Web Week 7

This week in Web Publishing, we looked at the grey scale, dithering and pixel depth reduction

A grey scale is used to display black and white images. The more shades of grey available, the smoother the image will look. The grey scale is most frequently displayed in an 8-bit format which means the maximum number of shades available is 256.

Dithering is a system the computer uses to simulate a colour when only a set pallet is available. This is accomplished by placing two or more colours in a pattern on a pixel-sized scale so that from the users point of view, the image appears to be a different colour.

Pixel depth resolution describes how many colours an image needs. For example, an image with 24 bits per pixel would have 16 million colours available but if it was reduced to two bits per pixel, it would only have 4 possible colours. The system would then choose the colours which fit the best.

In the labs, our group decided to give up on the Google Online Marketing Challenge and instead do a 2000 word essay for assignment 3. I have chosen the title "Law in Virtual Worlds".

Web Week 6

This week in Web Publishing we looked at what we need to do for assignment two. We will be examining different types of file compression using Photoshop. We have been given three images which we must save as JPG's and GIF's with different levels of quality to analyze the differences between them. Afterwards, we must write a report on the quality of the files and whether they would be acceptable for use.

In our second lecture we went over search engine optimization and how it is encoded into a website. Most sites use meta tags and keywords to try and bump up the rankings on search engines. Google also makes use of bots which search through your web page to determine its content.

In the labs we got into groups and worked on our Google Online Marketing Challenge assignment. Our group set a date and time to meet with our client. This took place on Friday.

Web Week 5

This week, we discussed search engines and directories. We saw how directories list websites under useful headings and sub-headings. This is a good way of keeping tabs on websites, however it is not very efficient.
Directories have to add websites to the database manually, whereas search engines update automatically with the use of web crawlers. Search engines are just huge databases which a version of the internet on them.

During the labs, we were given corrections for our blog posts. We also studied for a Computer Architecture test. Colin gave us a link to a helpful video on number bases to assist us.