Category Archives: Technology

History, Science, Technology

Plastic: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

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Ubiquity is dedicated to helping professionals and informed laymen better imagine and understand the future of computing. Extraordinary Ordinary Things (EOT) is dedicated to bringing to mind truly world-transforming things that have become so embedded in daily life that we scarcely even notice them. These two ideas may seem rather far apart, if not incongruous. In reality, they are quite close together, almost like conjoined twins. Computers today underly virtually everything that makes up the modern world, directly, but most often indirectly, by how they permit commercial, cultural, and scientific ideas to be converted into life-altering products and services. Extraordinary!

Author’s Note
I had certain trepidations about undertaking this topic for fear of being branded an apologist for the plastics industry. I am not an apologist; I am a reporter. However, in recent years, plastics and their uses have become so controversial that no matter what one says about them, it can be—and will be—construed as taking a position for or against them. No matter how hard one tries to be dispassionate.

Please bear this in mind as you read the following text.
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Hardware, History, Technology

Eyeglasses: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

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Ubiquity is dedicated to helping professionals and informed laymen better imagine and understand the future of computing. Extraordinary Ordinary Things (EOT) is dedicated to bringing to mind truly world-transforming things that have become so embedded in daily life that we scarcely even notice them. These two ideas may seem rather far apart, if not incongruous. In reality, they are quite close together, almost like conjoined twins. Computers today underly virtually everything that makes up the modern world, directly, but most often indirectly, by how they permit commercial, cultural, and scientific ideas to be converted into life-altering products and services. Extraordinary!

If you don’t have to wear eyeglasses, chances are you don’t fully realize the panic some people feel when they mislay them or leave them somewhere with little chance of recovering them. I know, because I have worn eyeglasses since the age of 10 to compensate for a serious case of myopia (U.K. = short-sightedness; U.S. = near-sightedness). Without my eyeglasses, I would be virtually helpless. Likewise for people with presbyopia (U.K. = long-sightedness; U.S. = far-sightedness).

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General, History, Technology

Trousers: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

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Ubiquity is dedicated to helping computing professionals and informed laymen better imagine and understand the future of computing. Extraordinary Ordinary Things is dedicated to bringing to mind truly world-transforming things that have become so embedded in daily life that we scarcely even notice them.

These two ideas may seem to be rather far apart, if not incongruous. In reality, they are quite close together, almost like conjoined twins. Computers today underlie virtually everything that makes up the modern world, either directly, but most often indirectly, by how they permit commercial, cultural, and scientific ideas to be converted into life-altering products and services.

When I was a child growing up in Los Angeles in the 1940s, a sure sign that I had passed an important milestone in my development was when I was allowed to “put on big-boy pants.”

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General, History, Looking Forward, Technology

Telephone: Extraordinary ordinary things

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In an exuberant song from Lerner and Loewe’s delightful musical comedy “Paint Your Wagon,” the principal character sings: 

Where am I goin'?
I don't know
Where am I headin'?
I ain't certain
All I know
Is I am on my way

When will I be there?
I don't know
When will I get there?
I ain't certain
All that I know
Is I am on my way

If this sounds like a cavalier approach to life, it really isn’t, especially for professionals in computer science, computer programming, and knowledgeable laymen. Virtually any mass-manufactured and globally distributed product today depends on computing and will most likely continue to do so in the near, medium, and long-term future. However, computing itself is changing so rapidly and influencing so many things that, not surprisingly, computing professionals feel much the same way about their future.

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