DIGITAL IMAGES
The bible reads "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images" .... and the second commandment concludes "Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them", which implies the prohibition against idolatry, but man in his heightened zeal to disobey the commandments and to glorify his own image, sprang into making carvings of himself and his surroundings, since time immemorial. These graven images has changed somewhat in its form to the virtual and the digital kind of today. Will this invariably be the cause of his destruction or his higher elevation? Man has termed all his clever tricks that he mentally conjured up technologies but are these not mere "ploys by Satan" to distract mankind from worshipping God?
After centuries of statue mouldings and wood carvings, man has come to preserve his own image by creating the crude box-camera and the film to accompany it. Vigorously perusing betterment over time, we today, have interchangeable 35mm cameras that beats its more modern digital camera in picture density hands down. The single slide projector of old gave way to carousels, superseded by silent 8mm projector, then ones with sound. Progress in motion photography gave rise to 16 movie projector, then 32 mm cine projectors and its other industrial incarnations. These amazing technologies were even further superseded by Television, and video recorder, as exhibits and storage places for man's images. CD/DVD writer and computer hard drives today, are to the most popular and the cheapest form of mass storage for any kinds of information.
Just imagine where this is all going to end, we already have digital kids, who have digital kidz, playing in digital playground with nerdy toys, trading with digital cash, in virtual space in the Web 2.0 world -the latest hype. Virtually every cell phone today has an embedded camera and the ability to record several frames per second, viz, digital video cameras.
Essentially Web 2.0 refers to the "second generation" of web development, technologies and design. It better facilitate Internet communication, data uploads, information sharing and world wide collaboration on virtually every subject. Web 2.0 gave rise the development and evolution of web-based communities collaborating through social-networking sites where video-sharing and picture sharing, is the order of the day. The porn industry has more than flourished because of this and pervades the Internet to the point that school going kids are sending selphy's of their pink parts to others to evoke a response.
So I ask you, has image creation reached a new level of evil?
NERD TOYS
To be grateful to someone, is an emotion that is short lived yet the benefits received from that person may last a life time. Technology is such a benefit. In most cases all that technologist ever want, is acknowledgement and thanks and perhaps some money. But for many nothing has been forthcoming. It probably all started with Charles Babbage, perpetuated by both Blaise Pascal and Ada Lovelace or even Martin Cooper but thereafter the trail becomes a bit hazy perhaps even suppressed. Anyway be that as it may, its important to give credit where credit is due.
Dr Martin Cooper was in essence the inventor the modern cell phone in 1947 but it wasn't popular then, because hexagonal cells technology wasn't invented until the 70's, however cell phones as we know it today has been popularised by the effort AT&T and Bell Labs. The funny thing is, they have been sitting on this cell phone technology since the early 50's during which time the military were using radiophones.
All I can say now, is a big thanks to them and all those others whose names became obscured in order that others may shine. When we look back at my other two pals, Stevie W. and Stevie J. they didn't wait around for the acknowledgments and the thanks but turned their brainchild into a global giant and in the process became world renown. Bill William G was no different, at one time he was even writing software for the two Stevies as well as for IBM and made a big success of it, he became popular in the process and is now keeping the world at ransom.
Capitalists aside, enter Linus Torvalds, he is the originator of the Unix work-alike kernel upon which Linux is built. He is a true humanitarian, a true technologist because he has placed his would-be-wealth at the disposal of everyone. He is the reason why we have operating systems like, Suse, Mandrake, Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu and Centos etc...
Tim Berners-Lee is probably one of the least recognisable people in I.T, but he probably deserves more credit than most. This particle physicist is in fact "the Father of the Web", he originated HTML, the basis of all Web pages. Lets all give him a hand or better yet a standing ovation. Less well known to us, are the dudes and dudettes whose names elude us, of Intel Corp and Motorala Corp who invented their respective microprocessors. Three cheers for these brilliant people and for their ideas and microprocessor designs that now dominates the desktop, notebook and mobile scene. Cellphones, computers, digital diaries, satellite receivers, are the result of you.
"Project Chess", is another such case of hidden identities, where the individual's intellectual property becomes that of his or her employer. Project chess was the code name for the "Acorn" computer which later became known as the IBM PC, designed by William Lowe and his twelve man engineering team. A computer system that has changed the way we do business and communicate. A benefit for which all of us should be eternally grateful.
However, identity obscurity was the exclusive domain of the Corporate employer then, and still now and as much as the glory of the invention of the mouse goes to Xerox corporation, a special thanks and a collective salute to its individual inventor, (perhaps Douglas Engelbart). Dude without your mouse, the graphic user interface may never have materialised. Nothing happens in the foreground when the background is missing. A very special thanks to all the dudes and dudettes who works or worked in the background, contributed to technology but received no acknowledgement nor recognition for their part - THIS ONE IS FOR YOU and the nerd toys of the future.
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