“Less than Killer Apps” and Non Earth Shattering Technologies

It’s perhaps easy to point out the “killer apps” and technologies that have caused major changes to our lives, but I’m not convinced that the small continuous improvements from “less than killer apps” and non earth shattering or non disruptive technologies are any less important.

There are many applications of technology we typically overlook that make a difference in our lives. Not obvious things like email, the Internet, laptaps, etc., but ones less obvious and usually ignored that improve our lives.

For example, in my life the following make a difference:

DVD players – an “educational” video settled my 2 year old down so I could start writing this. I know they’re not “new” – I first encountered them when they were all in rage in Indonesia close to a decade ago, but they’re new in my household. I use the DVD player myself as well as using it to occupy children.

Actually we have a whole slew of “smart toys” the children love. Hopefully they are teaching the children things, as well as amusing and occupying their time so my wife and I can get things done!

There is fresh snow on the ground in New Hampshire as I write this, and the beginning of snow and ice season signals a substantial increase in auto accidents. I’m convinced that antilock brakes reduce vehicle accidents substantially. When accidents do occur, relatively new safety enhancements such as airbags absolutely reduce the rate of injury and death.

A couple of additional high-tech improvements in my wife’s new minivan are well worth mentioning as well. The front LCD displays a map and shows where the van currently is and which direction it’s traveling in real time. It’s not perfect, for example it can’t find my street, but it’s nice not having to break out a map every time we go somewhere new. It’s also great for not missing turns – something I’m very good at doing when driving even common routes.

That same LCD displays the area behind the car when backing up. With 2+ kids and a dog, the van is often overloaded to the point of reducing rear visibility, and we are always driving around areas where little kids are playing making it even more valuable.

I love my $15 digital watch. I have a couple of nice watches, but I like this cheapie better for three very significant reasons:
1) It’s cheap. I lose and abuse watches and don’t need to worry with this watch.
2) The display lights up with a simple push of a button. I use this feature at least a couple of times every night when I wake up, or perhaps a fussing child wakes me up, and I wonder what time it is.
3) The built in alarm is great! It usually serves as my primary alarm, and it can usually wake me up without waking up my wife and any child that may have migrated to the bed overnight. When I travel for work, it serves as a backup alarm – hotels do sometimes forget wakeup calls.

I’m a coffee addict – addict is unfortunately the right word, but as far as addictions go it’s not a bad one. When I absolutely positively must wake up early and know I won’t want to, for example when I have an important morning meeting after flying in late or staying up half the night dealing with Hong Kong or after a 3AM phone call with Belgium, I wake up to the smell of fresh coffee. My coffee maker has a built in timer. Just the smell of the fresh coffee makes all the difference in the world. It might sound foolish, but it does make a difference to me and that’s all that matters.

I just spent a weekend at a friend’s place way up in northern Maine. He has an elaborate commercial hunting and fishing camp with over a dozen buildings located 105 miles down dirt roads. It was quaint waking up several times a night to add wood to the stove and I didn’t mind, but I wouldn’t want to do that regularly. Modern heating is a great thing in cold climates just like air conditioning is considered a necessity by many living in hot climates.

Many of us are involved in sports and hobbies and they can add a lot to our lives. Quite a few of these have changed or evolved for the better through the application of technology.

My friend George is a serious endurance athlete. He insists that his heart rate monitor has made substantial improvements in his training. And unless you want to have an hour plus conversation, don’t bring up the subject of improvements to sneakers, or bikes or much of anything else. Actually he can talk about technical improvements to bikes for an entire weekend – I’ve heard him do it!

I’m an ardent saltwater fly fisherman. Flyrods and reels have been lighter and much easier to use over the previous couple of decades. I can fish longer without getting tired or sore. Some new synthetic materials have great applications in making flies as well as producing better performing flylines. And insect repellent and suntan lotion are wonderful innovations as well!

I’m also involved in competitive ham radio – yes, there is such a thing. Although I enormously enjoy the non high-tech parts, including using tractors, chainsaws, cement mixers, climbing belts, handling 500+ lb spools of cable etc. (every competitive station has a major investment in antennas and supporting towers), the amount of technology involved is amazing. Instead of spending about a minute throwing multiple switches and then “tuning” the radio and amplifier when switching bands, everything is automated. I just switch bands, and then filters, antennas, amplifiers, logging software, etc. automatically follow my move. My antenna rotators sitting on top of my towers are all microprocessor controlled and I can just tell them where to point and they move automatically. I can predict with reasonable reliability when I’ll be able to talk to specific parts of the world using propagation prediction software. I am connected to an Internet Protocol based radio frequency multicast network known as “Packet Radio” which tells me which stations are on the air and on what frequencies. Computer modeling has improved antenna design and can even tell me what specific antenna heights are optimal at my location.
The amount of technology in the station is astounding and it does make the station easier to use and increase its performance significantly.

Even bowling has been improved significantly by technology – or so I’m told.

Information Technology and other technology has brought a lot of small incremental improvements to our lives. We usually don’t think about these changes, and some of them are practically invisible like antilock brakes and incremental improvements in supply chain management that bring us lower prices, but their net sum is very significant. I’ll certainly be happy when I go to bed tonight that I won’t have to wake up a few times to throw wood in the fire.