This morning on the way to the bus I wanted to check something on the 'net. I reached into my pocket at pulled out a USB Sprint Networking device for my laptop.

The device sits in the palm of my hand. It's about 2 inches long and maybe 1/2 inch for the other two dimensions.

I pulled it out and stared at it.

I thought about the first typewriter I ever touched in my father's office. It was one of the new electric typewriters with a metal ball that would pop up and rotate to the position that the key imprint was on.

I thought about my father's answering machine. An industrial looking, metal box a little larger than a tivo with one of those tiny, red, press buttons on it. One of those buttons that left a divot in your finger because you had to hold it in to record a message. This was the only thing visible on the box.

Then I thought about my first computer and how I would use a 300 baud modem to call a BBS to exchange text information. The only graphics back then were ascii. For the record, Standard DSL is 1.5 Mbps, about 5 times as much data. Ethernet talks about Gigabit and 10 gigabit. which is 1000 and 10000 times as much as DSL.

I reflected for a moment on how unbelievable the technology was in the palm of my hand.

As a kid, all I really could do was talk about my favourite TV show. (At the time in the late 70's it was an old show called "Doctor Who"). Some people would write their own fiction based on the TV Shows. (I remember beta reading some stories by a woman I used to chat with named Diane Duane)

As I talked about this nostalgic memory with jnanacandra she looked at me and said, "And now you can do it all again. See how far technology has come :)"

Kind of puts it all in perspective

Tags: change, constant, fandom, technology
Current Location: Bus to work
Current Mood: nostalgic

I used to have memorized a list of major city area codes. It was easy because they were all clumped with similar numbers

212-NYC	312 Chicago	412 Pgh	512-Austin
213-LA	313 Detroit	413 W.Mass
214-Dallas	314 St.L.
215-Phila

Coming across a page in wikipedia... I now understand why the big cities were all clumped.

The Area Code system started back in the days of Rotary Dial.

Instead of pressing a button to create a combination of two notes to identify a number, you turned a dial which would click the line for a count equal to the number. Thus "212" sounded like:
"Fwip-click-click, fwip-click, fwip-click-click"

As a result, the original area codes were passed out to cities based on population to minimize the amount of clicks you had to dial to get thru the the city.

So by clicks:

5	6	7	8
212 NYC	213 LA	214 Dallas	215 Phila
	312 Chicago	313 Detroit	314 St. L.
		412 Pgh.	413 W. Mass
			512 Austin

In the initial plan, 605 (SD), 704 (NC), 803(SC) were the original losers with 21 clicks to dial (0 was 10 clicks).

With the advent of tone dialing, the reason an area code is assigned now is to reduce confusion among customers. This is why you get areas with 206, 425, and 360.

So nifty technology history.

Tags: facts, history, information, technology
Current Location: Office
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Hum of the fans.

Back at the office this morning at 5:30 am.

Happiness is the following response from my computer:

[andreif-quad:~] lordandr% uptime
5:58 up 57 days, 20:53, 2 users, load averages: 0.83 0.83 0.65
[andreif-quad:~] lordandr%

Downside...

I think my PPC 6700 phone has finally given up. It is vibrating and trilling every 2 seconds like it's moved into transitional labour and I can not make it or the array of non-sensical errors go away.

I am not getting an iPhone, I am not getting an iPhone... must keep repeating this fact.

Ooh, only 145 work emails to go thru.

Tags: technology
Current Location: Office
Current Mood: awake

From a post by intralimina:

A japanese site (done in flash) that provides a microscope into your browser explaining exactly how the cursor really works. Make sure you drag thru and around the microscope circle, clicking and double clicking to see how the technology of your browser really works.

Tags: computers, humour, japan, technology
Current Mood: amused

CNN has been running non-stop coverage on Katrina's rampage through the gulf region.

Several satellite uplinks had to be pulled down because the satellite dishes on vans act like giant sails on sea going vessels. As a result the van runs the risk of being physically picked up by the winds and flying into the air.

CNN is proud that they've been able to pull down nearly live footage without the use of Satellite. Repeatedly they have said the following:

And we've been able to deliver this footage here at CNN with an entirely new technology known as FTP

Okay, all together now...

BWAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHA WOOOHOOOHOO HAHAHAHAHA

Such mighty technology. Next CNN will offer multiple graphics during the coverage with their secret weapon: Gopher.

Edit: And a live report from Mobile, AL just included the line: "And as you can see, Water street is under Water."
The footage kept being interrupted with an emergency tone. The national CNN commentator said, "Well, it's a good thing that we had that tone to cover all the explitives." No really, she was serious and actually thought the emergency 1K tones were obscenity bleeps.

Either the director or this national commentator is not going to last at CNN very long.

Tags: humour, news, technology
Current Mood: giggly