Thursday, May 26, 2016

Ways Social Media Can Be Used For Good

   

We often stuck to our social media news feeds from morning to night. With the fear of missing out (FoMO), we get distracted by a friend’s tropical holiday snaps on Facebook or find ourselves liking a photo on Instagram of our neighbor's dinner. Businesses are getting in on the act too, by building their audiences and driving sales.



Unfortunately though, you can also find a lot of negativity, conflict and controversy on social media. But what gets overlooked is how social media can create a lot of positivity in the world too. This article takes a step back and looks at 10 ways social media can be used for social good:

1. Help charitable causes

For charities and charitable campaigns, social media is a great way to capture people’s attention. An example is James Rudland’s Sleeping Bag Appeal. Thanks to Facebook, it was a huge success and had people sending sleeping bags for the homeless from all around the world.


2. Raise awareness

Social media can be used to raise awareness about various issues, from homelessness and racism, to AIDS and environmental concerns. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow these messages to not just be heard by people regionally, or even nationally, but globally. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is certainly leading the way in raising awareness, currently with almost 3 million Facebook followers.

3. Respond to tragedy

When the Boston Marathon bombings and Hurricane Sandy happened, social media erupted. People used social media to pull together as a community, to provide help, advice and support. Facebook has now even added a new feature, Safety Check, which allows people in a conflicted area to let friends and family know they are safe.


4. Open communication channels

People can find themselves in all kinds of difficulties, such as financial problems, health worries or may even be dealing with loss. Facebook Groups, for example can help open up communication and enable people going through similar situations to talk, regardless of their geography.


5. Share hope

As well as a place to talk about life’s difficulties, social media can also share the hope. Lisa Lynch, who had terminal cancer, wrote a blog to help herself and family make sense of what she was going through. However, what she didn’t realize was that she was also becoming an inspiration to many others who were facing similar fears.


6. Create unity

We’re used to seeing people fall out on social media, with a celebrity feud list too long to even remember. However, following a tragedy like the latest Paris attacks, it was moving to see everyone around the world stop and unite. Many people also reacted by changing their profile pictures, out of respect for those who lost their lives and as a sign of solidarity.


7. Reunite loved ones

Whether you’ve lost someone in conflict, in times of tragedy or drifted apart over time, social media can help reunite friends and loved ones (and even pets). Homeless man, Jimmy Francis, shows how it is possible, reconnecting with his daughter after 24 years, with the help of Facebook.


8. Create Positivity

There can be a lot of negativity in the world (including online), but social media can also be a great place to go for some positivity, whether you like reading daily quotes, listening to inspirational stories, or even just having a laugh by watching a baby panda sneeze!


9. Promote fundraising

Whether you work for a charity or are just an individual, passionate about a cause and want to raise money, sites like Facebook and Twitter are a good way to get the word out there about your fundraising activities.


10. Generate support

As well as donating money, people can help in many other ways. Whether you have a charity event, want people to give their time, share their expertise, or volunteer at a soup kitchen, social media sites can be a good place to go to encourage people to get involved.



Sometimes it’s easy to get wrapped up in our own lives that we forget how much we can help others around the world and we can do it using the tools that we use every single day! The incredible thing about social media though is that not only can you make a difference in your local community, you can also make a difference all around the world.

FotoJet Review: Create beautiful photo collages and cards online with FotoJet Read

   

FotoJet is a site that offers the chance to put together photo collages for nearly every kind or occasion! Styles and templates range from quirky to minimalistic to elegant; and it's easy to find what you want and discover what you need.

FotoJet is an easy collage maker & graphic designer that offers dozens of delicate templates for creating collages, photo cards, social media graphics, posters and other photo designs with personal photos.

 You can try it here: https://www.fotojet.com.
We love that the user interface is clean and simple to navigate through, and getting the finished product to where you want it to go is direct! They have made enough features available for adding personal editing preferences but not an overwhelming amount of unnecessary options. FotoJet has something people look for and they offer it well! Go check https://www.fotojet.com

FotoJet allows you to edit photos, create collages, cards and so on, with great ease. It is undoubtedly, the best free online collage maker out there. It allows you to create a photo card or to create a collage using features such as the collage maker and create posters using the poster maker.
In this FotoJet Review, you’ll find all the information you need about this free online collage maker, which we believe to be one of the simplest photo editing tools available online. FotoJet is a user-friendly solution from PearlMountain Technology Co. which makes photo editing a breeze.
There are dozens of photo editing solutions out there, both online and offline – so what’s special about FotoJet? For a start, if you’ve used the other photo editing solutions/products that are available, both free and paid, you will know that you need at least some technical expertise to work with them. You’ll need to learn how they work by reading an instruction set or a “Help” menu.
That’s not the case with FotoJet – FotoJet allows you to edit photos, create collages, cards and so on, with maximum ease. It is quite simply, the best free online collage maker out there. It allows you to create a photo card or to create a collage using features such as the collage maker and create posters using the poster maker.
How to Use FotoJet?
It is surprisingly easy to use FotoJet. Here, we explain how it works. Essentially, creating a collage or a poster with FotoJet is a 3-step process. To get started, visit the website www.fotojet.com.
Choose a Design
FotoJet offers several templates and designs for making collages, photo cards, posters, etc. Choose a design you like best and get started.
Add Your Photos and Have Fun With Them
Now, upload your photos, whether from the hard drive on your computer or from Facebook, to FotoJet. You can easily adjust your photos any way you like. Fotojet has a very simple drag-and-drop interface; you can just upload your pictures and drag them where you want them. You can then zoom in the photos, flip them and do anything you like with them to make a beautiful collage.  FotoJet is amazing that way; it allows you to do anything you want to, with your photos.
Share & Save Your Collage


Save your collage as a JPG or PNG image if needed.

Directly share collage to your Facebook online.


Suggest by , Angela "PearlMountain Technology"

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

What is Red Nose Day?

   

You've probably noticed a lot of photos lately of celebrities wearing red clown noses.
It's all part of an effort to bring attention to "Red Nose Day," which started in Britain in 1988 to raise money for poverty-stricken children in the UK and Africa. This year, the fund-raiser has extended to the United States, where NBC is airing a three-hour special Thursday night.
What is it? It's sponsored by Comic Relief UK, an organization founded after the 1985 Live Aid concert. (It helped inspire -- but has no other relation to -- the American telethon started by Bob Zmuda and long hosted by Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal.) The British event is held every two years. There are also Red Nose Days in Finland, Germany and Iceland.
How has it done? According to the Red Nose Day website, it's raised more than £78 million (about $122 million at current exchange rates).
Why is it just coming to the United States? Part charity and part business, according to accounts. Variety reported that NBC executive Paul Telegdy used to work for the BBC, which has aired Red Nose Day events since the late '80s. He's seen the power of the event in Britain for raising money for a good cause.
    But it's also an opportunity to raise awareness of the NBCUniversal brand networks, he added.
    "Live events are really, really important to this company. And this is one of those times when you get to do something that is great entertainment but also really stands for something," he said.
    For his part, writer and director Richard Curtis ("Notting Hill," "Love, Actually"), who co-founded the event, is thrilled.
    "For many years, I have dreamt of bringing Red Nose Day to the US, and I am so excited that we have teamed up with NBC, who will do such a brilliant job on this," he said on the Red Nose Day website. "Experience has taught me how extraordinarily compassionate and generous Americans can be, and I've lived my life in awe of American comedy talent. So putting those two things together will, I hope, create an amazing event that will really make a massive difference to the lives of millions of children and their families in the US and in the poorest countries around the world."
    What charities are involved? They include the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Children's Health Fund, Feeding America, the National Council of La Raza and the United Way.
    Red Nose Day Facts

    Red Nose Day is a biennial telethon broadcast fundraising event for people to act silly while raising money for charities. It began in 1988 as a broadcast to raise money by Comic Relief. Comic Relief is an organization that launched in 1985 to raise money to address poverty and social injustice throughout the world through the use of comedy and laughter. The event is held every two years as a U.K fundraising event, and it encourages people to wear a red nose and act silly to help raise money. On red Nose Day the BBC One broadcasts comedy and documentary films, bringing the U.K. together to address poverty and injustice in Africa and in the U.K.

    Interesting Red Nose Day Facts:
    The first broadcast by the charity Comic Relief took place on Christmas Day on BBC One, from the Sudan in a refugee camp.
    In 1988 Comic Relief broadcast the first Red Nose Day. It is held in March every two years.
    Issues covered by Red Nose Day in Africa include HIV and AIDS education, literacy, immunization, and community rebuilding.
    Issues covered by Red Nose Day in the U.K. include discrimination and prejudice against disabled people, rights of older people, and domestic violence escape routes for women.
    Every pound (U.K. money) raised goes to helping others. The charity itself is run by donations, and by volunteers so money donated for Red Nose Day events is spent on helping others.
    The mission of Comic Relief is to drive positive change through the use of entertainment.
    Comic Relief's founders were Alexander Mendes and Richard Curtis. Richard Curtis is a screenwriter. He wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Bridget Jones's Diary (and the sequel), The No. 1 Detective Agency, and One Night with Robbie Williams. They started the charity in response to the famine that was occurring in Ethiopia.
    The first Red Nose Day event raised a whopping 15 million pounds. In 2009 the event raised 82 million pounds. In 2011 Red Nose Day raised 108 million pounds. In total since its beginning the Comic Relief charity has raised more than 600 million pounds.
    76 countries have benefited from Red Nose Day fundraising events.
    More than 11,000 projects in the United Kingdom have been funded by Red Nose Day contributions alone.
    Comic Relief raises money all year long to support their work, not just on Red Nose Day.
    Money raised in New Zealand on Red Nose Day goes to help fund research into SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
    The name for Red Nose Day was inspired by the fact that clowns wear red noses and make people laugh by doing silly things.
    Some of the charities given funds by Comic Relief include Oxfam, Christian Aid, Sight Savers, and Save the Children Fund.
    Celebrities often get involved with Red Nose Day, including Kate Moss, Simon Cowell, Hugh Grant, Damian Lewis, Lily Allen, David Williams, and Nick Grimshaw.
    Comic Relief also has other telethon events to raise money for its causes, including Sport Relief, and Children in Need.

    Interesting Facts About Space

       


    Space is mysterious and beautiful, understand it more with this list of one hundred interesting facts about space, planets, moons and stars!
    Mercury and Venus are the only two planets in our solar system that do not have any moons.


    If a star passes too close to a black hole, it can be torn apart.
    The hottest planet in our solar system is Venus. Most people often think that it would be Mercury, as it’s the closest planet to the sun. This is because Venus has a lot of gasses in its atmosphere, which causes the “Greenhouse Effect”.


    The solar system is around 4,500 million years old. Scientist estimate that it will probably last another 5000 million years
    Enceladus, one of Saturn’s smaller moons, reflects some 90% of the sunlight, making it more reflective than snow!


    The highest mountain known to man is the Olympus Mons, which is located on Mars. It’s peak is 15 miles (25KM) high, making it nearly 3 times higher than Mt Everest.


    The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) was the very first celestial object to be identified as being spiral.


    A light year is the distance covered by light in a single year, this is equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles (9.5 trillion KM)!


    The width of the Milky Way is around 100,000 light years.
    The Sun is over 300,000 times larger than Earth.


    Footprints and tire tracks left by astronauts on the moon will stay there forever as there is no wind to blow them away.
    Because of lower gravity, a person who weighs 100kg on earth would only weigh 38kg on the surface of Mars.


    64 moons orbit Jupiter.


    The Martian day is 24 hours 39 minutes and 35 seconds.


    NASA’s Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) 

    declared that they have found evidence of significant amounts of water on the Earth’s Moon.

    The Sun makes a full rotation once every 25-35 days.
    Venus is the only planet that spins backwards relative to the other planets.


    The force of gravity can sometimes cause comets to tear apart.


    It is thanks to the Sun and our own moons gravity that we have high and low tides.


    Pluto is smaller than the Earth’s moon!


    According to mathematics, white holes are possible, although as of yet, we have found none.


    Our moon is around 4.5 billion years old.


    There are more volcanoes on Venus than any other planet within our solar system.


    Uranus’ blue glow is down to the methane in its atmosphere, which filters out all the red light.


    The four planets in our solar system that are known as gas giants are Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus.


    Uranus has 27 moons that have been discovered so far.
    Because of its unique tilt, a single night on Uranus lasts for 21 years!


    Triton, one of Neptune’s moons, is gradually getting closer to the planet it orbits.


    Scientists say that eventually Triton will get so close to Neptune, it will be torn apart by gravity, and Neptune could end up with more rings than Saturn currently has!


    The only large moon in our solar system to orbit in the opposite direction of its planet is Neptune’s moon, Triton.


    Neptune takes 165 years to make one orbit of the moon. this means that since it’s discovery in 1846, it has only completed just one orbit!


    Charton is one of the moons of Pluto, and is only slightly smaller than Pluto itself.


    The Space Station is the largest manned object ever sent into space.
    A day on Pluto lasts for 6 days and 9 hours.


    Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system.


    Any free-moving liquid in outer space will form itself into a sphere, because of its surface tension.


    Earth, Mars, Mercury and Venus are called the inner planets as they are closest to the sun.


    We know more about space than we do about deep in our oceans.


    The only satellite that Britain has launched was called Black Arrow.
    Black Arrow was developed during the 1960’s and was used for 

    four launches between 1969 and 1971.

    The light takes 8.3 minutes to travel from the Sun the Earth.


    The odds of being killed by space debris is 1 in 5 billion.


    The Earth’s revolution time increases .0001 seconds annually.


    If you were driving at 75 miles (121 km) per hour, it would take 258 days to drive around one of Saturn’s rings.


    The first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong.


    The Space Station circles the earth every 90 minutes.


    Stars seem to twinkle in the night sky due to the light being 

    disrupted as it passes though the Earth’s atmosphere.

    Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon with his left foot.


    There are three main types of galaxies out in space, and they are spiral, elliptical, and irregular.


    There are approximately 200,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way.
     

    More at: http://www.thefactsite.com/2012/01/100-random-facts-about-space.html/2

    Amazing Interesting Facts About Space

       

    Space is mysterious and beautiful, understand it more with this list of one hundred interesting facts about space, planets, moons and stars!
    There are thousands of other planets out there.
    Outside of our Solar System there are thousands of other planets. The extra-solar planets or exo-planets are in orbit around another star. So far we have almost 1800 confirmed new worlds, with another 3000 awaiting confirmation. Astronomers are looking to a star’s goldilocks zone for planets that may be habitable, just like the Earth. The majority of planets discovered so far are hot gas giant planets.


    Image: There are thousands of planets out there! This artist’s impression shows what those multiple Solar Systems might look like. (Image Credit: NASA/ESA/ESO)

    There are thousands of planets out there! This artist’s impression shows what those multiple Solar Systems might look like. (Image Credit: NASA/ESA/ESO)

    In space the skin on your feet peels off!
    This is a pretty gross fact but in the micro-gravity environment, astronauts are not using their feet to walk. Therefore the skin on their feet starts to soften and flakes off. As laundry facilities do not exist in space, astronauts will wear the same underwear and socks for a few days. Those socks then need to be taken off very gently. If not those dead skin cells will float around in the weightless environment.
    On Venus a day is longer than a year.

    This is tricky one to get your head around but a year on Venus (that is the length of time it takes to complete one whole orbit around the Sun) is 224.7 Earth days. However it takes 243 Earth days to rotate on its axis just once.

    The astronauts were placed in quarantine after returning from the moon.
    There is a famous image of President Nixon talking to the Apollo 11 crew consisting of Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. This continued until after the Apollo 14 crew returned safely. After this it was decided that the Moon did not contain any deadly diseases. The Apollo 13 crew, who had a malfunction and had to return to Earth, did not have to be quarantined after their re-entry as they didn’t actually walk on the moon.


    Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin meeting President Nixon after their safe return to Earth. (Image credit: NASA)
    Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin meeting President Nixon after their safe return to Earth. (Image credit: NASA)

    One million Earths can fit inside the Sun.

    Ancient astronomers once believed the Earth was at the centre of the Universe but now we know that the Sun is at the centre of our Solar System and our planets orbit the Sun. The Sun makes up 99.8% of the entire mass of the whole Solar System. One million Earths would be needed to be the same size as the Sun.

    Image: You can fit one million of our home planet inside the Sun. Credit: NASA/SDO/Steele Hill.
    Image: You can fit one million of our home planet inside the Sun. (Image Credit: NASA/SDO/Steele Hill)

    You become taller in Space.
    Another change to the human body in micro-gravity is that spine straightens out, as gravity is not pushing you down. In fact you can be up to as much as 5cm taller in the Space Station.

    Extreme weather warning!
    Some times on the Earth, especially here in Northern Ireland the weather can be a bit rubbish! However our weather is awesome compared to some of the other planets. Jupiter has fast winds and the Great Red spot, a massive hurricane style storm, has raged there for the last 300 years. Mercury and Mars have extreme temperature changes in the same day. Venus is a scorching five times hotter than boiling water. Saturn and Uranus also have extremely fast winds. However Neptune has the fastest ever wind speeds reaching a staggering 1600mph!


    mage: Neptune the windiest planet as captured by Voyager 2 in 1989. Credit: Voyager 2, NASA.
    Neptune the windiest planet as captured by Voyager 2 in 1989. (image Credit: Voyager 2, NASA)

    Space is not that far away.
    Space officially begins at the universal marker of the Karman Line. This invisible boundary is 100km above the Earth. In theory if you could drive your car upwards, you could be in space in less than hour.

    The hottest planet is not the closest planet to the Sun.
    Even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, it is not actually the hottest. Mercury does not have any atmosphere meaning that this planet is only hot in the daytime when it is directly facing the Sun. At this stage temperatures can rise to 425°C but at night the planet’s temperature can drop down to a freezing -180°C. Venus is the hottest planet. Its thick clouds trap the Sun’s heat causing Venus to be a sizzling 500°C all of the time!


    Image: A surface probe would not exist on the surface of Venus for very long. This is an reconstruction of the surface of Venus as captured by Radar by the space craft Magellan in the 1990s. Credit: E. De Jong et al. (JPL), MIPL, Magellan Team, NASA.
    A surface probe would not exist on the surface of Venus for very long. This is an reconstruction of the surface of Venus as captured by Radar by the space craft Magellan in the 1990s. (image credit: E. De Jong et al. (JPL), MIPL, Magellan Team, NASA)

    The moon looks bigger on the horizon
    There is an optical illusion which makes the moon appear to be larger the lower it is in the sky. The apparent magnification is not caused by our atmosphere. It is more of a mind trick. When the moon is closer to the horizon, it is closer to objects like buildings and trees which therefore in comparison makes the moon look bigger. However there are times when the moon really is bigger. During its elliptical orbit the moon has times when it is actually slightly closer to the Earth (Perigee) or further from the Earth (apogee). This happens about once a month, due the moon’s orbit around the Earth. Usually is not noticeable to the eye. However when a full moon occurs at the same time of the moon’s perigee it can be called a Super moon and appears 12-14% bigger than normal!
      There’s a moose loose

    Eccentric Astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) believed that the Moon and Sun orbited the Earth but the other planets orbited the Sun. He catalogued many stars and objects, and has a crater on the moon, and supernova remnant named after him. However his wild antics are perhaps just as interesting. He wore a fake silver nose after losing his real one in a sword fight and he also had a pet moose which died falling down the stairs after one to many drinks. When his body was exhumed and examined in 2010, it is thought that a burst bladder was the cause of his death not mercury poisoning by a jealous colleague which was considered a cause of death.Astronauts are literally star sailors

    The word astronaut comes from the Greek word “Astron” which means star and “nautes” which means sailor. The Russian cosmonaut has a similar meaning from ‘kosmos’ meaning universe and again “nautes” sailor.


    Image: Astronaut Mark Lee, a real star sailor. Credit: NASA.
    Astronaut Mark Lee, a real star sailor. (Image Credit: NASA)

     You can cry in space but your tears don’t fall
    On-board the International Space Station, water floats like bubbles or spheres. However the water will cling to a surface until it is dislodged. This means that tears start to form bubbles around your eyes as the weightless environment is not causing your tears to fall. This sounds really cool but it can be dangerous. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano suffered a space suit leak whilst on a spacewalk. The water leaked into his helmet covered his eyes and ears, but thankfully he made it back into the Space Station unharmed, but if not he could have drowned in space.
    Dirty underwear and toilet paper has helped grown plants on the ISS

    American astronaut Don Pettit discovered that by folding a pair of underpants into a sphere shape and stitching in some Russian toilet paper (which is thick, wool like gauze), this created a warmer environment for some tomato and basil seeds to start to sprout. Like their socks, underwear is only changed every 3-4 days so he figured the pants might provide some extra nutrients for the plants!
    There is a dwarf planet named after an Easter island legend
    Dwarf planet Makemake was discovered at Easter 2005. The Easter Island Moai figures were the inspiration for its name. Makemake in Rapa Nui mythology was the creator of humanity and the god of fertility. He is also a feature in many rock and cave drawings on the island.

    Nebulae come in all shapes and sizes
    Nebula means cloud in Latin. These are areas in which stars are being created or where a star has died. The cosmic clouds come in all shapes and sizes and are made out of interstellar dust and gases. There is a Christmas tree nebula, a horsehead, a unicorn, a hand, fried egg and lots more. These beautiful clouds which are not visible to the naked eye really highlight the fact there is a lot more happening in the night sky than you can see.

    Unicorn in space. Otherwise known as the Trifid nebula, this stallar cloud is a pillar of gas and dust. Credit: NASA, HST, WFPC2, J. Hester (Arizona St. U) et al.
    Unicorn in space. Otherwise known as the Trifid nebula, this stallar cloud is a pillar of gas and dust. (Image Credit: NASA, HST, WFPC2, J. Hester (Arizona St. U) et al.)

    The North Star will change…eventually
    The North Star used for navigation, a steady point in the night sky will change, however not in our lifetime. The Earth is rotating like a spinning top and therefore the pole of our planet wobbles. Currently it points to Polaris but in the year 13727 our Pole Star will be the star Vega, in the constellation of Lyra. Vega was the also North Star in 12000BCE.

    The Apollo crews did not have any life insurance.
    On the chance that the 3 man crew of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins did not return safely from the moon, they were not covered by any life insurance policy. So before their trip all 3 men signed photographs that could be sold in the event of their death. These Insurance covers were also stamped and posted on the start date of the mission, July 16th 1969 by a friend.


    Before their mission to the moon. The Apollo 11 crew were in quarantine to make sure they didn’t get sick. During this time they signed lots of photos and cards to act as life insurance for family. Credit: NASA.
    Before their mission to the moon. The Apollo 11 crew were in quarantine to make sure they didn’t get sick. During this time they signed lots of photos and cards to act as life insurance for family. Credit: NASA.

    In space metal sticks together
    In a vacuum like space, when two pieces of metal touch each other they bond together. This is a process called cold welding. On the Earth because of the oxygen in our environment this does not happen naturally but it is used during some manufacturing processes. It is something to take into account but it is not usually a problem as the astronaut’s tools maintain an oxide layer even when leaving Earth.

    The furthest manmade object is Voyager 1. It has messages for aliens on-board.
    In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 were launched. Their primary mission was to visit Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 continued onto Uranus and Neptune; Voyager 1 has now made its way into interstellar space. Voyager 1 is further away from Earth than the distance between the Sun and Pluto. Both craft carry a golden record on board, which will act like a time-capsule of Earth. It has greetings from Earth as well as different kinds of music. It also has noises of rocket engines, the sea, people talking, animal’s sounds and lots of images. All of which sum up the Earth. United States President Jimmy Carter said at the time “This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.” These messages have been recorded as electronic impulses which can be translated into written words. If any aliens find it then can enjoy some Louis Armstrong as well some Peruvian panpipes!

    More at: http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/top-20-awesome-facts-about-space.html



    Monday, May 23, 2016

    Explained Memory Sizes (Bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB)

       

    Every file on a computer uses a certain amount of resources when sent over the internet or stored.  Keeping mind of your kilobytes (kB) and megabytes (MB) can prevent problems and produce a smoother online experience.  
    Computer resources do have physical limits to their capacities, even if the idea of computer resources can be scaled up indefinitely.  So we really want to think of the sizes of files in a tidy, minimalist way and thereby make the most of the resources we already have.  Although most people nowadays seem to have internet connections which cope easily with audio, video and high-resolution images, it is worth remembering that many people do not.  If care is not taken, it is possible to produce a large media file that actually conveys no more information to people than a file a tenth or a hundredth of the size.
    Software packages that consume excessive memory and disk space for their function are sometimes called "bloatware", and one could apply a similar aesthetic to media files.  For instance, making transcripts available on a web site might help people to find the information they are looking for more quickly than having audio or video interviews alone.  Similarly, you might want to consider whether it's easier for people, including those with visual impairments, to read the date and time of an event from a text email, or to have to open a large PDF or image file of a poster.  

    A byte is a sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one alphanumeric character) processed as a single unit of information. A single letter or character would use one byte of memory (8 bits), two characters would use two bytes (16 bits).

    Put another way, a bit is either an 'on' or an 'off' which is processed by a computer processor, we represent 'on' as '1' and 'off' as '0'. 8 bits are known as a byte, and it is bytes which are used to pass our information in it's basic form - characters.

    An alphanumeric character (e.g. a letter or number such as 'A', 'B' or '7') is stored as 1 byte. For example, to store the letter 'R' uses 1 byte, which is stored by the computer as 8 bits, '01010010'.

    A document containing 100 characters would use 100 bytes (800 bits) - assuming the file didn't have any overhead (additional data about the file which forms part of the file). Note, many non-alphanumeric characters such as symbols and foreign language characters use multiple bytes.

    A kilobyte (KB) is 1024 bytes, a megabyte (MB) is 1024 kilobytes and so on as these tables demonstrate.

    Data Measurement Chart


    Name Equal to: Size in Bytes
    Bit 1 bit 1/8
    Nibble 4 bits 1/2 (rare)
    Byte 8 bits 1
    Kilobyte 1,024 bytes 1,024
    Megabyte 1,024 kilobytes 1,048,576
    Gigabyte 1,024 megabytes 1,073,741,824
    Terrabyte 1,024 gigabytes 1,099,511,627,776
    Petabyte 1,024 terrabytes 1,125,899,906,842,624
    Exabyte 1,024 petabytes 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
    Zettabyte 1,024 exabytes 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
    Yottabyte 1,024 zettabytes 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176

    Then there is the hypothetical "Googolbyte" which would be a number of bytes equal to a 10 followed by 100 zeroes.

    Name Example(s) of Size
    Byte A single letter, like "A."
    Kilobyte A 14-line e-mail. A pretty lengthy paragraph of text.
    Megabyte A good sized novel. Shelley's "Frankenstein" is only about four-fifths of a megabyte.
    Gigabyte The multi-player version of Diablo II, installed. About 300 MP3s. About 40 minutes of video at DVD quality (this varies, depending on maker). A CD holds about three-fourths of a gigabyte.
    Terrabyte About thirty and a half weeks worth of high-quality audio. Statistically, the average person has spoken about this much by age 25.
    Petabyte The amount of data available on the web in the year 2000 is thought to occupy 8 petabytes (theorized by Roy Williams).
    Exabyte In a world with a population of 3 billion, all information generated anually in any form would occupy a single exabyte. Supposedly, everything ever said by everyone who is or has lived on the planet Earth would take up 5 exabytes.
    Zettabyte Three hundred trillion MP3s; Two hundred billion DVDs. If every person living in the year 2000 had had a 180 gigabyte hard drive filled completely with data, all the data on all those drives would occupy 1 zettabyte.