Bmp: Stands for Bitmap. One of the most basic types of image storage, Bitmaps tend to be larger than JPEGs, as they’re completely uncompressed. The pixels of a bitmap are resolution-dependent, so it’s very difficult to change the size of an image without degrading the quality.  

Gif: Graphics Interchange Format. A type of compressed Bitmap, it allows for animation and transparency, but only allows resolutions of 256 colors.

Jpeg:  Joint Photographic Experts Group. Another type of compressed bitmap, this format eliminates details from photographs and the like that are typically not visible to the human eye.

Midi:Midi stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and is among the earliest audio file formats seen on the PC. Rather than being an actual recording, it’s a set of instructions for the computer which causes it to output audio in a particular fashion. As a result, midi files are incredibly small, but also tend to suffer in terms of quality.

Wav: The Waveform Audio File format is of much higher quality than midi files, but limited to a maximum size of 4 Gigabytes.

Mp3:  Mp3 stands for MPEG 1 or 2 Layer III. It’s pretty much the industry standard for audio compression and playback on electronic devices. It’s also a form of audio compression, which removes sounds that are typically determined to be outside the audible spectrum, developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group.

MPEG 4:  Essentially, a video compression technique similar to the audio technique for MP3s. MPEG4 is one of the standard video file formats for the PC, and provides a number of convenient features for developers, service providers, and users.

AVI: Stands for Audio/Video Interleave, the AVI format was developed by Microsoft back in 1992. Due to the many limitations of this file format, it’s not really as widely-used as it used to be.

WMV: Windows Media Video. Another video format developed by Microsoft (this one in 2003), the WMV compression format is actually a competitor of several other video formats, including the MPEG 4 association.

Exe: Executable. Basically, it’s a program. Careful when opening up an EXE if you don’t know where it came from- they occasionally tend to contain viruses.

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In Layman’s Terms: Issue 23 – Common File Types (Part 1)

Power Cycling: Essentially, power cycling is a fancy way of saying ‘hard reset.’ It involves cutting the power to a device, then restoring the power. You can either do this by manually cutting the device off from it’s power source, or simply using the power button.

UPS: UPS stands for “Uninterruptible Power Supply.” This special form of power supply includes a battery pack that continues to provide power to a device in the event of a power failure. Many data center servers utilize UPS’s in order to cut downtime as much as possible, since even a few hours can end up costing them millions. The two basic types of UPS are Standby Power Systems (which switch to battery power as soon as they detect trouble) and On-Line UPS’s (which are essentially SPS’s which provide constant power from their battery backup, in order to avoid the lag that occurs with SPS’s).

Alternating Current/Direct Current: Direct current is electrical current that constantly flows in one direction, and generally remains at the same polarity. It never changes its path, and moves constantly forward. Alternating current, meanwhile, reverses direction and/or polarity on a constant basis. You can read more about the two different types of electricity, and what makes Alternating Current useful, here.

Voltage Arrester: Essentially, a surge protector. Basically, it’s a device equipped with a grounding wire, which is designed to take effect whenever the voltage flowing from a circuit exceeds a set amount.

Dielectric: A Dielectric material is a material that’s very ill-suited for conducting electricity, such as rubber or plastic. Given how much electricity computers typically use, they’d be extremely dangerous if they didn’t incorporate such materials into their design- particularly the power supplies.

Diode: Basically, a “one way valve” of electrical current, an electrical component that sends electricity in only one direction. These are often used to emit light through the electricity that passes through them.

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In Layman’s Terms: Issue 22 – Power & Electricity

Administrator: Where websites, webforums, and online games are concerned, administrators are the people who run the show. They keep everything moving smoothly, manage user disputes and user issues(though they usually defer this task to the mods), and manage updates, news, content…et-cetera. Basically, they’re the top managers of a website or web forum.

Moderator: Moderators are generally one step down from admins. They’ve still got quite a bit of authority, but a mod usually helps out an administrator- it’s their job to pick up some of the admin’s workload so that they don’t get overwhelmed. Usually, there tend to be more moderators than administrators. Usually, moderators are the ones who most commonly associate with the end user, while admins only get involved if the situation gets serious. The position differs from an administrative one in that they aren’t usually responsible for managing an entire system.

Sysop: A System Operator is just that- someone who operates a website, forum, platform or game client. Whereas mods and admins tend to associate with their userbase, sysops work strictly behind the scenes, taking care of the technical stuff. Occasionally, a user might need to contact them if they’ve run into serious trouble with the client they’re using.

GM: In the context of online gaming, GM refers to “Game Master.” It’s basically another word for a moderator. They help out players who are having trouble- either with another player or with the game client itself.  They don’t run the show, but they exist to help everybody’s experience go a bit smoother.

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In Layman’s Terms: Issue 21 – Administrator, Sysop, Moderator, GM

Bandicam: Probably among the most full-featured recording apps out there, Bandicam’s got pretty much everything you need to get started, and supports pretty much every title on the ‘net you might want to share footage of. It bills itself as a “better alternative to FRAPS,” compresses video to save space, allows uploading to YouTube without having to modify the file, and lets you record more than 24 hours of straight footage. Unfortunately, these features carry a price – if you want to use Bandicam, you’ll need to shell out $39.

FRAPs: FRAPs is the best known app out there, as far as capturing game footage is concerned. It saves the game video into AVI format, allowing for smooth recording (since it doesn’t compress movies while it records them), and is incredibly simple to use, to boot. While a free version does exist, it’ll add a watermark to your videos. If you want to remove the watermark, you’ll have to shell out for the full version.

Taksi: Taksi is basically FRAPs, except completely open source, and totally free – in other words, no watermarks on your videos. You can capture games in full screen using hotkeys, as well. Unfortunately, there’s one caveat- videos captured using Taksi don’t generally have audio included (which could be a deal breaker for many). There’s not much else to say about it, other than if you’re looking for a free alternative, you could do a lot worse.

X-Fire: X-Fire includes friend lists, a chat system, server browser, live broadcasting, user profiles, contact linking, and in-game voice chat along with its screenshot and video recording features. It’s a far more social experience than any of the other recording applications on the list, and works pretty well, to boot. Still, it might be a bit too beefy for users that are chiefly looking for recording software.

Once you’ve figured out what app you’re going to use, there are just a few things you’ll need to consider before you start recording:

• Recording video while gaming takes up a LOT of processing power. If your system already has trouble running a particular title, chances are you aren’t going to be able to record it without severely limiting the frame-rate.
• Consider utilizing a video editing program (such as VideoLAN movie creator or Windows Movie Maker) to touch up the video after you’ve recorded it.
• Depending on what app you’re using, you might need to compress your video before uploading it to YouTube (if indeed that is what you’re planning). Keep this in mind when choosing your platform.
• Potentially, you could also look into purchasing a game recording device for yourself (which will probably be necessary if you’re trying to capture console footage).

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Gamer’s Corner: Capturing Game Footage

LCD:  “LCD” stands for “Liquid Crystal Display.” Basically, it utilizes a unique type of matter which exists somewhere between a solid and a liquid in terms of state. The molecules of this matter are particularly susceptible to electric currents, and change position based on how much voltage is applied to them. With the addition of color filters, you’ve got yourself an LCD TV or monitor. LCD’s don’t actually transmit light, so the majority of them incorporate a backlight into their design.

LED: Light Emitting Diode Displays generally use clusters of small, electrically charged diodes in addition to the standard LCD array. The diodes exist in clusters of red, blue, and green, generally, and are used as a backlight for the liquid crystal layer to allow for deeper, more vibrant colors.  The color of each diode is based on the combination of electrons within the diode, as well as the size and shape of the area within the diode where the electrons can’t exist.

Pixel: Think of a picture as something of a building block. It comprises a single point within a larger image – the smallest possible unit. When a system renders an image, it does so by fitting the individual pixels together, much like you’d put together a LEGO structure. Makes sense, right?

Megapixel: This term actually has more than one meaning. The first is quite simple- it’s the next step of measurement up from the Pixel. One megapixel represents one million pixels. The second meaning is actually tied quite closely to the first, and used to measure the quality of image a camera is capable of capturing- the total pixel count of a photograph taken by a digital camera. For example, a 5MP camera will be able to capture images consisting of five million pixels. Pretty simple, right?

Granted, there’s a bit more to it than that, but for the purposes of this article…that definition will work just fine.

Aspect Ratio: The Aspect Ratio of a device refers to the height versus the width of an image. It’s typically measured in inches.

Dithering: Dithering’s a display technique by which a monitor or printer will ‘trick’ the human eye, generally by intentionally applying ‘visual noise’ to an image. A dithered image groups pixels of different colors together in a particular pattern, causing the area in which they’re grouped to appear as though it’s a single, continuous color. There’s a huge array of different dithering techniques, and I could probably write a whole article on just this entry alone. As such, we’re going to leave this one alone, for the time being.

Image Credits: [Techfresh]

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In Layman’s Terms Issue 20: LCD/LED, Pixel, Megapixel, Aspect Ratio, Dithering,

Native Mode: Basically, native mode is the default operating state of any given computer system. Sort of. For example – let’s say you’ve got a Windows PC, with Windows 7 installed. So long as all programs on the system run in C(the default programming language of the Windows framework) it’s running in Native Mode. Of course, if you were to install Linux on your system and dual-boot it, Linux would technically be running in native mode as well. Basically, Native Mode is the operating state any given system is designed to run in.

Fragmentation: Basically, files can be stored in one of two states in computing, contiguous and non-contiguous. The former means the file is essentially intact, and all the different pieces are stored in essentially the same place. The latter means it’s broken into ‘chunks’ and stored across the hard drive. Here’s where we start to run into a spot of trouble- Windows tends to store files in a non-contiguous format if they’re too large to store in a single area. As a result, certain pieces of data might end up getting lost, or so scattered that the speed of your operating system slows down to a crawl.

Defrag utilities are designed to address this issue, essentially ‘reorganizing’ the fragmented pieces.

Other forms of fragmentation exist outside of file fragmentation, as well: external fragmentation and internal fragmentation both occur in a system’s Random Access Memory. The former is the result of small holes in the memory that aren’t being used properly, while the latter, more common type of fragmentation that results from the RAM allocating larger frames of memory than the system requested.

Head Crash: This one’s pretty simple, but still a rather nasty thing to have happen. A head crash is a physical ‘crash’ of a hard drive, wherein the read-write head comes into close (usually violent) contact with one of the discs, generally as the result of physical damage. This is usually both irreparable and irreversible – the most you can do is hope that some of your data can be retrieved.

Bus: A bus is pretty much a bridge between different computer components, designed to transfer data between those components.

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In Layman’s Terms Issue 19: Native Mode, File Fragmentation, Head Crash, Bus

Let’s face it. The console market isn’t exactly developer friendly. Why do you think so many independent games release on PC first? Why do you think some of the best indie developers in the world port their games to Xbox Live and the PSN, rather than developing them for those markets from the ground up?

AAA development- the most prevalent kind of development for the console market- is expensive. It’s difficult, and draining, and time-consuming. While we’re certainly getting quite a few awesome games out of this process (and we’ll continue getting such games, even if OUYA should take off), there’s also a lot of innovation, a lot of creativity, a lot of passion that’s simply…not there. As I said in one of the previous editions of Gamer’s Corner about Indie development, a sort of general malaise has settled over the mainstream market.

We won’t get into that.

Instead, we’re going to get into what OUYA means for us. This project’s definitely happening. As of this writing, they’ve raised over $5 million towards their original goal of $950,000.  Not too shabby, right? The fact that it’s been covered by such huge sites as Engadget, IGN, The New York Times and Time Magazine certainly helps matters, no?

Basically, what OUYA means is this: First, it’s not going to break the bank. The project’s designers have stated right out the door that this console’s going to be affordable, as are the titles available on it (many of which will likely make use of some brand of the Free to Play model). Second, as with the current PC market, anyone can be a developer if they’ve got the time, passion, knowledge, and creativity. The sort of quality games we’re seeing in the various Humble Bundles will take the console market by storm. Oh, and if you want to mess with your console’s firmware, add a mod chip, hack the operating system or modify it so it’s capable of making toast…

Have at ‘er. Unlike Sony, OUYA’s copyright owners aren’t going to smack you with a lawsuit for daring to customize your product.

The current, somewhat hostile market of intellectual property, closed, restricted development kits and sequels being funneled out hand over fist has started to raise some pretty troubling questions about the direction of the console market. OUYA might well be the answer to those questions.

And it’s a bloody good one.

Image Credits: [Wired]

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Gamer’s Corner: OUYA: The Open Source Gaming Console

The Screen

The screen of both LED and LCD screens both utilize a unique form of matter which is somewhere between a solid and a liquid. The molecules of this substance have a very unique structure which makes them particularly susceptible to electrical currents, actually changing based on the level of voltage applied to them. The molecules of the substance in an LCD display are typically in a phase known as the Nematic phase, and has a naturally twisted molecular structure.

The screen takes this ‘liquid crystal’ and places it in between two plates of polarized glass and a positive and negative electrode, with polarizing film on each side of the glass opposite the electrodes. Finally, put the whole array in front of a mirror, and then put the screen on the side opposite this mirror. LCD displays add color filters to the mix- one for each of the three primary colors. Most LCDs of this nature feature fluorescent tubes, usually positioned somewhere around the screen.

The glass plates usually feature something known as a “Active Matrix,” which each of the glass plates featuring a matrix of tiny transistors which hold a charge. Depending on which of the transistors is charged, different pixels will appear onscreen.

LED(Light Emitting Diode) displays vary from LCD displays in that, in addition to the standard LCD array, they utilize clusters of small, electrically charged diodes as a backlights for the liquid crystal layer. This allows for more vibrant images and deeper colors. Each diode contains a certain number of electrons, as well as a small vacuum in which electrons cannot exist, known as an “electron hole.” the color of a diode depends on the number of electrons and the size and shape of this hole.

The Bridge Rectifier

The Bridge rectifier converts Alternating Currents into Direct Currents- the latter of which is necessary to change the shape of the crystals which make up the display. It consists of a circular piece of plastic and a rectangular piece of plastic held together by four wires.

Filter Capacitor

This device basically prevents your display from shorting out due to the voltage getting too high. It basically manages currents and voltages, keeping the voltage from getting too high.

SMPS Transformer

The name of the game here is “efficiency.” The SMPS transformer transfers passing energy in a way that allows the display to run effectively without using too much power. It’s usually right on top of the spot where the monitor’s power supply connects.

Schottky Diodes

Designed to prevent the loss of voltage (voltage drops) and allow for more efficient start-up times, Schottky diodes are semiconductors are usually positioned next to or above the output filter capacitor.

Output Filter Capacitor

The OF Capacitor works with the Shottky Diodes in order to keep voltage as high as necessary for the operation of the monitor and to dissipate excess voltage.

The CPU

Pretty much your run of the mill CPU- this device does basically what you’d expect, and controls most of the monitor’s operation, in addition to managing connectivity where other devices are concerned.

Fuse

If something overloads within the monitor, chances are good that the fuse is going to be the first thing to go- after all, that’s what it’s designed for. If current gets too high, the fuse will melt and necessitate replacement.It’s basically a failsafe switch.

Opto-Isolator

Yet another device designed to mediate voltage, the Opto-Isolator prevents high voltages from transferring into components they’re not supposed to.

Pages Cited: [eHow] [How Stuff Works]

Image Credits: [Tree Hugger]

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Working Parts: LCD and LED Televisions

White Hat: A White Hat is essentially ‘the good guy.’ These guys are hired by organizations to try to hack into their security systems – to find security vulnerabilities and holes that need to be closed. This is a process IBM has termed “ethical hacking,” and this form of authorized system break-in is generally the only hacking that White Hats engage in.

Gray Hat: Gray Hats fall somewhere in between black and white. While they certainly engage in ethical hacking, they may often do so without the consent of the company in question, later releasing the details of how they broke into an organization’s systems in hopes that the organization will improve their security. Notice how I didn’t say they’d contact the organization? That’s because they usually won’t- Gray Hats, while they don’t hack for personal gain, will often release the details of their break-in to the larger hacking community, watching the fallout as the info’s picked up by those who actually want the information the Gray Hat accessed.

Black Hat: Black Hats aren’t interested in improving security, helping an organization, or doing a service to the hacking community (in general). They’re in it for their own personal gain- be it monetary or revenge-based. Groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec could be considered Black Hat organizations, as could whatever organization released the Flame Malware that had the Enterprise sector sweating buckets last month. Black Hats are the guys that the White Hats are trying to stop- they’re criminals, through and through.

The Red Hat Organization: It’s worth mentioning that “Red Hat” doesn’t actually refer to hacking at all. Red Hat is actually an open-source software company. One of their best-known products is Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Image Credits: [My Lot]

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In Layman’s Terms Issue 18- Hats

Native Applications are programs coded in the “native language” of an operating system. For example, the native language of iOS is Objective C. Any applications coded in that language are considered native applications. Consequently, a Non-Native application is anything that was originally coded in a different language from the platform it’s being run on.

Native Wrapping refers to a technique in which non-native applications are run on an operating platform by essentially being ‘masked’ in a shell of native code. While the ‘core’ of the application is still programmed in its native language, it’ll run on other platforms- though it won’t always run particularly well, since the system it’s been ported to may not have all of the features the original application made use of.

Intermediate Language  is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s designed to be a ‘middleman’ of sorts between a programming language and Machine Code, the most basic language of computers. They’re executed by a translation program. Usually, Intermediate Languages are used in conjunction with Managed Code, and the Common Language Runtime.

The Common Language Runtime is essentially an ‘operating system within an operating system’. It’s part of Microsoft’s .NET Framework, and is responsible for executing virtually every application written in Managed Code. It ‘manages’ these applications, providing security and other services while the application runs.

Managed Code is any programming language which relies on the Common Language Runtime.  The Managed code is generally compiled into an intermediate language. All the details of that language are stored in a file (the assembly) which is then executed by the Common language Runtime. Managed Code was a term coined by Microsoft when they first developed the .NET Framework.

Unmanaged Code is any programming language not developed specifically for the CLR and Microsoft’s .NET Framework.

Do note that in the case of managed and unmanaged code, there are a few programming languages that fit the bill for both.

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In Layman’s Terms Issue 17: Native and Non-Native Apps, Native Wrapping, Intermediate Language, Common Language Runtime Managed Code, Unmanaged Code,