Digital Library Futuristics: Fill & Download for Free

AT&T was able to make those eerily accurate predictions because they were extrapolating from technologies that existed at the time, or they were already working on.A press release from September 1994, which I uncovered on Wayback Machine’s archive of the AT&T website, has these telling paragraphs:Featuring the voice of actor Tom Selleck, the YOU WILL campaign takes a whimsical look into the near-future when information technologies now being developed at AT&T; will soon enhance the way people work, live and play…The various capabilities in the YOU WILL campaign are based on actual technologies under development by AT&T. (Emphasis mine)The award-winning commercials were directed by David Fincher, who would later earn Hollywood glory (and two Oscar nominations) with films like The Social Network, Seven, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Fight Club.The agency behind the campaign was New York-based N.W. Ayer & Son, which had previously created the memorable Reach Out & Touch Someone ads for AT&T.For those unfamiliar with the 1993/94 You Will campaign, each of the commercials opens with Selleck asking, “Have you ever…”, then presenting one or more futuristic scenarios, before wrapping up with: “You will. And the company that will bring it you—AT&T.”Here’s a montage of most of those ads:Exactly how good was AT&T’s crystal-ball gazing? There were a total of 20 predictions made, and I thought it might be interesting to research where the technology stood at the time, to put the forecasts in perspective:Have you ever opened doors with the sound of your voice? Decades before Siri arrived on the scene, IBM was already a pioneer when it came to speech recognition technology. In 1962, it developed Shoebox, a machine that could do simple math calculations via voice commands. By the mid-1980s, it successfully demonstrated a voice-activated typewriter christened Tangora, where each user had to individually train the typewriter to recognize his or her voice. A voice-activated door—which would only require a single word to be recognized—would be trivial in comparison, and cost was likely a key reason that it didn’t already exist in 1993.Have you ever carried your medical history in your wallet? Was this a reference to healthcare smart cards? The technology likely existed or was highly advanced at the time, since Spain has had them since 1995. Or was this a reference to USB-like storage devices? If so, the physical size of media was already rapidly shrinking, so an easy prediction, really. And good luck with circumventing privacy laws in the latter instance.Have you ever tucked your baby in from a phone booth? The videophone was a recycled idea that AT&T first demonstrated at the New York World Fair in 1964. It even launched the Picturephone as a consumer service, before lack of interest forced it to pull the plug in 1968.Have you ever attended a meeting in your bare feet? AT&T repurposed its Picturephone as a video conferencing tool in the early 1970s, so this prediction again was a no-brainer. Long before Skype made it to desktop computers in 2003, the idea both existed and was in use, even if the method of delivery was different.Have you ever watched the movie you wanted to, the minute you wanted to? Sounds like an amazing prediction of video-on-demand services like Netflix which began streaming only in 2007. Slightly less amazing when you learn that GTE was already experimenting with VOD in 1990 (using AT&T components!), and at least seven companies had launched video-on-demand trials over telephone and cable lines by 1993.Have you ever learned special things, from far away places? Did AT&T read the tea leaves correctly with online education? Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that the Electronic University Network launched its first online course in 1986…seven years before the AT&T ads ran.Have you ever had a classmate who was thousands of miles away? This is essentially a combination of #6 (online classroom) and #3 (video chat), so credit AT&T for putting the two together, but again, the tech already existed.Have you ever paid a toll without slowing down? Negative marks to AT&T on this one, because not only does the commercial suggest we’d be swiping a credit card in the car as we enter a toll route, electronic toll collection using transponders similar to today already existed in Europe when the commercials ran. Norway launched them in 1986, and the EZ-Pass debuted in the U.S. before 1993.Have you ever bought concert tickets from a cash machine? Given the popularity of ATMs at the time, a seemingly safe bet to predict that the functionality of those machines would be expanded. Sadly, AT&T hit a wrong note with this call. And it should be noted that Ticketmaster was already innovating in this space before the commercials ran.Have you ever renewed your driver’s license at a cash machine? Another broadening of use foreseen for ATMs, and again AT&T got it wrong. Dedicated kiosks for drivers license renewals did become a thing, but that technology—a self-service kiosk with an internet connection—had already been displayed at a Comdex trade show in 1991.Have you ever fixed your car with a television? Live assistance via TV—as shown in the AT&T commercial—hasn’t yet happened, although you could stretch it to mean videoconferencing (see #4). And at least one auto manufacturer (Chevy) offered maintenance manuals on videotape at the time.Have you ever had an assistant who lived in your computer? Speech recognition technology has been a work in progress since the 1960s (see #1), and building smart assistants that lived in your computer was something that IBM and Microsoft (among others) were working on in the early 1990s. Even so, props to AT&T for brilliantly visualizing what a future Siri would look like.Have you ever conducted business in a language you don't understand? This requires both speech recognition and translation, and is one prediction where AT&T actually scores. The closest device match here might well be Pixel Buds, which Google unveiled only as recently as October this year.Have you ever kept an eye on your home when you’re not at home? X10, which allows for remote control of home appliances and devices, has been around since 1975. By the 1980s, you could buy X10 modules at a Radio Shack or Sears and pair it with a remote Mac or PC. So the tech definitely existed, even if it has come a long way since.Have you ever checked out at the supermarket, a whole cart at a time? The beauty of RFID tags is that they can be microscopic, they can be read hundreds at a time (unlike bar codes), and are machine-readable even when covered by other objects. Which sounds exactly like the technology needed for this AT&T prediction to come true. Was RFID around when the commercials were aired? Yes, it turns out…the tech dates back to World War II, and IBM even ran some pilots with Walmart in the early Nineties.Have you ever put your heads together, when you're not together? Although this specifically relates to remote teamwork in healthcare in the commercial, we’re still talking videoconferencing. See #4.Have you ever gotten a phone call, on your wrist? Score one for AT&T here. The tech that existed at the time (Timex Datalink) allowed wireless data transfer with a computer, but calling-enabled smartwatches would only arrive in 2011.Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away? Long before Google Books and its Library Project, there were several efforts made to digitize library collections. Project Gutenberg, which dates back to 1971, initially had volunteers entering text manually before scanning and OCR technology matured in 1989.Have you ever crossed the country without stopping to ask directions? GPS navigation systems were already available at the time, albeit only to the U.S. military. (President Clinton authorized it for civilian use in 1996). And Automap, a non-satellite based mapping and routing software, was available to consumers even in the early Nineties.Have you ever sent a fax from the beach? Heard of the IBM Simon? Widely regarded as the world’s first smartphone, it had a stylus, an electronic notepad…and could send and receive faxes. It was debuted at the Comdex computer trade show in 1992, although it only went on sale in 1994.So, bottom line:AT&T’s commercials were brilliant in conceptualizing what the various devices might look like when launched, but as far as predictions go? Despite the buzz on Reddit and social media, not quite in the Arthur C. Clarke league.Sadly for the telecom giant, the one prediction it made in all of its commercials was the one that it got completely wrong. The company that brought all those devices to you…was not AT&T.Edited to add: Some fascinating insights in the comments by Glen Kaiser, who was actually involved with running the AT&T campaign, and who I am hoping will add an answer about the making of the commercials.

I struggle with the same question all the time. And especially after I watched this movie:Movie: The Matrix (1999)See these two clips:After watching The Matrix as a kid in 1999 (yes I know kids weren't supposed to be able to watch it), I've always wanted to have that ability to download information into my skull and learn kung fu in all of 30 seconds. But...Well, let me tell you... the technology is here. And we've been using it for a few hundred years now. And in some cultures, much longer.Are YOU ready to get PLUGGED IN to the training program?Sit back in your chair, because we're going to take a wild ride into the world of:Wait, what is that? Let's zoom in...Source: A Futuristic Digital Library Created With Colorful LED Books (I literally just googled 'futuristic book')Books.Okay, so not quite in 30 seconds but this is the best we can do so far. A few reasons why reading books are the optimal way to learn things:You Are Inclined to FinishIf you're halfway through a book, you're not going to want to stop. The feeling you get when you've finished a whole book is way better than simply leaving it half-read. And just think about how bad it looks to other people. It's like running a marathon and then quitting halfway. No one wants to be that guy, that's why everyone wants to finish even if it takes them a long time.You Can Read FastYes, it's true that you'll learn and retain the most while doing something, but the question asks for the fastest way to learn. And while doing something yourself may be the best way to learn, it is certainly not the fastest.What about audio books and lectures?Don't even get me started about listening to lectures, it's way too slow when you compare it to reading. At least with reading, you can improve your reading speed with practice. But if you are listening, then you are at the mercy of the speaker.To give you a better idea, the Wikipedia page on Words Per Minute (WPM) gives us a few well-sourced metrics. Audio books are typically around 150-160 WPM, slide presentations are typically slower than this. Contrast this with reading where the average adult reads at 250 to 300 WPM, you are learning a lot faster.You Can Compartmentalize Your LearningThis is especially important when you want to learn many things. Having that one physical book gives you a nice "start" and "end" to your learning of a topic. You're able to say "okay, I've finished learning about <topic> to the extent set out by this book." You have a very clear sense of what you know, and you can quickly represent it to other people as well. As an added bonus, after you have finished a book on a particular topic, your knowledge can now be referenced simply by flipping open that book again.SPEED UP THAT LEARNINGI hope the above convinces you. We're still working on that Matrix technology, but this is the closest we've gotten so far. Oh wait, there's actually something that can speed up that learning!I want to recommend a tool that can allow you to get very good at learning fast (and learning well) from books. It's titled How to Read a Book. Reading this book has taught me about the structure of books, and how to get the most out of it within the shortest amount of time. It's not about speed reading, although the book does address it. It's about efficiently and fully getting the most out of any kind of literature.Give it a read, it's a great book.

Let’s see the breathtaking pictures of tremendously powerful Data centers as they are the backbone of current technological world.Let me give some facts along with astonishing pictures of technological wonders that humans have managed to achieve.Data centers - Server Farms is a group of computer servers with state of art in technological marvel usually organized to accomplish server needs far beyond the capability of any single machine.Google Oregon data center pictured above. Source: google.comCloser view of the backup tapes in data center tape library. Each tape has a unique barcode so our robotic system can locate the right one.[1]Looks right out of Matrix movie, huh? How cool would it be to walk in that room? Braingasms intensifies.Let’s take another beautiful picture of Facebook’s data centers as it is currently the largest social network. It has over 1 Billion active users i.e., 1/6th of world’s total population with a staggering 2.01 Billion monthly accounts.Inside Facebook Data center by Digital Realty.[2]Facebook users have uploaded more than 250 billion photos to the site, and currently averages 350 million uploads per day, according to the white paper.Outside view of facebook data center in Lulea, Sweden.[3] Looks incredibly futuristic and otherworldly.The data room at Facebook’s ‘Node Pole’ in Luleå in Arctic circle, which uses outside air for cooling instead of air conditioning. Photograph: David Levene for The Guardian.Massive fans for controlled heat dissipation.Another fact: All the server rooms mostly look blue in color. It indicates the smooth function and health of servers. If the server’s go RED, be scared. Be very scared!Server rooms in Digital Realty.Server farms are mostly located in frozen zones to take advantage of chill temperatures over there.Read more: Facts and Stats of World’s largest data centersTill then, Cheerio! - Saravanan SiddeswaranFootnotes[1] Where the Internet Lives: Google Reveals Its Top-Secret Data Centers[2] http://www.investors.com/news/technology/facebook-data-center-capex-a-plus-for-digital-realty-dupont-fabros/[3] Hell, high water, and ice: Facebook's Dublin data center choices