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New Technologies Make A Difference

January 13, 1999 By: Timothy W. Shire

Y2K problem           iMac           The Internet is now a fact of technological life             Although the spectre of computer confusion a year from now is real, it does not stop the whole process of continued advancement of the technology from forging forward. As you have no doubt heard, the Y2K problem was founding in the older traditions of computer technology, and actually the seeds of the problem were established long before anyone had a computer on their desk, as the real issue began in the mainframe machines of the sixties and the languages they used for programming. By the time the Apple Macintosh was released, software programmers had already begun the process of preventing a problem in the year 2,000. Business on the other hand, did not have that luxury, as it was connected to the mainframe and when IBM introduced its desktop personal computer, it adopted Bill Gates’ purchased DOS system which made the year 2,000 the threat it now is to the developed world. This article is to help you understand some of the powerful movements that seem to be taking shape and the ways computer technology is moving forward in this last year of the old century. In August, the release of Apple’s cleverly designed iMac marked a departure in computers, not just in having a coloured machine, which suggests its more of an appliance then some staid hard working device, but because the iMac was designed for specific functions and these functions meant that one of the first things you do when you plug in an iMac is it connects to the Internet to update itself. The Internet is now a fact of technological life and so is the local area network (LAN). The little iMac was made to work and function in this environment and this has some interesting ramifications for the world at large.