The Computer Zone

This marks the final installment of the Technology in our Lives series. I unfortunately messed up the last two posts, I was supposed to post them on Saturday and Sunday but they got moved back to Monday and Tuesday. So far in the series we’ve seen how technology has changed the way we get information, our quality of life, how our transporation. We got a look at pictures of then and now, how our education system has changed and finally how technology has changed the entertainment industry

A question that I was asked on the first day of this series was “How do you think technology will change our lives in the next 500 years?” And this gave me a perfect idea to wrap up the series. A look into what I think will change over the next 50, 100, and 500 years.

Fifty years from now
I think the most important changes in technology will happen in the next fifty years. Scientists have been exploring exciting new cures, car companies are producing better and more fuel efficient cars and new technologies are being invented.

Over the next fifty years I think that most of the vehicles will be fueled with something other than gas. Internet speeds will reach multiple TBs per second. I can’t even imagine how many different diseases will have cures.

A Hundred years from now
After fifty years I think the rate at which new technologies are discovered will decrease. I think the biggest change will be flying cars. Just imagine walking out of your house, getting into your car and zooming off into the air. Other than flying cars I don’t really see anything else changing. Of course things will get better, but I don’t see anything else really being invented.

Five Hundred years from now
By this time cars will fly, there won’t be any emissions, and you’ll be able to teleport to any place on earth. I have no idea what will be around in five hundred years. I’m sure whatever it is, it’ll be great.

What are your thoughts? How do you think technology will change over the next 50,100 and 500 years?

The week long series of “Technology in our Lives” is coming to an end soon. This is the second last post and I’m already kind of sad it’s coming to an end. Today I’m looking at how technology has changed the way we entertain ourselves.

In many ways, we still use the same form of entertainment as we used to. We still listen to the radio, watch TV programs, go to sporting events and enjoy other activities. Technology has changed a few of the forms of entertainment (including adding new ways). Surfing the web is a fairly new way to entertain ourselves, long distance travel is more readily accessible and even old things have been improved (TV, radio, video quality).

Lets look a little more deeply into a few of these things to see how technology has changed them.

The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web was essentially created in 1991 by Cern. This basically allowed for people at home to connect to web servers world wide. With the development of the WWW came a new form of entertainment called “Web Surfing”. For those of you who don’t know what web surfing is, it’s basically the action of going through a number of websites for entertainment purposes.

As the WWW matured and more websites were created the possibility for spending hours upon hours of playing games, watching videos and talking online increased. Popular sites such as YouTube, Addicting Games and Penny Arcade can suck hours out of a persons day. The World Wide Web is definitely a great form of entertainment.

Long Distance Travel
Technology has changed the way we get around from place to place. Because of this change, people have changed their traveling habits. Traveling longs distances just wasn’t possible a couple hundred years ago. If you wanted to take a vacation you would stay close to your home.

Because of the fact that transportation technology has changed to allow for people to travel longer distances, this means that people can enjoy different cultures. If a person gets bored of their local entertainment they could jump on a plain and enjoy something else. This change in technology has also changed the make-up of local communities. These communities are changing from a once predominantly single culture structure to a more multi-cultural structure. This is also affecting the different ways people seek entertainment within their own local communities.

TV’s and Videos
Remember way back to May of 1977, it was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The original Star Wars movie was released and everyone was amazed with George Lucas and his special effects. Star Wars ep. 4 was the leader in technology, it featured things that nobody had ever seen and movie tickets proved it. Fast forward to May of 2005 and the release of Star Wars ep. 3, the final movie of the six. Revenge of the Sith featured special effects that greatly surpassed those of the original. Technology in the movies has changed the way movies look, the way their produced and even the way their viewed.

Movie theaters a long time ago played one movie at a time. They could only play one movie because they only had one screen. We now have multi screened movie theaters with as many as 50 screens. This means that you can watch one movie, get out of your seat and than watch another.

Technology has definitely changed the way we entertain ourselves. Many forms of entertainment is now easier to get and much more entertaining.

Continuing the 7 part “Technology in our Lives” series, today is definitely my favourite so far. Don’t get me wrong, the advances in transportation technology and the increase in our quality of lives has me quite excited but todays topic affects me more directly at this moment in time. Today I’m talking about how technology has changed the educational system. What advances have happened and what could happen in the future.

I find this topic interesting because I’m currently in my third year of University and I have seen how technology has changed the way we’re taught in a classroom first hand. I don’t remember all the way back but in grade 3 or so I remember learning about history. We had a massive map on the side of the classroom and the teacher would gather us around to look at where countries were located.

Back then classroom learning was done with chalk boards and paper. If you had to do an assignment it was most likely written or drawn. There weren’t many computers in the classrooms and when there was a computer it had a simple word processor with no internet connection. Things have changed a lot since then. School kids now have a lot of things that I didn’t have even ten years ago. I recently saw a kid in grade 6 or 7 who was typing away on a laptop during recess, picking up his schools wireless connection. These things just didn’t exists back then.

What has changed?
So what has really changed over the past few years with our educational system? I think the main thing has been the large shift from pen and paper style of learning to a more digital style of learning. Schools are now putting course information onto websites, assignments are being submitted online and students have the ability to surf the web from class. This shift has changed the way some teachers interact with their students. I had the ability this year to take a course that was done through a video. You would go to a class like normal but instead of having a professor in front of you, you would have a video monitor and a tape of the professor talking.

Is it better?
Whether or not this change in the technology of our educational system is better or not is really in the eye of the beholder. But since I’m the one writing this I’ll write in my own thoughts. Technology has made the educational system easier and more convenient. The ability to submit your articles online means that you don’t have to go to school to do it. You can do a lot of things from the comfort of your own home. I personally think things are a lot better than they once were. I enjoy being able to read all of the professors notes online and submit everything online. I think it’s easier but that’s just my opinion.

Whether technology has changed the educational system for good or for bad is really your decision so what are your thoughts on the matter?

We’re halfway through the “Technology in Our Lives” series. So far I’ve talked about: how information, and information retrieval has changed, how technology has increased and decreased our quality of life and finally how technology has changed the way we get around. Todays post is looking at pictures of old technology versus new technology.

Computers
Computers have certainly changed over the years. In the first picture you can see a computer that takes up the entire wall. This computer had a processing power that was less than your average everyday calculator. The second computer is Apple’s Power Mac. This thing is a thousand times more powerful than the old computer, takes up a lot less space and looks a lot cooler. With the way computers are heading you’ll eventually be able to get the same processing power as the power mac on the head of a pin (or maybe not).

Transportation
While motorcycles still get you from point a to b, now a days they look a lot cooler and go a lot faster. I don’t know much about motorcycles but I do know that the new Ducati looks a lot cooler and can go way faster In my mind that’s really all that matters.

Cell Phones
Do you remember the old cell phones? They were about the size of bricks and weighed the same. They had no other features than the ability to call and were horrifically expensive. Cell phones today are packed with features such as calendars, calculators, games and many other things. A few cell phones even have full operating systems. The new technology today is amazing and greatly out performs cellphones of old.

This marks the third installment of the “Technology in Our Lives” series. Today’s topic expands a little on a part of yesterdays: Transportation. Today I’ll talk about how transportation has changed over the past few centuries, and what this means for us and how we live.

Technology Back in the Day
Imagine going on a cross-country family vacation. You’ve planned where you’re going, packed your bags, made sure everyone that’s going is present. All that’s left is to board a plane or get on a train or maybe even drive. But what if you were doing this 100 years ago. In that case you’d probably be traveling with a horse and buggy. The trip would take weeks and depending on the weather it could be a pretty bad trip.

Because the transportation wasn’t as good back then as it is now, traveling options were rather limited. Vacations (when they were taken) were generally taken locally because traveling far was 1) very expensive and 2) took a long time. As you can see traveling back in the day was not nearly as fun as it is now.

Technology Today
Technology today has improved a thousand fold since the days of the buggies. Computers are now embedded within every car thats produced, everything that can be automated has been and a few cars can even park themselves! With the advances in the transportation traveling to far away places has become a reality. You can get to Australia from Canada in just under a day of air travel. This just wasn’t possible 100 years ago.

How else has advances in transportation helped us? Emergency services now use GPS to find out the quickest path to wherever the emergency is. Helicopters and plans can now get to places quicker than cars (and buggies) ever could. Firefighters now have an easier time with fighting forest fighters. They now have plans that’ll drop the water right onto the fire. There are way too many things to even think about mentioning. Transportation technology has made our lives so much easier.

The Future of Transportation
So what kind of things can we expect in the future. I think that flying cars will soon become a reality. Imagine instead of waiting in your car on a busy highway being able to soar through the skies withing ever having to worry about. What about teleportation. Just think, you can travel anywhere in the world almost instantly. Other forms of transportation would become obsolete. If you were in a car accident you would be able to be taken to the hospital instantly, reducing your chance of permanent injury.

There are so many ways that transportation could evolve in the future that its too hard to think of them. I personally can’t wait for the future because I’m looking forward to the new ways that people will get around.

Today is the second day of the Technology in Our Lives week long series. This all started with a single comment from my brother stating that technology was the bane to his existence. Yesterday was all about the how information has changed over the past 50 years, today’s topic is going to be about how technology has increased and decreased the quality of life around the world.

Technology has increased the quality of life for people around the world over the past century. Transportation has changed and has became much safer, quicker and more widely available. People’s ability to receive health care has increased as well as the quality of that health care and finally technology has increased productivity.

On the other hand, technology has decreased the quality of life in a bunch of different ways. Because of the increase in transportation, the amount of pollution in the atmosphere has increased a thousand fold. The advent of more dangerous technology (chemicals, bio-weapons, etc…) has created more dangerous living conditions and some people say that technology has made mankind less interactive.

Technology has Increased the Quality of Life

Many things in our lives have gotten better with advances in technology, whether it be the way we get around, how we take care of our sick or how much we can produce and how efficiently we can produce it.

Transportation
A hundred years ago humans used buggies and horses to get around from town to town. It was slow, dangerous and hard work. Horses needed to be taken care of and fed, carts and buggies broke down and it could take weeks to get where you wanted to go. Now with airplanes, trains, boats, and cars you can get to any place on earth within a day. Because of the advances in our transportation technology people have spread around the world. Back in the day, extended families would clump together. With the advances in technology extended families can now be found around the world.

Health Care
Imagine having a migraine. The pain is so searing that you need to go to the hospital. Nowadays they would give you migraine medicine and you would be on your way. A hundred and fifty years ago you would have gotten a drill through your skull. Doctors are more knowledgeable, the machines they use are more sophisticated and research is discovering more remedies than ever before.

Productivity
If you’re a University student you’re well versed with the practice of retrieving information from the Internet. Now imagine doing a paper and instead of searching the Internet you had to go to the library to find every piece of information. Now I know that a lot of people still do this but using the Internet as your one stop place for whatever you need is so much more productive than searching around a large library. The advances in computers and machinery has increased the productivity of humans everywhere. Robots now build cars in a fraction of the time that it used to take human workers.

Technology has Decreased the Quality of Life

While technology has also increased our quality of life it has in many ways, decreased it. Dangerous levels of pollution now float around in the Earths atmosphere, endangering humans, plants, animals and even the planet we live on. Warfare has become even more deadly with the advances in chemical / biological and conventional weapons. People have also become more complacent and less interactive with other people.

Increase in the Pollution Levels
As more and more cars drive around, more trains chug along and more planes fly through the skies the amount of pollution increases exponentially. As the pollution level rises, our living conditions decrease. In an effort to increase our living conditions we invent different technologies that could possibly release more pollution. At this point in time there doesn’t really seem to be an answer to this. Car companies are coming out with hybrid cars and countries are implementing laws over how much a company can pollute but it just isn’t happening fast enough. As more factories are used to make things we need for everyday living more pollutions are put into the atmosphere. Basically everything we do pollutes the air we breathe and the land we live on.

Advances in Warfare
In the War of 1812, Americans lost 2,260 soldiers out of a total number of 286,730 soldiers. This equates to a 0.78% death rate. By World War II there were approximately 16million soldiers and of those 16million over 300,000 died. This means almost a 2% death rate, which is a lot higher than the war of 1812. This is partly due to the conditions of the fight but it has a lot to do with the technology of the weapons they had back then compared to now. Back then the soldiers had muskets that fired one shot and took a long time to load. They had canons that would fire canon balls that could take out a few people. Modern warfare has nuclear ballistic missiles that can kill tens of millions of people instantly. We also have automatic weapons that can mow through people at an amazing rate. Before people had a standing chance but now, people really don’t have a chance if a country wishes them dead.

People’s Interactivity with Others
Everyday people log into their Email accounts, check their email, respond to anything they’ve received and send emails to people they haven’t talked to for a while. This is all done through the internet and without any need for human interaction. Students can now take video courses where they never even meet their professor. Bloggers take contract work where they write for people they’ve never met and will never see. This lack of interaction has a profound affect on human beings. We aren’t supposed to be isolated from other humans. We’re supposed to interact with others.

Technology has both increased and decreased the quality of life for everyone around the world. Advances in technology has helped us travel more, be more productive, and take are of our sick, but it has also made us more sick, given us the ability to kill easier, and isolated us from the rest of the human race.

But those are just my opinions, what are your thoughts on the matter? Do you think technology has, in general, increased or decreased our quality of life? What kind of path should we go down to increase our quality of life?

Technology is the bane of our existence - My Brother

This insightful comment (sarcasm) was said in haste at the dinner table one night when my brother was just trying to annoy me. On average I would say that I’m a fairly geeky guy. I enjoy computers and hardware as well as basically anything tech related. My brother on the other hand is probably more of the opposite. He still likes computers (he uses them) but he’s more of a social type of guy. He doesn’t spend as much time tinkering as I do or reading tech magazines like Wired or PC World.

The comment he said was in response to a comment I made about hard drives and why they the formatted size is less than the advertised size. At first I just let it pass because he often says things to get me going but as I thought about it more I began to think of how untrue the statement really is and why technology is so important in our lives. Technology is so embedded within our lives that I can’t even begin to imagine life without it. As I thought about it more and more I began to think of reasons why technology is so essential and what life would be without it.

Since I came up with a lot of ideas why technology is so important I decided to make this my first week long series entitled ‘Technology in our Lives’. Here’s the first segment.

#1: Technology in the news

Over the past 50 years the way we read the news has changed drastically. Fifty years ago people would get the majority of the news through word of mouth and the local newspaper. This news was generally very localized and international news had a large lag time. Twenty years ago people got most of their news from the radio and the local newspaper. The radio made it so people could get updates on the news soon after they happened. In the last ten years, the mediums for which people receive their news has changed even more drastically. People still read newspapers and listen to the radio but with the explosion of home computers, the news can now be delivered to your home seconds after it happens through online newspapers, blogs and search engines. Here are a few points on how we get information now.

Speed
Fifty years ago, how fast you got the information you were looking for depended primarily on one thing: How fast a person(s) could carry the news from the spot where it happened to your door. If something happened over seas, most likely you wouldn’t hear about it for a few weeks. Now a days with the internet and international phones you can learn about things that have happened instantly (or at least extremely quick).

Being able to know things that have happened far away, quickly has changed the world in a few ways:

• People are now more aware of international events. This awareness can have a drastic effect on decision making and other things
• People and Countries are no longer as separated as they were before.
• Because communication is easier the average family is spread out a lot farther than they were 50 years ago. Before most of your family would stay in the same country, but now theres really no limit on how far apart you can get.

Reliability
The internet has sped up the process of receiving the information but it has also done another thing: watered the information down. Now that everyone can go online and speak their minds people cannot be sure whether their getting stuff that is 100% true or whether their getting someone’s opinion on it. Sites like Wikipedia and people’s personal blogs are all centered around content that is created by people. While Wikipedia does display sources we cannot be sure whether these sources are true or not. This lack of reliability means that we cannot always trust the information coming from the internet. We now have to be more wary of our news sources than we did before.

Information gathering has greatly change over the last century and it’ll continue to change for many years to come. Imagine in twenty years if we have teleportation. Instead of people passing on the news, people could visit and see what’s going on around the world. How do you think the way we get information will change over the next few years?