Wed April 19

counters

• wikipedia: web counter
• dmoz list of companies
  • eg http://www.statcounter.com/ (google top hit for "web counter" - see "Why is it free? What's the catch?")
  • I have a local program to put a counter on cs.marlboro.edu pages :http://cs.marlboro.edu/~mahoney/counter_test.html

background sound

• google "web page music" or "css background sound"
• first hit: http://www.thesitewizard.com/webdesign/backgroundmusic.shtml
• another: http://webdesign.about.com/cs/multimedia/ht/htbgsound.htm
• bottom line: not a good idea; varies by browser and usually considered obnoxious

• .mid - midi files
• http://zonorus.marlboro.edu/~mahoney/abc/ - I need to get this working again.

internet video / multimedia - part 1

• "streaming" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format
  • "It is important to distinguish between a "file format" and a "codec".

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_format
• http://www.fileinfo.net/filetypes/video

• Do a demo with my digital camera ...

available online

• google video - http://video.google.com (player built-in to browser!)
• iTunes store
• open source - http://www.archive.org
• peer to peer ... current favorites?

technical details

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_codecs
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_codecs_and_containers

animation etc

• Make an animated gif with Gimp

• Flash (Macromedia) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macromedia_Flash
  • cartoon "movies" with buttons and scripts for the web
  • ---.swf files can play on most browswers
  • see for example http://homestarrunner.com

• Shockwave (Macromedia) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macromedia_Shockwave
  • ---.dcr are fancier; more powerful; about 1/2 of browsers
  • difference http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_13971

• Both pretty much require a propietary program (which we have in multimedia lab) to create.
  • But see for example http://www.flameproject.org and http://osflash.org/open_source_flash_projects for open source efforts
  • Also note that OpenOffice (an open source alternative to MicroSoft's Office suite)can create .swf presentations, it its PowerPoint-like component called "Impress".
• non-trivial learning curve...