Technology

Cyber space, a web techies’ frontier. These are the voyages of JWM Studios enterprise… Captain’s blog stardate September 10, 2005.

I have always loved technology every since I was a little boy. Well brace yourselves for the ultimate article: TECHNOLOGY. After all this blog is titled Life, The World and Technology.

Technology is “the development and application of tools, machines, materials and processes that help to solve human problems. As a human activity, technology predates both science and engineering. It embodies the human knowledge of solving real problems”.

Mankind is using technology in every facet of his life, to communicate, transport, cultivate and educate himself. Technology is such a broad term but let me give accolades to some of its innovators:

Albert Einstein - read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

He was a great Scientist that conjured many laws in physics that we use today in every part of technology.

Isaac Newton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton_(in_depth,_2/3)

King of astronomy wasn’t rated back in the day, but people soon accepted his work.

Benjamin Franklin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

King of Electricity, if it wasn’t for this guy, we would not be using all these gadgets that we have today. Seeing that they all use some source of electricity

There are so many others both from the past and here in the present that has contributed to technology. We are a great species; we are human and should be proud of our accomplishments regardless of our social, political, cultural or ethnic backgrounds.

Here are some new innovations in technology from the past ten (10) years:

The World Wide Web

Cellular Phones

Personal Computers

Portable Audio Devices

Digital Cameras

The World Wide Web, invented by University Scholar Tim Burners Lee, has grown quite significantly in the past ten years; from the days of Telnet and gofer now to an era where pictures, sounds and animations rule the frontiers. Another part of the progression of the internet has to do with the internet browsers and their innovations, I also appreciate the plug-ins that integrate with these browsers and allow for various graphics enhancements. Macromedia Flash is a plug-in that has revolutionized the world of animation and entertainment on the web, people are no longer limited to static pages and can now interact and edutain themselves all at the same time. There are also no browser conflicts as it is platform independent. I also give accolades to Windows Media Player and QuickTime for their portability and functions in playing back video on the web.

We cannot forget the good old search engines, gone are the days when there was only yahoo and altavista.com, there are new boys in town and I mean they are bad! Google is the techies’ sweetheart and also webcrawler.com which I use to search for mainly media files.

Cellular Phones, they used to be big and very expensive and now every where you go there is one. With various brands ranging from Nokia, Samsung and Sony these pesky little devices are not your average telephones, they now come equip with built in cameras and mp3 players, you can send text messages (SMS), chat and organize all in one place. They come in various sizes and shapes and also add an appeal to your fashion.

Personal Computers, with the advent of increased processing power and the development of Operating systems, Personal Computers have not only become more affordable but more easy to use. They come in the form of Laptops (Portables) or Desktops. They are the lifeline of any small business or educational/entertainment venture. With the ability to network with other computers; send and receive email, share data, shop online, or the ability to run thousands of applications ranging from all various industries, personal computers have really made a progressive mark in the past ten (10) years.

A few contributors to its innovation:

Michael Dell - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dell

A business man who started selling PCs from his dormitory now owns a multi-billion dollar company

Bill Gates - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

The Brainchild of Microsoft Corporation revolutionized the Operating System market and also developed powerful integrated application software such as Microsoft Office.

There are many more innovators beyond the scope of this article.

Portable Audio Devices, long gone are the days when one has to walk with a cassette and rewind it just to hear a previous track; ipods have taken the world by storm. It’s the Brainchild of Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs), ipods have the ability to store thousands of digital music without the need to add/remove and media (CD’s, cassette etc). Ipods are not only cool, but they are easy to use and can connect to the internet, you can subscribe to I-Tunes online music store and download your favourite artists’ singles or albums.

Last but not least digital cameras, this device have not only gotten smaller but also increased in quality. Digital cameras gives anyone the ability to record an emotional moment and share it with there friend and family using the World Wide Web. Not only can you share these digital emotions, they can be printed at high quality with any Inkjet Printer. So good bye film and hello smart cards (the media used to store digital images from digital cameras).

So there you have it, in a world that is vast and unknown what is known are the technological changes all around us and those are just a few. My personal take on Technology is; don’t be afraid of it, it’s a tool just like a knife or a pencil; use it to improve your lifestyle.