WEBVTT - Tech Glossary: From ISDN to P2P 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.120 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.920 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.439 and I love of all things tech. And we are 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.560 back on the tech glossary topic, in which we look 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.200 at the various initialisms and acronyms used in the tech 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.400 world and figure out what they actually mean. In the 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.800 last episode, we worked up to I r C or 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.520 Internet Relay Chat. I made a joke that I can 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.559 get through all the eyes in that episode because I 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:46.200 can stands for Internet Corporation for assigned names and numbers. 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.880 But I actually have a few more eyes to cover 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.279 before we move on, So I made a liar out 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.120 of myself. Let's do it, and we're gonna start with 0:00:54.560 --> 0:01:00.400 I S d N that stands for Integrated Services Digital Network. 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:04.080 This requires a bit of a backstory. So way back 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:08.200 in the day, we only had what's called the plane 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.160 old telephone service or pots POTS, So that's kind of 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.840 a bonus acronym right there, and actually we still do 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.480 have that in some regard. But let's get back to 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.480 business here. Back before the nineteen sixties, all the telephone 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:28.680 connections depended upon actual interconnected physical wires and mechanical systems 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:34.800 and analog signals. So as more lines were joining the system, 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.080 and again these were analog signals passed over twisted pair 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:43.080 cables of wire, it became increasingly messy. Right as more 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:47.200 people and companies and places started to add phone lines, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.640 it started to get to be a real mess and 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:53.440 analog systems were not great at supplying reliable long distance 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:59.240 communications service where you had to interconnect between different regional networks. 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.800 Around the nineteen fifties, the telephone companies began to work 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:07.520 on automating various systems and one potential solution, the one 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.000 that turned out to be the winner, was to migrate 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.840 from a purely analog telephone system to a voiceover digital 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.040 line system. Now that digital system also allowed for the 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.800 transmission of digital data, not just you know, voice, but 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.200 other types of information, and in the late nineteen eighties, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.520 a part of the United Nations called the International Telecommunications 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:34.200 Union or i t U, another bonus initialism, began to 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.000 recommend the I s d N standard for data transmission 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.920 over phone lines. But there were actually two competing versions 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.000 of I S d N. There was not a standardized 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.240 version at first, that caused a lot of delays as 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.760 far as implementation and roll out, until a unified standard 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.960 emerged in the nineteen nineties, so I s d N 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.519 finally kind of entered the scene and allowed for faster 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:03.600 data transmission speeds or more accurately, greater data throughput. More 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.400 on that in a little bit, But before too long, 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.520 other technologies like DSL and cable modems would replace I 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.040 s d N. Now you still find I s d 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.080 N in some places, and I should probably do a 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.480 full episode about it in the future to really talk 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:24.160 about its development, its history, and its implementation. But these 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.359 episodes are already going far beyond what I expected, so 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.040 I will spare you. Let's move on. I SP This 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.000 is an easy one. It stands for Internet service provider. 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:38.600 These are the companies that provide Internet connectivity services to customers. 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.600 Those customers might be people, and they might be businesses 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.520 or other organizations or very organized people. I guess some 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.680 I s p s also offer other services, uh, usually 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.800 directly connected to Internet services, and uh, you know, some 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.520 other I s p s end up offering services that 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.320 are related to telecommunications. So, for example, there are I 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:03.640 s P s that might say, all right, well, if 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.840 you purchase service from us, not only will you have 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:11.720 Internet connectivity, will also give you an email address, we 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.880 will host a personal website for you. We might have 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.960 other software that you have access to. And then you've 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.599 got you know, things like cable companies that are also 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.960 I s p s, and they'll bundle Internet service with 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.800 cable TV or telephone service. You get the idea. It's 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.800 pretty common thing now. Back in the nineteen nineties, there 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.680 were around ten thousand I s p s in the world, 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.119 with the United States laying claim to more than half 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.760 of them. And if you've listened to my episodes on 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.719 earth Link, you heard me talk about one of those 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:44.760 I s p s. And these I s p s 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.080 frequently focused on specific regions, and hey, you know, the 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.960 Internet is a global thing. So these companies were relying 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:55.640 on bigger telecommunications companies to actually connect various you know, 0:04:55.839 --> 0:05:01.120 computers together on the Internet. But telecommunications companies like telephone 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:05.640 companies and cable companies already had this infrastructure in place 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:10.919 to deliver services to customers that could easily be converted 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.560 over or added onto with the Internet speeds, so you 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.080 could have Internet be there in addition to the other 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:22.039 services you provided, and these regional I sp s just 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.320 couldn't match that, right, They just didn't have that that 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.960 kind of infrastructure. And so there are still regional I 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.599 s p s. They do exist, but they essentially sit 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:36.560 on top of these other larger telecommunication company I s 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.000 p s. And I bring this up because there may 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.279 be cases in the United States and which it looks 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.200 like you might have multiple I s P options in 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:48.400 your area, but it's probably that all of the smaller 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.080 ones are just piggybacking on the infrastructure of the big one. 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:57.520 So what they're doing is they're essentially leasing space, if 0:05:57.520 --> 0:05:59.560 you want to think of it that way, on the 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:06.599 tele communication companies technology, and then they resell that to customers. Now, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.280 the price that these regional I s p s get 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.960 isn't the same price that you would pay to have 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.000 Internet access. However, you might be paying more with the 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.280 regional I s P and they might try and make 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.320 it up make up for it with additional services like 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:24.360 those software packages I was talking about earlier. Okay, let's 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:30.080 move on I T. Okay. I included I T because 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.159 Jen Barber didn't know what it meant. And it means 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:38.920 information technology jen. The term originates from the late nineteen seventies, 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:43.040 which coincidentally marks the earliest days of the first personal computers, 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.279 and Miriam Webster defines it as quote the technology involving 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:51.120 the development, maintenance, and use of computer systems, software, and 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.120 networks for the processing and distribution of data end quote. 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.559 And that definition is a pretty broad one, and made 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.920 even larger with the era of big data, which necessitates 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:07.320 more robust networks and more sophisticated methods of data analysis. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.720 And today we typically associate i T with networks in 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.960 general and the Internet in particular, but clearly the term 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.240 can apply to all sorts of computer systems. Okay, we're 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.400 killing it, let's keep moving. JPEG This stands for Joint 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:28.600 Photographic Experts Group, a joint committee that forms specifically for 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:33.160 the purposes of establishing standards for the coding of still pictures. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.520 But when we use JPEG, we usually mean the file 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.600 format that this group created, not the group itself, So 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:46.480 we mean JPEG or JPG as a file extension of 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:51.720 file type. So the JPEG file format is an image file. Specifically, 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:56.280 it's a lossy compression file format, which means it's a 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:00.440 way to code still images, but you manage file size 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.960 by losing some of the data associated with that file. 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.400 Like a raw image file. If you were to take, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.600 you know, a really nice digital camera and take a 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.160 photo of it, a raw image file is really really big, 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.280 and that could be a bit of a problem. With JPEG. 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.280 You compress that down, but you lose some of the 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:23.120 information in the process, and the higher the compression you choose, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.040 the more data you have to lose in the process, 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.240 and as a result, the image will not look as good. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.000 The more you compress it, the worst the image is 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.320 going to look, but the smaller the file size. There 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.360 was a need for this kind of file type because 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.720 the Internet in general, and the Web in particular, really 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.240 needed that in order to take off. Most of the 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.080 world was dependent upon dial up speeds in the early 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.520 days of the Web, and dial up speeds were not 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.840 terribly fast. Anyone who used a dial up modem to 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.520 log into say a bulletin board system back in the 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:03.960 nineteen eighties, before really the the dawn of the consumer Internet, 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:09.720 they know that it could take forever to download an image, 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.840 and by forever, I just mean like a crazy long 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.800 amount of time. But these compression formats like JPEG meant 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.520 that you could get images with smaller file sizes, which 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:24.360 meant faster download times for those files. This was also 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.280 important for stuff like email, which frequently has pretty strict 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.840 limits on how large a message can be before you 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:32.480 can send it out, like if it goes over that 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.920 you get that little annoying message saying you've exceeded the 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.800 the size allowed for sending out an email. The JPEG 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.120 standard took off like gangbusters and was a big part 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:46.880 of why the web itself was able to take off. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.559 It allowed for an experience that incorporated more images, and 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:54.400 the committee introduced other JPEG standards later on, but the 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.199 original JPEG format was so popular that the subsequent standards 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.800 didn't really get much action, even though they had, you know, 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:07.160 arguably superior compression algorithms. Moving on, now we have a 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.480 trio here, and really it's just a an indication of 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:15.640 a whole series of things, which is kbps, mbps, and 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:20.920 g bps. These all referenced data throughput. Kbps is kill 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.240 a bits per second or thousands of bits per second, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:29.480 mbps is megabits per second or millions of bits per second, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:34.000 and g bps is gigabits per second or billions of 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.280 bits per second, and a bit is a single unit 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.400 of binary information. It's either a zero or a one, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:43.680 so you can think of it kind of like a 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:48.360 physical switch that has two positions off or on. Sometimes 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.880 people confuse a word like mega bit with the word megabyte, 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:57.160 but a byte is actually eight bits. To go into 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.240 why this is would actually require a pretty long story race, 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.600 so I'll save that for a different episode. But it 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:06.400 is good to know that megabit and megabyte are two 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.880 different things. So if you have a connection and your 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.719 connection speed is one hundred megabits per second for downloads, 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:15.720 and then you go to download a file that's one 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.520 hundred megabytes, you have a hundred megabits per second. That 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.320 doesn't mean that you could download a hundred megabyte file 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:26.000 in one second. That that's different. Also, we tend to 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.880 think of this as download speeds, Like a one hundred 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.520 megabit per second connection is a faster connection than a 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.640 one kill a bit per second connection, but it's slower 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.640 than a hundred gigabit per second, which told be phenomenal. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:45.319 But the way we're describing this as kind of inaccurate. 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.240 We use it this way, because it's how we experience 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.280 this by by figuring out how long it takes us 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:55.720 to transfer certain amounts of information over a connection. But really, 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.640 by and large, all the data traveling across networks is 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.320 moving at the same speed. I'm kind of oversimplifying, but 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:05.880 largely this is true. So in other words, if I 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.480 have a connection that is just fifty six kill a 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.400 bits per second, like I'm using a dial up modem 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.040 and I'm getting fifty six kill a bits per second download, 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.280 that's fifty six thousand bits per second. But you are 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:21.839 on a fiber connection, you're pulling down a gigabit per 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.600 second it's or one billion bits per second. While your 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.080 connection is better than mine, you're gonna get way more 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.600 data per second than I am. The actual speed of 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.679 the data traveling across these connections is pretty much the same. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.440 It's just that your connection allows for way more data 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.120 to travel at that speed. The mind does. This is 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.920 easier to understand with an analogy. So let's say we've 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.360 got a really big room full of people, and all 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.480 the people in this room can walk at the same 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.800 top speed, and we'll say it's just three miles that's 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.560 their top speed of walking. We've got three doorways out 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.800 of this room. One doorway is wide enough just to 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.000 let one person through at a time, Doroy number two 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.080 is wide enough to let two people out at a time, 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.680 and Doroy number three is super wide. It allows twenty 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.679 people to leave at a time, shoulder to shoulder. Now 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.079 that last doorway is going to allow way more people 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.240 to exit the room in a given amount of time 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.959 than the other two would, But all the people are 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.640 still walking at that same top speed of three miles 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.200 per hour. So when someone says they have a fast 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:33.599 Internet connection, you can be that person to say, well, actually, 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.559 you have an Internet connection with a high data throughput, 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.600 and then you can probably escort yourself out of the 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.959 area because no one will want to be around you. 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.880 Trust me, I know this from experience. Here in the 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:50.200 United States, the national benchmark for broadband speeds is twenty 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.080 five megabits per second. That's twenty five megabits per second 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.480 download speed coming from the Internet to your device. In 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.559 other words, then it's three megabit per second up that's 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.000 going from your device up to the Internet. So it's 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.480 it's not the same coming down as it is going up. 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.680 For most Internet connections, it's not, you know, symmetrical. In 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.400 other words, it's asymmetrical. Well, we got that standard for 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.520 that benchmark here in the United States back in two 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.760 thousand fifteen. Before that, the US definition of broadband was 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:28.760 embrace yourself for megabits per second down one megabit per 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.720 second up. And I am not joking, and that is 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.200 pretty low. So with the twenty five megabits down three 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.520 megabits up benchmark for broadband, we learned in the US 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.160 from census data back in twenty nineteen that twenty three 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.160 of people in the US lack a wired broadband connection. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.160 This has been the center of numerous political issues, including 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.960 the f c cs stance on whether or not it 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:57.479 has the authority to classify broadband internet as a utility 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.440 or something that is a basic right for all citizens. 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:05.320 That's something that is a It's an ongoing debate, and 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.840 it changes largely because the FCC itself changes every time 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.320 there's a change in an administration at the top of 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:18.800 US politics gets pretty complicated. Moving on, let's talk about 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.440 land and W. LAND So land or l a N 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.560 stands for local area network. This just refers to a 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:31.040 series of interconnected computer devices within a limited area. So 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.480 this could be as large as a college campus or 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.800 as small as a really cramped computer dorm room. It 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:39.920 doesn't all have to take place in colleges. But just 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.640 trust me on that last one. It's that counts as 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:47.200 a land. Now, the Internet is the network of networks, 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.120 but a land does not necessarily have to connect out 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.800 to the Internet. It can be self contained. So you 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.960 might create a land to work on stuff that probably 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.440 shouldn't be Internet accessible. That allows you to have what's 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.520 called an air gap, which means there's just no direct 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.440 link between that system and the Internet at large. Or 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.080 you might just have a land to facilitate a specific 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.520 type of computing. The example I always think about is 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.560 back in the nineties with the popularity of land parties 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.360 that referred to when geeks like me would go and 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.680 carry our computers with us to meet up with other geeks, 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.640 and then we would all link our computers together with 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:31.080 actual physical cables, or sometimes it would be gaming consoles 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.240 instead of computers, but you get what I'm saying, and 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.160 we'd link things together in order to play multiplayer games. 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:42.160 Because before internet broadband speeds made online gaming really feasible, 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.560 this was how we would you know the hoops we 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:47.600 jumped through in order to create a network to play 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:53.320 games like Descent and Duke Nukem three D against each other. Typically, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.640 it's also how e sports tend to work. They use 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.520 local area networks so that one team or player doesn't 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.280 have a distinct advantage or disadvantage due to a difference 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.560 in paying times. A ping, by the way, refers to 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.439 a signal scent from one computer to another, typically like 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.919 a server, and then the return signal comes back, and 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.960 it's a way of measuring the lag between those two 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.040 connection points. And you don't want one team to be 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.800 a disadvantage just because they're they're ping was worse, because 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.720 that doesn't indicate whether they were better players or not, 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.520 or poorer players are not. So local area networks are 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:34.720 a way to kind of eliminate that, or at least 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.400 reduce it. A w land or w L a N 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:43.840 is surprise, surprise, a wireless land. So this is a 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.080 network that does the same thing as a local area network, 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.560 only without the physical cables. And like a land, a 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.960 w land doesn't necessarily have to connect out to the 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.439 Internet as a whole. It can, but it doesn't have 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.480 to these days, broadband speeds allow for on line and 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.840 even cloud based gaming and computational uses without the need 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.600 for land parties, though some folks will still go and 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.040 do them, and to be honest, nothing really replaces the 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.879 experience of, you know, going to a land party and 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:16.840 playing with or against other people in the same physical location, 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.080 where the talking of smack can become an art form. 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:26.040 It's typically also a little less um objectively terrible than 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.600 what you would find with online chat that is like 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.639 the worst, but in person it tends to not quite 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.560 get that extreme though I guess one downside is that 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.879 you can't easily mute another player that that player is 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:40.879 saying next to you and annoying the heck out of you, 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:44.000 unless you know, you happen to have some duct tape handy. 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.439 By the way, always carry duct tape. We've got more 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.080 to go, but I feel like we've picked up the 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.080 pace a little bit and when we come back, will 0:18:51.080 --> 0:19:02.280 continue going down the alphabet, but first a quick break. Okay, 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.359 we're back, and now let's pick up with l c D. 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:10.119 This stands for liquid crystal display, which probably sounds a 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.480 little odd. After all, the general definition for a crystal 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.760 is that a crystal is a type of solid material 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:21.159 in which the constituent components are in a highly ordered structure, 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.520 like a lattice or scaffolding. So if you were to 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.919 take a piece of quartz or table salt and you 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.640 looked at it under a really powerful microscope, you would 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:35.360 see these this what looks like a fairly smooth surfaces 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.440 in fact made up of these repeated patterns of lattice 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:45.080 like structures that form the overall you know, solid substance. 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:50.040 But if crystal is a subset of solid materials, then 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.679 what the heck is a liquid crystal? How can you 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.760 have a liquid crystal? Well, we use the term liquid 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.920 crystals to describe stuff that as a state of matter 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.119 that has some elements of crystalline solid features and some 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.119 elements of a liquid material. So, in other words, you 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:10.840 might have a substance that, like a liquid, will take 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.679 on the shape of whatever container it's in, you know, 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.240 like a bowl of water. You wouldn't have a square 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:17.920 of water just sitting in the middle of a bowl, 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.399 though the water conforms to the shape of the bowl. 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.080 But if you were to look at that liquid under 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.160 a microscope, you would see that it's molecules are all 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:30.200 in a specific orientation, more like a crystalline structure. These 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.320 are really cool substances and they allow for all sorts 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:38.000 of neat applications. So with a liquid crystal display, these 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:42.280 crystals make images right, well, not exactly all right, So 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.119 there are liquid crystals that, when exposed to an electric current, 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:50.320 will change shape. There's a type called twisted pneumatics that 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.639 do this, and as the name suggests, these crystals have 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.840 a naturally twisted shape. But when you apply a current 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.280 to them, they will untwist to some degree, and the 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.680 degree to which they untwist depends upon the voltage of 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:09.960 that current. So by precisely controlling a voltage of a current, 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:13.800 you can then precisely control how much these liquid crystals 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.520 are able to untwist. And in addition, liquid crystals in 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.720 l c D s can transmit and change polarized light. Now, 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.000 a full discussion on what polarized light is and how 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:29.199 it works is well beyond this particular podcast episode, but 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.199 basically this means that through filters you can change the 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:34.720 orientation of light, and with l c D s you 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.880 can change which light is able to pass through into, 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.600 you know, a display or from a display to view, 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:44.240 and that determines what you see on that display. L 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.439 c D s require typically a backlight. There are some 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:51.520 that rely on reflective material, so it relies on light 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.520 from your environment hitting the display and then you see 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:59.600 the reflection. But with things like l c D monitors 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.199 and tell visions, we're talking about a backlit device, and 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.000 because of that, l c D s traditionally have limitations 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:09.919 when it comes to displaying a high contrast ratio. Contrast 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.280 refers to the difference between the brightest colors a display 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.879 can show versus the darkest colors it can show. And 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.960 because l c D monitors and televisions have a backlight, 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:24.159 that affects how dark you can get because there's always 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:28.199 a little bit of bleed through with light. The history 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:30.800 and tech of l c D s is truly fascinating stuff, 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:34.600 so I'll save that for a future episode. Next, we 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:37.680 have L E D and O l E D. Luckily, 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.280 we have some tech that frequently pops up when you're 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.080 talking about displays, and here we go, and L E 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.800 D is a light emitting diode and an O l 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.720 E D is an organic light emitting diode. So obviously 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:53.320 we need to define some stuff here, right, So first 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:56.760 of all, what in the blue blazes is a diode. 0:22:57.200 --> 0:22:59.880 It is a component in electronics that acts as kind 0:22:59.880 --> 0:23:03.600 of like a one way street for electrical current. So 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:07.200 a diode will allow current to pass in one direction, 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.880 but it will prevent it from going the opposite direction. 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:15.920 Diodes are one of the basic elements in circuitry and electronics, 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:18.920 and it's a type of semiconductor. And there's a lot 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.760 more to be said, but we can't spend all podcasts 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:26.080 talking about it. So an l e ED or light 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.960 emitting diode is a subset of diodes. So it allows 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:33.320 electricity or current rather to pass one way but not 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.320 the other. And as the name suggests, it's a diode 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:40.639 that emits light as current flows through it. Essentially, electrons 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:43.879 get pushed to higher energy levels, and when the electrons 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:47.160 are moving back down to their normal energy levels, they 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:49.800 have to release that excess energy and they do that 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:52.960 in the form of photons. You know, the particles of light. 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:56.879 L E d s don't need as much energy to 0:23:56.920 --> 0:24:00.119 produce light as other light sources. They are far are 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:04.040 more energy efficient than say, incandescent bulbs. They're even more 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:07.520 energy efficient than fluorescent lights. They also last a lot 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:10.879 longer than either of those two types of lights, so 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:14.439 LED light bulbs are great though they tend to be 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:19.359 pretty expensive, particularly compared to fluorescence and the old incandescence, 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:22.280