{"id":860,"date":"2010-10-20T04:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joeclarksblog.wordpress.com\/?p=860"},"modified":"2010-10-20T04:00:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T08:00:42","slug":"telephones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=860","title":{"rendered":"Telephones"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we baby-boomers were still in grade school and watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, the Sunday morning papers carried an interesting comic strip, Dick Tracy<\/em>. \u00a0One of the most interesting \u201cgadgets\u201d the fictional cop used in fighting crime was his telecommunicating wrist watch. \u00a0Later in the \u201960s, the next look into the future came via Gene Roddenberry\u2019s Star Trek<\/em>. \u00a0At the time, very few people realized a handheld \u201ctelecommunicator\u201d would become a reality much sooner than the turn of the century.\u00a0 And let\u2019s not forget the spy who saved the world by talking over his \u201cshoe phone,\u201d Agent 86, Maxwell Smart.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s digital cell phones are truly remarkable.\u00a0 In past decades, few realized the role cell phones would come to play in the modern day world.\u00a0 History credits Dr. Martin Cooper of the Motorola Corporation with making the first analog mobile phone call on a prototype device in 1973.\u00a0 It is hard to imagine wireless phones having been around for so long.<\/p>\n

NASA and the space program played an instrumental role in developing the hardware and software used in today\u2019s communications industry. \u00a0\u201cBecause we could\u201d basically explained how and why we developed the technology allowing us to talk without wires. \u00a0Later, with the many advances in other areas of computing technology, we began to see things in our telephones our grandparents, and indeed even our parents, never could have imagined.<\/p>\n

Today, modern cell phones are simply amazing. \u00a0Some business owners actually run their entire companies from their cell phones.\u00a0 Physicians and nurses are able to connect directly to the mainframe of their hospital\u2019s computerized medical records.\u00a0 Airline pilots are able to perform complex aircraft performance problems on their company issued smart phones.<\/p>\n

The phones we use today bear little resemblance to anything Alexander Graham Bell contemplated in 1876 when he uttered his famous sentence, \u201cMr. Watson, come here.\u00a0 I want to see you.\u201d Indeed, even later in his life he probably had no idea of the magnitude of what we would perfect his telephone into after they became \u201ccell phones,\u201d and later \u201csmart phones.\u201d<\/p>\n

These new smart phones really are much more than mere telephones.\u00a0 They are in fact miniature hand held computers.\u00a0 They have become learning tools on college campuses and professional necessities in the business world, stretching from news reporting to business management.<\/p>\n

Not only have cell phones affected the business world significantly, they have also made their way into our social lives as well.\u00a0 We now \u201ctwitter,\u201d we can keep track of our friends on Facebook, and the bachelor\u2019s infamous \u201clittle black book\u201d is now contained electronically in his telephone.\u00a0 Which also, by the way, automatically dials the number of his choice.<\/p>\n

Twelve years ago when I first started dating my wife, the first question she put to me was, \u201cSo, what is your cell phone number?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019 have no stinkin\u2019 cell phone number!\u201d I answered in my best Steve Martin-Mexican imitation.\u00a0 I went on to tell her I did not believe in cell phones.\u00a0 I did not want to be a slave to a digital device.\u00a0 And I certainly did not want work calling me in on my time off.<\/p>\n

She listened very politely and then kind of said, \u201cUh-huh,\u201d the way women do when they know they are right, but are dealing with the male of the species.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had my new cell phone within two days.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we baby-boomers were still in grade school and watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, the Sunday morning papers carried an interesting comic strip, Dick Tracy. \u00a0One of the most interesting \u201cgadgets\u201d the fictional cop used in fighting crime was his … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[294,351,599,957,1147,1150,1192,1710,2394,2434,2480,2725,3260,3299,3349,3413,3499,3503],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-general","category-personal","tag-agent-86-maxwell-smart","tag-alexander-graham-bell","tag-baby-boomers","tag-communications-industry","tag-dick-tracy","tag-digital-cell-phones","tag-dr-martin-cooper","tag-grandparents","tag-miniature-hand-held-computers","tag-motorola-corporation","tag-nasa","tag-parents","tag-smart-phones","tag-space-program","tag-star-trek","tag-sunday-morning-papers","tag-telecommunicator","tag-telephones"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}