DOT solutions - Digitally Oriented Technologies

As the megabits get faster and faster, we approach the land of gigabits, and I can hear the terabits coming also. This refers to the speed of a bit, well it isn't really the speed it is actually the number of bits. The speed of information is governed by the media it actually travels down, optical fibre being the fastest. The bandwidth, or amount of bits is what is important. Especially if considering an internet connection. The more bits you can get through at once the faster you web surfing experience will be.

As time goes on we will find that more and more technologies are going to be digitally oriented, as opposed to analog. The way analog works is just like our brain actually, and the old vinyl record. Information is stored as waves of information. Generally a concoction of Sine waves. The waves are continuous and their accuracy in representing what was recorded in the first place depends on the quality of the recording medium.

A list of analog devices is below:

Human brain
Vinyl record
Cassette tape
VCR
Film camera
Old mobile phones
Normal TV

Some digital ones are:

Computers
Modern mobile phones
Digital cameras
Digital video recorders
DVD's
CD's
Digital TV

As you may be aware many of these technologies are being phased out and replaced with their digital counterparts. Why is this so?

Why use DOT - Digitally Oriented Technologies?

There are many reasons why, but the main ones are storage and manipulation. The problem with analog, is that it takes up lots of space, whereas digital can be compressed in space saving ways. In digital storage, the Sine wave itself is not stored, but a set of numbers (binary 1's and 0's) which represents the sine wave. The device reading the digital information merely puts the wave back together and represents it however it may, be it as music, a picture, radiation, whatever.

The other main reason is manipulation. When a sine wave is chopped up into bits and stored as a set of numbers, it is easy to change those numbers with mathematical formulas and hence change the end product (eg music, pictures etc). This allows those wacky techno kids to make some pretty whiz bang stuff. It also allows your mobile phone to receive internet signal and all kinds of stuff.

What is the down side to Digitally Oriented Technologies?

Well there are many differing opinions on this. The rise of the digital age has created a lot of electromagnetic radiation in the air, since this is a great way to transmit the bits. There has been much research done on the effects of this radiation, and some of it is not so positive.

Young children sitting in front of their screens all day getting obese. Stressful inactive jobs in offices, the list goes on. But if one does not forget the joys of mother nature and exercise, I'm sure most people could find a balance.

On the plus side, I basically have the biggest library the world has ever seen sitting in my living room (internet), and quite frankly, I LOVE IT.

We hope you enjoyed our DOT solutions - Digitally Oriented Technologies page.