Monthly Archives: January 2023

29 January 2023
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Translator earbuds

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The development of translator earbuds has been a major breakthrough in technology, offering people from different countries the ability to communicate seamlessly. These earbuds have completely changed the way we interact with one another, as they can automatically translate spoken language into other languages in real time. This makes it much easier for individuals who wouldn’t normally be able to understand each other due to language barriers.

Translator earbuds range in price and quality depending on the brand, with most falling within the price range of $100-$500. They come equipped with multiple features such as automatic translation and easy-to-use controls via voice command or through a dedicated app on your smartphone. Some models also offer noise cancellation which helps reduce background noise interference when you’re engaging in conversation. In addition, many models now come with additional features like an integrated virtual assistant and even meditation programs for relaxation and stress relief.

What is the Role of a Language Translator?

Regarding their performance and accuracy, there have been mixed reviews from users who have tried them out. While some have praised their convenience and accuracy, others have complained that they are not always reliable when it comes to translating complex sentences or words from another language. However, these issues may be addressed over time as technology continues to improve.

When looking towards the future, it is clear that translator earbuds will continue to evolve and become more advanced in terms of both technology and design. It is likely that we will see more sophisticated models with improved accuracy levels as well as additional features such as voice recognition capabilities for added convenience while conversing with others in different languages. Additionally, there could be further developments regarding how these devices can be used outside of just talking – such as providing audio translations for written text or videos – opening up even more possibilities for social interaction across cultures all over the world.

Timekettle WT2 Plus AI Language Translator Earbuds review - The Gadgeteer

All things considered, translator earbuds are still relatively new products on the market but they already show great potential for improving communication between people from different countries all over the world. The improved accuracy levels combined with additional features will no doubt make them even more popular in years to come so that people everywhere can experience what it is like to converse comfortably without worrying about language barriers!

29 January 2023
13 Comments
AI, Apps, Business, Security, Software

Żabka Nano- the innovative future of convenience stores

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Many of you are definitely familiar with a Polish chain of convenience stores called “Żabka”. The owner, has opened up their first 7 stores in 1998, and has quite literally spread around the whole map of Poland (and even slightly outside of it! You can find a few “Žabka” stores in Chech Republic! as well) . It is easily one of the most popular stores in Poland today, and recently, in 2021 a brand-new concept of Żabka has been introduced- Żabka Nano.

Żabka Nano - Pierwsze zakupy gratis!

Żabka Nano is not only the most innovative store in Poland but also the largest autonomous chain store in Europe. The overall idea of autonomous stores already exists in Australia, Japan or South Korea (and probably somewhere in the US), but Poland’s Żabka still overtook all other potential European competitors.

Nano - Żabka Group

The main difference between the two stores (the original and the autonomous one) are the employees. More precisely, the lack of them. The idea of Żabka Nano is that it can be open 24/7 and accessed using a credit card or żappka- the stores app that allows you to collect points for your purchases. However, if you wish to enter with the app, you need to make sure you have funds in your account. Moving on, once you’ve put your credit card near the reader at the entrance of the store, the doors to Żabka Nano open. The easy accessibility to enter by card has been implemented by the Żabka’s collaboration with AiFi, in all of the Nano stores.

Żappka” – nowa aplikacja rabatowa sieci sklepów Żabka - mobiRANK.pl

It is a great way of saving your time since you don’t have to stand in a queue to buy your necessities. The store itself is usually a lot smaller than the normal Żabka stores (to no one’s surprise), mostly because it offers less goods than the basic stores. For instance, you will find yourself not being able to purchase alcohol or cigarettes, but you can buy 0% beer (what’s the point in that though). You will also find basic products, such as; water, snacks, juices and refreshments, ice cream and frozen food.

Pierwsza Żabka Nano już działa w akademiku

For the Żabka customers, you all probably know about the famous Żabka hot-dogs. In case that’s you and the nearest Żabka near you happens to be Nano, fear not. You can still get your hot-dogs. The store offers an interesting service for the hot-dog lovers, where you have a robot that grills and assembles the whole hot-dog right in front of you. Keep in mind though that it may not always succeed as it’s assembled by a robot and not a person, so it has its failures at times. The robot is called Robbie and its software has over 15000 lines of code. The order of your snack takes less than a minute (unless you’re indecisive) and the display next to the hot-dog stand shows you the ordering options where you choose the size, type of the sausage and the sauces you wish to have in your hot-dog. After that, you just wait and watch Robbie prepare your meal.

Żabka inwestuje w roboty w sklepach autonomicznych, w jednym z nich działa robot przygotowujący hot dogi | Donald.pl

Onto the security stuff, how does the store know what you take, and how does it not charge you extra? The store doesn’t actually use any shelf-sensors. It does have cameras inside the store, just like all the other stores, but this time, they’re used for camera-vision technology provided by AiFi. To respect the customer’s privacy, customers are identified by the system without the use of biometrics or facial recognition. The cameras only track the movement of the client’s, while the product recognition is performed by AI computer vision. Using key point tracking technology, the system creates a stickman from each customer who enters the store, to which the system supports three sessions running simultaneously, each with a small number of participants.

All in all, Żabka Nano is a great innovation and it does help those who crave a snack anytime after 11PM- after all the normal Żabka stores close. It’s interesting to see how the technology improves everyday and how the world easily adapts to it. Do you think Żabka Nano is a good innovation? Or maybe a beginning to something bigger in the future?

Pierwsza Żabka Nano otwarta w Decathlonie

29 January 2023
4 Comments
AI

AI is creating human proteins that can treat cancer, COVID and flu

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I think that almost all of you are familiar with a new shocking AI technology called Dall-e, which was introduced quite recently. This is a platform that generates images by just specifying what you wish to view. Social media sites are now crowded with these surprisingly detailed, often photorealistic images created by this or similar technologies. However, some scientists perceive it as more than just a means of creating pictures. They see it as a way to treat various diseases, such as cancer or flu.

Recently, by using these modern AI technologies, scientists have started generating blueprints for new proteins – tiny biological mechanisms that play a significant role in our bodies’ operation, ranging from digesting food to moving oxygen through the bloodstream. Although these proteins are produced naturally in our bodies, researchers are still striving to improve the ability to fight diseases and do things that our bodies can not produce on their own.

For more than 30 years, David Baker, the head of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, has worked to develop artisanal proteins. He and his colleagues have established this was feasible by 2017. However, they did not anticipate how the emergence of new AI technologies would radically speed up this task, cutting the period of time required to produce new blueprints from years to only a few weeks.

Proteins are made up of long chains of chemical components that then twist and fold into three-dimensional structures. Recent research from AI labs like DeepMind, which is owned by Alphabet, has demonstrated that neural networks can successfully predict the three-dimensional shape of any protein in the body based only on the smaller compounds it contains.

T1037, part of a protein from (Cellulophaga baltica crAss-like) phage phi14:2, a virus that infects bacteria.

Nowadays researchers are taking a step further by creating blueprints for totally new proteins that do not exist in nature, by using AI systems. The objective is to develop proteins that adopt highly specific shapes. A particular shape can perform a certain function, such as preventing the COVID-19 virus. Researchers can provide a rough description of the protein they want, then a diffusion model can generate its three-dimensional shape. However, scientists still need to test it in a wet lab with actual chemical compounds to make sure it functions as expected.

On the one hand, some experts take this innovation with a grain of salt. Frances Arnold, a Nobel laureate, comments it as “Just a game”. He states that what really matters is what a generated structure can actually do.

On the contrary, Andrei Lupas, an evolutionary german biologist, is convinced that it will change medicine, research and bioengineering. “It will change everything”. AlphaFold has helped him to find the structure of a protein he was tinkering with for almost a decade.

Personally I agree with a majority of researches and assume that AI is a tool for exploring new innovations that scientists could not previously think on their own.

References:

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/artificial-intelligence-intelligence-turns-its-artistry-to-creating-human-proteins/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03348-4

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/one-of-the-biggest-problems-in-biology-has-finally-been-solved/

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29 January 2023
1 Comment
AI, Business

Unlocking the Power of Machine Learning in Ecommerce

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https://www.prefixbox.com/blog/machine-learning-for-ecommerce/

Machine learning has become an integral part of the ecommerce industry. It is a powerful tool that helps businesses make more optimal decisions and improve their overall performance. It already has a plethora of implementations, from demand forecasting and inventory management, through dynamic pricing and personalized ad targeting, to chat bots or picture generators. Nevertheless, in this blog post, I will explain two of the most common implementations of machine learning in ecommerce, specifically forecasting demand and pricing strategies.

Forecasting demand is a crucial aspect of ecommerce, as it allows to predict future sales and adjust the inventory accordingly. Machine learning algorithms can analyze large amounts of historical data to identify patterns and trends that would be difficult for humans to spot, which can then be used to make accurate predictions about future demand. For example, retailers can use time series forecasting models or regression models, which take into account historical data collected, market trends, and consumer behavior to predict how many units of a particular product will be sold in the future, which they can also use to help with inventory management. Although the accuracy depends on the amount and quality of data collected, this can help avoid stockouts, which can lead to lost sales, or overstocking, which can result in wasted resources. Additionally, retailers can use machine learning to forecast demand for new products, which can help them make more informed decisions about when to introduce new items and how much inventory to stock.

Pricing is a critical component of any retail business, as it directly impacts customer behavior and ultimately affects a retailer’s bottom line. Traditionally, retailers have relied on manual methods, their experience, and gut instincts to set prices, but these methods can be time-consuming and prone to error. Since experience is a component there, you can improve it by having more data, and thus this is another area where machine learning can make a significant impact. By analyzing data on competitor prices, consumer behavior or demand spikes, retailers can use machine learning to optimize their pricing strategies and maximize their profits. For example, retailers can use dynamic pricing algorithms, or data-driven pricing strategies, which adjust prices in real-time based on factors such as supply and demand, to ensure that prices are always competitive and to maximize revenue, a strategy that Amazon is using since 2013. Additionally, retailers can use machine learning to analyze customer reviews, ratings and feedbacks to determine which products are most popular and adjust their pricing accordingly.

Price optimization with machine learning

To sum up, machine learning is a powerful tool that helps ecommerce businesses improve their overall performance. By analyzing vast amounts of data available to them, with the ever-increasing data collection practice, machine learning is becoming an essential tool to gain an edge and stay competitive in the ecommerce industry, and as the technology continues to evolve, it is only likely that in the coming years, we will see even more innovative applications of machine learning.

Sources:

https://mobidev.biz/blog/machine-learning-methods-demand-forecasting-retail

https://tryolabs.com/blog/price-optimization-machine-learning

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187705091401309X

https://www.prefixbox.com/blog/machine-learning-for-ecommerce/

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49523

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29 January 2023
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Future of digitalization in governments

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Digitization is noticeable everywhere, it provides many improvements, nowadays it’s common that you can easily set up your company or settle taxes, without moving from your home. Innovation is still going forward and in this blog, I will shortly introduce you to the newest solution on the market.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is testing the digitization of vehicle ownership documents in the form of NFTs on the Tezos network. This project is a partnership between the DMV, Tezos, and the cryptocurrency software developer Oxhead Alpha. The DMV is a state agency that handles the registration of motor vehicles and boats and issues driver’s licenses.

California DMV’s Director of Digitalization, Ajay Gupta, stated that the agency intends to fully digitize its database of vehicle ownership documents. The entire process is expected to be completed within three months.

The initiative also aims to make the process of transferring vehicle ownership easier. The DMV is currently undergoing private beta testing on the Tezos network.

What are the advantages of the digitalization of vehicle ownership documents?

Increased efficiency: Digitization of vehicle ownership documents allows for faster and more efficient processing of transactions and eliminates the need for physical paperwork.

Increased accessibility: Digital documents can be accessed and shared easily, making it easier for individuals and businesses to manage and transfer vehicle ownership.

Faster transaction: Digitization of vehicle ownership documents reduce the time taken for the transaction to complete as the physical paperwork is not required.

And one of the most important: Improved security provided by NFT documents based on a blockchain makes Digital documents even more secure with encryption and other security measures, reducing the risk of fraud or tampering.

Why blochchain?

Blockchain is considered safe because it uses cryptographic algorithms to secure its data. Each block in the chain contains a unique digital signature that verifies its authenticity and links it to the previous block. Once data is added to the blockchain, it cannot be altered or deleted without the consensus of the network participants. This creates a secure and tamper-proof ledger that is decentralized and distributed across multiple nodes, making it nearly impossible for a single party to manipulate the data. This technology cancels most of the possibility to steal or fake important documents.

Another thing is that via blockchain it will be much easier to track the history of the car according to crashes, repairs, services, and car mileage over the different states. Which was quite hard to grasp in the traditional method.

California is a hub of innovation in the United States and a state agency utilizing such technology is a significant step for citizens. State authorities have previously demonstrated an openness to new technologies. I hope in the near future we will see more gov initiatives like this.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/california-dmv-to-digitize-car-title-management-system-via-tezos

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/28/california_dmv_blockchain/

29 January 2023
5 Comments
AI, Business

The end of GOOGLE Empire?

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explostion of google
https://marketing.wtwhmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/End-of-Google.jpg

Google dominates the desktop search industry, currently holding 84% of the market share. This monopoly has existed for 7 years, with Google making the majority of its money through search ads (82% of its revenue). However, with the introduction of AI-powered search engines like chat GPT, the industry is undergoing a transformation.

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. It offers a diverse range of services and products such as search (what’s best known for), advertising, cloud computing, software, and hardware.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-9-1024x647.png
Global desktop market share of search engines 2015-2022 – www.statista.com

Often when we are trying to find something on the internet or find something out we’re googling. This’s so common and already ingrained in us. But it’s search current form hasn’t changed much over the past 20 years.

Just few days the Microsoft CEO Satyla Nadella confirmed its $10 billion investment in Open AI. They want to embed this technology not just in Microsoft web search, but they want to embed it across all their tech products systems/infrastructure like Microsoft Azure and so Word and Excel and all others.

Having a tool on with you type any type of question and it gives you conversional answer seem a threat to current engine leader and make them look old. But there are certain risks with future connection with linking chat, to the internet to Bing. When you google something, when you search it you still need to go through bunch of websites and find it by your own. Use your brain and critical thinking to evaluate which information is the good one. While chat GPT gives you single answer that may not be accurate and you don’t really know where it’s coming from.

Also Microsoft is going to face to the fact that computing power to run chat GPT search vs google search has been estimated 7 times as much bigger. This race may end up costing both companies a lot of money.

How is google reacting to this explosion of interest of chat GPT and Open AI. For sure they are worried about it. Few days ago they has announced Code Red and returned Larry Page and Sergey Brin Google’s founders.

The company knew that AI is the future, therefore acquired DeepMind, a UK-based AI research lab, nearly nine years ago. Google also plans to launch a series of AI programs, including image creation and something that can build and correct code in app development. But apparently they didn’t know that this boom would happen so soon which surprised them. In order to not fall out of the game, already this year, they plan to unveil more than 20 new products and demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features.

They have also been working on something comparable to chat GPT for a long time. The LamDA system’s conversation proved really realistic. The illusion has gotten so good that one employee working on it freaked out thought he was speaking to a conscious being. He wrote. “I increasingly felt like I was talking to something intelligent.”

Emily M. Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington said “We now have machines that can mindlessly generate words, but we haven’t learned how to stop imagining a mind behind them” . So that they are still just models that mimic human speech. These large language models “learn” by being shown a lot of text and predicting what word will come next, or by being shown text with words missing and filling them in. It will take some time, in my opinion, for them to become conscious and take over the world, whatever that means.

China is also set to play a big role in the AI revolution, with its access to data from 1.4 billion people. The country is poised to challenge tech companies in America and Europe, and it will be interesting to see what developments it has in store for the future.

Bing Hid Auto-Suggestions for Politically Sensitive Chinese Names, Even in the US | PCMag
https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/articles/008TGgRN9KmOIIkazQqjKnQ-1..v1653060214.jpg

Will Google maintain its position, or it has become too bureaucratic and too large organisation to deal with new and fresh start-ups? “For Google it’s a real problem if they write a sentence with hate speech in it and it’s near the Google name,” – said Ramaswamy. And cannot afford shortcomings that could ruin its prestige. Google and Microsoft are held to a higher standard than a start-up that might argue that its service is simply a summary of content available on the internet. It’s both responsible and risky to release AI products so quickly. But he who does not take risks does not drink champagne and it seems to me that Microsoft is about to surpass the giant.

Resources and references:

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28 January 2023
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Winter is NOT coming…

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For every skiing geek previous seasons weren’t fruitful. Many skiing trips has to be canceled and spontaneous weekends in polish or Czech mountains are becoming nearly impossible. So what is the future of our beloved sport?

Since 1991 the temperature in Europe has been increasing 0,5 degree per decade faster than other regions which is consequence of our thoughtless behaviour. Just in France winters are 8 degrees warmer than 30 years ago. In Forbes report, the university of Grenoble research shows that through 70 years period in France 50% of ski resorts has been closed because lack of snow. Border of snow line which is a height above sea level when snow lays whole year has increased tremendously and till the end of century 93% of glaciers in alps would disappear which was the only alternative for warm winters but what is sad….there wouldn’t be colder ones. 

If somebody is up to date with skiing word cup championships the situation is disappointing for fans, because since beginning of 22/23 season 8 races were cancelled due to lack of snow.

Absage an Gerüchte - Pisten-Guru rettet Steilhang für Adelboden-Rennen | krone.at
https://images.app.goo.gl/M44GeFC5C5F3DgBL6

But you may say that there are snow cannons working so it is not that bad…

Of course, they exist but to produce 15cm of snow it takes 200 000 litres of water per day and consumes loads of energy. And after all they require temperature below 0 to operate. There are some chemicals that increase melting temperature such as potassium acetate but they can be dangerous for environment and are usually restricted. 

Personally I was shocked looking at these data but what has opened my eyes the most was the fact that I experienced it firsthand and saw the effect of global warming which many deny and undermine. So if you want to experience skiing, I advice it as soon as possible. 

ig: @maksiu_photos

Sources:

https://www.fis-ski.com

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2023/01/04/europe-ski-resorts-close-due-to-lack-of-snow-forcing-more-sustainable-approach/?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=forbes&sh=e14c08b39552

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27 January 2023
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KSTAR – Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research

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Fusion reactor — KSTAR sets new world record by running for 20 seconds-Science News , Firstpost

Temperatures up to seven times higher than those seen at the center of the sun may be reached by KSTAR. This heat is produced by the gadget by a technique known as nuclear fusion, which is the exact same method that the sun employs to produce energy. Recent experiments conducted by scientists showed that KSTAR is capable of generating this amount of energy for more than 24 seconds.

Tokamaks are a kind of device that are used to confine plasma inside a magnetic field while simultaneously heating it. The KSTAR is a tokamak.   The KSTAR is able to achieve greater temperatures than other tokamaks because it utilizes superconducting magnets to confine the plasma rather than traditional magnets.

In the long run it is a great success for humanity as a whole because this development can potentially lead to creating to a new energy source. The next step is to extend the span of the experiment in order for it to become reliable as a power source. These experiments are not easy and are very costly hence this development by the Southerner Korean Scientists may mean it is worth time investing.

Bibliography:
https://www.firstpost.com/science/fusion-reactor-kstar-sets-new-world-record-by-running-for-20-seconds-9161531.html
https://scitechdaily.com/korean-artificial-sun-kstar-fusion-reactor-sets-new-world-record/

27 January 2023
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What does the recent breakthrough in fusion energy really mean?

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Nuclear energy is a form of energy that is released from the nucleus of atoms. It is produced through two main processes: fission and fusion. In fission, the nuclei of atoms are split into smaller parts, releasing a large amount of energy in the process. This is the process used in nuclear power plants to generate electricity. In fusion, the nuclei of atoms are fused together, releasing a large amount of energy.

On 05.12.2022 researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved a significant milestone in the field of nuclear fusion research by demonstrating “fusion ignition” for the first time. Fusion ignition is when a fusion reaction produces more energy than is being put into the reaction from an outside source and becomes self-sustaining.

The previous record of energy gain was around 0.7, which means that for every 1 unit of energy put into the reaction, only 0.7 units of energy were released. It is a major breakthrough in decades in the field of nuclear fusion research. The NIF’s method of using laser-induced implosion to compress and heat hydrogen isotopes to the point where they fuse releases a large amount of energy in the process.

While the achievement of fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility is an important proof of concept, the technology is still in the experimental phase and there is still a lot of research and development that needs to be done before it can be considered a practical and safe energy source available for commercial use.

One of the main challenges is to develop a way to contain the extremely hot plasma created during the fusion process to harness the energy produced. Currently, the NIF uses powerful lasers to compress and heat hydrogen isotopes to the point where they fuse, but this method is not yet efficient enough to produce and store energy due to many additional losses in energy during the process of creating and stabilising the environment where the reaction takes place.

There is also a problem with obtaining the elements needed to conduct this reaction. While some of the hydrogen isotopes can be found in nature without problems like Deuterium – which can be gathered from water, Tritium is much more difficult to get, mainly because it rarely appears in nature and usually is actually obtained as a byproduct of nuclear reactors operation.

The achievement of fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility is an important step forward in nuclear fusion research. However, it is still a long way from being widely used as a practical energy source. Nuclear fusion is considered a promising source of energy because it has the potential to be clean, safe, and virtually limitless. However, the technology still faces many challenges, including developing a way to contain the byproducts of the fusion process, as well as finding a cost-effective way to achieve and maintain the high temperatures and pressures required for the fusion process.

Resources:

https://www.llnl.gov/news/national-ignition-facility-achieves-fusion-ignition

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/12/breakthrough-in-nuclear-fusion-could-mean-near-limitless-energy

https://theconversation.com/why-fusion-ignition-is-being-hailed-as-a-major-breakthrough-in-fusion-a-nuclear-physicist-explains-196475

https://www.space.com/nuclear-fusion-breaktrough

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27 January 2023
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(Not) Lasting Technologies

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In my last blog I would like to talk about technologies that I believe will not last for much longer. Technology is such a fast growing and innovative industry, that some of the devices and accessories that we used on a daily basis, and that were there to stay are already outdated. The sad part of this evolution is that the younger generations will have no idea or understanding of these technologies how big of a change they made and how influential they were for our everyday life.

The first technology that has changed drastically is how we store data. Starting from a storage technology that 2000’s kids won’t remember floppy disks. Floppy disks were a massive breakthrough in late ’70 as the first type of removable storage. Consequently, floppy disks were the standard in the 80’s and 90’s, even though they could only store 1.4 megabytes of data. The fame of floppy disks came to an end, early 2000, when the USB flash drive technologies was invented followed by external mobile drives. They were faster, smaller and could store more data, with the first flash drive storing a whopping 8 megabytes. Another benefit of USB flash drives was their durability (when a floppy disk was bend or even had a minor scratch it was unusable anymore). Flash drives are still used to this day but have undergone major upgrades. Nevertheless, usage of USB flash drives is very uncommon, with people being surprised when someone uses one. This is because we are rapidly switching to the next evolution of storage technologies, which is the cloud. With wireless access to the storage in real time, elimination of tangible object, USB flash drives will fade away the same as floppy disks did. Nevertheless, I believe that the cloud is not the final step in the evolution of storage technologies.  

How we navigate through the world has also changed in recent times. We started off by graphing and using paper maps; they were used for hundreds of years, but with the advancement of technology they became obsolete. In order to use them you had to figure out where you were, which most people nowadays would not be able to do, and detailed maps became outdated quickly with the expansion of roads systems etc. Therefore, in the late 90’s with the advancement of GPS tracking, navigation unites started to come out. This new type of device was a massive hit. The possibility of having a smallish device that could be moved from vehicle to vehicle, whilst also providing directions and tracking location was what the people needed. But unlike paper maps, standalone navigations had a short life. With the rapid evolution of smartphones, they were able to do the same thing but integrated into a device that we use every day.  This is why nowadays standalone navigation units starting to become just a part of the past.

The last thing I chose to talk about is how the way we watch movies/ series has changed. I want to focus mainly on the mainstream ways of this sector, so I am not going to bore you with the history. In the 1980’s the revolutionary VHS (Video Home System) started coming out, letting ordinary people record and watch films from the comfort of their own house. Even though it had its downsides, such as, the need to rewind to the beginning before watching something, poor video quality or being in only one language and having no other options. It still had a long-lived life until the 2000’s. Since, at that time DVDs came to the market; they were more compact, the user didn’t need to rewind them, and the quality was better. This enabled movie makers to create a more impressive experience for the user. A large contribution to the success of DVDs were stores that rented out movies to people. Nevertheless, like most things from the 2000’s DVDs had a short life. I would say that the end of DVDs being mainstream came with the bankruptcy of blockbuster in 2010. With the growth of Netflix, which firstly introduced online movie renting, which later on changed into a movie streaming platform we have entered the new era of how we watch movies. Nowadays, most if not all companies are switching to this type of platform, where you pay a monthly subscription and have access to a wide range of movies/ series.

Concluding, most technologies that at their launch were considered the future have slowly faded away into our memories. Most of the new generations will never experience or understand what we and our parents had to use and how much life differed. So, I want to end by saying this; Cherish what you have now, because nothing lasts forever. Things that you believe will stay forever, will fade away into your memories. The same as these technologies did.

Thank you for reading. 

Bibliography

Parents, M. (n.d.).

Minerals. (2022, Januray 25). The evolution of data storage. Retrieved from Medium : https://medium.com/viamineral/the-evolution-of-data-storage-5cd4c2c5ef05

Harlow, O. (n.d.). THE FATE OF THE VHS. Retrieved from LegacyBox: https://legacybox.com/blogs/analog/the-fate-of-the-vhs

Leite, J. P. (2018, April 9). A brief History of GPS In-Car Navigation. Retrieved from ndrive: https://ndrive.com/brief-history-gps-car-navigation/

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