1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer for I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,479 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech end. Hey, we're back 5 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: with our tech Glossary series. We've made it up to 6 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 1: acronyms and initialisms that start with the letter P. This 7 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:33,360 Speaker 1: is part five. So if you're joining me now and saying, hey, 8 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,560 Speaker 1: the alphabet doesn't start with the letter P, that means 9 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 1: you should probably go back, you know, several episodes to 10 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: listen to the beginning of this series. So we're taking 11 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: lots of popular groupings of letters that you typically see 12 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: in tech, and we're explaining what those actually means. So 13 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: when you come across them, you'll say, oh, I know 14 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: what that stands for, and I know what it's for, 15 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: so let's get back to it. First up is pc B. 16 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: This means printed circuit board. Alright, So a circuit is 17 00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:11,399 Speaker 1: essentially a path for transmitting electric current, and you know, 18 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: typically we make circuits so that we can have electric 19 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:18,479 Speaker 1: current do work for us in some way. For example, 20 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: a circuit might include a path that leads to a 21 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: light bulb that has an incandescent filament inside it. The 22 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,679 Speaker 1: current flows through the path, flows into the light bulb 23 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 1: goes through that filament, causing it to heat up and 24 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,959 Speaker 1: incandesce or give off light, and then the current continues 25 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,600 Speaker 1: through to the end of the circuit, which is pretty simple. Now, 26 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,119 Speaker 1: in the early days of circuitry, you would use conductive 27 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,480 Speaker 1: wire to connect all the elements of your circuits. But 28 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: wires take up space, they can get tangled, they can 29 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:53,560 Speaker 1: get disconnected. Uh, you would have to solder things. If 30 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: we could only depend upon the types of circuits that 31 00:01:56,560 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: you can build with like bread boards and stuff where 32 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 1: you're just learning, all of our electronics would be much 33 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: much larger, and again you would have to sauder stuff. 34 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: That's a very slow and painstaking process, especially when you 35 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 1: first start and you're not too sure of yourself, and 36 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 1: if you make a mistake, it really slows you down 37 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: even more. Then, in nine a guy named Charles Ducas 38 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:22,240 Speaker 1: filed a patent for a design that served as a 39 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: foundation for modern circuits. What he did was he took 40 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,799 Speaker 1: a wooden board and he used a stencil, and he 41 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 1: laid the stencil against the wooden board, and then he 42 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:36,239 Speaker 1: attached conductive materials onto the board itself. Through this stincil. 43 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:40,080 Speaker 1: The conductive materials served the same purpose as wires, but 44 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 1: it laid flat against the boards, which saved a lot 45 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: of space and hassle. Move forward a little more than 46 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: a decade, and in nineteen thirty six you had an 47 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: Austrian inventor named Paul Eisler who made the first actual 48 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:58,080 Speaker 1: printed circuit board. While Ducas had stenciled conductive material to 49 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 1: a board, Eisler had experience with industrial printers that were 50 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,240 Speaker 1: used in the publishing world, and he theorized that he 51 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,080 Speaker 1: could use that same sort of technology to print a 52 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 1: circuit directly to a non conductive base. That's really important, 53 00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: you know, do costed the same thing he used a 54 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: wooden board. Wood is non conductive. The material that the 55 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:23,720 Speaker 1: circuit is built on top of has to be non conductive, 56 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: or else you can't channel where the current is supposed 57 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: to go. It'll just flow through all the conductive material. 58 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:33,559 Speaker 1: So with modern PCBs we call this base the substrate. 59 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:38,080 Speaker 1: Printing a circuit board solved tons of problems. For one thing, 60 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: as long as you design your circuit properly on the 61 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: front end, and as long as the printing equipment was 62 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: working as intended. You could print and reproduce your circuit 63 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: without having to be fussed about making a mistake. You 64 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: weren't in danger of soldering a wire to the wrong 65 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: contact or anything like that, so that was a huge 66 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: benefit to this approach. Paul Eisler's story is a really 67 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,280 Speaker 1: dramatic one. There are a lot of trials and tribulations 68 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:09,040 Speaker 1: and tragedy and triumphlets of alliteration there, and I may 69 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: have to dedicate a full episode to him in the 70 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: future because it's a pretty fascinating story. These days, PCBs 71 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:19,039 Speaker 1: tend to be made by taking a non conductive substrate 72 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:24,160 Speaker 1: then laminating a thin layer of copper foil to the surface. Now, 73 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:26,800 Speaker 1: copper is conductive, so you might wonder, well, what gives 74 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: if you completely coat the surface with a copper coding 75 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: and well there's a following step which involves using chemicals 76 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:38,600 Speaker 1: to etch the copper away. So what you do is 77 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,240 Speaker 1: you coat the bits of copper you want to keep, 78 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:43,800 Speaker 1: you know, the stuff that's actually going to serve as 79 00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:47,440 Speaker 1: the connective channels for your circuit components. So all the 80 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 1: circuit tree parts, you cote that with a protective chemical 81 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: you leave the rest of the copper uncovered. Then when 82 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 1: you introduced the chemicals to the circuit board, the chemicals 83 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: are only able to eat the exposed copper away. They 84 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: leave behind all the stuff that you've protected, and voila, 85 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:09,160 Speaker 1: you've got your printed circuit board. You can also make 86 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,240 Speaker 1: circuit boards with much smaller channels this way, using the 87 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:16,280 Speaker 1: etching method, and you'll find PCBs in all sorts of 88 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: modern electronics. Computer motherboards are a type of PCB. Smartphones, radios, 89 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: DVD players, game consoles, cars, systems, tons of stuff have 90 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: printed circuit boards in them. It's pretty nifty. Okay. Moving 91 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,240 Speaker 1: on p d A. Now, in tech this does not 92 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:36,320 Speaker 1: refer to public displays of affection. And I'm not going 93 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:39,799 Speaker 1: to make some sort of you know, crew joke about 94 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:42,480 Speaker 1: how tech nerds don't have experience with that type of 95 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,599 Speaker 1: p d A because that joke is old and tired 96 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:50,919 Speaker 1: and not accurate, thank you very much. It's in fact 97 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: so old and tired that it's even more old and 98 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:55,320 Speaker 1: tired than I am. And that's saying something. But no, 99 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: a p d A in this context is a personal 100 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:02,839 Speaker 1: digital assistant, which is more or less just a handheld computer. 101 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:07,479 Speaker 1: These devices predated the smartphone. One way to describe a 102 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: traditional p d A is to say it was kind 103 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 1: of like a smartphone without the phone part. In the 104 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:16,359 Speaker 1: old days, you would have your p d A and 105 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:18,960 Speaker 1: you would use a cable or a docking station to 106 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:23,039 Speaker 1: sinc the pd A to a computer, and software running 107 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:25,800 Speaker 1: on your computer would interact with the doct p d 108 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:30,799 Speaker 1: A and transfer over information like contacts, new email documents, 109 00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 1: et cetera. This could go both ways. The p d 110 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: A could end up adding new context to your database 111 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: on your computer, and that way you would have access 112 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: to this information on the go while your computer remained 113 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,480 Speaker 1: packed up or back at the office. They were really 114 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:48,720 Speaker 1: just an electronic version of the old pen and paper 115 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: schedulers and appointment calendars that you know, organized people relied upon. 116 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,799 Speaker 1: While you could make a decent argument that the nineteen 117 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:01,520 Speaker 1: four British made handheld computer called the Ion Organizer counts 118 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: as a p d A, I think most folks would 119 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,520 Speaker 1: really point to the early nineteen nineties when talking about 120 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:09,960 Speaker 1: the earliest p d A s and we get the 121 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:14,440 Speaker 1: term personal digital assistant from Apple and the infamous Apple 122 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:21,200 Speaker 1: Newton in Two Apples. Then CEO John Scully, someone who 123 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:24,760 Speaker 1: is frequently reviled in the history of Apple, revealed the 124 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:28,000 Speaker 1: Newton at C E S and yeah, back in the day, 125 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:30,760 Speaker 1: way back in the day, Apple would actually attend C 126 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:34,360 Speaker 1: E S. How how times have changed. The Newton was 127 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: to have handwriting recognition technology, and it would allow people 128 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: to write notes down on a digital screen using a 129 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: special stylus, and the Newton would then, in theory, convert 130 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 1: the handwritten stuff you put on the screen into text 131 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: and you would have an electronic copy of your notes. Now, 132 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: some technical shortcomings gave Newton a bad name early on, 133 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:58,600 Speaker 1: though Apple would continue to work on the technology and 134 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:02,160 Speaker 1: improve it. However, our first impressions are really hard to shake, 135 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:05,280 Speaker 1: and generally speaking, the Apple Newton became something of a joke, 136 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:09,920 Speaker 1: literally in the case of a Simpsons episode. But many 137 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:13,120 Speaker 1: other companies introduced PDAs over the years. One of the 138 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 1: big ones was Palm, and over time companies would build 139 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: in capabilities to allow PDAs to connect directly to the Internet, 140 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: removing the necessity to dock a p d A with 141 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: a computer to transfer information to the p d A. 142 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: For the most part, smartphones have replaced p d A s. 143 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,760 Speaker 1: As you know smartphone apps replicate the various functions found 144 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 1: in those old devices. But it was a pretty darn 145 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: good run. It's just a short one, and I've heard 146 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:42,839 Speaker 1: some folks, including myself, use p d A to refer 147 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:46,880 Speaker 1: to stuff like Sirie, Google Assistant, and Alexa. But I 148 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:50,680 Speaker 1: suspect this is not super accurate and that I am 149 00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 1: guilty of perpetuating a misunderstanding, for which I apologize. I 150 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,200 Speaker 1: think the generally accepted terms for those kind of things 151 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 1: are smart assistant or virtual assistant, and sometimes just personal assistant, 152 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: So I will try to remember not to use personal 153 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:12,319 Speaker 1: digital assistant when referring to stuff like Siri. Next up 154 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,800 Speaker 1: p d F. This stands for Portable Document Format. So 155 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:22,720 Speaker 1: the company Adobe developed the PDF format to address a problem. 156 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: Let's say that you are working on electronic document and 157 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:29,319 Speaker 1: a word processing program on a PC, and that this 158 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:31,719 Speaker 1: is back in the early nineties, and you want to 159 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,800 Speaker 1: send this document to someone else for them to review it. 160 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: But that person uses a Mac computer and the Mac 161 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,559 Speaker 1: computer is not compatible with the file formats that your 162 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: PC based word processing program generates. So what do you do? 163 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 1: Adobe solution was creating a file type that isn't tied 164 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,960 Speaker 1: to a specific operating system or a type of hardware, 165 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 1: or a type of word processing or you know, productivity software. 166 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:01,360 Speaker 1: It was, however, proprietary to Adobe nearly two decades before 167 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: the company released it as an open standard in two 168 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:07,199 Speaker 1: thousand eight. The original concept was that you would create 169 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:11,440 Speaker 1: a document with whichever software you were reliant upon and 170 00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:14,800 Speaker 1: on whatever type of computer you happen to own. Then 171 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:19,000 Speaker 1: you would convert that document to the PDF format, which 172 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:23,680 Speaker 1: effectively captured the document in its final state. Then you 173 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: could send that BDF to whomever you needed to and 174 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:28,839 Speaker 1: they would be able to view it on whatever type 175 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,200 Speaker 1: of machine they used. However, you did need a special 176 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:35,640 Speaker 1: PDF viewer to look at those documents, at least initially. 177 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:39,840 Speaker 1: The file sizes could get quite big as well, uh 178 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 1: larger than the native file formats you were working with. 179 00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: So let's say you were making a word document then 180 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:47,000 Speaker 1: you converted it to PDF. You would see that the 181 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:50,240 Speaker 1: PDF file might be much larger than the word file, 182 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:54,240 Speaker 1: and they weren't meant to be edited, so making changes 183 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 1: to a PDF file wasn't really meant to be a thing. 184 00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: A b DF is kind of more like an image 185 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: than a document file. It's more like a picture of 186 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: a document. It is possible to edit them these days, 187 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:11,599 Speaker 1: either directly using Adobe products or using software like Microsoft 188 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:15,120 Speaker 1: Word or the cloud based Google Drive suite. And when 189 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: creating PDFs, you can make some fields interactive, which allows 190 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:21,920 Speaker 1: people to place digital signatures on files and that kind 191 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:25,079 Speaker 1: of thing, or you know, check boxes in a checklist. 192 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: But one thing that I think is important to remember 193 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,839 Speaker 1: is that PDF files can sometimes also be hosts to malware. 194 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 1: Because PDFs can hold embedded code, including hyperlinks or those 195 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: interactive fields, it is possible to embed malware within a 196 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:45,520 Speaker 1: PDF itself, so it's always good to keep your antivirus 197 00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:47,760 Speaker 1: software up to date. It's also a good idea to 198 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 1: scan your files if you aren't confident that they came 199 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: from a safe source, or just not open them at 200 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,440 Speaker 1: all if you aren't you know, sure of where they 201 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:59,400 Speaker 1: came from. This is a good rule in general. Next, 202 00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:03,800 Speaker 1: we've U P HP and originally this initialism stood for 203 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 1: personal home page, but now it doesn't. It's kind of 204 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:11,920 Speaker 1: like how MTV used to stand for Music Television but 205 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 1: now it's just MTV, or how AMC used to be 206 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,800 Speaker 1: American Movie Classics, but now it's just a MC p 207 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:22,319 Speaker 1: HP is a type of scripting language used in web development. 208 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: It's an open source language and it can be embedded 209 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: into HTML, which is hypertext markup language. We covered that 210 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,439 Speaker 1: in a previous episode in this series. PHP code executes 211 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: on the server side of things, and it can be 212 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: used to make dynamic web content, meaning content that actually 213 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:44,280 Speaker 1: changes either because of an interaction that happens on a 214 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,040 Speaker 1: web page or it just is able to change over time. 215 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:49,439 Speaker 1: This is a good time for us to kind of 216 00:12:49,679 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 1: reflect and remember the old old days of the web. 217 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: So back when the World Wide Web was very young, 218 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:58,800 Speaker 1: it took a pretty good amount of work to make 219 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:02,600 Speaker 1: a web page. You might use a document program. For instance, 220 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,480 Speaker 1: I used just a very simple text editor program to 221 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:10,880 Speaker 1: build out a page in HTML before then uploading the 222 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:13,959 Speaker 1: code to a server. Then you would hop on over 223 00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:17,200 Speaker 1: onto a web browser and see what the results were 224 00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 1: of your hard work and whether or not you laid 225 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: out your page correctly or if in fact you were 226 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,720 Speaker 1: going to have to go back into that text editor 227 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:28,600 Speaker 1: and make some changes to your HTML code. It was 228 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:32,400 Speaker 1: a fairly slow process and because of that, and because 229 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:37,360 Speaker 1: HTML initially didn't really support dynamic elements, it would mean 230 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:41,440 Speaker 1: that most web pages you encountered would be static. That is, 231 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:44,360 Speaker 1: each web page was sort of a stable document and 232 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:47,320 Speaker 1: it didn't change. So if you visited someone's web page, 233 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: there wasn't real really much point in visiting it again. 234 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,280 Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's going to be the same page. 235 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:55,680 Speaker 1: You could click on links and stuff and go to 236 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:58,440 Speaker 1: other you know, web pages or documents or whatever, but 237 00:13:58,520 --> 00:13:59,839 Speaker 1: what you saw on the web page was going to 238 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,439 Speaker 1: remain the same over time. PHP is one of the 239 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,440 Speaker 1: scripting languages that allows developers to create web pages that 240 00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:09,720 Speaker 1: are not static, but they can update or change in 241 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: real time. Dynamic scripting allows for stuff like posting comments 242 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,200 Speaker 1: on a page and having them show up. That's one 243 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: of the simplest versions I could think of. Dynamic elements 244 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:24,960 Speaker 1: allow for stuff like e commerce. Without it, businesses web 245 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,400 Speaker 1: page might be nothing more than the electronic equivalent of 246 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:32,360 Speaker 1: an advertising flyer, you know, maybe giving a perspective customer 247 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,760 Speaker 1: and email address to write to or a phone number 248 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:38,960 Speaker 1: to call. As I record this. PHP version eight point 249 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:43,080 Speaker 1: one point oh Alpha two is in early testing. It 250 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: is not yet ready for production, but it is a 251 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: scripting language that continues to receive updates, so that's kind 252 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:54,280 Speaker 1: of cool. Okay, we've got a lot more letters of 253 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: the alphabet to get through. Let's take a quick break, 254 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:07,680 Speaker 1: all right. Next up, we've got p n G, or 255 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:13,360 Speaker 1: portable network Graphics. Some people pronounce it as ping, which 256 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:16,360 Speaker 1: is somewhat confusing because ping is something else. A ping 257 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:20,360 Speaker 1: in tech typically is when you're talking about a signal 258 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:24,120 Speaker 1: that's sent from a client to a server to wait 259 00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: for a response and find out how much latency there 260 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 1: is between the two connections, so you know how much 261 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:32,400 Speaker 1: of a delay there is between the two. That's not 262 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:34,880 Speaker 1: what this gonna ping is. P n G is a 263 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:39,680 Speaker 1: graphics file format that supports lossless data compression, So that 264 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:42,720 Speaker 1: means it uses a method to compress file sizes that 265 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: does not discard information about the file itself. When you 266 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,440 Speaker 1: view the image, you get all the information from the original. 267 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:53,120 Speaker 1: This makes it similar to the GIF file format or 268 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:56,280 Speaker 1: or jeff if you insist on being wrong. Uh. And 269 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 1: this is in contrast with the JPEG format. Jpeg uses 270 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: a lossy form of compression. Now, the PM format can 271 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:08,120 Speaker 1: compress down further than a GIFT can, and that means 272 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 1: that many of the images on the web these days 273 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:15,560 Speaker 1: are actually PM files not GIF files. Greater compression means 274 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:19,200 Speaker 1: you get smaller file sizes. That means faster loading times 275 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:21,840 Speaker 1: when you're visiting a web page. It also means less 276 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:24,360 Speaker 1: bandwidth usage, so there are a lot of benefits to it. 277 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: The group that developed PNG aimed to create a format 278 00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:31,320 Speaker 1: that would allow for better color recreation, and also to 279 00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: make a format that wouldn't be covered under a patent. 280 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:36,720 Speaker 1: That would mean that people and companies would actually be 281 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:39,120 Speaker 1: able to use this new format without having to apply 282 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,680 Speaker 1: for a license from a patent holder in order to 283 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:47,560 Speaker 1: do so. The format also allows control of opacity and transparency, 284 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:49,960 Speaker 1: which is quite handy. This is what allows people to 285 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,920 Speaker 1: make images that lay right on top of a background 286 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:56,480 Speaker 1: without having that irritating block of white around the image, 287 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: you know, kind of like a canvas or frame. And 288 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:02,760 Speaker 1: with aacity control, it's possible to make parts of the 289 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: image transparent and parts of it opaque. That could come 290 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,200 Speaker 1: in pretty handy depending upon what effect you're striving for. 291 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:15,040 Speaker 1: Moving on, we've got raid. It's not a not an 292 00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:18,240 Speaker 1: insect aside in this case, here's an acronym that actually 293 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:20,879 Speaker 1: has two similar full names and they both mean the 294 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:24,440 Speaker 1: same thing. So another example of this in this series 295 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:28,840 Speaker 1: was digital versatile disc and digital video disc. Both of 296 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,000 Speaker 1: those mean DVD. They're both for the same thing. It's 297 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,040 Speaker 1: just that digital versatile disc is the quote unquote official 298 00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:39,320 Speaker 1: name for it. Anyway. A RAID is either a redundant 299 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: array of independent discs or a redundant array of inexpensive discs. 300 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:49,959 Speaker 1: And it's a very practical solution to some pretty common problems. 301 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:55,360 Speaker 1: Problem no one technology breaks and I'm sure we've all 302 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:59,919 Speaker 1: experienced this. Maybe your computer keeps crashing, maybe your car 303 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,520 Speaker 1: are won't start, maybe the washing machine starts making this weird, 304 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,159 Speaker 1: high pitched sound and then it just gives up. The 305 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:10,800 Speaker 1: ghost stuff breaks down thanks a lot in tropy stupid 306 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: laws of the universe. But what if you happen to 307 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:19,160 Speaker 1: be reliant on digital information, like that's the basis of 308 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: your business or some endeavor you're pursuing, and if access 309 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,639 Speaker 1: to the digital information went away, you would be up 310 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:32,200 Speaker 1: the proverbial poopy creek without a paddle. That would be 311 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,600 Speaker 1: what we call in the tech business, a bad thing. 312 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:39,280 Speaker 1: So you'd probably want to store the information in a 313 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:42,080 Speaker 1: couple of different places so that if one of those 314 00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:46,360 Speaker 1: things fails, you would still have it somewhere else. In fact, 315 00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:48,440 Speaker 1: some of us do this in our day to day 316 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:51,719 Speaker 1: lives without even having it ever touched tech. I know 317 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:55,199 Speaker 1: I have written down the same thing a few times 318 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:57,800 Speaker 1: in different places so that I can make sure I 319 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:02,280 Speaker 1: had access to it. This is called redundancy, the practice 320 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:04,919 Speaker 1: of having backups so that you're not at a loss 321 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,199 Speaker 1: if your primary system should fail. And then there's the 322 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:12,320 Speaker 1: word inexpensive. That's also important. Sure, you could create a 323 00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:15,119 Speaker 1: system in which you were using the top of the 324 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:19,000 Speaker 1: line equipment with the fastest processors and all of that 325 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But if what you're really just trying 326 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:25,879 Speaker 1: to do is store some information, then going with that 327 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,439 Speaker 1: sort of bleeding edge technology would be a really big waste. 328 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,359 Speaker 1: It would just be throwing way too much hardware at 329 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 1: something that didn't need that as a solution. What you 330 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,760 Speaker 1: really need is something that's reliable, but it doesn't have 331 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 1: to be the best of the best. You just need 332 00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:42,760 Speaker 1: something that's going to work when you need it to. 333 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 1: And even then you can start tweaking these settings a 334 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:48,439 Speaker 1: little bit, right Like, you can think of this like 335 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:53,240 Speaker 1: sliders on a control board. Maybe you've got one slider 336 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:55,800 Speaker 1: that's labeled cost and you've got a second slider that's 337 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:59,359 Speaker 1: labeled reliability, and their linked to each other. And the 338 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:01,800 Speaker 1: more rely will the tech, the more expensive it is. 339 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,480 Speaker 1: And in fact, the cost might increase faster than the 340 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:09,240 Speaker 1: reliability does. So maybe when you're at you know, level three, 341 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 1: cost is three and reliability is three. But if you 342 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: move reliability up to five, suddenly cost is six and 343 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:19,199 Speaker 1: reliability is five. Move reliability up to seven, cost is ten. 344 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,280 Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying, Like, costs can get higher 345 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:27,359 Speaker 1: faster than you actually see an increased reliability. But maybe 346 00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: you find a sweet spot somewhere that because the cost 347 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: is at a certain level, you can have several redundant 348 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:38,919 Speaker 1: systems to support each service, and yeah they're not the 349 00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:43,680 Speaker 1: most reliable, but the reliable enough you might see some failures, 350 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 1: but you would save money on the far end of 351 00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:51,000 Speaker 1: it because the cheaper systems work well enough that you 352 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 1: didn't have to shell out the big, big bucks for 353 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 1: the more expensive ones. So it becomes this sort of 354 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,960 Speaker 1: risk analysis kind of thing. You figure out, well, how 355 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 1: likely is any system to go down at any given time, 356 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:04,720 Speaker 1: how many backups do I need to make sure that 357 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:07,640 Speaker 1: that is not a problem, and how expensive will it be, 358 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,040 Speaker 1: and generally speaking, you can go for some pretty cheap stuff. 359 00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:15,919 Speaker 1: Big data centers use RAID servers to handle data through virtualization. 360 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,280 Speaker 1: Now that refers to using computer software to build out 361 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:23,960 Speaker 1: a virtual machine that relies on actual physical hardware but 362 00:21:24,119 --> 00:21:27,520 Speaker 1: isn't necessarily tied to a single device. You can have 363 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: a computer running one or more virtual machines, or you 364 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 1: can have virtual machines that are kind of distributed across 365 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:40,840 Speaker 1: multiple computers. Using virtualization and RAID architecture, companies can have 366 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,880 Speaker 1: high performance, reliable systems and not freak out should part 367 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:47,520 Speaker 1: of it go down. And I'm pretty sure just about 368 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: every cloud service out there relies on RAID implementations. There 369 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,639 Speaker 1: are different ways to handle the redundancy aspect, but the 370 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,080 Speaker 1: goal is always the same to provide a way to 371 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,320 Speaker 1: ensure service is not going to get interrupted even in 372 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:04,280 Speaker 1: the event of a catastrophic failure of one system. Like 373 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,120 Speaker 1: let's say that a server just breaks down entirely, maybe 374 00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:11,240 Speaker 1: it's power supply goes bad. Others can then end up 375 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: taking on the load because they are redundant systems. Now, 376 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,240 Speaker 1: there there are other things that can go wrong and 377 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:21,400 Speaker 1: they can interrupt service, like if the communication lines out 378 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:24,720 Speaker 1: to the general Internet are broken. Well, it doesn't matter 379 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,359 Speaker 1: how many redundant systems you have, right if your communication 380 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,640 Speaker 1: channel is cut, then you don't have any way of communicating. 381 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:33,760 Speaker 1: So there are other things that can go wrong, but 382 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:36,600 Speaker 1: at least on this particular end of the system, you 383 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,840 Speaker 1: have some failsafe measures. There's a lot more that could 384 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:42,119 Speaker 1: be said about RAID systems. I could go into a 385 00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,080 Speaker 1: lot more detail, but I'm gonna save that for a 386 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,359 Speaker 1: full episode in the future at some point. Next up, 387 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:51,800 Speaker 1: we got RAM and DRAM and stram and RAM, or 388 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,639 Speaker 1: rather r A M d R A M S d 389 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:57,879 Speaker 1: R A M v R A M, etcetera. So welcome 390 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,720 Speaker 1: to the many flavors of random access memory. That's what 391 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:06,040 Speaker 1: RAMS stands for. I would call it random access memories, 392 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,160 Speaker 1: but that's a daft punk album, which is awesome of course, 393 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:11,879 Speaker 1: But that's not what I need to cover today. First, 394 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:15,120 Speaker 1: let's talk about computer memory in general. So computers, when 395 00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:18,800 Speaker 1: you boil them down, uh, but you know, don't boil 396 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,600 Speaker 1: them down. That will invalidate your warranty anyway. Computers are 397 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:27,400 Speaker 1: machines that take data, they perform some type of operation 398 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,960 Speaker 1: on that data, and they produce output based on the 399 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,920 Speaker 1: outcome of that process. Now, the data needs to come 400 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:38,960 Speaker 1: from somewhere. It could come directly from input, like you know, 401 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,520 Speaker 1: a switch being thrown, or a key being pressed or 402 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,760 Speaker 1: a button being pushed, or a computer might pull data 403 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,120 Speaker 1: from a long term storage solution such as a hard disk. 404 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: But to work quickly and efficiently, computers need a way 405 00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 1: to store at least some information temporarily in order to 406 00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:59,399 Speaker 1: refer back to that. And sometimes techno nerds like me 407 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: will use analogy of long term versus short term memory 408 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:07,160 Speaker 1: with humans. Data stored on a hard drive is more 409 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,520 Speaker 1: like long term memory, it's there for the long haul, 410 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,600 Speaker 1: but RAM is more like short term memory. Like if 411 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,480 Speaker 1: someone tells you, hey, just so you know, you need 412 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:18,720 Speaker 1: to push on that door to open it. You've got 413 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,320 Speaker 1: the information stored in short term memory, and you can 414 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: use that info when you go up to the door, 415 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,080 Speaker 1: but you don't necessarily need it forever, right like, if 416 00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:29,280 Speaker 1: you're only going through that door once, you really just 417 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,760 Speaker 1: need that information long enough to not make you look 418 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,280 Speaker 1: like a weirdo as you are pulling very hard on 419 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,280 Speaker 1: a door that's meant to be pushed. Now, beyond this 420 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,520 Speaker 1: little surface level, this analogy starts to break down. So 421 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:43,879 Speaker 1: we're gonna shift a bit. We're not gonna you know, 422 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: it's not exactly the same. It's not apples to apples. 423 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:50,480 Speaker 1: Computer memory represents a way for a computer to reference 424 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:55,000 Speaker 1: information quickly without seeking it in long term storage and 425 00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,920 Speaker 1: random access memory is dynamic, meaning it can be read 426 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,240 Speaker 1: from or chain to buy the computer without a problem. 427 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:05,000 Speaker 1: It can also be accessed in any order, which gives 428 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,320 Speaker 1: the computer a quick ability to go straight to the 429 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,240 Speaker 1: bit of data in the memory that's necessary, that's needed 430 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,880 Speaker 1: for whatever is going on, without having to read through 431 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:17,760 Speaker 1: all the data in random axis memory. To use another analogy, 432 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,800 Speaker 1: let's say that you're told to find the specific quote 433 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,360 Speaker 1: there was only one catch, and that was catch twenty 434 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:28,359 Speaker 1: two from the novel catch twenty two. But you're not 435 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:32,160 Speaker 1: giving any information about where in the novel that quote appears. 436 00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,320 Speaker 1: You would probably start from the very beginning of the 437 00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,760 Speaker 1: book and start scanning the novel line by line looking 438 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:42,200 Speaker 1: for that quote, which is time consuming. But let's say 439 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,919 Speaker 1: instead you have a reference that gives you the chapter 440 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:46,760 Speaker 1: and page number, and it tells you to look in 441 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 1: chapter five to find this quote. Now you can skip 442 00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 1: right over chapters one through four, you can go to 443 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,440 Speaker 1: where the info you need happens to be. That's kind 444 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 1: of like how RAM works. The computer doesn't have to 445 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,760 Speaker 1: scan through the entirety of what's in this dynamic memory 446 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:04,240 Speaker 1: to find what it needs. RAM can also be volatile, 447 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: meaning that if you were to turn off your computer, 448 00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:10,800 Speaker 1: the information stored within the machines RAM gets wiped out. 449 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,399 Speaker 1: RAM is really only important for helping to do the 450 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,040 Speaker 1: things that you're actually doing on the computer right then 451 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,960 Speaker 1: and there, so it doesn't need to get etched in 452 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,560 Speaker 1: stone or anything. You've got long term storage for that 453 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,680 Speaker 1: kind of thing. That's RAM in a nutshell. But let's 454 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: talk about these other flavors really quickly, and this is 455 00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 1: just a very high level I'm not going to dive 456 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: into each of these. That would take way too long. 457 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:39,159 Speaker 1: So d RAM stands for dynamic random access memory and 458 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,200 Speaker 1: s d RAM is a subtype of that. It's called 459 00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:47,399 Speaker 1: synchronous dynamic random access memory. There's also d d R 460 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,160 Speaker 1: s d RAM, which at first I thought was dance 461 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,639 Speaker 1: Dance Revolution s d RAM, but no. In fact, d 462 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,880 Speaker 1: d R stands for it double data rate. Now, generally speaking, 463 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:02,080 Speaker 1: these behave very much in the same way as RAM, 464 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:06,160 Speaker 1: but with improved efficiency and speed for certain applications and implementation. 465 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:10,680 Speaker 1: So it's you could say, it's RAM but better. D 466 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,000 Speaker 1: RAM requires more power and generates more heat than your 467 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,880 Speaker 1: run of the mill RAM does, however, so there are 468 00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:21,240 Speaker 1: tradeoffs here. Then we've got v RAM. This is video RAM, 469 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,640 Speaker 1: which is a variant of dynamic RAM, and it used 470 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:26,879 Speaker 1: to be a popular way to help buffer frames and 471 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,520 Speaker 1: graphics cards so that you would have a smooth experience 472 00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: running graphic intensive applications like you know, like video games. 473 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,200 Speaker 1: It's not really used anymore, however. It's essentially been replaced 474 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,040 Speaker 1: by s d RAM, which eventually got good enough so 475 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,320 Speaker 1: that we didn't need a specialized video RAM anymore. Next, 476 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:48,639 Speaker 1: we have our f C. The stands for request for comments. 477 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:53,200 Speaker 1: It's also a pretty misleading term these days, but back 478 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:57,439 Speaker 1: in the old days, and RFC really was more of 479 00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,520 Speaker 1: a request for comments than it is today, and it 480 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,040 Speaker 1: was all in an effort to initiate a dialogue about 481 00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,480 Speaker 1: how to set up the systems that one day would 482 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:10,320 Speaker 1: be the the stuff that powers the Internet. Alright, so, 483 00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,120 Speaker 1: way back in the nineteen sixties, you had a group 484 00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,359 Speaker 1: of researchers and engineers and scientists who are working for 485 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: the Department of Defense in an effort to build out 486 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,520 Speaker 1: networking technology UH and ultimately to create what was called 487 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 1: ARPA Net. In the ARPA Net project, it wasn't practical 488 00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:31,720 Speaker 1: to have everyone present at every working group meeting in 489 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,800 Speaker 1: order to hash out the various protocols and approaches and 490 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,040 Speaker 1: even philosophies that the group would initiate in order to 491 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:41,719 Speaker 1: make computer and networking reality. However, there was also kind 492 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 1: of a general desire not to create an environment in 493 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:48,280 Speaker 1: which maybe one small working group, for example, makes some 494 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,120 Speaker 1: sort of declarative proclamation of this is how it must 495 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:57,800 Speaker 1: be so the RFC approach, and which researchers would circulate 496 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 1: a proposed set of specifications or protocols or whatever, would 497 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,520 Speaker 1: allow others to chime in and make suggestions or ask 498 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:10,080 Speaker 1: for clarification. The goal was to make better systems through 499 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,920 Speaker 1: this kind of collaborative approach, and not to have any 500 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 1: one working group dominate the process. Now, over time, these 501 00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:20,160 Speaker 1: documents became less about bringing an input and more about 502 00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: just circulating technical information about the Internet, including the actual 503 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:28,200 Speaker 1: infrastructure of computer networks, the protocols used by machines to 504 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: communicate with one another, and even more general concepts related 505 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 1: to networking. It's more about providing a series of technical 506 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:39,120 Speaker 1: documents that explain the underpinnings of networks in general and 507 00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:42,520 Speaker 1: the Internet in particular, rather than encouraging some form of 508 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:48,160 Speaker 1: group discussion. Once published, and RFC never changes, it is 509 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,800 Speaker 1: not edited, it is not updated. This means that sometimes 510 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,560 Speaker 1: there are errors in an RFC, then that means they're 511 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,520 Speaker 1: there forever. The I E. T F one of the 512 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,240 Speaker 1: organizations that oversee these r f c s. It does 513 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:04,600 Speaker 1: have a way for people to report errors and it 514 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: does keep track of all errata. Next up is r 515 00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:13,120 Speaker 1: F I D. This stands for radio frequency identification. It's 516 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:17,400 Speaker 1: actually a subset of automatic identification and data capture or 517 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:22,240 Speaker 1: a I D C technologies. Now, generally speaking, these technologies 518 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:26,640 Speaker 1: involved systems that allow for automatic detection of something specific, 519 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:31,959 Speaker 1: and it includes identifying those specific things and then collecting 520 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:35,600 Speaker 1: data about those specific things and maybe even incorporating that 521 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,640 Speaker 1: data into databases without the need for a human operator. 522 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: It can all be on the automated side of things. 523 00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:44,440 Speaker 1: And I'm sure you've interacted with r F I D 524 00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,680 Speaker 1: tags before, and r F I D tag has the 525 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:51,120 Speaker 1: information coded directly into it. So the r f I 526 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,840 Speaker 1: D tag itself is an integrated circuit and it can 527 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:56,719 Speaker 1: be a really thin and flexible one. Even it can 528 00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 1: be in tags and stuff that are flexible. Uh this 529 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,720 Speaker 1: sort it also includes an antenna. Now, most r f 530 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,400 Speaker 1: I D chips are passive r f I D chips, 531 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,520 Speaker 1: which means they don't have any power on their own. 532 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:14,120 Speaker 1: They don't broadcast or anything like that. They are just there. However, 533 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: when they are brought within the broadcast reach of a 534 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,440 Speaker 1: of an r f I D reader, which is essentially 535 00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:26,320 Speaker 1: broadcasting radio waves of a certain frequency, things change. The 536 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,280 Speaker 1: r f I D tags antenna will pick up on 537 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,960 Speaker 1: those radio waves which passed through the antenna, and then 538 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:37,080 Speaker 1: it'll turn into essentially electricity. The whole process for that 539 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,160 Speaker 1: is one I've covered several times in tech stuff. But 540 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,200 Speaker 1: the energy goes into the passive chip that modulates the 541 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:47,080 Speaker 1: signal and then broadcasts the modulated signal back out which 542 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:49,680 Speaker 1: the reader can pick up on. That gives the reader 543 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,080 Speaker 1: whatever information was hard coded into that r f I 544 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,680 Speaker 1: D and that information can be lots of different stuff. 545 00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:58,760 Speaker 1: In fact, there are a lot of security systems that 546 00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 1: use this sort of approach. You get badges that are 547 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 1: containing thin r f I D chips inside them and 548 00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:09,440 Speaker 1: the r f I D m the badge has a 549 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,120 Speaker 1: identification in it that should match up to a database 550 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:16,120 Speaker 1: of authorized personnel. Okay, so you walk up to a 551 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,719 Speaker 1: door and it has an r f I D reader 552 00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:20,760 Speaker 1: next to it. That's your little badge reader. You hold 553 00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,960 Speaker 1: the badge up. The r f I D reader is 554 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,800 Speaker 1: constantly sending out this low power radio signal. The r 555 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:32,240 Speaker 1: f I D chip inside your badge detects the signal, 556 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,560 Speaker 1: it goes through the antenna. It creates this modulated frequency 557 00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:39,400 Speaker 1: that gets sent back the reader picks up on. That 558 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:45,000 Speaker 1: compares your badge to a database of authorized users. If 559 00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,640 Speaker 1: you show up on that boom, you get in. If 560 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,320 Speaker 1: you don't show up on that, the door stays locked. 561 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 1: There are also active r f I D chips. These 562 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:58,000 Speaker 1: are chips that actually require a battery. They have to 563 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,600 Speaker 1: have a power source because these chips do constantly broadcast 564 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,959 Speaker 1: out information that can be picked up by readers. They 565 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:06,800 Speaker 1: also tend to be bulk here because they require a 566 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,040 Speaker 1: power source, they're more expensive, and they're not really necessary 567 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,040 Speaker 1: for a lot of the applications that we typically use. 568 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,840 Speaker 1: R F I D four. Okay, it's time for another break. 569 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,200 Speaker 1: But when we come back, we will continue down the 570 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:29,440 Speaker 1: RS like a pirate. Next up is r G B 571 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,120 Speaker 1: and this stands for red, green, and blue. It's an 572 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,320 Speaker 1: additive color model. That means it's a color model in 573 00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:40,080 Speaker 1: which you can create different colors by adding different amounts 574 00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 1: or intensities of the three primary colors of the model together. 575 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:46,760 Speaker 1: In this case red, green, and blue. So to get white, 576 00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:50,080 Speaker 1: you would add all three together. And this works when 577 00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:53,640 Speaker 1: you're talking about light, right, when you're talking about wavelengths 578 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,400 Speaker 1: of light, because essentially you're adding wavelengths together. If you 579 00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 1: remember from the color spectrum, know that it's not just 580 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,240 Speaker 1: that it goes from red to orange, to yellow, to green, 581 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:07,560 Speaker 1: to blue, to indigo to violet, but that the wavelength 582 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:11,120 Speaker 1: of light for each of those bands is different with 583 00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:14,920 Speaker 1: with it getting smaller as you get further into the spectrum. 584 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:20,440 Speaker 1: So red wavelengths have the longest wavelengths and then violet 585 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: has the shortest. And UM. Yeah, by adding different lights together, 586 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:28,840 Speaker 1: you're essentially adding the wavelengths together, and you can adjust 587 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,520 Speaker 1: the color that way. This UM this really only works 588 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,920 Speaker 1: when you're talking about light. If you're using physical dyes 589 00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,440 Speaker 1: like actual paint or something. If you were to keep 590 00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:40,839 Speaker 1: mixing all the colors together, then you would end up 591 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:45,120 Speaker 1: with black or really just a really dark, unpleasant color. 592 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,760 Speaker 1: So it doesn't work with that approach. It only works 593 00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:52,680 Speaker 1: really with light display technologies rely on the r GB 594 00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:58,280 Speaker 1: color model. Older displays had cables and and and ports 595 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:01,959 Speaker 1: for composite signals. That was not as nice like that's 596 00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:07,080 Speaker 1: where these different light sources would be merged together before 597 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:11,040 Speaker 1: being sent to a display. But by keeping these signals 598 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,319 Speaker 1: separate in their red, green, and blue colors, our GB 599 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:18,920 Speaker 1: displays can combine them into a better quality image. That 600 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,080 Speaker 1: was a short one. Let's move on. How about r 601 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,799 Speaker 1: I s C or RISK. This actually stands for reduced 602 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:30,600 Speaker 1: instruction set computer. So your typical computer is a general 603 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,040 Speaker 1: purpose device, which means it needs to be able to 604 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:35,840 Speaker 1: do a little bit of everything. But in order for 605 00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:39,080 Speaker 1: a machine to be capable of doing a bit of everything, 606 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:41,880 Speaker 1: you have to make certain sacrifices when it comes to 607 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:46,120 Speaker 1: stuff like speed and efficiency. If you were to optimize 608 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:50,120 Speaker 1: a machine for a subset of routines, you might make 609 00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:54,320 Speaker 1: it perform at you know, a lower rate for anything 610 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,319 Speaker 1: outside of those routines, but anything that fell into its 611 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,879 Speaker 1: wheelhouse it could do really, really well. So when you're 612 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,279 Speaker 1: making a general purpose machine, you might just bite the 613 00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,839 Speaker 1: bullet and create a system that can handle pretty much 614 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:11,120 Speaker 1: everything but isn't really optimized for anything. In particular. Risk, however, 615 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:15,120 Speaker 1: relies on highly optimized instruction sets. So let's say you 616 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:17,960 Speaker 1: want to build out a system that would really focus 617 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:24,160 Speaker 1: on something specific like video processing. This task doesn't require 618 00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,279 Speaker 1: your system to also be good at other stuff. It 619 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:31,200 Speaker 1: just needs to be wicked good at processing video, So 620 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:36,759 Speaker 1: you architect a system that optimizes everything towards video production. Now, 621 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:39,600 Speaker 1: if you want to use the system to process videos, 622 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:43,360 Speaker 1: it's really fast, much faster than a general purpose computer 623 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,440 Speaker 1: would be. In fact, you can have an optimized video 624 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:50,719 Speaker 1: processing station that's faster than a general purpose computer, even 625 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,719 Speaker 1: if that general purpose computer technically has better hardware in it, 626 00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:58,640 Speaker 1: like a better processor, because optimization can go a really 627 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:01,520 Speaker 1: long way. But another way to look at it is 628 00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:05,839 Speaker 1: just in how processors complete instructions. So the opposite of 629 00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:09,440 Speaker 1: an R I s C machine is a C I 630 00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:15,120 Speaker 1: s C, or complex instruction set computer. A complex instruction 631 00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:20,600 Speaker 1: might involve lots of individual steps per instruction, and a 632 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:24,719 Speaker 1: a c I s C or CISK CPU would understand that. 633 00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:29,120 Speaker 1: You would understand, oh, this one instruction involves multiple steps, 634 00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 1: and would execute those steps to complete the task. For 635 00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:35,200 Speaker 1: an r I s C system, first you would have 636 00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:39,360 Speaker 1: to break down those steps into simpler instructions, and depending 637 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,080 Speaker 1: on the task, the r I s C machine might 638 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:45,960 Speaker 1: complete the overall effort faster than the C I s 639 00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,480 Speaker 1: C machine. But if the task means that the RISK 640 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:52,600 Speaker 1: system is having to break down lots of complex instructions 641 00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:56,439 Speaker 1: into simpler ones, the CISC machine wins out. So it's 642 00:37:56,480 --> 00:38:01,319 Speaker 1: all dependent upon what applications you're trying to run. You 643 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:03,880 Speaker 1: can think of RISK machines as needing instructions to be 644 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:06,839 Speaker 1: broken down to their most basic level before it can 645 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:09,600 Speaker 1: execute them, whereas a CISCU machine can take a more 646 00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:13,719 Speaker 1: general set of instructions and get to work. So there's 647 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,719 Speaker 1: not really one that's better than the other. It's all 648 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:20,480 Speaker 1: dependent upon how you're using them and how they've been optimized. 649 00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:27,000 Speaker 1: Next up, we've got ROM. This stands for read only memory. Now, 650 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:30,040 Speaker 1: remember when we talked about RAM and how that kind 651 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:32,600 Speaker 1: of memory is volatile. I mean, once you shut down 652 00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:37,200 Speaker 1: a machine, the information in RAM goes away. Well. ROM 653 00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:41,560 Speaker 1: is non volatile. It is hard coded, so ROM includes 654 00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:45,239 Speaker 1: hard coded instructions that persist whether the computer is on 655 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:50,759 Speaker 1: or not. Also, as the describer read only suggests, this 656 00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:55,480 Speaker 1: type of memory cannot be changed under normal circumstances. You 657 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:59,160 Speaker 1: can read from this, but you cannot write to it. 658 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:01,839 Speaker 1: And if you're an old Fogy like me, you might 659 00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:06,279 Speaker 1: remember the days of home video game consoles that took cartridges. 660 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:11,000 Speaker 1: The cartridges actually had printed circuit boards inside them, and 661 00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:15,080 Speaker 1: these were ROMs. The game everything from the graphics to 662 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:18,520 Speaker 1: the instructions on how the console should respond to player input, 663 00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:21,560 Speaker 1: to the music, you know, everything that made the game 664 00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:25,759 Speaker 1: the game was printed on the circuit boards. They were 665 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 1: unchangeable unless you were to like break open the cartridge 666 00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,920 Speaker 1: and get the old soldering iron out and make some 667 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:34,799 Speaker 1: changes by hand, which is not recommended by the way. 668 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:38,640 Speaker 1: So the stuff that goes into ROM typically includes the 669 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,600 Speaker 1: instructions the computer needs to start up. It's kind of 670 00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:45,400 Speaker 1: like the basic information the computer uses in the booting process, 671 00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:47,399 Speaker 1: and that's why you wouldn't really want to be able 672 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,480 Speaker 1: to change it. Next up, we have r t F 673 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:54,839 Speaker 1: that stands for Rich Text Format which is a proprietary 674 00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:59,000 Speaker 1: document format from Microsoft. The company introduced this format in 675 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,560 Speaker 1: then with the intent for it to be kind of 676 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:07,880 Speaker 1: a step up from plain old text files. So unlike 677 00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:11,680 Speaker 1: you know, the the older text files, the RTF format 678 00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:15,880 Speaker 1: can actually hold some extra information that text files can't, 679 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,920 Speaker 1: including stuff like font style you don't get that with 680 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:23,200 Speaker 1: regular text files, or how to incorporate images is another 681 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:26,640 Speaker 1: feature that you don't find in text files. Now, it's 682 00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:30,000 Speaker 1: nowhere near as feature full as like you know, a 683 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:33,800 Speaker 1: word document from Microsoft would be. However, lots of different 684 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:36,920 Speaker 1: apps and programs can open r t F files, but 685 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,759 Speaker 1: they can't open word files. So if you need to 686 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:41,960 Speaker 1: type up a document but you couldn't be certain that 687 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:44,359 Speaker 1: the people you were going to share this document with 688 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:49,120 Speaker 1: had word you might go with r TF. Microsoft ended 689 00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,960 Speaker 1: development of r TF back in two thousand eight. Now 690 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,960 Speaker 1: that doesn't mean the format disappeared. Many word processing apps 691 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,839 Speaker 1: still support it because of that universality. You might open 692 00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:03,320 Speaker 1: a file using one word processing program, make some changes 693 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,880 Speaker 1: to it, save it back as r TF, then open 694 00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,560 Speaker 1: that same file but using a totally different computer with 695 00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,600 Speaker 1: a different operating system and a different word processing program. 696 00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,680 Speaker 1: In order to continue so it still has its uses, 697 00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:18,680 Speaker 1: though with the growth of cloud based solutions, it's not 698 00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:22,040 Speaker 1: quite as relevant as it used to be. Next, we 699 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,840 Speaker 1: have S A A S, big S, little, A little, 700 00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:29,080 Speaker 1: A big S, and this ties right into what we 701 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,799 Speaker 1: were just talking about. S A A S stands for 702 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,920 Speaker 1: software as a service, and this marks a different approach 703 00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,520 Speaker 1: to the software business from the old days. So let's 704 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:41,799 Speaker 1: talk about those old days and about how we moved 705 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:46,439 Speaker 1: from product to service. All right, So it's the early 706 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:49,800 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties and you just bought your first personal computer 707 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,000 Speaker 1: and you're so excited, and you're gonna go shopping for 708 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:56,480 Speaker 1: some software that you want on your new PC. And 709 00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:59,080 Speaker 1: you want to use this PC to do some productivity work. 710 00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:02,600 Speaker 1: So you invest in a word processing program and a 711 00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:06,280 Speaker 1: spreadsheet program and maybe a few other applications. You purchase 712 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:09,600 Speaker 1: each of these from some software company, maybe all of 713 00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:12,759 Speaker 1: them come from the same company, and each program has 714 00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:15,720 Speaker 1: a set price, so you pay the price and boom, 715 00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,400 Speaker 1: the program is yours to install on your computer, and 716 00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:22,640 Speaker 1: the transaction is over. That's it. You've got it. Now. 717 00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:26,759 Speaker 1: Over time, maybe the software company releases new versions of 718 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,600 Speaker 1: those programs with you know, more features and stuff and 719 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,440 Speaker 1: if you want to be able to use those features, 720 00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:34,720 Speaker 1: you would need to go out and buy the new 721 00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:38,720 Speaker 1: version of this program and then install that on your computer. However, 722 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,600 Speaker 1: each purchase would be its own discrete event. You buy it, 723 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:47,560 Speaker 1: you install it, it's yours. Now let's take a little 724 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:51,239 Speaker 1: step forward. Let's say that you start to run a 725 00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,520 Speaker 1: small office and you want each of your employees to 726 00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:58,040 Speaker 1: have a computer that's running a certain suite of software. 727 00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,799 Speaker 1: You might make an arrangement with big company like Microsoft 728 00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:05,080 Speaker 1: to get a license for multiple copies of software. Because 729 00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,880 Speaker 1: you're not supposed to just buy one copy of a 730 00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:11,200 Speaker 1: program and then install it on five or ten computers 731 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:15,319 Speaker 1: or whatever. Companies actually developed ways to prevent users from 732 00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:18,000 Speaker 1: doing that. There are penalties if you try and work 733 00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:20,839 Speaker 1: around it. So now you get a license to use 734 00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,160 Speaker 1: a certain number of installations of software. It's a little 735 00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,120 Speaker 1: bit different from before. But let's take another step forward. Now, 736 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:30,640 Speaker 1: Let's say you're running an office and you find that 737 00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:34,480 Speaker 1: there's a company that's offering a suite of productivity solutions 738 00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:38,240 Speaker 1: that are running over the cloud. So the actual applications 739 00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:41,200 Speaker 1: like the word processor and the spreadsheet program, they're all 740 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:44,480 Speaker 1: running on servers on the Internet. They're not running on 741 00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:47,640 Speaker 1: your own computers. You use the Internet to connect to 742 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,760 Speaker 1: those services. So instead of installing software to your machines, 743 00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:54,000 Speaker 1: you use some form of client software to access them, 744 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:58,120 Speaker 1: which is probably just a web browser. Rather than purchasing 745 00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:01,439 Speaker 1: the software outright, you're paying a subscription fee in order 746 00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:05,799 Speaker 1: to access the software. There are pros and cons to this. 747 00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:09,440 Speaker 1: As a user, the big con, as I guess you 748 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:11,920 Speaker 1: can spot right off the bat, is that you're not 749 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,719 Speaker 1: just making a single purchase and then that's the end 750 00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:18,960 Speaker 1: of the transaction. Instead, you have this recurring subscription fee, 751 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,880 Speaker 1: so you continue to pay for the product as you 752 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,400 Speaker 1: use it, or as I should say, you continue to 753 00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:27,600 Speaker 1: pay for the service as you use it. But on 754 00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,440 Speaker 1: the pro side of things, with software as a service, 755 00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:33,920 Speaker 1: you can expect to benefit from improvements to the software 756 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:36,680 Speaker 1: over time. You know, in the old days, like I said, 757 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:38,759 Speaker 1: you would have to purchase a new version of the 758 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,440 Speaker 1: software when the company would release it if you wanted 759 00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:45,359 Speaker 1: those features. Instead, with software as a service, you get 760 00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:49,640 Speaker 1: those benefits as the company that provides the service improves 761 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,120 Speaker 1: the cloud based software. So as long as you're a subscriber, 762 00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:56,000 Speaker 1: you get access to those new features that means no 763 00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:58,640 Speaker 1: more having to upgrade all of your offices copies of 764 00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,400 Speaker 1: say Microsoft off this every few years. Instead, you just 765 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:05,040 Speaker 1: subscribe to this software as a service and you get 766 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,960 Speaker 1: the new features as they are implemented. The other big 767 00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,799 Speaker 1: benefit to software as a service is that you might 768 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:15,000 Speaker 1: be able to access the software with any compatible machine 769 00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:17,799 Speaker 1: as long as you have your log in credentials. So, 770 00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:20,120 Speaker 1: in other words, you don't have to worry if this 771 00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:23,400 Speaker 1: new computer has the software loaded onto it. We're not 772 00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:25,680 Speaker 1: as long as it has web browser or you know, 773 00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:28,919 Speaker 1: whatever the client is to access the service. It makes 774 00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:32,399 Speaker 1: the software way more flexible and portable because you, as 775 00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:36,600 Speaker 1: a user, can access it with any compatible network connected device. 776 00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:41,239 Speaker 1: So let's say that I forgot my work computer at 777 00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:44,720 Speaker 1: the office I accidentally left it there. Well, fortunately, because 778 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:49,480 Speaker 1: we're using a lot of cloud based productivity software, I 779 00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:53,320 Speaker 1: could use my home computer and log into my account 780 00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:56,480 Speaker 1: via the cloud and get access to all of my notes, 781 00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:01,439 Speaker 1: all of my scripts, everything like that. Uh, because I'm 782 00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:04,120 Speaker 1: able to access it through this cloud based service as 783 00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:08,920 Speaker 1: opposed to it having a native application running on just 784 00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:14,480 Speaker 1: my office computer. For companies like Microsoft, this approach is 785 00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:20,440 Speaker 1: crazy profitable, like profit margin, so from a revenue sense, 786 00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,879 Speaker 1: it works out great, and it can actually cost less 787 00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:28,120 Speaker 1: money for the user over time. If we're talking about 788 00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,880 Speaker 1: the kind of user who would regularly upgrade to the 789 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:35,240 Speaker 1: latest version of a software package once it was released. If, however, 790 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:37,879 Speaker 1: the user is the type who would normally just stick 791 00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:41,520 Speaker 1: with a basic version of software until like the heat 792 00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:44,520 Speaker 1: death of the Universe, it would not be as good 793 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:49,040 Speaker 1: a deal. The A a S or as a service 794 00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:52,239 Speaker 1: extension goes to tons of other stuff as well. Like 795 00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:55,719 Speaker 1: there's platform as a service or p a a S. 796 00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:58,920 Speaker 1: That's where you have a company providing a typically a 797 00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:02,640 Speaker 1: modular computer GRAHAM for the purposes of developing, deploying, or 798 00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:06,600 Speaker 1: running applications. But there's lots of other stuff. There's artificial 799 00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:10,400 Speaker 1: intelligence as a service, there's big data as a service, 800 00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:14,239 Speaker 1: games as a service, machine learning as a service. The 801 00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:17,759 Speaker 1: list goes on and on. Essentially, it all comes down 802 00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:20,680 Speaker 1: to this switch from treating software or whatever as a 803 00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:24,279 Speaker 1: product to treating it as an ongoing service. You know, 804 00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:29,480 Speaker 1: something you can smack an ongoing subscription fee onto. We 805 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:32,360 Speaker 1: see this reflected in how we consume media these days. 806 00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,319 Speaker 1: I'm guessing a lot of the music and movies and 807 00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:38,359 Speaker 1: television shows you watch come to you through some sort 808 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:43,800 Speaker 1: of streaming service. Again, we've migrated away from purchasing something 809 00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:48,160 Speaker 1: like an album or a Blu ray or whatever, and 810 00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:53,600 Speaker 1: we've moved towards media through a subscription based streaming service. 811 00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:56,120 Speaker 1: Or maybe it's not a subscription based service. Maybe it 812 00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:59,880 Speaker 1: supports itself through ads, but it's the same basic idea. 813 00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:05,400 Speaker 1: It's a brave new world. I suppose I am cautiously 814 00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:10,600 Speaker 1: optimistic that our next episode will close out the last 815 00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:14,520 Speaker 1: of our acronyms and initialisms for now, So join me 816 00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:17,600 Speaker 1: on Wednesday to get through the rest of the alphabet. 817 00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:20,880 Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you have suggestions for future topics 818 00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:23,120 Speaker 1: I should cover on tech stuff, reach out to me 819 00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:24,680 Speaker 1: and let me know what they are. A lot of 820 00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:27,040 Speaker 1: you have been doing that. It's awesome. Keep doing it. 821 00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:30,800 Speaker 1: The Twitter handle where you can reach me is text 822 00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:34,040 Speaker 1: stuff H s W and I'll talk to you again 823 00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:44,000 Speaker 1: really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. 824 00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:47,040 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I 825 00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:50,400 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 826 00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:51,360 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.