ABSTRACT
What’s that you say? Why is this important in a book on multimedia production? Good question! It’s important because the binary system is a critical component of the computer. When researchers were looking at ways to use electricity to do mathematical calculations, they realized that they could harness the fact that an electrical circuit was either on or off, if they used binary rather than decimal numbers-an idea very similar to that used by Samuel Morse with the telegraph. In a computer, each instance of a zero or one is called a bit. Binary numbers (bits) are still at the heart of how the computer stores and processes information, even if contemporary computers shield us from them. Bits are a critical component of what Nicholas Negroponte talked about in the early 1990s when he argued the economy was making a transition from atoms to bits, the move from physical items such as paperback books to digital items, such as Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. Part of the process of becoming a multimedia professional is learning the basics of what is happening inside the box of electronics that sits on or near your desk, and what each of the parts do. Understanding this will help you in selecting the appropriate tools for a job, and being able to talk coherently about the technology increases your credibility and your chances for employment.
