Happy Birthday to.............

[LovelyLadyLux]

Happy Birthday to the WORLD WIDE WEB!! It is TWENTY FIVE years old!!

I have not adopted the smart phone lifestyle where I can be reached and touched 24/7 but my daily life does involve time on Forums (i.e. E4U), checking/reading/sending emails, researching out items of interest and particularly reading my Kindle. I have to say it has changed my life and I'd say it has changed it for the better. I quite enjoy the 'Net and feel I'd lose an important part of my life if it was taken away.

How has the internet changed your life?

[Grandad]

My mobile is over 6 years old. It IS 3G so I can use it for internet but I choose not to.

As for the web, if I lost it tomorrow I would be completely lost. To say I do everything on my computer would not be an exaggeration. I never have such things as paper bills, bank statements, medication prescriptions etc. All on line. Both me and Mrs G do a fair bit of online shopping, particularly as in most cases it is cheaper than store prices. I have not written a cheque for about 5 years.

My computer is my constant point of reference with all the information of a major library, and more.

Congratulations to (Brit) Tim Berners-Lee for giving the world the most incredible invention of modern times....unfortunately the downside is that it is too often used for the wrong reasons but hopefully continued developments in safety and security will combat that.

Now, where will I find a pencil and paper???

[LovelyLadyLux]

Actually Grandad, now that you mention it, I do almost all my bill pays online. I have a few that still come hard copy paper but that is only because the organizations have not yet gone 'online' i.e. our city doesn't allow you to pay property tax online (yet).

I also research things I buy and I have to say the bulk of my hard item type purchases (camera, kindle, UV filter and Air purifier) have been done online. The stores here do not carry much in stock so essentially you end up going into a store here, buy the item and then they order it online have it shipped to them requiring I go back and pick it up. MUCH easier for me to skip the middle man and make the purchases and orders direct.

I can actually see that the days of the big box stores are limited. Years and years ago we had SimpsonSears Store which put out huge catelogues every year. Then the "Simpson" half disappears and Sears was the primary store here. You perused the catalogue, went into the Store Front and made your purchase which was then ordered and brought to the store for you to pick up. Can't say that process has changed dramatically here.

I too would be lost without the internet AND without the internet I'd hazard you and I would NEVER have talked!!

I can see that the Internet might make hand writing - the writing not printing - redundant into the future and I'm not even too sure about printing either.

[Grandad]

Strange you mention Sears LLL. The only time I have travelled west was to a trade show in Chicago in 1998 the year before I retired. On all my business travels I tried to buy something traditional but tasteful of the country. I went into Sears on Michigan Avenue and couldn't find anything that fitted the bill. I ended up buying a glass sculpture of a panther by a Japanese artist. It is signed and it is one of my most treasured souvenirs of my travels.....

[Jayway]

I love my internet, have FB pages for different subjects- like animals, people, survival,medical, and stuff I want to keep.My network of FB friends from all over the world sign petitions, write letters and occasionally we use the chat and compare our lives. I do know what some of them look like but no photos of me have ever been posted on line and never will be. My electric and water bills are paper, and I keep them after paying . . dont trust the net for this. As I have a postbox the renewal of my passport was ridiculous, they wont send to postboxes (inside the post office) I actually had to get the bank manager to do it all for me, so much for net convenience.

[Horus]

Well I could easily live without the internet (not)

[LovelyLadyLux]

I think our lives have changed significantly in the first 25 years of the WWW coming into existence. Add another 100 and can you even imagine where we'll all be?

We stayed in the lead pencil world for centuries and that world didn't really change significantly however now that we're in CYBER world I predict we will continue to change drastically and quickly. Just hope 'we', the human race, is able to adapt and keep up without too much degradation of what it is like to be HUMAN.

Can you even think where we'll be in 25 more years? Will we still be writing with our hands at all? Will 'writing' still exist or will it be like the hieroglyphics?

[Grandad]

I think voice recognition will become more widespread so that a keyboard could become a thing of the past. It might be a long way off though because I have great difficulty understanding young people, they speak too fast and don't change their tonal expression or punctuation, what chance would a computer have?

[Kiya]

I think voice recognition will become more widespread so that a keyboard could become a thing of the past. It might be a long way off though because I have great difficulty understanding young people, they speak too fast and don't change their tonal expression or punctuation, what chance would a computer have?

Not only do they speak fast they cant open their mouths, I'm always on at Roy telling him open yer bloodly mouth when your speaking & might understand him the first time

[Jayway]

Quite true, Kiya, we Used to get the blackboard rubber thrown at us if we mumbled, developed our reactions as the thing was wood backed.. like OUCH.

[Ruby Slippers]

Funnily enough, voice recognition software has been around for at least 15 years already, but it still hasn't caught on properly. I think it is a tad too sensitive, and can't distinguish between accents etc. You only have to have subtitles enabled on your TV to see what a mess it still is.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I think voice response computers are to come but how they're going to adapt to accents is unknown. Am sure once voice recognition catches on the next step would be to have everything you say translated into different languages quickly and easily making communication with anybody anywhere else in the world easy.

Don't know how regional slang will be translated either and often young people will use one word and mean another i.e. If you are REAL BAD - are you Good? (course it depends on tone and voice inflection too) IMO Many young people here do NOT know how to speak properly. They mumble, look down and often use their slang as they don't have sufficient command of English to speak properly.

I've often wondered when communication between countries and cultures becomes instantaneous (moreso than now) but spontaneously instantaneous I wonder which culture will become dominant? I do wonder if one culture will be strong enough to influence the rest?

[Kiya]

Quite true, Kiya, we Used to get the blackboard rubber thrown at us if we mumbled, developed our reactions as the thing was wood backed.. like OUCH.

Jayway I remember that blackboard rubber very well, I had one thrown at me by the teacher............I was only day dreaming

[Ruby Slippers]

LLL, you can always try it out for yourself! Microsoft reckons on it taking about 30 minutes to set it up and get it used to your voice. It's built into Windows Vista, 7 and 8, via the Control panel and ease of access.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@RS - really? I probably have it then but never knew. Will have to have a look 'round to see if it is on here. This laptop is new as my old one recently passed of a terminal keyboard issue so if it is a standard install on new machines this one is bound to have it.

[Horus]

A lot of getting this type of software to work well is to keep training it to how you speak, after a lot of effort it will adapt to your accent, but you do need to keep correcting it's mistakes.

[Ruby Slippers]

As I said, Horus, not a lot of progress over the years. If you ever have subtitles running on your TV, you'll see what I mean. It can be absolutely hilarious!

[LovelyLadyLux]

Wonder if Subtitles are as bad as 'auto correct' (which sometimes drives me crazy!)