Technical mishaps

Technology is a beautiful thing. I was working at the 930 club last night and got to see some pretty awesome technology in action. From wireless communication via walkie talkie, to lighting fixtures and blasters and wazoos, when added up, all of the tools and gadgets made the show from a musical experience into a visual one as well. Perception struck me strongly though. Normally I would be one of the crazed fans in the crowd who can't wait for their favorite band to come on stage, but this time I was one of the guys who had built that stage and hung those lights. I looked at the performance and was glad that everything I assembled worked properly and that the show was going according to plan. The band's performance was an afterthought. I did notice though that one of the guitarists was using a ridiculous new technology. He had a bluetooth ring on. This ring, when waved around, sent data to his guitar to simulate a whammy bar(to get the notes to wobble). So instead of having to stop his playing to grab a bar that might ruin his flow, he was able to make awesome hand gestures and have his guitar virtually follow his expression. This is a step towards a new era of virtual music, where people are going to be able to play not just the instrument, but add new intricacies with their bodies that will bring live music to new heights.

the internet highway has a few potholes

Ever stop to think about what exactly makes up the internet? Data lines connecting millions of computers and servers. As hard as ISP's might try, some of these servers break down or get overloaded and parts of the internet stop working. This is a problem I face sometimes when i watch episodes of scrubs on tweekerville.com. The website is hosted on mid-bandwith servers so during high traffic hours, the server caps and locks out new users.
Now imagine this problem being applied to the third world. Not only are they at a technological disadvantage due to funding and location, but there aren't any tech guys waiting around to get their gear back up and running. When there is one computer to a town for email, if that computer goes down, the entire town is suddenly in the dark, and most likely, when that computer is in use the majority of the towns phone line capacity is being held up too. Infrastructure was brought up as a serious issue in these developing nations. Now they don't have a complete lack of infrastructure, but people are so worried about getting them online, they skip past more important matters, like how is that computer going to connect? will it stay running? these are all factors that a engineer would have to take into account and more when trying to set up information streams to new parts of the world. To "build out" the internet, it takes time and money that not many people are currently putting forth. Sucks for them. While we deal with crashed servers and computer viruses, they just deal with...well...a complete lack of internet. If they've never had it, they cant miss it, so no worries.