CSE5900

1
CSE5900

• Introduction
• to Multimedia Computing

2
Prerequisites

• To take this subject, you must
• have a degree in computing, or
• Been employed in the industry for at least 5
  years
• I assume a lot of computing knowledge and people
  without this background will almost certainly
  fail the subject.

3
Assessment

• The assessment for this subject is
• 50 by examination
• 50 for practical work
• The examination component will consist of
• Mid-Term exam, Week 8, 25 (theres an example
  exam on the web site)
• Final Exam, Week 14, 25
• 12 weekly assignments, each worth 5 (best 10 of
  12 used)
• Assignments will be distributed at each
  lecture/posted on the web site
• They must be received by e-mail by the start of
  the following lecture
• (Late assignments will not be accepted.
• (Because of the broad scope of the subject, a
  more general assignment is not appropriate.)

4
Workload

• A full time load consists of 4 subjects
• A work week is 40-50 hours
• So I assume you
• Attend the lecture (optional) 2 hours.
• Spend 10 more hours a week working on the
  subject.
• Because there are many small assignments, rather
  than one or two big ones, youll need to budget
  for this kind of workload from the beginning.

5
Examinations

• Will require considerable rote learning
• Will primarily be
• True/False
• Fill in the blanks
• Define the acronyms
• Multiple choice
• Do the calculations
• This means that faking the examinations will be
  hard.
• You must get better than 40 on both the
  practical work and the examinations to pass.

6
Tutorials

• There are no tutorials
• I will be available from 6-8 on request.

7
Textbooks and Readings

• The textbook for the subject is Chapmans Digital
  Multimedia (Wiley, 2004). 2nd edition. This is a
  required book
• In each lecture, references will be made to
  specific Web sites I have found to be outstanding
  in the lectures area of interest.
• You will be required to explore these sites. I
  expect you to learn considerably more from them
  than from me. This is especially in areas of
  interest and concern to you, where I will only be
  skimming the surface and you probably know more
  about them than I do anyway...

8
This is NOT a Programming Subject

• Some of the things you wont learn are
• programming languages like
• Java (but you will learn some JavaScript -- no
  relation)
• Perl or Python
• (and other denizens of the far side of the CGI)
• HTML and XML
• tools like
• Photoshop
• Dreamweaver
• Net Fusion and other DBMSs
• Illustrator or Corel Draw
• Director or Author
• After Effects or Premier
• Flash or Fireworks

9
But

• For both languages and tools, you will learn a
  lot about
• What they do
• Why they do it
• How they do it
• Where they do it
• Who they are designed for
• When they are used
• How their files are structured and work

10
I Assume That, in the Real World, You...

• Will not be designing Web sites or other MM
  systems from scratch, and performing all the
  different roles
• artist, architect, writer, designer, toolmaker,
  etc.
• You may be supervising all of these and also
• design and perhaps build programs
• design perhaps build databases and backend
  computer systems
• and especially perform development management
  functions
• So, youll need to know a lot of mid- to
  high-level stuff about everything
• N.B. This typically will be detailed and
  technical, not theoretical and wishy-washy.

11
What is Multimedia???

• Multi many
• Media medium of communication
• Spoken words
• Written words
• Music
• Photographs
• Art (static)
• Art (moving)
• Animation
• and...
• Smells?
• Touch?

12
NOT just the World Wide Web

• (This is the most important point in this
  lecture!)

13
We will define multimedia as

• Web stuff
• Games (static)
• Games (first person perspective shoot em ups)
• Computer-based training/ educational material
• Computer-based presentation materials
• And leave the philosophical quagmire to the
  philosophers!

14
Common Issues

• Bandwidth
• How fast data can go from point A to point B
• Device Independence
• The need to be able to write once, run
  everywhere
• Compression
• Multimedia eats bandwidth, so compression is
  usually necessary.
• Slogans
• The world through the eye of a needle
• Drinking from a fire hose

15
The Tulip Bubble of Internet Shares

• Many Internet shares were between 10x and 100x
  overpriced.
• The value or worth of a public company is the
  price of a share times the number of shares
  issued. (The market capitalisation or market
  cap) Not to be confused with the value of the
  assets of a company. Or the size of the sales
  made. Or the profit made on those sales.
• Microsoft was valued by the share market as
  being worth a bit more than General Motors, but
  GM has many times the assets of Microsoft.

16
Shares are valued based on

• The size of the return as a ratio to the price of
  the share. A price to earnings ratio of 101 or
  201 means you get 10 or 5 of the price of a
  share as an annual dividend. This is OK. It does
  not count any increase in the value of the
  shares.
• (Note Most Web companies didnt pay dividends,
  and the price/value is created by the share
  market. Microsoft only started paying dividends
  in 2003.)
• So, the share price is determined by
• The P/E ratio
• The prospects that the company will grow.
• The prospects that the demand for the shares will
  increase, causing the price of the shares to
  increase.
• In a bubble, the third takes over and drives
  the market until there is an implosion. Which
  happened in March, 2000

17
Is Google a Bubble???

• Current (2006) share price is enormous compared
  to income
• But Google is actually bringing in billions of
  dollars of revenue.
• And those revenues are growing strongly
• See Henry Blodgets Internet Outsider blog for
  good, detailed discussions of these issues
• http//www.internetoutsider.com/

18
The Impact of the Web on Traditional Economic
Structures

• Maximum impact on areas of monopolistic
  competition, like books (Amazon), computers
  (Dell), computer software (???) and CDs (Amazon)
• Competition is based only on price and
  availability.
• Little loyalty to traditional sources.
• Medium impact on staples /commodities / brands /
  white goods
• Sugar, coffee, flower, Coke and the like
• Pentium 4 2500mhz computers etc.
• Levi Straus Jeans, Bludstone shoes, I know the
  size, model, colour, etc., that I want.
• Order on Web, with delivery.
• Medium impact on newspaper classified ads,
  magazines of classified ads, with the eBay
  auction model taking off.

19
The Economic Impact of the Web, 2

• Some kind of a significant impact on
• Libraries
• The music industry
• Magazine publishing
• What else????????????????????????????????
• That was my perspective 4 years ago.
• Where was I wrong????
• What are the implications of the .COM crash
• (other than to reinforce your belief that theres
  a sucker born every minute?)

20
Why Was There a Crash?

• Because people are irrational.
• Because organisations are irrational.
• Because so many enormous profits were being made
  on pure speculation Invest, wait and sell for an
  enormous profit.
• (This is fine if
• You dont believe all the bull shit
• You sell before the inevitable bust)
• Who really believed in the New Economy?