Week 2 - From ARPAnet to Facebook: The Story of Cyberspace

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 From ARPAnet to Facebook: The Story of Cyberspace


1) The 3.5mm phone connector.

When it comes to old cables or connectors, usually they do not last long and are usually renewed as the newer faster, and cheaper options arise due to the rapid development of the tech industry. However, we can not say the same for the 3.5mm phone connector commonly known as the "headphone jack" or "audio jack". Although the first designs were available for it from back in the 1950s, it is still a widely available and used connector type. Despite some large phone manufacturers' efforts to ditch the headphone jack completely off the newer phones or mobile devices to switch to Bluetooth altogether, the 3.5mm headphone jack is still the most popular wired audio connector available on the market. Most of the headphone and headset manufacturers still design models that use
3.5mm phone connectors as their audio input/output method. And also almost all of the modern computers come factory equipped with a 3.5mm port for wired audio connection. And although we are entering an increasingly wireless era, the 3.5mm audio jack has seen a lot of popularity and to my mind, will remain on the market for years to come.


2) Typewriters (1868) - a technology that has become obsolete.

The first typewriter that saw commercial success was invented as far back as 1868 in Milwaukee Wisconsin - even before the internet was common and popular among the general public. A typewriter is a technology that was commonly used for word processing back in the day. The operating principle of a typewriter is much like a modern keyboard we use nowadays, but includes a lot more mechanical force and is not solely dependent on an electrical circuit to operate. On a regular typewriter, there are ink-soaked ribbons with letters printed on them, and they are pushed by the operator to stamp letters on the paper by mechanical impact. Initially, typewriters saw a lot of commercial success and were widely available such that even huge companies like IBM started developing new varieties of typewriters. But as the 1970s came and Personal Computers, electrical keyboards, and inkjet printers, as we know them today were developed and saw greater popularity, people lost their interest in the typewriters which used outdated technology. Although typewriters were huge and made a great impact as far as word processing goes, they slowly became obsolete and are rarely used today as there are more advanced gadgets to automatize the work.



References:

https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html

https://www.britannica.com/technology/typewriter

https://www.headphonesty.com/2019/04/headphone-jacks-plugs-explained/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)




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