What I Learned About Modern Technology

 

Blog Post #6

While it's no secret to anyone living in the modern world that technology is almost entirely dominating our current world, there are quite a few facts about the developments of said technology that I learned from the first EOTO assignment.  These new tidbits of knowledge came from all over the technological timeline, spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, many of which actually had some carryover with one another.

One of the first few bits of knowledge I gained was a bit of an update on the timeline that I didn't quite know, that being the fact that the Pony Express was immediately succeeded by the telegram as the leading form of communication in the West.  This also bled over to the fact that the telephone existed in tandem with the telegraph in common use due to the low cost of the telegraph.  

(Photo from Smithsonian American Art Museum)

Another set of facts I didn't know focus around the USB.  One might not believe it, but the USB was originally a set of innovations combined into one singular invention, not the direct result of a definite idea.  USB sticks were also originally only 8 MBs in size.  Computers were also vastly different originally.  Not only did the regular sized computers originally take up entire rooms in buildings and what we would consider a personal computer was originally called a microcomputer.  

Quite a bit of our visual technology has also come a long way as of late.  Out of the plethora of facts I learned, my favorite might be the fact that Disney and Universal attempted to sue Sony over the idea of VHS tapes.  This is because VHS tapes allowed for more piracy and could possibly lead to the companies losing money, of course Disney and Universal lost the case.