I find computer technology interesting as I keep learning more and more about them day by day. It’s fascinating to see how far we have progressed from the day John Mauchly and Presper Eckert created the world’s first computer – the ENIAC (Australia, 2009).
What’s even more exciting then the history of computer technology is the glimpse of what lies ahead. Obviously we can’t tell for exact how it would be like in the future but we could make an educated guess based on what we use today.
To know what we use, we have to understand what kinds of computer technology exist today. Personally, I simply sort them into categories of hardware, software and web. Hardware being physical technologies like the processor, electronic circuits and user interfaces. And softwares are programs that run tasks for you like the operating system, applications, and widgets. While the web provides us with a space for communication and storage.
Speaking about the web, things in the computing industry has become very online based as people are using and spending more time on the web. You could do more things online now then you could say a couple of years ago, for instance tasks like saving contacts on your computer’s address book can be done online with Nokia’s Ovi and Google contacts or marking events on your iCal or Entourage is now possible online via Google Calender. But that’s not all, bookmarking has moved online too with the advent of Diigo and Delicious. Sharing files between computers and devices has always been a hassle but with Apple’s Mobile Me, Dropbox, and Evernote, comes cloud computing which makes data storage, two way syncing, and accessibility across multiple platforms a piece of cake.
Upon reviewing all this, I have come to the conclusion that technology is not perfect – they continually change and evolve, hence the way we use technology in our lives continually changes and evolves. Thus we adapt to these constant changes in order to move forward.
Then again this raises an interesting series of questions, like, Will our technological lives be in a constant state of flux?, and, Should we really invest our time and effort on something, which is bound to change in the future?
Bibliography
Australia, L. (2009). Libraries Australia – ENIAC, the triumphs and tragedies of the world’s first computer / Scott McCartney. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an14328486
