Modern computing
We, as human beings, are born with a sense of curiosity that makes us want to explore the world around us and seek to understand 'how things work'. These explorations are carried out based on the perceptions of our with five senses. All five senses namely; sight, sound, taste, smell and touch feed our curiosity as well as helping us understand the world, its objects and its ideas.

Computers, during the early years were complex, very difficult to use and limited in their capabilities. One of the factors that contributed to their complexity was the fact that they employed a limited number of media such as text alone to communicate with their environment which in turn was their human users. Computers over the years have evolved to be more user-friendly mainly because of an increased capacity to use multiple forms of media such as imagery and sounds to communicate and give feedback to their users.

This realisation led to the dawn of the multimedia age with the advent of microprocessors that were capable of executing special multimedia related instructions during the mid 1990s and the computer's ability to process audio and video information has grown exponentially over the years.

As the computers grow in user-friendliness and accessibility, so has the number of users and their range. Most of the users of modern computers are not necessarily programmers or researchers, but ordinary people such as executives, secretaries and students who have a minimal knowledge if any about programming or the inner workings of the machines.

Thus, it has been vital that the interface between the computer and the user be capable of fostering efficient communication and provides the user with a comfortable environment in which he/she could accomplish a given task. This has been possible only with the advent and advancement of multimedia technology which has grown into one of four main fields in computer science and one that has not been affected by the economic downturns of the recent past unlike fields such as hardware and software that felt the adverse effects of the slowing economy. As a result, jobs in the multimedia sector showed a growth while the majority of sectors had to cut down on jobs to stay afloat.

Multimedia applications have been utilised to provide interactive interfaces to computer software that are used in various aspects such as Computer Based Training (CBT), Interactive Websites on the World Wide Web, advertising, movies, cartoons and entertainment services, computer games and many more. But the development of these applications requires the most rare and highly priced component - creativity. So if 'creative' is your middle name and you want to get into IT... you might just want to consider being up-to-date in the field of multimedia.

We invite those engaged in the field of multimedia and those aspiring to do so, to write in and share your views with us about any of the aspects discussed above. Write into Technopage and share your knowledge and experience with everyone.

What is overclocking? Overclocking involves
running the hardware, such as processors and RAM, at higher speeds than what the manufacturer has rated (and guaranteed) that device to run at.

This can potentially result in increased performance of the hardware and the entire system at no additional cost.

Generally, overclocking is achieved by increasing the clock speed of the device: Overclocking rely heavily on a number of variables, such as architecture, yields, temperatures, tolerances and cooling that allow an increase in the speed of the device, ideally without spending additional money.

As with running any piece of hardware outside of manufacturer's guaranteed specifications and parameters, there is always the possibility of damage to hardware. You risk shortening the lifespan of a system as well as compromising system stability.

As long as your hardware is cooled properly, and you don't go overboard trying to feed it too much voltage/power, permanent damage is minimised. Additional heat and voltage does increase the wear and tear on the processor, shortening its life. Fortunately, most people will have long replaced that component before its operational life comes to an end.

Remember that your mileage may vary; just because someone else's hardware has reached a certain speed in no way guarantees that yours will also reach the same speed. You should always thoroughly research the hardware that you are going to overclock before cranking up the speed.
Sent in by
Vishwa Jayasinghe

Snippets
Sun Microsystems to build their own distribution of Linux?
Sun Microsystems has decided to drop its own brand of Linux in favour of existing distributions. Sun said the reason for the change came from customers who were unhappy about having to contend with another version of Linux. Sun will instead partner up with an existing Linux vendor such as Red Hat or SuSE. Sun has not announced which vendor it plans to pursue talks with, and no timeline has been set by the company.

Sun still plans to offer a Linux desktop by June. The desktops were to have been loaded with the Sun version of Linux but it is not clear whether the desktops will still offer the Sun version of Linux or another distribution.

Broadband handshake...
Scientists in Japan are currently researching the electric signals produced by a human being. The technology they are investigating is wireless communication devices powered by these signals. The results could herald a new wave of communication where information could be passed from one device to another by way of a handshake.

The company behind this research is Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), which has confirmed that such a technology would allow data transfer at broadband speed, but relying solely on the electrical signals produced by the person wearing the device.

As well as human-to-human data transfer, NTT also sees human-to-machine interaction as feasible, with identification being given just by touching a surface. The technology has yet to be perfected, and therefore costs and specific details have yet to be disclosed.

Improve your computer literacy
Vampire tap: A cable connection used to connect transceivers to a Thicknet coaxial cable in an Ethernet network using a bus topology. Instead of cutting the cable and attaching connectors to both ends of the severed coaxial cable, a vampire tap pierces through (hence the name vampire) the insulating layer of the cable and makes direct contact with the cable's conducting core.

Companding: Formed from the words compressing and expanding. A PCM compression technique where analog signal values are rounded on a non-linear scale. The data is compressed before being sent and then expanded at the receiving end using the same non-linear scale. Companding reduces the noise and crosstalk levels at the receiver.

COCOMO: Short for Constructive Cost Model, a method for evaluating and/or estimating the cost of software development. There are three levels in the COCOMO hierarchy:

* Basic COCOMO: computes software development effort and cost as a function of programme size expressed in estimated DSIs. There are three modes within Basic COCOMO:

Organic Mode: Development projects typically are uncomplicated and involve small experienced teams. The planned software is not considered innovative and requires a relatively small amount of DSIs (typically under 50,000).

Semidetached Mode: Development projects typically are more complicated than in Organic Mode and involve teams of people with mixed levels of experience. The software requires no more than 300,000 DSIs. The project has characteristics of both projects for Organic Mode and projects for Embedded Mode.

Embedded Mode: Development projects must fit into a rigid set of requirements because the software is to be embedded in a strongly joined complex of hardware, software, regulations and operating procedures.

* Intermediate COCOMO: an extension of the Basic model that computes software development effort by adding a set of "cost drivers," that will determine the effort and duration of the project, such as assessments of personnel and hardware.

* Detailed COCOMO: an extension of the Intermediate model that adds effort multipliers for each phase of the project to determine the cost driver's impact on each step.

COCOMO was developed by Barry Boehm in his 1981 book, Software Engineering Economics.

Back to Top

Back to Mirror Magazine

Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Webmaster