AT&T and Bell Laboratories

Date: 15/07/13

Past and Present of AT&T and Bell Laboratories

Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French owned Alcatel-Lucent in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, United States. Previously it was a division of the AT&T Corporation (America Telephone and Telegraph Company). Bell Labs are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the charge coupled device (CCD), information theory, the UNIX operating system, the C Programming Language, R Programming Language and the C++ Programming Language.

The Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory, also variously known as the Volta Bureau, the Bell Carriage House, the Bell Laboratory and the Volta Laboratory, was created in Washington, D.C. by Alexander Graham Bell. AT&T is a Telecommunications Industry which develops, voice, video data and Internet to businesses and consumers.

The inventions and developments of Bell Laboratories had happened over a long period of time and they have proved to path breaking and very effective. Some of the important ones are as follows:

1920s

1924 - Bell labs physicist proposed a control chart to determine when a process was in a state of statistical control. First time Origin of the Modern Quality System -Six Sigma occurred.

1930s

Foundation for radio astronomy was laid. Investigated origins of static on long distance shortwave communications happened. He discovered radio waves being discovered from the centre of the galaxy. This was also the time when the discovery of electron diffraction which helped laid the foundation for solid state electronics followed by discovery of x-ray.

1940s

Photovoltaic cell was developed.

1947:  Transistor Point contact germanium device was invented. Transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronics signals and electric power. Later it paved the way for cheaper radios calculators and computers.

1950s

It revealed the method of Zone melting which enabled semiconductor purification zone refining.

1960s

The CCD was invented in 1969.

1970s

C programming was invented by Dennis Ritchie.

1980s

TDMA and CDMA DIGITAL Cellular technology was patented.

1990s

Invention of WLAN by the laboratory.

2000s

DNA Machine prototypes were developed.

The Split

At the time of the breakup, in fact, it was widely assumed in the business press that IBM and AT&T would now struggle for supremacy. What undermined such an assumption was the historical record: Everything Bell Labs had ever made for AT&T had been channeled into a monopoly business. “One immediate problem for which no amount of corporate bulk can compensate is the firm’s lack of marketing expertise.”

At present AT&T is one of the leading internet service providers and telecommunication industries.

http://networkingexchangeblog.att.com/topics/mobility/

Various technologies and inventions are happening in their R&D section. Some of them are as important as invention of telephone. For example AT&T’s Enhanced Push to talk system. It brings walkie-talkie features to the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. Previously, the features were available only for Android 

devices.

http://networkingexchangeblog.att.com/small-business/take-a-look-at-atts-enhanced-push-to-talk/

It is a wireless device also known as Press-to-Transmit, is a method of having conversations or talking on half-duplex communication lines. It includes on two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode.

Viral Video

Date: 13/07/13

Viral Video goes viral

A viral video is the one that becomes popular through the process of internet sharing. The internet sharing happens usually when one shares video sharing websites, social media and email.

http://mashable.com/category/viral-video/

Viral videos can be also classified on the basis of humorous content and TV comedy sketches. Even some eyewitness events captured on camera have also gone viral on new media in the later stages. An article ‘CHART: Brand Videos Hit Their Viral Peak On Day Two After Launch’ by Cooper Smith explains the influencing power of viral videos. The link is mentioned below:

http://www.businessinsider.com/brand-videos-hit-viral-peak-on-day-two-2013-7

He says that traditional broadcasting medium like TV is no more the only medium to watch a video. There is something called internet which is a part of new media which is more effective to spread viral video. In the age of internet anyone create a content which can be accessed by anyone around the globe at any point of time. The factor of time and space is independent in new media. We also can find that video shares are on the peak after couple of days since their launch date. The source of the study is Unruly Media’s “Science of Sharing White Paper, 2013” Top 200 branded videos between Jan-Dec 2012. According to the same source of data, 10% of shares occur on day 2 which is termed as the viral peak. 25% of the shares occur within the first 3 days. These shares mostly happen on social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and more.

One of the recent examples of a viral video is ‘Gangnam Style’ by PSY. There are some stats related to this video which is very interesting.

• ·         971,518,818 views worldwide
• ·         3,842,030 comments
• ·         5,951,951 likes
• ·         414,811 dislikes

In Indian context the first viral videos were Alisha Chinoy’s ‘Made in India’ song and Daler Mahendi’s videos.

Recently when we tried to find the development in viral video section, we found ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke ft. T.I. Pharrell has got the maximum shares in the last 7 days. It got 650,044 shares followed by ‘Naughty Boy’ by La La La ft. Sam Smith which has got 644,769 shares in last 7 days. The song which is in the 3^rd position in terms of maximum sharing within the last 7 days is ‘Let Her Go’ by Passenger.

http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/all

User Generated Culture

Date: 08/07/13

What is User Generated Culture and how does it influences us?

User Generated Culture

Internet is made not to be being controlled. The fact of controlling internet is very vague as it’s used by a huge mass across the globe. It is very difficult for anyone to control the information in the internet. The concept of user generated culture comes from the reality where an internet user is both serving the roles of a user and a consumer.

On one hand new media technologies have lowered production and distribution costs, expanded the range of available delivery channels and had enabled consumers to achieve, annotate, appropriate and re-circulate media content in powerful new ways. Earlier almost all the communication models were one way communication model. In TV channels, the feedback from the audience is very strong. There are some attributes which needs to be discussed in that context.

• Annotate – One can reproduce it with the help of another interpretation.
• Appropriate – The appropriate content inside a website.
• Re-circulate – All the information available on the website which does not fall under any copyright can be shared by anyone and at any point of time. For example, many small video clips can be taken from YouTube to make another video clip and again this newly formed video clip can be used by someone else to make another one. So, the information or the data is always in the recirculation phase.

On the other hand, there has been an alarming concentration of the ownership of mainstream commercial media, with a small handful of multinational media conglomerates dominating all the sectors of the entertainment industry.

The knowledge condition on convergence

‘No one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity’- Levy’s notion of collective intelligence.

Communities are defined through voluntarily, temporary and tactical affiliations, are reaffirmed through common intellectual enterprises and emotional investments and are held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge.

Idea of convergence

Converge of media is the coming together of old and new media. Media convergence is more than simply a technological shift. According to Henry Jenkins convergence is “the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries and the migratory behavior of media audiences.” Convergence here alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_convergence#Media

Henry Jenkins, an American Media Scholar had extensively worked in the media and communication research field and had come up with the concept of media convergence. According to him a whole range of new technologies has enabled the consumers to achieve, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content and in that process, the technologies have altered the ways that consumers interact with core institutions of government, education and commerce.

http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/converge.html

It represents a reconfiguration of media power and a reshaping of media aesthetics and economics. The French cyberspace theorist Pierre Levy uses the term ‘collective intelligence’ to describe the large scale info. Gathering and processing activities, that have embedded in web communities.

The knowledge condition on convergence

The impression of collective intelligence comes from this media convergence. Levy’s notion of collective intelligence says ‘No one knows everything, everyone, knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity’. Collective intelligence is a shared intelligence that develops from the association and opposition of many individual’s ideologies. This intelligence eventually helps an individual in the process of decision making. New Media is considered to be a product of collective intelligence. The amount of knowledge or information stored through new media is immense and the best part is that it can be shared anywhere with anyone and at any point of time. In new media there are some veracious communities and some fraudulent communities too. However, at the end of the day irrespective of different attributes which they carry they have the same objective of exchanging knowledge.

Free Economy

What is free economy and how is it working?

Once Murray Rothbard, an American economist, a philosopher and a political theorist once said "It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”

http://thefreeeconomy.com/

The concept of Free Economy is one of the latest trends which captivated the market and the marketers. The sheer influence of free economy day to day life cannot be ignored. So, what is this free economy? According to Wikipedia definition it is an economy based on supply and demand where attributes of economy like investment, production, and distribution are interrelated among each other on the basis of free price system. What it means, the price of the goods and services are free.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_economy

The first experiment of free economy goes back to history when King Gillette, the founder of Gillette razor and shaving cream gifted freebies like Wrigley's gum to packets of coffee, tea, spices and marshmallows. From the below mentioned link we can get to know more about it which I'm going to explain in the later stage of this post.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all

He was in his late middle ages and still he was an unsuccessful salesman of cork lined bottle caps. He belonged from a rich family and inherited most of their wealth which brought him hardly any chance to work. His philosophy on market was that there should be a single corporation owned by the public. The idea of free items struck in one of the days when he was shaving with one of the straight razors. These straight razors could not be sharpened and after multiple usages these were useless. So, the idea came from this thought when thought of making something which men can discard after use rather than spend their valuable time and energy on maintaining the blades. It was very difficult for him to do it as his idea was a noble one and was out of the box. During the war period he started to sell of the razors to Army at a great discount. He often used to give freebies like Wrigley's gum to packets of coffee, tea, spices and marshmallows which were bundled with the razors. The freebies boosted up the sales and helped him to make a mark of his products in the market.

In the age of free economy we're indebted to this man who showed us the way that even one can make money by giving something away without charging a single cent for it. Later the idea of cross-subsidy came from this ideology where one can get a free thing if he/she buys another item. Another example in the recent ages is the installation of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) vending machines being installed in the organizations absolutely free. This helps them to sell their coffee sachets, beans at a fixed and steady rate. This concept of selling is much dynamic compared to selling their products in the market.

Even since the advent of Facebook, it has been free and it will always be. Google as a free search engine earns it revenues from the Adwords which they create. Last year, Google earned around $42 billion only from Adwords. Even, when we access YouTube videos, we get to see them free. So, we can see the influence and ideology getting things free is immense and the penetration level is to the core where every user gets the benefit out of it. Every industry which has become digital has become free.

Is the world map revised? If so, how?

Date: 05/07/13

Finding out the answer of the question 'Is the world map revised? If so, how?'

Over the years there has been much debate over the control of land and water bodies by China in Indian territory. In the past there have been many instances where the Indian Government has accused the Chinese authority over breaching the code of conduct. In an article "China’s first 'blue book' on India sees a government in ‘serious crisis’" published in the daily newspaper 'The Hindu', dated 13th May 2013, the reporter Ananth Krishnan talks about the release of the first ever 'blue book' on India released in China. The blue book has expressed concerns over Indian government. It says Indian government is going under serious crisis, however it is optimistic about the fact that India would very soon breaks it shackles and emerges out as a stronger country."

China releases 'blue books' every year on a number of topics. This book projects the thought processes of the Chinese intellectuals but not of the government. The blue book for the first time dealt with India as a topic. This book talks about the growing trend of corruption in India during the time of UPA led government. It also talks about how India in the near future will be of the largest countries to own a big military strength. According to a report published in the year 2011-2012 India had gone through one of the worst economy phases during this period. The link of that article is as follows:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/chinas-first-blue-book-on-india-sees-a-government-in-serious-crisis/article4709426.ece

In another article "China details Indian Ocean strategy and interests" written by the same reporter on 'The Hindu', dated 09th June 2013, talks about about China's interest of securing and controlling a major part of Indian Ocean. The link of the article is as follows:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/china-details-indian-ocean-strategy-and-interests/article4795550.ece

Other than these couple of articles there have been other instances where China has even tried to take control of Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern state of India. According to a study done by Institute of For Defense Studies and Analyses there is a strong territorial claim of China over Arunachal Pradesh. The paper named 'CHINA’S TERRITORIAL CLAIM ON

ARUNACHAL PRADESH' by Namrata Goswami talks about how the historical relationship between Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh and the Lhasa monastery had brought the argument of China's claim on Arunachal Pradesh. As Tibet is a part of China so according to Chinese logic Arunachal Pradesh should be also a part of China. This concept of controlling the land has given us a new paradigm of topology.

The link of the study is as follows:

http://idsa.in/system/files/OP_ChinaTerritorialClaim_O.pdf

Controlling of borders

Date: 03/07/13

China, US to discuss cybersecurity at forum

This article released on the website called www.news.terra.com talks about the importance of cyber security. The website link is as follows:

http://news.terra.com/china-us-to-discuss-cybersecurity-at-forum,308218129e5af310VgnCLD2000000ec6eb0aRCRD.html

It discusses about China is very much looking forward to discuss and strengthen the cyber security with US officials at a high level forum. The Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington will also discuss about issues like finance and climate change. US has alleged China of carrying out cyber spying. So, this forum will bring out that issue and is estimated to get it solved.

Other than cyber war other developments in the world are also a matter of concern, especially when it comes to China. Off late China has become one of the fastest growing economies and also when it comes to defence and security system, it is competing with one of the powerful countries of the globe which is the USA. China has always tried to take control over Indian borders and sea. It has been seen that they are constantly on a move to control the water body. India is being surrounded by Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal and China has always tried to control various parts of Indian Ocean to threaten India. An unconfirmed piece of information even talks about the role of Sri Lanka in helping China to control the water body.

Over a period of time various governments of many countries had a propaganda which they tried to impose on their citizens. Hitler's propaganda of killing the Jews has been the most discussed and read topic. In the past the Jews were very influential as they had the wealth and power. However, they were the scapegoats of Hitler's propaganda and they were being butchered and murdered through various horrifying methods. 'The Holocaust' was one of those mass murdering techniques which lead to killing of approximately six million Jews during World War II. However, at present still 9% of the American economy is controlled by the Jews.

The reason of raising this point was to how various organizations or governments have used their propaganda to influence and brainwash people. It is said Hitler used to hate the Jews as he used to consider them Non Aryans and impure when it comes to sanctity. However, history is very subjective and most of the times it is only discussed from only certain point of views. So, the real truth about the reason of imposing any propaganda in the past is always unclear and vague.

Fighting in the fifth dimension

Date: 02/07/13

Interpretation of the Documentary Film 'Fighting in the Fifth Dimension' by Al Jazeera

Website link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJQF9gqclgY

This documentary talks about the trending issues on internet faced by the 
countries, their people, their security system and their government officials. This film is directed by Abdallah Et Binni. Over a period of time the major mediums of any kind of war between various countries have been either land or sea or air or space or a mixture of more than medium. However, things have changed, now war has gone through a radical change and followed by these mediums another new medium has come up. This has given a new dimension, namely the Fifth Dimension. This war can be lead without army, tank and any forms of weapon. It just needs a computer and an internet connection, sometimes internet connection is also optional. This war is known as Cyber War.
Cyber War is prevalent in both developed and developing nations. In the age of globalization and digitalization of information, the information society is very powerful. Citizen Journalism which was considered a novel concept a few years back is no more novel and it is as regular and ordinary as other modes of journalism. Citizens across the globe irrespective of their journalism background has the liberty to report an incident or development in the form of either taking photographs, recording video or writing an article. Citizen Journalism is very much prevalent in Social Networking websites like Facebook and Twitter.
Since the advent of Facebook it has revolutionized the whole concept of information dissemination and feedback. It takes just a matter of seconds where one information from one country is put on the website and users from rest of the countries can access that information. As users are sharing their personal and professional information on Facebook, there was a serious accusation being raised against it was of spying people. It was being accused of breaching the norms of privacy.
Cyber Security has become one of the important measures to be taken by every country. Everyday, every hour, every minute and every second countries like the USA, China, India, Japan, South Korea and many others share or release billions of data or information on websites and social networking websites. Recently the USA has invested 30 million dollars to deal with cyber security. Other than Facebook, other common mediums of information sharing on internet are Youtube and Twitter. A study was being conducted and was found that the effects of Twitter in getting response from people on sharing information is almost 10 times more than traditional medium.
Various government organizations like FBI and CIA deals with around 10 billions of data every hour. So, it becomes very important for any government organization to take measures against Cyber breach. The main objective is to control the situation where data are being hacked by the hackers followed by crashing of the systems. From another article published by Reuters named 'UK teams with defense and telecom companies on cyber security' we can see other than the USA, how UK has also kept cyber security as one of their top priorities when it comes controlling the data on the internet. The website link of the article is as follows:

http://news.yahoo.com/uk-teams-defense-telecom-companies-cyber-security-053054946.html

This article written by Brenda Goh talks about IT and telecom giants like BAE systems, Rolls Royce, Lockheed Martin and Hewlett Packard have come forward to team up with Britain to strengthen the country's cyber security. system. They are teaming up with the government to share information on tackling cyber threats. This project is known as Defence Cyber Protection Partnership which will extensively work to control and share threat intelligence on the internet. This will lead to a better cyber security in the country.

In another article called 'Cybersecurity training on the rise for young students' written by Robert R. Ackerman Jr. talks discusses about the importance of youths in handling the issue of cyber security. The website link of the article is as follows:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/cybertruth/2013/07/02/cybersecurity--training-on-the-rise-for-young-students/2482445/

In the USA the young people have growing number of opportunities on cyber education starting even before the college level. This will help them to combat the terror of cyber war followed by a great career in cyber security. Some of the organizations have started Corporate cyber security internships where the young people will be taught about various aspects of cyber security. Northrop Grumman Corp. and Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2) at the University of Maryland are the worth mention bodies which have taken this initiative.

So, it can be seen Cyber war is the most discussed form of war which has the power to shut down a nation's economy only with a computer. There are viruses like 'Stuxnet' which even don't require an active internet action to bring down computers. The first signs of this virus infecting the computers was found in Belarus. This virus can be easily transferred from one computer to another through devices like USB drives. Even if a specific system is not hooked up to internet this virus is effective to infect the information in the computer. Later it was found that this virus was a product of a joint venture  undertaken by the USA and Israel to sabotage the Uranian and various Research Programs conducted in Iran.

At present every country is suffering from the threat of Cyber War. Developing countries like India is also taking strong actions to combat against this war. Recently the Information and Broadcasting department released an updated NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY POLICY where the issue of cyber security has been taken into strong consideration.

Technological Evolution of Hollywood

Date: 01/07/13

The technological innovation of Motion Pictures in Hollywood

Origin of the term Hollywood

Long time back when the Spanish explorers entered the canyons of Santa Monica Mountains, the Native Americans used to live there. Over a period of time the Spanish people made that place their habitats. The Native Americans were moved from that place and the place was divided into two halves by the Spanish Government. The west part was named as Rancho La Brea and the east as Rancho Los Feliz. From the website address mentioned below, we also come to know that by 1870s that place flourished. Agriculture was the main reason for flourishment.

http://www.historicla.com/hollywood/history.html

During the 1880s, the Ranchos were subdivided and in 1886 H.H. Wilcox bought the area of Rancho La Brea and was renamed as 'Hollywood'. In 1911,  the Nestor Company opened Hollywood's first film studio. Later directors like D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille started making movies which became revolutionary.

Technological innvoation of Hollywood

The essay 'The evolution of sound in Cinema' by Jay Beck talks about the relationship between soind and image in cinema. The time period between 1895 and 926 is referred as the "silent era", however during that period the films were never known as silent. Edison's 'Kinetoscope' and Lumière brothers' 'Cinematoscope' were the pathbreaking innovations in the hsitory of cinema. During that period cinema meant moving images with orchestra playing at the background. Other tools which were being used to show moving images during that period were the magic lanterns. Jules Marey's chronophotographic gun was another device to show moving images. Eadweard Muybridge was known for his pioneering work of making a photographic sequence of horses in motion.

Kinetoscope

Cinematoscope

Marey's Chronophotographic Gun

L-R: Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin and Griffith

Later 16 mm film and more lightweight equipment such as the Akeley camera were invented.

United Artists Corporation (UA) was founded in 1919 by D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. This studio played a huge role in promoting Hollywood and the films made in Hollywood.

Over a period of time Hollywood has gone through many changes, many inventions have happened which has brought a new dimension to the art of Cinema. From moving pictures to 16 mm films, from silent films to first film having sound - the 'Jazz Singer', from animated movies to movies based on computer generated imagery technology.

Off late computer generated imagery (CGI) is the most discussed one. The article found in the website talks about the advent of CGI and its usage in films, TV programs, print media and even in games.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/computer-generated_imagery.htm

CGI is used to produce visual effects. The quality of a product after using CGI is much better than any other technology used. The qualities of the effects are higher and sharper. 'Tron' which was released in 1982 was devoid of CGI, however 'Tron: Legacy' which was released in 2010 used CGI technology. One of the path breaking movies of all time 'Avatar' had also used CGI technology and the outcome was exemplary.