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Mathew Steel

Technology Today and Yesterday(s)

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This thread is hopefully something I'll be updating every 2 days. Similar to the History Thread made by Crusader (which is a brilliant thread) this will be the same thing but with technology. I'll be sharing news and facts on newer technology and older technology. I am sure no one here is na?ve and is aware that technology is a very broad term, it covers a lot of different things so be sure to expect a number of different topics. Feel free also to add anything you find interesting about these posts or any technology you wish to add :)

 

Something which a lot of you may find uninteresting is something that I find really cool. So what better way to start a new thread than making a post on something uninteresting? :D

 

 

YESTERDAY(S) TECHNOLOGY

 

The British Plug

The British plug, like all safe plugs has three main wires. Earth (aka Ground), live and neutral (where the danger is). The dangerous wires have shutters over them. This stops anyone poking a fork into the live and neutral wires and giving themselves a very painful and possibly fatal shock. The only way these shutters open is by putting enough pressure onto the earth wire. This is on the top of the plug socket.

 

Because of the way the British plug is designed, it means the only way for the earth wire to have pressure is by putting the top pin in first. If any of you who have used a British plug have tried placing the 2 bottom pins in first, you'll notice it is hopeless.

 

When the earth wire has enough pressure and the bottom shutters open, you can then push the bottom 2 pins in. Since some extension cables are badly designed it means the top pin can be connected upside down, allowing the bottom shutters to open without anything blocking it. Regardless, you'd need to have a very inventive baby to put one end in the top, open the shutters and then put a fork in the bottom ends. Which leads me to the next safety feature, the insulation. The 2 bottom pins have one half fully insulated. For the circuit to be complete, the metal that is exposed must be completely inside the plug socket. Due to the insulation, the metal cannot be touched when the circuit is live. Meaning no electric shocks again.

 

Now the inside. Blue insulations are neutral, and connect to the left terminal. Brown insulations are live and connect to the right terminal. Yellow and green are earth, and it connects all the way to the top of the plug. Normally the earth wire wouldn't be used, it's a safety feature so if something goes wrong and the fuse goes for example. All the electricity will go away and away from people.

 

The way these wires are all connected means that if something/someone tugs on the cable from the appliance to the plug it means the live wire will come out first, followed by the neutral and then followed by the earth wire. There is no way this can change unless the plug has been tampered with.

 

Now of course, with every great invention, comes a downfall. Which is, if you drop this plug, it will almost certainly land with the pins pointing up. Meaning if you don't see it and stand on it, well, you may as well have had an electric shock :P

 

Plugs_1-4b121a.pngPlugs_2-3f983d.png

 

 

Hopefully this interests some of you :D

Thank you for reading!

Edited by Mathew Steel

"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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And this is the type being used in my country! :) (and many others)

electricity-type-EF-plug-1-249x300.jpg

 

I am interested to know, how is it possible that one gets shocked when stepped on the plug? :| I assume that those plugs you showed are the ones which goes "into the wall", so when it is out there is no electricity, right? The electricity stays "in the wall", or if you have this thing (of which I don't know the name in English):

produzni-kabel0306.jpg

the electricity still stays "in there".

 

Still, stepping on that badass would be less pleasant then stepping on Lego. :D

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Perhaps you misunderstood. The point at the end was meant to refer to the same feeling as stepping on Lego. I've stepped on plugs before and it hurts like crazy :P


"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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YESTERDAY(S) TECHNOLOGY

 

The History of the Internet

The idea of the internet came along on May the 31st, 1961 after Leonard Kleinrock published his first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets." It wasn't until 1968 that the Internet itself started to be developed. In 1969 the Internet was introduced to the public on July the 3rd.

 

The first Internet message was sent on Friday, the 29th of October, 1969 at 10:30pm. This was sent after the second piece of network equipment was installed at SRI (Standard Research Institute).

 

The first ever message to be distributed was "LO", which was an attempt at "LOGIN" by Charley S. Kline to log into the SRI computer from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). This was when the first ever crash occurred and so the message failed to send. Shortly after the crash, the issue was resolved.

 

The first network e-mail was sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. Which was the first messaging system to send messages across a network to other users.

 

Along came TCP during 1973, designed by Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn. This was later published with the help of Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine, who most people consider the "inventors of the Internet."

 

The idea of Ethernet was developed by Bob Metcalfe, shortly after TCP was designed in 1973.

 

Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington released the 80-103A Modem in 1977. This became a popular choice for home users to get online and even today this is the main choice to get online from home!

 

In 1978, TCP splits into TCP/IP with the help of Danny Cohen, David Reed and John Shoch to support real-time traffic. Which allowed the creation of UDP. Even today, TCP/IP is the primary protocol used for the Internet.

 

DNS was introduced in 1984 by Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel. The first domain name "symbolics.com" is registered by Symbolics on the 15th of March, 1985.

 

The first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the US known as "The World" is introduced in 1989. This was the first ISP to be used on what we consider today to be the Internet.

 

Tim Berners-Lee develops HTML in 1990, which made a huge impact to how we use and view the Internet today.

 

Tim Berners-Lee also introduces WWW (world wide web) to the public on the 6th of August, 1991. This is what most people today consider the Internet.

Edited by Mathew Steel

"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT

 

Faster Internet Speed

Late last year, BT and Alcatel-Lucent achieved the fastest ever broadband speed of 1.4TB per second during a field test in London. This is the equivalent to 44 average size HD films being downloaded in a single second!

 

The test was between BT Tower in central London and BT's research park in Adastral Park, Ipswitch, that's a distance of 410km, using fibre broadband cables but increasing the efficiency of data transfer speed by 42.5%.


"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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YESTERDAY(S) TECHNOLOGY

 

The Light Bulb

The electric light bulb was not invented until 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison. It revolutionised the world and almost every household has one. Without light bulbs the world wouldn't be how it is today. Hospitals, houses, shops, cars, planes, almost anything electronic has some form of light. Imagine a place without light bulbs, sure maybe in the day you could cope, but during the night, we'd have to rely on fire or starlight to see (unless of course, you eat a lot of carrots :P)

 

It's not only the obvious things. From light bulbs we have been able to create computer screens, televisions, torches. Not only useful items, light bulbs are used as design. Computers, Halloween lights, Christmas lights or maybe just in your garden to make it look fancy.

 

This wouldn't be a technology thread without the technological facts behind it, so here we go. An incandescent bulb uses heat caused by an electrical current. When electrical current passes through a wire, it causes the wire to heat. The wire, or filament, gets so hot that it glows and gives off light.

 

Lights_1-363320.pngLights_2-004682.png

 

I feel like we underestimate the power of little things like the light bulb. I also feel like without these little things, we wouldn't have all these amazing things we have today. If you want to get really dark (no pun intended :D) we wouldn't even have Stronghold Nation!

 

Thank you for reading :)


"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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Great article, Matthew...and just to show you I pay attention, (if you don't already know), the longest burning lightbulb (at 114 years!) is located at The Livermore Fire Department (in Livermore, California). It was installed in 1901. It has only been turned off a few times since. It is speculated that it's survival is geared to the fact that most wear and tear on the filaments is born through the constant turning off and on of a bulb. When it cools and is reheated again - tiny filaments (and tears in such), will eventually cause the bulb to burn out. An amazing light indeed! :)

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That is interesting :D I was looking for something similar to add :P thank you!


"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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Apologies for the late post, hopefully this will make up for it :D

 

YESTERDAY(S) TECHNOLOGY

 

The First Commercial Games Console

The Magnavox Odyssey was the world's first commercial home video game console. It was first demonstrated in April 1972 and released in August of that year. The Odyssey was designed by Ralph H. Baer, assisted by engineers William Harrison and William Rusch. They began around 1966 and had a working prototype finished by 1968. This prototype can be seen at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

 

Like all other video game consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey is a digital console. However, like all consoles up until the eighth generation, it uses analog circuitry for the video output because televisions of its era were analog. Additionally, it featured an analog game controller. The system could be powered by six C batteries, which were included. An optional A/C power supply was sold separately. The Odyssey uses a type of game card, that inserts into a slot similar to a ROM cartridge slot.

 

Here are just some of the games available with the Magnavox Odyssey:

 

- Analogic 3

- Baseball 3

- Basketball 8

- Brain Wave 3

- Cat and Mouse

 

Now, in the 21st century we have consoles over x8 more powerful than that one, and computers even more.

 

magnavox_odyssey_2.jpg

Edited by Mathew Steel

"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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An I thought I was an oldtimer having played my first games on a Comodore 64. :)

 

Great find, Matthew - and also Crusader for that stuff on the light bulb: 114 years - and still running I suppose :O

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Oh, so now we're talking about game consoles. :D

 

Here's mine! :D I did have another console before this one, but that was for a short period of time, and I don't remember its name. On the other hand has marked my childhood. :)

 

1807452-sega-master-system-ii-0.jpg

 

So great memories! Few years ago we threw it away, which makes me really sad right now. :'( On the other hand, I do realize I wouldn't be playing games on it, that's for sure. Maybe I would now and then, but that would be pretty rare. Good by old friend. :')

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Indeed, I too found this strange that it was powered by batteries! Shows how far we've advanced :D


"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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TODAYS TECHNOLOGY

 

Fibre Optic Cables

Although these cables first started being developed in the late 1970's, they never truly flourished until recently.

 

A fiber-optic cable is made up of 100 or more incredibly thin strands of glass or plastic known as optical fibers. Each one is less than a tenth as thick as a human hair and can carry 10 million telephone calls. Fiber-optic cables carry information between two places using entirely optical (light-based) technology.

 

All sorts of data is sent through either ultra-violet or infra-red lighting. Since the glass/plastic blocks the light escaping, the light is manipulated into reflecting from one side of the surface to the other, all the way to the receiving end. These cables are also a lot safer. Data interception is much more difficult. Instead of being able to connect a device straight to the cable (like you can with copper cables) you would have to cut through the wire in order to gain information. While fibre optic cables certainly have disadvantages, such as being much more expensive and not being able to send data in all directions in one go (like with micro waves). The pros beat the cons in my personal opinion.

 

When it comes to broadband speeds. Fibre optic is much faster. Although home fibre optic cables are connected to a mast which send the rest of the data with copper cables, most schools or companies have fibre optic cables leading all the way to the BT tower in London. Meaning the cables are far more efficient. In fact, this is how the fasted internet speed was achieved, as seen in an earlier post of mine :D

 

fiber-optics-simulation.jpg

Edited by Mathew Steel

"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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I've been really busy these last two days and so haven't made any new posts. I'll update this thread later with 2 new topics if I get time. If not, I'll post 2 tomorrow :)


"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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@EaglePrince's Sega reminded me of the old advertisement: "Sega can do what Nintendon't" xD I still love my SNES (Super Nintendo, for the Sega people out there :P).

 

I still live in a part of the US that many would consider backwards. No fibre optic cables available here on the island, and the low-tech plans are expensive. I recently read an article detailing how other countries are improving their internet speeds, while the two main service providers in the US stated that they believed that internet speed in this nation is fast enough as-is. Another article stated a rumor that the cables being used are 20+ years old, which wouldn't surprise me. :(

 

Who remember video cassette tapes, and video stores for that matter?


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I STILL own a c**p load of VHS! Never got around to converting some of them (which I really to need to convert). VHS will come back, pretty much the way phonographs are (which they said never would....just wait). AND there is still one or two stores in my part of the US which STILL rent VHS (if you can believe it!). As for internet speeds.....they are still mostly c**p! Especially in California -where every type of device is "streaming". :') :')

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TODAYS TECHNOLOGY

 

Flickery Night-time Smartphone Video Footage

Excuse the long title but this is an interesting topic I feel you guys might not know. So here we go.

 

If anyone here has ever filmed in Europe with a smartphone under artificial light, or seen a video that has been filmed in those conditions, you may notice flickery footage. You may see black lines rolling down the video footage continuously. This is caused because the U.S power grid and the EU power grid run at different speeds.

 

The EU power grid runs at 50Hz (50 cycles a second) meaning the alternating current in the wires switches direction x100 a second. 50 cycles back and forth. Meaning all the lights dim x100 a second. It's not enough for you to see with the naked eye, but the camera will pick it up. This isn't a problem as long as the camera runs at the same rate as the light. Unfortunately, some smartphones, for example the iPhone is an American phone and so runs at the same rate as the American power grid, which runs at 60Hz. So American TV runs at 30 or 60FPS (Frames Per Second). If a camera is recording at 30FPS, but the light is pulsing at 50Hz, the two are out of sync, meaning sometimes you get light and sometimes you get dark.

 

The rolling effect occurs because of rolling shutters on cameras. All modern cameras (unless extremely advanced) record/capture a line at a time, scrolling down. Meaning the pixels in the top line of the picture would have been captured a fraction of a second before the pixels in the bottom line of the picture.

 

This of course means through the whole image you will be seeing different times. Since we already understand that because of the desync in light and camera, we will sometimes see light and sometimes see dark, this causes the camera to do the same.

 

image_1-b4dbbd.png

 

Of course the easy way to fix it would be for Apple to have a 25FPS option. I myself, don't see that happening any time soon :P


"Gofyn wyf am galon hapus, calon onest, calon l?n."

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That was interesting! I had no idea. The "joke" would be we in The US are "slow"".......... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks for the article, Matthew! ;)

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That was very interesting! I think it's about time this thread had a sticky too ;)


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The fields have eyes, and the woods have ears.

⁠— Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale

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