Gadgets

There are a lot of things that many of us take for granted today, which are an integral part of our tech-infused lives. I am sure you can probably remember a time when it was really rare for anyone to have a cell phone and cell phones were as big, if not bigger, than the land line phones we use today.
In this post, we are taking a look at the huge leaps that gadgets have made in such a considerably short time span. From the 1990’s to today. There are many gadgets to talk about but am only going to pick my favourite FIVE.

1)The Television

Televisions are probably one of the most significant technological developments in the world. They debuted in the 1920’s and evolved into the most common household appliance. In the 1990’s, they were big, bulky, 2-foot wide by 2-foot high 200 pound cubes that displayed images on a flourescent screen using cathode ray tube (CRT) technology. Today, televisions are a quarter of the weight with an inches thick high definition screen that displays images using LCD, Plasma, DLP, and more recently OLED technologies.

2)The Laptop Computer

Laptops are another piece of technology that is quickly becoming more and more of a cornerstone of society. In 1996, only 17% of computers purchased were laptops. Next year, laptop sales are expected to surpass desktop computer sales. Portable PC’s debuted shortly after the personal computer was made a reality, but they were large, heavy, and bulky, and in the ’90’s could only display 256 colors. Just like all computer technology, laptops have made bounding leaps in both processing and graphics. Now most laptops come with thin LCD screens, are light-weight and easy to carry around.

3)The Cell Phone

Cell phones are one of those pieces of technology that we just can’t live without. These days, everyone has one, even children. Back in the ’80’s and ’90’s cell phones were available to those who could afford them, but they weren’t as convenient as they are today. They we big bricks that were larger than a 1-liter soda bottle, and were hardly pocket-friendly. Today, they have evolved into a more manageable form; not only are they light-weight and super-thin, but today’s technology allows them to display amazing graphics and they are even capable of multimedia functionality.

4)The Music Player

Music is one of those things that has been around since the dawn of time. Only more recently in human history, however, have we developed the technology to record it. In the ’70’s it was vinyl records; in the ’80’s it was the 8-track; and in the ’90’s it was the cassette tape. Once the cassette tapes were made commercially available the music industry blew up. They were (at the time) a reliable, high quality method of recording music, and they became very popular. Cassettes segued easily in compact discs, feeding the popularity of music playback directly into the 21st century. Fast forward to modern day, and statistics show that more and more people listen to music via their cell phones, MP3 players, and personal computers. Cassette and CD players have pretty much gone extinct and have given way to a digital age.

5)Electric Vehicles

Energy sources and environmental safety have been extremely important topics as of late, but the idea of electric vehicles has been around for a long time. GM debuted the first commercially marketable electric car in 1999, the EV1, but was met with doubt and skepticism on the part of consumers who were incapable of making the transition to electric at the time. Today we have many different types of Hybrid vehicles on the market, which helps to slowly transition us from fossil fuels to electric vehicles.

If you look around you now you will find somethings that were not there just few years back or it has drastically changed from the way it used to be due to the technology effect. I picked my favourite 5 gadgets above, are your favourite gadgets same as mine or different?

REFERENCE:

http://thehottestgadgets.com

Privacy

Privacy relates to personal information that a person would not wish others to know without authorization, and to a person's right to be free from the attention of others.

Consumer privacy, also known as customer privacy, involves the handling and protection of sensitive personal information that individuals provide in the course of everyday transactions. This involves the exchange or use of data electronically or by any other means, including telephone, fax, written correspondence, and even direct word of mouth.
With the advent and evolution of the World Wide Web and other electronic methods of mass communications, consumer privacy has become a major issue. Personal information, when misused or inadequately protected, can result in identify theft, financial fraud, and other problems that collectively cost people, businesses, and governments millions of U.S. dollars per year. In addition, Internet crimes and civil disputes consume court resources, confound legislators and police departments, and produce untold personal aggravation.

Most Web users want to understand that personal information they share will not be shared with anyone else without their permission. An annual survey conducted by the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology showed that 70% of the Web users surveyed cited concerns about privacy as the main reason for not registering information with Web sites. 86% indicated that they wanted to be able to control their personal information. A study by TRUSTe revealed that 78% of users surveyed would be more likely to provide information to sites that offered privacy assurance.

Having Privacy in our world today is very hard. Technology now can find out where you are, what your doing, your email address, different accounts, passwords, personal information etc. It is really hard to escape it now and also having freedom. So i think technology on the privacy side for me is negative because we have no freedom and privacy which is our right to have it, what do you think?

REFERENCE:

http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com

http://www.youtube.com

http:..search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=privacy&form=QBIR

Health care

As we know Health care is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions.

Broadly speaking, the term “medical technology” can be used to refer to the procedures, equipment, and processes by which medical care is delivered. Examples of changes in technology would include new medical and surgical procedures (e.g., angioplasty, joint replacements), drugs (e.g., biologic agents), medical devices (e.g., CT scanners, implantable defibrillators), and new support systems (e.g., electronic medical records and transmission of information, telemedicine). There is very little in the field of medicine that does not use some type of medical technology and that has not been affected by new technology.

Heart disease and its consequence, heart attack, is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and a good example of how new technology has changed the treatment and prevention of a disease over time. In the 1970s, cardiac care units were introduced, lidocaine was used to manage irregular heartbeat, beta-blockers were used to lower blood pressure in the first 3 hours after a heart attack, “clot buster” drugs began to be widely used, and coronary artery bypass surgery became more prevalent. In the 1980s, blood-thinning agents were used after a heart attack to prevent reoccurrences, beta-blocker therapy evolved from short-term therapy immediately after a heart attack to maintenance therapy, and angioplasty (minimally invasive surgery) was used after heart attack patients were stable. In the 1990s, more effective drugs were introduced to inhibit clot formation, angioplasty was used for treatment and revascularization along with stents to keep blood vessels open, cardiac rehabilitation programs were implemented sooner, and implantable cardiac defibrillators were used in certain patients with irregular heartbeats. In the 2000s, better tests became available to diagnose heart attack, drug-eluting stents were used, and new drug strategies were developed (aspirin, ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, statins) for long-term management of heart attack and potential heart attack patients. From 1980-2000, the overall mortality rate from heart attack fell by almost half, from 345.2 to 186.0 per 100,000 persons.

Another example of how advances in technology have changed health outcomes over time is in the treatment of pre-term babies, for which very little could be done in 1950. But by 1990, changes in technology, including special ventilators, artificial pulmonary surfactant to help infant lungs develop, neonatal intensive care, and steroids for mother and/or baby, helped decrease mortality to one-third its 1950 level, with an overall increase in life expectancy of about 12 years per low-birthweight baby.

I do agree and ofcourse the advances in technology will also make an advance in Healthcare and so saves more lifes. Technology has also discovered more diseases and their cures, But some of the medications are expensive and some people will not be able to afford it. There are public Hospitals which uses some of this new technology and so the new technology did not only help rich people but in one way or another all kind of incomes of people. The more technology introduced in Healthcare will save more lifes and cost will decrease and so more people will be able to afford it. So what do you think of the increase of technology in healthcare?

REFERENCE


http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm030807oth.cfm

Education

Education is the process of aquiring of knowledge and understanding and these is acquired through studying and training. As we see worldwide more and more people are becoming more and more aware of the importance of Education.
Recently i read through Maulana Wahidudeen Khan Importance of Education and this is what he said, (The importance of education is quite clear. Education is the knowledge of putting one's potentials to maximum use. One can safely say that a human being is not in the proper sense till he is educated.
This importance of education is basically for two reasons. The first is that the training of a human mind is not complete without education. Education makes man a right thinker. It tells man how to think and how to make decision.
The second reason for the importance of education is that only through the attainment of education, man is enabled to receive information from the external world; to acquaint himself with past history and receive all necessary information regarding the present. Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards outside world).

Technology has really changed the way of Education as it used to be. I will say that it has changed it for both, the better and the worse.

Better

• Kids do not have to spend a lot of time doing tedious tasks
  Graphing parabolas
• Concepts can be brought to life
  3-D computer modeling
• Information can be accessed in a faster amount of time
• In Math:
  With graphing calculators students can, “Do more”
  In Physics:
  Can have new labs that model motion, waves, etc…
  In English:
  Student can write more
• There is a lot more data available at people’s fingertips.
• Students can take classes from remote sites. They don’t have to miss out on educational opportunities because of living in a remote area.
• Allows students quick access to information.
• Brings authentic experiences to the classroom, such as the use of telecommunications devices to create a virtual field trip to a zoo or a museum that would otherwise be impossible.

Worse

• Kids cannot deal with fractions without using a calculator.
• Not all information is factual.
• Student rely too much on the technology, such as spell checkers.
• Sometimes technology is thrown into the curriculum, just because it is new technology, which may impede the learning process.
• whole field of technology critics has been created as a result of bringing technology into the schools.

Even though there are some negatives due to the increase of technology use in education, the positive benefits far outweigh any negative side effects. So i think the constant use and introduction of technology resources in Education is very important not only in school but also outside school as to keep up with the technology increase in the society. So what do you think of education with the increase of technology in it?

Lifestyle

Technology is evolving at such a rapid pace it's hard to tell what will happen in six months time. It's hard to predict which products will make it to the market and which will be successful and end up as everybody's favourite toy, business companion or home entertainment device. Every technology if not all has changed our life or the way we used to live, some of them in a manner are more aggressive than others. It's hard to point out to a specific technology and make it responsible for the major changes in our lifestyle, because each and every one of us may be influenced by other things.

Just in my lifetime until a college student, Technology has changed our lifestyle in many ways; we are using computers, when we all used to be paper and pens or typewriters. Started microwave ovens when we used to just have toaster ovens or convection ovens. Started all wireless telephones. Started all TV's and DVD's in cars. Started color TV, videos, CD's, DVD's, and cable TV. Put television cables underground. Made bigger jets & rocket ships. Made money plastic that is to say into credit cards & ATM machines so not needing to go into banks to do transactions. Started recycling and many other things. So technology has really changed our lifestyle in many ways and in what other ways has technology changed in your lifestyle?

REFERENCES

http://news.softpedia.com

http://youtube.com