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Top tech trends in 2007

The end of the year brings out "top" lists in every industry in an attempt to put a years worth of activity into some perspective, while trying to read the tea leaves as to whether trends portend what will occur in the upcoming year. I gleaned this list of top trends in technology for 2007 from two sources: PC Magazine and TechRepublic.com ...

MICROSOFT VISTA TRIPS OR FALLS (depending upon your viewpoint)
As a victim of forced upgrade to the MS Vista operating system for my desktop and laptop computers, I can testify first hand that this was a trying ordeal that included several senseless changes in routine navigation, maintenance and file management. However, like most senseless changes in the past, we complain, learn the new protocols and move on. Apple's new operating system, Leopard, received better reviews, but is still not universally loved.

MP3 PLAYERS
... are still dominated by Apple for good reasons (cool designs and interfaces), but other manufacturers will soon catch up. The bottom line is that mainstream America (and the world) is increasingly getting it's music in digital file format.

GOOGLE-ZILLA
Google continues its intriguing expansion into arenas that have yet to show where they will eventually lead us, but purchasing extensive proprietary wireless communication bands and entering into the cellphone business are trends that are certainly worth watching.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS HICCUPS
Regardless of whether the adjustment in daylight savings start and stop dates were meant to achieve (or actually achieve) any energy savings, these changes have wreaked havoc with a lot of tech-appliances despite having been in existence for two years now.

HD-DVD & Blu-Ray REPEAT HISTORY
Remember the old Betamax/VHS battles of the 1980s? Touted as the new way home movie viewers will get their programming, high density DVD and Blu-ray are the two operating protocols that various entertainment and electronic giants are backing, leaving the consumer to guess which hardware and movie formats to collect. Set a standard and everyone wins. Set two standards and you've got winners and losers.

I can't believe these guys didn't mention Microsoft Office 2007. What a fiasco! When I was forced to upgrade to MS Vista, I also (naively) upgraded to MS Office 2007. While this office suite has some redeeming qualities, it is like trying to work using only your left hand when you are right handed. Simple tasks such as saving files, formatting, navigation and even printing are scrambled into all new pull down menus, many of which defy logic. Unless you were a power user who relied primarily on keyboard commands (which, thankfully, didn't change), you are stuck in a game of find-the-function just to write a letter, create a spreadsheet or modify a Powerpoint presentation.

So what's the prognosis for 2008? Well, the one recurring theme I see is that change is inevitable. Operating systems, productivity software, cellphones, cameras, TVs, music and every other aspect of our lives will increasingly be touched (if not governed) by technology. The question to ask is whether these industries will succumb to greed and control, versus open systems and clear standards. Want to bet? Most of the technology blunders of 2007 appear to me to be avoidable, so if I am putting my bet on greed and control I'll have to give odds.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Comments

Radiation Awareness
What they wouldn't tell us

Rooftop transmitters, which readily pass microwave radiation into structures, can be a death sentence. Across the world there are reports of cancer clusters and extreme illness in office buildings and multi-tenant dwellings where antennas are placed on rooftops directly over workers and tenants. In 2006, the top floors of a Melbourne University office building were closed after a brain tumor cluster drew media attention to the risks of communications transmitters on top of the building.33 Likewise, ABC's Brisbane television complex, topped with satellite dishes and radio antennas, was the site of a well-publicized breast cancer cluster among workers.34

Sweden was one of the first nations to go wireless. Swedish neuroscientist, Dr. Olle Johansson, with hundreds of published papers to his credit, says that a national epidemic of illness and disability was unleashed by the wireless revolution. Long periods of sick leave, attempted suicides and industrial accidents all increased simultaneously with introduction of mobile phone radiation. Ninety-nine percent of the Swedish population is now under duress of powerful third generation masts. Johansson reports that people are plagued with sleep disorders, chronic fatigue that does not respond to rest, difficulties with cognitive function and serious blood problems. Recurrent headaches and migraines are a "substantial public health problem," he says.

RF/microwaves from cell phones and cell tower transmitters also cause micronuclei damage in blood cells. This was reported a decade ago by Drs. Henry Lai and Narendrah Singh, biomedical researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Singh is famous for refining comet assay techniques used to identify DNA damage. Lai and Singh demonstrated in numerous animal studies that mobile phone radiation quickly causes DNA single and double strand breaks at levels well below the current federal "safe" exposure standards.2

The telecommunications industry knows this thanks to its own six-year, wireless technology research (WTR) study program mandated by Congress and completed in 1999. Gathering a team of over 200 doctors, scientists and experts in the field, WTR research showed that human blood exposed to cell phone radiation had a 300-percent increase in genetic damage in the form of micronuclei.3 Dr. George Carlo, a public health expert who coordinated the WTR studies, confirms that exposure to communications radiation from wireless technology is "potentially the biggest health insult" this nation has ever seen. Dr. Carlo believes RF/microwave radiation is a greater threat than cigarette smoking and asbestos.

In 2000, European communications giant T-Mobile commissioned the German ECOLOG Institute to review all available scientific evidence in regard to health risks for wireless telecommunications. ECOLOG found over 220 peer-reviewed, published papers documenting the cancer-initiating and cancer-promoting effects of the high frequency radiation employed by wireless technology.4 Many corroborating studies have been published since.

By 2004, 12 research groups from seven European countries cooperating in the REFLEX study project confirmed that microwaves from wireless communications devices cause significant single and double strand DNA breaks in both human and animal cells under laboratory conditions.5 In 2005, a Chinese medical study confirmed statistically significant DNA damage from pulsed microwaves at cell phone levels.6 That same year, University of Chicago researchers described how pulsed communications microwaves alter gene expression in human cells at non-thermal exposure levels.7

Because gamma waves and RF/microwave radiation are identically carcinogenic and genotoxic to the cellular roots of life, the safe dose of either kind of radiation is zero. No study has proven that any level of exposure from cell-damaging radiation is safe for humans. Dr. Carlo confirms that cell damage is not dose dependant because any exposure level, no matter how small, can trigger damage response by cell mechanisms.8

The commercial wireless industry is relentless in its drive to construct thousands of new transmitter sites in neighborhoods and schoolyards everywhere, while adding more powerful antennas at its older sites. Countless WiFi systems, both indoors and out, accommodate wireless laptop computers, personal digital assistants, WiFi-enabled phones, gaming devices, video cameras, even parking and utility meters. Hundreds of cities already have or are planning to fund WiFi networks, each consisting of thousands of small microwave transmitters bolted to buildings, street lamps, park benches and bus stops. Some networks are being buried under sidewalks. These access points or "nodes" blast carcinogenic energy at 2.4 to 5 gigahertz with virtually no warning signs about radiation exposure. WiFi radiation is unregulated by the FCC.

Sprint-Nextel and Clearwire are now rolling out in U.S. cities tower-mounted WiMAX transmitters providing wireless internet access "to die for." WiMAX is WiFi on steroids. Upon startup of WiMAX transmitters near the Swedish village of Gotene, the emergency room at the local hospital was flooded by calls from people overcome with pulmonary and cardiovascular symptoms.35

WiMAX radiation could one day be cranked up to a bone-incinerating 66 gigahertz.36 A single WiMAX tower could provide internet coverage for an area of 3,000 square miles, although coverage for 6-25 square miles is the norm now. Promoters say WiMAX may some day replace all cable and DSL broadband services and irradiate virtually all rural areas. Yet, not a single environmental or public health study has been required as the industry unleashes infrastructure for this savage new wireless technology from which no living flesh will escape.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7025
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