Portal:Technology
The Technology Portal
Technology ("science of craft", from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia) is the sum of any techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to allow for operation without detailed knowledge of their workings. Systems (e.g. machines) applying technology by taking an input, changing it according to the system's use, and then producing an outcome are referred to as technology systems or technological systems.
The simplest form of technology is the development and use of basic tools. The prehistoric invention of shaped stone tools followed by the discovery of how to control fire increased sources of food. The later Neolithic Revolution extended this, and quadrupled the sustenance available from a territory. The invention of the wheel helped humans to travel in and control their environment. (Full article...)
Selected articles
State Route 510 (SR 510) is a state highway in Thurston County, Washington. The 13 miles (20.9 km) long highway extends southeast from an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) in Lacey to SR 507 in Yelm. SR 510 roughly parallels the Nisqually River, the border between Thurston and Pierce counties, between the Fort Lewis and Nisqually Indian Community area to Yelm.
The roadway was built by 1916 as a connector from Saint Clair Lake to the Northern Pacific Railway station in Yelm and was designated as Secondary State Highway 5I (SSH 5I) in 1937. The original route of SSH 5I ran from Tumwater east to Yelm, following the present-day Yelm Highway. In 1959, the highway was realigned to serve a new freeway, later I-5, in Lacey; SSH 5I was replaced in the 1964 highway renumbering by SR 510. The Yelm-Tenino Trail was built over the Northern Pacific line in 1993 and a bypass is being constructed around Yelm. (Full article...)
The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, an electrical telegraph developed a few years earlier in collaboration with Charles Wheatstone. The system had been taken up by several railway companies for signalling purposes, but in forming the company Cooke intended to open up the technology to the public at large.
The ETC had a monopoly of electrical telegraphy until the formation of the Magnetic Telegraph Company (commonly called the Magnetic) who used a different system which did not infringe the ETC's patents. The Magnetic became the chief rival of the ETC and the two of them dominated the market even after further companies entered the field. (Full article...)
Maryland Route 10 (MD 10) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as the Arundel Expressway, the highway runs 7.17 miles (11.54 km) from MD 2 in Pasadena north to Interstate 695 (I-695) near Glen Burnie. MD 10 is a four- to six-lane freeway that serves as a bypass of MD 2 through Pasadena and Glen Burnie in northeastern Anne Arundel County. The Arundel Expressway was planned as a Baltimore–Annapolis freeway to provide relief to MD 2 between the cities as early as the 1950s. However, the portion of MD 10 south of Pasadena was removed from state plans when the I-97 corridor was chosen for the intercity freeway in the 1970s. MD 10 was constructed from I-695 to MD 710 in the early 1970s and continued south to MD 648 in the late 1970s. The freeway was extended south to MD 100 and completed to MD 2 in the late 1980s and early 1990s, respectively. (Full article...)- Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work at space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.
Blade Runner initially underperformed in North American theaters and polarized critics; some praised its thematic complexity and visuals, while others critiqued its slow pacing and lack of action. It later became an acclaimed cult film regarded as one of the all-time best science fiction films. Hailed for its production design depicting a decaying future, Blade Runner is a leading example of neo-noir cinema. The film's soundtrack, composed by Vangelis, was nominated in 1982 for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe as best original score. (Full article...)
Alberta Provincial Highway No. 4, commonly referred to as Highway 4, is a 103-kilometre (64 mi) highway in southern Alberta, Canada that connects Highway 3 in Lethbridge to Interstate 15 in Montana. The highway was designated in 1999 as the First Special Service Force Memorial Highway in honour of elite soldiers who travelled to Helena, Montana for training before World War II. The highway continues into the United States retaining that name.
It begins in Coutts at Alberta's busiest border crossing, winding north through gentle rolling hills and farmlands in the south of the province. It bypasses Milk River, Warner and Stirling before reaching Lethbridge where it becomes 43 Street and ends at Crowsnest Trail on the east side of the city. In 1995, it was designated as part of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Canada to Mexico and the United States, including the major cities of Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego which lie on Interstate 15. (Full article...)
Xu Shunshou (Chinese: 徐舜寿; pinyin: Xú Shùnshòu; Wade–Giles: Hsü Shun-shou; 21 August 1917 – 6 January 1968) was a Chinese aircraft designer and a founder of the aircraft manufacturing industry in the People's Republic of China. He was the founding director of the PRC's first aircraft design organization (later the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute), where he oversaw the development of the Shenyang JJ-1, the first jet aircraft designed in China. He trained many of the country's top aircraft designers and also participated in the design of the Nanchang CJ-6 trainer, the Nanchang Q-5 jet attack aircraft, and the Xian H-6 bomber. He was severely persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and died at the age of 50. (Full article...)
The CQC-6 (Close Quarters Combat — Six) or Viper Six is a handmade tactical folding knife with a tantō blade manufactured by knifemaker Ernest Emerson. Although initially reported as the sixth design in an evolution of fighting knives and the first model in the lineup of Emerson's Specwar Custom Knives, Emerson later revealed that the knife was named for SEAL Team Six. It has a chisel-ground blade of ATS-34 or 154CM stainless steel and a handle made of titanium and linen micarta. The CQC-6 is credited as the knife that popularized the concept of the tactical folding knife. (Full article...)
Selected picture
Image credit: Lewis HineA structural worker bolts beams on the framework during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. The 1,250-foot (380 m) building opened on May 1, 1931, at the time the tallest building in the world, overtaking the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), which had just been completed the year before. The addition of a pinnacle and antennas later increased its overall height to 1,472 feet (449 m).
Photograph: Raimond SpekkingBucket-wheel excavators (BWEs) are heavy equipment used in surface mining. The primary function of a BWE is to act as a continuous digging machine in large-scale open pit mining operations. These BWEs were photographed at the Garzweiler surface mine in Germany.
Credit: Mike McGregorThe OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
Photograph: MyrabellaThe Nice tramway crossing Place Garibaldi, Nice, where it lowers its pantograph and is powered by batteries. This 8.7-kilometre (5.4 mi), single-line tramway is operated by Veolia Transdev. It opened on 24 November 2007, replacing bus lines 1, 2, 5 and 18.
Photograph: UberprutserA windmill is a mill that converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Traditional windmills were often used to mill grain, pump water, or both. Most modern windmills take the form of wind turbines used to generate electricity, or windpumps used to pump water, either for land drainage or to extract groundwater.
Here, the smock mill Goliath is viewed in front of the wind farm Growind in Eemshaven in the Netherlands.
Photograph: Evan AmosThe Apple Bandai Pippin is a multimedia technology console designed by Apple Computer based on the Apple Pippin platform, and produced by Bandai. Only 100,000 of the consoles were produced between its 1996 release and 1997 discontinuation. The Bandai Pippin was intended to create an inexpensive computer aimed mostly at playing CD-based multimedia software, especially games, but also functioning as a thin client.
Photograph: Donald Y TongBurj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and currently the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). It was designed to be the centerpiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development known as Downtown Dubai. Construction took over five years, and the skyscraper was officially opened in January 2010.- A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. The wheel is one of the main components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines.
Photo credit: Gretar ÍvarssonThe Nesjavellir geothermal power plant, located near Þingvellir, Iceland is the largest of five such plants in the country. Because of the high concentration of volcanoes in Iceland, geothermal energy is so inexpensive that in the wintertime, some pavements in Reykjavík and Akureyri are heated.
Photo: Evan AmosThe Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced in 1982 by Commodore International. Its low retail price and easy availability led to the system becoming the market leader for three years. It remains the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.
Photo: Sergey KrivchikovThe Sukhoi Su-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat supermanoeuverable fighter aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions. Its primary users are Russia, India, China, Venezuela, and Malaysia.
Credit: Berthold WernerA telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that converts sound, typically the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables or other transmission media over long distances through satellite.
Diagram: H Padleckas and Ju gatsu mikkaA diagram showing a side and underside view of an 18-wheeler semi-trailer truck with an enclosed cargo space. The underside view shows the arrangement of the wheels, and in blue, the axles, drive shaft, and differentials.
The numbered parts are:
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000010-QINU`"'
#tractor unit
#semi-trailer (detachable)
#engine compartment
#cabin
#sleeper (not present in all trucks)
#air dam
#fuel tanks
#fifth-wheel coupling
#enclosed cargo space
#landing gear (legs for when semi-trailer is detached)
#tandem axles
Diagram: Jeff Dahl
A billet of enriched uranium, which is uranium where the percent composition of uranium-235 (235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Enriched uranium is a critical component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons.
A woman using a Hollerith pantograph, a machine developed by Herman Hollerith for the punching of cards, providing data which could then be processed. Such tools were used in the 1890 United States Census, the first time the country's census was tabulated by machine.
Photograph: Katsuhiko Tokunaga/SuperJet InternationalThe Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a modern fly-by-wire twin-engine regional jet with 8 to 108 passenger seats. Development began in 2000; the aircraft had its maiden flight on 19 May 2008 and entered commercial service on 21 April 2011. This aircraft is seen flying off the coast of Italy near Sanremo.- An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more conductors suspended by towers or utility poles.
Photo: IkiwanerAn Agusta A109 rescue helicopter leaves Mount Pilatus, near Lucerne, Switzerland, after recovering a patient. Later renamed AgustaWestland AW109, the A109 is a helicopter manufactured by Agusta (now AgustaWestland) of Italy. It is a light-weight, twin-engine, eight-seat multi-purpose craft.
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Did you know...
- ... that technology developed for use in inkjet printers helped make the automated white blood cell differential, a common blood test, possible?
- ... that minimalist city-building game Islanders deliberately omits features such as resource accumulation and technology research in order to focus on the core mechanic of building placement?
- ... that Romanian neuroscientist Viviana Gradinaru was part of the research team from Caltech that found that serotonin is necessary for sleep in zebrafish and mice?
- ... that XTC's Oranges & Lemons, released 30 years ago today, reinterpreted 1960s psychedelic music styles using 1980s instrumentation and technology?
- ... that Research Policy is regarded as the leading journal in the field of innovation studies?
- ... that when Chorus Systèmes SA was founded in 1986, French technology start-up companies were rare?
Top 10 WikiProject Technology Popular articles of the month
YouTube is an American online video sharing and social media platform owned by Google. It was launched in February 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is the second most visited website, with more than one billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. , videos were being uploaded at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute. (Full article...)
Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Five companies in the American information technology industry, along with Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. (Full article...)
Musk at the Royal Society admissions day in London, 2018
Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is an entrepreneur and business magnate. He is the founder, CEO and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; early stage investor, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI. A centibillionaire, Musk is one of the richest people in the world. (Full article...)
Microsoft Windows, commonly referred to as Windows, is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families, all of which are developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. Active Microsoft Windows families include Windows NT and Windows IoT; these may encompass subfamilies, (e.g. Windows Server or Windows Embedded Compact) (Windows CE). Defunct Microsoft Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. (Full article...)
Amazon.com, Inc. (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational conglomerate which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It is one of the Big Five companies in the U.S. information technology industry, along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook. The company has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", as well as the world's most valuable brand. (Full article...)
Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service owned by Facebook, Inc. (Full article...)
Netflix, Inc. is an American over-the-top content platform and production company headquartered in Los Gatos, California, United States. The company is a subscription-based streaming service provider offering online streaming from a library of films and television series, 40% of which is Netflix original programming produced in-house. It often[weasel words] produces more original series and films than any network or cable company. Netflix has also played a prominent role in independent film distribution. As of July 2021, Netflix had 209 million subscribers, including 72 million in the United States and Canada. It is available worldwide except in mainland China (due to local restrictions), Syria, North Korea, and Crimea (due to US sanctions). Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). (Full article...)
YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming produced in collaboration with the site's creators, downloading videos and background playback of videos on mobile devices, and access to the YouTube Music music streaming service. (Full article...)
WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware, cross-platform centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by Facebook, Inc. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices but is also accessible from desktop computers, as long as the user's mobile device remains connected to the Internet while they use the desktop app. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app targeted at small business owners, called WhatsApp Business, to allow companies to communicate with customers who use the standard WhatsApp client. (Full article...)
macOS (/ˌmækoʊˈɛs/; previously Mac OS X and later OS X) is a proprietary graphical operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop, laptop and home computers, and by web usage, it is the second most widely used desktop OS, after Windows NT. (Full article...)
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- September 19, 2021 – 2021 Australian Parliament House sexual misconduct allegations
- Australian Industry, Science and Technology Minister Christian Porter resigns amid criticism for receiving anonymous donations in his defamation case against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, who reported on historical rape allegations against him. (The Guardian)
- September 17, 2021 – AUKUS
- The Australian Defence Minister announces that the new strategic partnership will also include increased numbers of U.S. bombers and airplanes being based out of Australia. In addition, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes that the deal has revealed a loophole in nuclear policy that does not bar states without nuclear weapons from obtaining nuclear technology for submarines and that this falls outside of IAEA inspections. (ABC News Australia) (Foreign Policy)
- September 16, 2021 – AUKUS
- Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry expressed unease about Australia’s dramatic expansion of its navy and using U.S. technology to build eight nuclear-powered submarines. A statement issued stated “Indonesia is deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region”. (Brisbane Times)
- September 15, 2021 – Aftermath of the 2021 Argentine legislative election
- Interior minister and vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's ally Eduardo de Pedro offers his resignation following the defeat of the ruling center-left government in last Sunday's midterm primaries. Culture minister Tristán Bauer, environment minister Juan Cabandié and science and technology minister Roberto Salvarezza, all close to Kirchner, also resign. (Reuters)
- September 13, 2021 –
- American international consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion agrees to purchase American technology company Neustar for $3.1 billion. (Fox Business)
- July 7, 2021 – Political impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismisses 12 cabinet ministers, including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, following intense criticisms over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ravi Shankar Prasad, who held multiple concurrent positions as Law, Information Technology, and Communications Minister, also resigns. (South China Morning Post)
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