My presentation at the Homestead Computer Workshop on June 5th, 2006

I was invited to the Homestead Computer Workshop gathering to do a presentation. This was a bit impromptu as the original speaker that was invited could not attend. They were going to cover linux. I picked a more 'fun' topic.

Multimedia on the Internet consists of video, audio, and images. There are several resources on the net. I covered only a few.

Mostly, I showed how to use the different sites in order to find multimedia and how some people use it.

Here are some of the sites I covered:

http://video.google.com

You can search for videos of any type here. Some are a marketing ploy (Like videos of Topo Gigio from the Ed Sullivan Show) or just someone's 15 minutes of fame (we watched a couple of videos about Menthos and Diet Coke).

http://www.shoutcast.com

You can tune into almost any genre of music here. You'll need to download and install WinAmp from http://www.winamp.com . It's free.

http://www.tv4all.com

This website lists quite a few resources for watching TV over the internet. Some broadcasts are on the internet only; others are streamed broadcasts of local TV channels.

http://www.wikipedia.com

The venerable encyclopedia on the Internet. If you don't know what a wiki is, look it up on the wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Some of the multimedia players you will need to view multimedia on ther Internet include:

http://www.real.com : RealPlayer - Look for the free player links.

http://www.quicktime.com : QuickTime player. Also free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx : Windows Media Player. You can upgrade your version using Windows Update at http://www.windowsupdate.com

http://www.videolan.org : Here is a free player that will handle almost all multimedia formats. You don't need to download any codecs (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec) in order to use this program. It knows about all formats.

If you know of any other resources or have questions, leave a comment on this article.

Anyone is welcome to attend the Homestead Computer Workshop presentations. There are no fees, dues, or other obligations of attendance. The primary purpose of the Homestead Computer Workshop is to allow the general public a free, open forum to discuss computer topics and to help each other through the technology maze.

If you are interested in learning more about the Homestead Computer Workshop or would like to get on their email mailing list, please contact me at greg@nitebyte.net.

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