The first invention I learned about this week was the flash memory. Fujio Masuoka invented flash memory at Toshiba in 1981 after wanting to improve the performance of EEPROM. Flash is dense, reads, and quickly writes. It is resistant to environmental shocks. Intel begin manufacturing flash memory chips in 1988, and several competing consumer formats emerged by the mid 1990’s. Flash memory drives phones, computers, hard drives, etc.
The second invention I learned about this week was the CD-ROM. Phillip’s and Sony jointly developed the CD audio formant, and then the CD ROM formant afterward in 1985. CD ROM is a small plastic disc that stores 650 MB of data in the aluminum foil layer as pits that very intensity. Software companies began shipping their software CDs in 1987, and the CD ROM drives became standard PC features. The CD lead to DVD which allowed digital video to go mainstream.
The third invention I learned about this week was the cellular phone. As the idea of cellular networks was developed at Bell Labs. Motorola invented the first cell phone in 1973. Cellular phones allows us to communicate at any time with anyone on the go, and also browse the internet. The cell phone has irreversibly changed how we communicate and do business.
The fourth invention I learned about this week was the World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee, working CERN, solved this problem by bringing the two together into WWW in 1990. The World Wide Web is global digital network where information is stored and accessed through a web browser. It has transformed personal communication, business, and entertainment.
Think about Tim Berners-Lee. He saw an opportunity to bring the Internet together with GUIs and hypertext, but nobody else did. So instead, he took the initiative himself to program the software. Answer this: how different do you think the world would be today if he had of just given up when no one thought his idea was worth pursuing?
I think the world would be a lot different. First of all we would not have the Internet for research and to ask questions. Then we would not have all the modern phones, tablets, and computers. We would all have to be a lot more independent.
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