our graphic is Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of his conception of the world's first automated computational device. Many people have discussed the significance of this device, but here is one brief historical account.. There was even an interesting controversy that surrounded the creation of a working model based on da Vinci's design. "After questions were raised about the extent to which the “replica” exceeded the information left by Leonardo, it was withdrawn."
The original site had a "Guestbook" capability that I was able to add using code I found on the Web. The comments are available here, and it is interesting to read many of those given the time that has passed..