Wireless Technology: Communicating the Wi-Fi WayWi-Fi wireless technology is the biggest thing to hit the Internet since the Internet was first conceived. But it can be risky if you don’t take the proper precautions.
By Gary Orlando CEO, Tech Services Short for wireless fidelity, Wi-Fi is a new global standard based on the IEEE 802.11 protocol describing rules for all manufacturers to adhere to when designing and installing their wireless equipment. Any products tested and approved as Wi-Fi Certified® by the Wi-Fi Alliance (an organization made up of leading wireless equipment and software providers) are certified as interoperable with each other, even if they are from different manufacturers. Most commercial laptops have an option for a certified Wi-Fi adapter, or else it comes as standard equipment. The connection speed is fantastic—as fast as or faster than cable modems. Hotspots make it easy to connect to the world. Using Wi-Fi technology is similar to using a cell phone, except the cells are called hotspots and you use a computer for communication instead of a phone. A hotspot is a local area that is serviced by Wi-Fi-compliant equipment, and the number of hotspots is rapidly increasing. There are currently 59,874 Wi-Fi hotspots in 96 countries around the globe. The country with the greatest number of hotspots is the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan. The top five Wi-Fi cities in the world are London, Tokyo, New York, Paris, and Singapore. To search and browse for Wi-Fi hotspot locations wherever you are or plan to be, you can visit JiWire’s advanced search page at http://ibs.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm. Most hotspots are offered by companies or services where a person is already a paying customer, such as at hotels, cafes, or ISPs. There are even a lot of free hotspots available in public places and restaurants, but free access to hotspots may not last very long. As more ISP companies get on the bandwagon they will be putting together service packages with guaranteed access to certified Wi-Fi-serviced areas. On the free (non-certified) areas, there is no guarantee of service; you get what you pay for.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
History of computer
“Sketch of the Analytical Engine” by L. F. Menabrea, translated and with extensive commentary by Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace. This 1842 document is the definitive exposition of the Analytical Engine, which described many aspects of computer architecture and programming more than a hundred years before they were “discovered” in the twentieth century. If you have ever doubted, even for a nanosecond, that Lady Ada was, indeed, the First Hacker, perusal of this document will demonstrate her primacy beyond a shadow of a doubt. (This document was revised in 2006 to improve appearance and readability and requires a modern Web browser with style sheet and Unicode support. If your browser lacks such refinements, the original 1998 edition remains available.)
“On the Analytical Engine”, Chapter VIII of Charles Babbage's 1864 autobiography, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.
The Report of the Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science which, in 1878, recommended against constructing the Analytical Engine.
“The Analytical Engine”, paper by Major-General Henry P. Babbage (Charles Babbage's son), read at Bath on September 12th, 1888; published in the Proceedings of the British Association, 1888. (The 1998 edition remains available for users with older browsers.)
“Babbage's Analytical Engine”, a 1910 paper by Henry P. Babbage published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 70, 517-526, 645 [Errata] (1910), describing his construction of a portion of the Mill and Printing Apparatus, used to compute a table of multiples of Pi.
“Pascal's Calculating Machine”. After years of work, in 1645 Blaise Pascal built a gear-based mechanical adding machine. This document is Pascal's disclosure of the operation of the machine and the grant of a patent upon it in 1649 by Louis XIV, king of France. This is the original text; even if you're comfortable reading modern French, you'll probably find this seventeenth century document rather quaint.
The Analytical Engine Emulator
Programming Cards. A detailed description of the various cards used to program The Analytical Engine emulator, including a number of ready-to-run examples.
The Java Applet Emulator describes an Analytical Engine emulator which runs as a Java applet within a Web page. If your browser supports Java, you can run Analytical Engine simulations with no additional software or installation.
The Command-Line Emulator. Documentation, in Unix manual page style, of aes, a command-line emulator for The Analytical Engine which you can download in either ready-to-run object code or source code form, which runs on any computer with a compatible Java virtual machine implementation.
Is the Emulator Authentic? discusses the challenges one faces in developing an emulator for a machine which was never actually built, and the rationale behind some of the design decisions made in implementing it. Various aspects of The Analytical Engine are compared to those of both early electronic and present-day computers.
The Mathematical Function Library. Babbage immediately recognised that one great advantage of the Engine was that once a given formula was prepared for it, the cards for that formula could be placed in a library and called on whenever evaluation of it was needed in the future. This document describes a modest library of cards for evaluating the elementary transcendental functions, illustrating how the Engine might compute them.
Glossary of Babbage's Terminology
Download
These are ZIP compressed archives, some of which contain subdirectories; be sure to specify the appropriate options when extracting to preserve the directory structure. In addition, the source and object code archives contain long, upper and lower case file names. If extracted with a utility which flattens such names into MS-DOS FILENAME.EXT format, they will neither compile or execute correctly.
Source code for the mathematical function library. Includes the examples from the function library document and test programs for each function.
Object code (.class files) for the command-line emulator.
All examples of programs for The Analytical Engine emulator which appear in documents linked to this page.
“On the Analytical Engine”, Chapter VIII of Charles Babbage's 1864 autobiography, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.
The Report of the Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science which, in 1878, recommended against constructing the Analytical Engine.
“The Analytical Engine”, paper by Major-General Henry P. Babbage (Charles Babbage's son), read at Bath on September 12th, 1888; published in the Proceedings of the British Association, 1888. (The 1998 edition remains available for users with older browsers.)
“Babbage's Analytical Engine”, a 1910 paper by Henry P. Babbage published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 70, 517-526, 645 [Errata] (1910), describing his construction of a portion of the Mill and Printing Apparatus, used to compute a table of multiples of Pi.
“Pascal's Calculating Machine”. After years of work, in 1645 Blaise Pascal built a gear-based mechanical adding machine. This document is Pascal's disclosure of the operation of the machine and the grant of a patent upon it in 1649 by Louis XIV, king of France. This is the original text; even if you're comfortable reading modern French, you'll probably find this seventeenth century document rather quaint.
The Analytical Engine Emulator
Programming Cards. A detailed description of the various cards used to program The Analytical Engine emulator, including a number of ready-to-run examples.
The Java Applet Emulator describes an Analytical Engine emulator which runs as a Java applet within a Web page. If your browser supports Java, you can run Analytical Engine simulations with no additional software or installation.
The Command-Line Emulator. Documentation, in Unix manual page style, of aes, a command-line emulator for The Analytical Engine which you can download in either ready-to-run object code or source code form, which runs on any computer with a compatible Java virtual machine implementation.
Is the Emulator Authentic? discusses the challenges one faces in developing an emulator for a machine which was never actually built, and the rationale behind some of the design decisions made in implementing it. Various aspects of The Analytical Engine are compared to those of both early electronic and present-day computers.
The Mathematical Function Library. Babbage immediately recognised that one great advantage of the Engine was that once a given formula was prepared for it, the cards for that formula could be placed in a library and called on whenever evaluation of it was needed in the future. This document describes a modest library of cards for evaluating the elementary transcendental functions, illustrating how the Engine might compute them.
Glossary of Babbage's Terminology
Download
These are ZIP compressed archives, some of which contain subdirectories; be sure to specify the appropriate options when extracting to preserve the directory structure. In addition, the source and object code archives contain long, upper and lower case file names. If extracted with a utility which flattens such names into MS-DOS FILENAME.EXT format, they will neither compile or execute correctly.
Source code for the mathematical function library. Includes the examples from the function library document and test programs for each function.
Object code (.class files) for the command-line emulator.
All examples of programs for The Analytical Engine emulator which appear in documents linked to this page.
Friday, February 20, 2009
More about Technology
Modern examples
There are an extraordinary number of examples how science and technology has helped us that can be seen in society today. One great example is the mobile phone. Ever since the invention of the telephone society was in need of a more portable device that they could use to talk to people. This high demand for a new product led to the invention of the mobile phone, which did, and still does, greatly influence society and the way people live their lives. Now many people are accessible to talk to whoever they want no matter where any of the two people are. All these little changes in mobile phones, like Internet access, are further examples of the cycle of co-production. Society's need for being able to call on people and be available everywhere resulted in the research and development of mobile phones. They in turn influenced the way we live our lives. As the populace relies more and more on mobile phones, additional features were requested. This is also true with today’s modern media player.
Society also determined the changes that were made to the previous generation media player that the manufactures developed. Take for example, today’s media players. At the beginning, cassettes were being used to store data. However, that method was large and cumbersome so the manufactures developed compact disks, which were smaller and could hold more data. Later, compact disks were again too large and did not hold enough data that forced today’s manufactures to create MP3 players which are small and holds large amount of data. Today’s society determined the course of events that many manufactures took to improving their products so today’s consumers will purchase their products.
[edit] Economics and technological development
Nuclear reactor, Doel, Belgium
Looking back into ancient history, economics can be said to have arrived on the scene when the occasional, spontaneous exchange of goods and services began to occur on a less occasional, less spontaneous basis. It probably did not take long for the maker of arrowheads to realize that he could probably do a lot better by concentrating on the making of arrowheads and barter for his other needs. Clearly, regardless of the goods and services bartered, some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in the making of shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred objects can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of more elaborate economies.
In the modern world, superior technologies, resources, geography, and history give rise to robust economies; and in a well-functioning, robust economy, economic excess naturally flows into greater use of technology. Moreover, because technology is such an inseparable part of human society, especially in its economic aspects, funding sources for (new) technological endeavors are virtually illimitable. However, while in the beginning, technological investment involved little more than the time, efforts, and skills of one or a few men, today, such investment may involve the collective labor and skills of many millions.
[edit] Funding
Consequently, the sources of funding for large technological efforts have dramatically narrowed, since few have ready access to the collective labor of a whole society, or even a large part. It is conventional to divide up funding sources into governmental (involving whole, or nearly whole, social enterprises) and private (involving more limited, but generally more sharply focused) business or individual enterprises.
[edit] Government funding for new technology
The government is a major contributor to the development of new technology in many ways. In the United States alone, many government agencies specifically invest billions of dollars in new technology.
[In 1980, the UK government invested just over 6-million pounds in a four-year program, later extended to six years, called the Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP), which was intended to give every school in Britain at least one computer, software, training materials, and extensive teacher training. Similar programs have been instituted by governments around the world.]
Technology has frequently been driven by the military, with many modern applications being developed for the military before being adapted for civilian use. However, this has always been a two-way flow, with industry often taking the lead in developing and adopting a technology which is only later adopted by the military.
Entire government agencies are specifically dedicated to research, such as America's National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom's scientific research institutes, America's Small Business Innovative Research effort. Many other government agencies dedicate a major portion of their budget to research and development.
[edit] Private funding
Research and development is one of the biggest areas of investments made by corporations toward new and innovative technology.
Many foundations and other nonprofit organizations contribute to the development of technology. In the OECD, about two-thirds of research and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industry, and 20 percent and 10 percent respectively by universities and government. But in poorer countries such as Portugal and Mexico the industry contribution is significantly less. The U.S. government spends more than other countries on military research and development, although the proportion has fallen from about 30 percent in the 1980s to less than 100 percent.[1]
[edit] Other economic considerations
Appropriate technology, sometimes called "intermediate" technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those which developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour and scarcity of cash.
Persuasion technology: In economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology.
Technocapitalism
Technological diffusion
Technology acceptance model
Technology lifecycle
Technology transfer
[edit] Sociological factors and effects
See also: Social construction of technology
Downtown Tokyo (2005)
The use of technology has a great many effects; these may be separated into intended effects and unintended effects. Unintended effects are usually also unanticipated, and often unknown before the arrival of a new technology. Nevertheless, they are often as important as the intended effect.
[edit] Values
The implementation of technology influences the values of a society by changing expectations and realities. The implementation of technology is also influenced by values. There are (at least) three major, interrelated values that inform, and are informed by, technological innovations:
Mechanistic world view: Viewing the universe as a collection of parts, (like a machine), that can be individually analyzed and understood (McGinn 1991). This is a form of reductionism that is rare nowadays. However, the "neo-mechanistic world view" holds that nothing in the universe cannot be understood by the human intellect. Also, while all things are greater than the sum of their parts (e.g., even if we consider nothing more than the information involved in their combination), in principle, even this excess must eventually be understood by human intelligence. That is, no divine or vital principle or essence is involved.
Efficiency: A value, originally applied only to machines, but now applied to all aspects of society, so that each element is expected to attain a higher and higher percentage of its maximal possible performance, output, or ability. (McGinn 1991)
Social progress: The belief that there is such a thing as social progress, and that, in the main, it is beneficent. Before the Industrial Revolution, and the subsequent explosion of technology, almost all societies believed in a cyclical theory of social movement and, indeed, of all history and the universe. This was, obviously, based on the cyclicity of the seasons, and an agricultural economy's and society's strong ties to that cyclicity. Since much of the world is closer to their agricultural roots, they are still much more amenable to cyclicity than progress in history. This may be seen, for example, in Prabhat rainjan sarkar's modern social cycles theory. For a more westernized version of social cyclicity, see Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (Paperback) by Neil Howe and William Strauss; Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 30, 1992); ISBN 0-688-11912-3, and subsequent books by these authors.
[edit] Ethics
There are an extraordinary number of examples how science and technology has helped us that can be seen in society today. One great example is the mobile phone. Ever since the invention of the telephone society was in need of a more portable device that they could use to talk to people. This high demand for a new product led to the invention of the mobile phone, which did, and still does, greatly influence society and the way people live their lives. Now many people are accessible to talk to whoever they want no matter where any of the two people are. All these little changes in mobile phones, like Internet access, are further examples of the cycle of co-production. Society's need for being able to call on people and be available everywhere resulted in the research and development of mobile phones. They in turn influenced the way we live our lives. As the populace relies more and more on mobile phones, additional features were requested. This is also true with today’s modern media player.
Society also determined the changes that were made to the previous generation media player that the manufactures developed. Take for example, today’s media players. At the beginning, cassettes were being used to store data. However, that method was large and cumbersome so the manufactures developed compact disks, which were smaller and could hold more data. Later, compact disks were again too large and did not hold enough data that forced today’s manufactures to create MP3 players which are small and holds large amount of data. Today’s society determined the course of events that many manufactures took to improving their products so today’s consumers will purchase their products.
[edit] Economics and technological development
Nuclear reactor, Doel, Belgium
Looking back into ancient history, economics can be said to have arrived on the scene when the occasional, spontaneous exchange of goods and services began to occur on a less occasional, less spontaneous basis. It probably did not take long for the maker of arrowheads to realize that he could probably do a lot better by concentrating on the making of arrowheads and barter for his other needs. Clearly, regardless of the goods and services bartered, some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in the making of shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred objects can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of more elaborate economies.
In the modern world, superior technologies, resources, geography, and history give rise to robust economies; and in a well-functioning, robust economy, economic excess naturally flows into greater use of technology. Moreover, because technology is such an inseparable part of human society, especially in its economic aspects, funding sources for (new) technological endeavors are virtually illimitable. However, while in the beginning, technological investment involved little more than the time, efforts, and skills of one or a few men, today, such investment may involve the collective labor and skills of many millions.
[edit] Funding
Consequently, the sources of funding for large technological efforts have dramatically narrowed, since few have ready access to the collective labor of a whole society, or even a large part. It is conventional to divide up funding sources into governmental (involving whole, or nearly whole, social enterprises) and private (involving more limited, but generally more sharply focused) business or individual enterprises.
[edit] Government funding for new technology
The government is a major contributor to the development of new technology in many ways. In the United States alone, many government agencies specifically invest billions of dollars in new technology.
[In 1980, the UK government invested just over 6-million pounds in a four-year program, later extended to six years, called the Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP), which was intended to give every school in Britain at least one computer, software, training materials, and extensive teacher training. Similar programs have been instituted by governments around the world.]
Technology has frequently been driven by the military, with many modern applications being developed for the military before being adapted for civilian use. However, this has always been a two-way flow, with industry often taking the lead in developing and adopting a technology which is only later adopted by the military.
Entire government agencies are specifically dedicated to research, such as America's National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom's scientific research institutes, America's Small Business Innovative Research effort. Many other government agencies dedicate a major portion of their budget to research and development.
[edit] Private funding
Research and development is one of the biggest areas of investments made by corporations toward new and innovative technology.
Many foundations and other nonprofit organizations contribute to the development of technology. In the OECD, about two-thirds of research and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industry, and 20 percent and 10 percent respectively by universities and government. But in poorer countries such as Portugal and Mexico the industry contribution is significantly less. The U.S. government spends more than other countries on military research and development, although the proportion has fallen from about 30 percent in the 1980s to less than 100 percent.[1]
[edit] Other economic considerations
Appropriate technology, sometimes called "intermediate" technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those which developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour and scarcity of cash.
Persuasion technology: In economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology.
Technocapitalism
Technological diffusion
Technology acceptance model
Technology lifecycle
Technology transfer
[edit] Sociological factors and effects
See also: Social construction of technology
Downtown Tokyo (2005)
The use of technology has a great many effects; these may be separated into intended effects and unintended effects. Unintended effects are usually also unanticipated, and often unknown before the arrival of a new technology. Nevertheless, they are often as important as the intended effect.
[edit] Values
The implementation of technology influences the values of a society by changing expectations and realities. The implementation of technology is also influenced by values. There are (at least) three major, interrelated values that inform, and are informed by, technological innovations:
Mechanistic world view: Viewing the universe as a collection of parts, (like a machine), that can be individually analyzed and understood (McGinn 1991). This is a form of reductionism that is rare nowadays. However, the "neo-mechanistic world view" holds that nothing in the universe cannot be understood by the human intellect. Also, while all things are greater than the sum of their parts (e.g., even if we consider nothing more than the information involved in their combination), in principle, even this excess must eventually be understood by human intelligence. That is, no divine or vital principle or essence is involved.
Efficiency: A value, originally applied only to machines, but now applied to all aspects of society, so that each element is expected to attain a higher and higher percentage of its maximal possible performance, output, or ability. (McGinn 1991)
Social progress: The belief that there is such a thing as social progress, and that, in the main, it is beneficent. Before the Industrial Revolution, and the subsequent explosion of technology, almost all societies believed in a cyclical theory of social movement and, indeed, of all history and the universe. This was, obviously, based on the cyclicity of the seasons, and an agricultural economy's and society's strong ties to that cyclicity. Since much of the world is closer to their agricultural roots, they are still much more amenable to cyclicity than progress in history. This may be seen, for example, in Prabhat rainjan sarkar's modern social cycles theory. For a more westernized version of social cyclicity, see Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (Paperback) by Neil Howe and William Strauss; Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 30, 1992); ISBN 0-688-11912-3, and subsequent books by these authors.
[edit] Ethics
Technology development.
The distinction between science, engineering and technology is not always clear. Science is the reasoned investigation or study of phenomena, aimed at discovering enduring principles among elements of the phenomenal world by employing formal techniques such as the scientific method.[8] Technologies are not usually exclusively products of science, because they have to satisfy requirements such as utility, usability and safety.
Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and making tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for practical human means, often (but not always) using results and techniques from science. The development of technology may draw upon many fields of knowledge, including scientific, engineering, mathematical, linguistic, and historical knowledge, to achieve some practical result.
Technology is often a consequence of science and engineering — although technology as a human activity precedes the two fields. For example, science might study the flow of electrons in electrical conductors, by using already-existing tools and knowledge. This new-found knowledge may then be used by engineers to create new tools and machines, such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of advanced technology. In this sense, scientists and engineers may both be considered technologists; the three fields are often considered as one for the purposes of research and reference.[9]
Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and making tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for practical human means, often (but not always) using results and techniques from science. The development of technology may draw upon many fields of knowledge, including scientific, engineering, mathematical, linguistic, and historical knowledge, to achieve some practical result.
Technology is often a consequence of science and engineering — although technology as a human activity precedes the two fields. For example, science might study the flow of electrons in electrical conductors, by using already-existing tools and knowledge. This new-found knowledge may then be used by engineers to create new tools and machines, such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of advanced technology. In this sense, scientists and engineers may both be considered technologists; the three fields are often considered as one for the purposes of research and reference.[9]
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