Week Four: Muddy

Lossy. Lossless. What the heck is the difference? After listening to close to two hours of lectures mentioning the topic, I couldn't tell you.

When breaking down the words by their pre/post fixes, you can begin to understand what lossless means.

Main Entry: loss Pronunciation: \ˈlȯs\ Function: noun 1 : decrease in amount, magnitude, or d.egree 

Main Entry: -less Function: adjective suffix 1 : destitute of : not having less> less>

 

So pretty clearly, lossless= not having any decreased in amount.

 

Lossy on the other hand, doesn't have as clear etymological roots. It turns out that lossy, in contrast to lossless, means that the file does lose some parts. Files saved in a lossy format remove sections in order to decrease file size but not enough to have a noticeable difference to the user.

 

A lossless file doesn't compress files the way lossy files do, but reorganizes them for easier digital transmission. If there are sections of a file that are repeated, an algorithm finds colors, sounds, etc. that are the same, and creates code so it only uses one of the repeated sections over and over again. I found this explanation of  lossy vs. lossless made it much more clear to me.

Week Three: Clear- Wi-Fi

As a marketing major, I understand the value and importance of strong branding. When wireless internet was first being introduced, the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance hired Interbrand to come up with a commercial name for wireless internet. the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance selected the name Wi-Fi, a meaningless phrase, from a list of potential brand slogans. The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance took it upon themselves to add the tagline "The Standard for Wireless Fidelity."

They thought that by adding the tagline, it would make more sense to the consumer.The phrase "The Standard for Wireless Fidelity" has no true meaning. Wireless fidelity, what most people commonly believe Wi-Fi to stand for, are just two words that seemingly fit the abbreviation.

The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance's attempt to clarify their product actually diluted the brand and confused the customer. They promoted false information which is still a common belief ten years after its removal from the marketplace.

Click here to read the original article

Week Two: Muddy Unicode

Like many students in the class, my copy of the textbook has yet to arrive on my front door. So between the history of computing and coding and numbering schemes, coding and numbering takes the prize for being the most confusing topic of the week.

I have always heard horror stories from my father regarding computer languages and mind you he is absolutely brilliant with a computer. While he was here at UF, he began his studies as a Computer Science major. Except he could never quite grasp computer programming languages they way his professors taught them. He switched majors to business and said it was one of the best decisions he ever made.

With genetics clearly not being on my side here (no computer genius rubbed off on me), I have to thank fellow ISM 3004 student, Randy Tackling, for posting the link to his blog on the discussion boards and also writing about coding this week. He found the like to a tremendous video Binary Numbers in 60 Seconds that made Unicode shrink from a mountain to a mole hill in less than a minute. What the video did not explain was if I want to go from decimal to binary, how do I know what power to raise 2 to. The video Decimal to Binary showed two ways to calculate a binary number.

1. Divide your number by two until you no longer can. The remainder each time you divide (either one or zero) makes up your binary code.
2. Write out all of the powers of 2 and find the largest power that still goes into your decimal number.

I find that both ways are terribly time consuming and that there must be an easier way to do it. So if the cosmic forces align and someone out there in cyberland who a)reads this blog and b) knows the answer, please show me some good netiquitte and help me out!

Week One: Muddy

Hello there world! If (by some chance) you are still following this blog from my study abroad experiences in China, I am now writing about my learning experiences in my computing class ISM 3004. As part of my course grade, we are to post blogs discussing what was either the most clear or confusing thing that was covered in that week's material.

For me, the task of blogging for this course will undoubtedly be the hardest task for two reasons.

1. I am absolutely terrible at putting my thought into words. 
2. I understand that I have to write about what is muddy or clear to me, but I'm really not certain how I'm supposed to expand upon that idea for a whole blog post.

I'm going to expand on my second reason first. Once I state that I don't understand something, am I supposed to talk about all the ways I don't understand? Criticize my instructors and point out flaws in their teaching methods? Admit that I am an all around lunkhead? I understand that I am responsible for the material on quizzes and exams in the future, so being the "good student" I am, I will look into alternate explanations of the material so I am not entirely clueless. Will writing out my new found understanding of a concert really help me understand it better? Maybe. Even still, for the concepts that I understand best of all, am I looking into new applications of the concepts? Explaining why it is important? Or, just rehashing using different words?

Now for my first reason. The (in)ability to eloquently turn my thoughts into words. Especially onto paper (or in this case, my computer screen). This is something I've ALWAYS had trouble with. It honestly takes me three times as long as the normal person to compose something. So before I even sit down to write about my weekly blog, deciding what I will write about is going to be a toughie. My outlook on life is to take things as they come, file that little nugget of information away in the proper place in my brain, and don't really dwell on it unless it really strikes a chord with me. **Warning: Professors of ISM 3004, please don't take offense to this next statement** I honestly believe that I will have difficulty finding at least one thing every week that truly resonates with me. In the many many classes I have taken at UF in my 7 semesters here, I can only think of 3 classes that have actively engaged me and made me think all semester long. I hope this class doesn't become just another number, but one of the few that truly stands out in my memory when I leave Gainesville for good in May.

So we'll see how this fun little experiment turns out in sixteen weeks. In the mean time- adios, sayonara, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, zai jian, or plain old goodbye.