The internet is full of popular pictures that we all know about and use, but rarely can pronounce. Memes and Gifs are funny pictures with captions or movement that are used on blogs, tumblr pages, e-mails and other media to emphasize a point and make the reader laugh. Steve Wilhite, the creator of the gif, made an announcement at this year's Webby Awards that changed the way many people see his invention:

It’s pronounced “JIF” as in the “Jiffy” peanut butter or the “Jiffy Lube” car repair shop.

The first, and arguably most famous, gif Wilhite invented was the dancing baby. "It's been an incredibly enduring piece of technology," said David-Michel Davies, the executive director of The Webby Awards. "Even as bandwidth has expanded, it has been very exciting to see how much cultural cachet the format has gotten."

The Webby Awards, which honor excellence on the Internet and advancements in technology. Perhaps one day some of our students enrolled in computer programming training at Ashworth College will earn a Webby Award one day. 

Were you saying "gif" correctly? Did you watch the award ceremony?

Advancements in technology can be found in aspects of our everyday lives, but sometimes they're in places you wouldn't expect. Coca-Cola Park, home of the Leighigh Valley IronPigs baesball team, men can find the latest technology right there by the urinals. The stadium has installed touch-free games that are activated when the man begins using the urinal. The object of the game is to ski down a mountainside and the gamer's flow decides which direction the skiier will go. For example, in order to move left, the man urinates left and so on.

In a statement put out by the company, UK based Captive Media, this type of technology is already found at several bars, airports and restaurants in Europe.  “Currently the majority of Captive Media’s revenues come from sales of the units,” explains the release, “but the company forecast their biggest revenue stream will come from brands advertising on their screens.”

Those who have taken basic electronics courses, like those offered at Ashworth College, know the importance and challenges of creating technology controlled by things other than hands.

What do you think of this urinal gaming system?

The great thing about the technology industry is the fast pace that everything changes.  Just when one company comes out with a new phone or a faster computer, the rival company creates one that blows their competition out of the water.  People in technology careers are always trying to out-do each other, be more creative than the next, and push the envelope in every way possible.

Right now especially, technology companies are rolling out their latest and greatest tecnhological masterpieces so they're ready by Black Friday and Christmas.  Here are some things you can look forward to.

• Apple is rolling out the iPad mini which should be out in late October.  It's rumored to have the same aluminum body and lightening charger as the iPhone 5 but because of Apple's secrecy, these are just unconfirmed rumors.
• Windows 8 will finally be launched on October 26.  Not only that, but Windows is also launching their own tablet, called Surface, that same day.  
• Microsoft isn't waiting to be left out and their new phone, currenltly Windows Phone 8, is coming on October 29.  It's rumored to have homescreen customization options and new maps.
• The new Google Nexus phone will also be released in October.  Google and LG are working together on this phone so it will be similar to the Optiums G, but it will run on Android 4.2.

Are you excited for any of these?

Just like we put our sports heroes and rock and rollers up on a pedastal, there is another hall of fame for the less human variety.  The robot hall of fame looks to four categories of robots that hold a special place in our hearts.  Some of these robots may only be known to those in information technology careers, but others the public knows on a first name basis. This year, visitors to the museum's website can pick who they think should be inducted.

• Education and Consumer
  • Aldebaran Robotics' NAO, a 22-inch-tall humanoid that is used worldwide in education;
  • iRobot's Create, a programmable robot based on the company's popular robotic vacuum cleaner, Roomba;
  • VEX Robotics Design System, a kit for designing and building robots that is widely used in the classroom and competitions.
• Entertainment
  
  • WALL-E, the garbage-collector robot who's the hero of Pixar's 2008 animated sci-fi film of the same name;
  • Johnny 5, a prototype military robot that learns to embrace life in the 1986 science-fiction comedy "Short Circuit";
  • Rosie, a maid robot with motherly qualities that took care of a human family on "The Jetsons," a Hanna-Barbera animated sitcom first broadcast on ABC in 1962.
• Industrial and Service
  • iRobot's PackBot, which performs bomb disposal and other dangerous assignments for the U.S. military;
  • Amazon-owned Kiva System's autonomous warehouse robots, which speed the processing of customer orders;
  • Jason, a remotely operated undersea vehicle designed and built by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which has explored hydrothermal vents in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
• Research
  
  • BigDog, a four-legged robot the size of a small mule, which was developed by Boston Dynamics for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to maneuver with heavy loads over rough terrain;
  • PR2, a two-armed robot built by Willow Garage that can navigate human environments and has the dexterity to grasp and manipulate objects;
  • Robonaut, a dexterous, two-armed robot developed by NASA's Johnson Space Center to help humans work in space; the latest version, Robonaut 2, was launched to the International Space Station in February 2011.

Who would you vote for?

Since the internet became popular, almost every webpage has ended with .com, .edu, or .org.  Now, some sites are looking to change it up and create new suffixes - and Google wants to be first in line.  Google wants to grab not only the up and coming popular suffixes, but get some fun ones like .lol as well. According to CNN, "Google revealed some of the gTLDs it's applied for -- .google, .youtube., .docs and .lol -- in a blog post published on Thursday. The company said last month that it had applied for some new domains, but it didn't go into specifics at that time."

Adding suffixes for brand names is no easy task.  Some businesses say having a personal suffix will help ensure their brands legitimacy.  For example, HSBC could tell customers that a site isn't legitimate unless it ends in .hsbc.  This will also help others to know a site is secure and official.  Others, however, think having these types of sites could be confusing.  Can you imagine typing www.cnn.cnn in your browser?

As a computer networking student, what do you think?

Google has taken over the smart phone, the search engine, and now the eyeglass market.  This lens free eyewear has a small screen just to the side of your right eye.  Google's "project glass" allow's the wearer to see their favorite websites, check e-mail, watch videos and so much more. 

ABC News said, "Instead of peering into smart phone screens to learn or communicate, the Internet giant imagines a future where people wear hipster bifocal frames (with or without prescription glass) containing a built in camera, speaker, microphone and tiny monitor. According to the conceptual video accompanying the design photos, you might be able to check the weather forecast by simply gazing at the sky, get directions by following a virtual path or see the floating face of a friend the moment they ring your cell."

This new technology is being heralded as the future by some, but others are worried where this information technology could take us.  They believe we have enough issues with texting and driving, so giving people a way to have more distractions right in their line of vision is dangerous.

What do you think?

Just as the world is working to get caught up on 4G speed, the 5G wave is already rolling in.  In order to clear up some traffic on the 4G network, technologically savvy people have been working to update the system as quickly and correctly as possible for the new wave of technologies that are coming in.  In fact, CNN predicts that by 2020, industry analysts say the amount of cellular traffic created by smartphones and tablets will be dwarfed by the data generated from the world of connected "things." Shoes, watches, appliances, cars, thermostats will all be on the network.

Each generation of network technology has enabled a new set of features: 2G was about voice, 3G was about data and 4G is about video. 5G, Sizer predicts, will be about intelligent networks that can handle billions of connected devices while remaining stable and operational.

When it comes to information technology, are you excited to see what 5G can do?

You always hear about technology doing bigger and better things: from helping a man land on the moon to beating a human in jeapordy.  Now a new machine has come along that serves an entertainment, and awe inspiring, purpose.  The CubeStormer II broke the world's record for fastest time to solve a rubic's cube: 5.3 seconds.  What's the most interesting about this machine is that it's powered by an android smartphone. 

The youtube channel describes it as: "The app uses the phone's camera to capture images of each face of the Rubik's Cube which it processes to determine the scrambled colours. The solution is found using an advanced two-phase algorithm, originally developed for Speedcuber, enhanced to be multi-threaded to make effective use of the smartphone's dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.2GHz processor. The software finds an efficient solution to the puzzle which is optimised specifically for the capabilities of the four-grip mechanism. The app communicates via Bluetooth with software running on the ARM microprocessors in the LEGO NXT Intelligent Bricks which controls the motors driving the robot. During the physical solve, the app uses OpenGL ES on the phone's ARM Mali-400 MP GPU to display a graphical version of the cube being solved in real time."

What do you think?

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