Hi. My name is Len Rosen. I’ve been studying technology and science for as long as I can remember. One of my most treasured books, “The Boy Scientist” was given to me at age 8. Since then I have been reading, observing and experimenting – turning over rocks, viewing the stars, and staying connected to new and exciting discoveries and breakthroughs. I retired from my high tech consulting practice in 2009. Today I write, edit and publish 21stcentech.com. It is my passion.
Recently, my wife and I moved to Oakville, Ontario, just southwest of Toronto which had been our home for almost the last fifty years. Toronto is a city bursting at the seams. The cost of living there made us realize we needed to consider a move. Today, we live about a couple of blocks from Lake Ontario. Our 9th-floor apartment overlooks the lake where we can watch the lake freighters arrive and depart from nearby Hamilton. Sailboats can be seen on the lake every day.
I have a wonderful life partner, my wife of more than 50 years, a talented and vivacious daughter and her husband, and a granddaughter who is giving me a new perspective on life.
Why did I start writing 21st Century Technology in 2009?
Born just at the half-century mark of the last century I couldn’t help but look back at the changes the world has undergone since my birth. I remember our first television set in the living room of our Montreal apartment and our neighbours coming over on weeknights to watch programs with us. We were one of only a few who had a television.
I remember the horse-drawn ice wagon that dropped ice blocks off every week for my grandmother’s icebox. We had a brand-new electric refrigerator. My father drove a Ford station wagon with actual wooden panelling on the sides. He was often gone for weeks travelling to customers who operated general stores in small towns throughout Ontario (west of Montreal). When we went on summer holidays we would drive to a cottage north of Montreal where oil lamps provided the lighting and propane the energy for cooking and heating. I always remember the outhouse out back. I was four at the time.
I think the first real memorable technological change was after I got married when my wife’s parents gave us an older colour television set. My parents didn’t have a colour TV. And neither did my wife and I when we married in 1973.
I remember seeing my first transistor radio in the late 1950s but I didn’t own one until the 1960s. I bought my first portable calculator (a TI model) in 1974. It could add, subtract, multiply, divide and do square roots. It cost over $200 at the time, a small fortune.
NASA made technology cool in the 1960s and the products that came from the Space Race accelerated the pace of change.
In 1979 I built my first computer from a kit and taught myself how to program in BASIC. I soon found myself mastering software running on my CP/M-based machine with its 64K of RAM and two 8″ floppy disk drives, drive A for applications and drive B for data. I mastered Visicalc and WordStar and when the IBM PC came out quickly moved to the world of DOS, Easywriter and a whole bunch of other new application tools.
I remember the first fax machine that my company bought. It was called a QWIP. It replaced the Telex. We would use an electric typewriter to prepare a document using special paper that we would then attach to a drum that would scan a line at a time. The QWIP used an acoustic coupler for transmitting an image over the telephone. It smelled like rotten cinnamon every time we ran it so eventually we put it in a cupboard in the warehouse at the back of our office. Even hidden in the backroom you could smell it.
We weren’t aware of CO2 emissions back in the 1970s but were certainly familiar with smog. Climate change was still not a mainstream topic. In the 60s and 70s, there was America’s folly in Vietnam, an ongoing Cold War between the Soviets and the U.S., and the OPEC oil embargo that changed our perceptions of energy availability. The Middle East saga between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab states led to recurring conflicts, not much different than what we see today. The Doomsday Clock ticked closer and then away from midnight.
I became a father in the 1980s to a daughter who unfortunately was born with congenital heart disease. She managed to survive the many medical crises that subsequently ensued. The medical technology of that time helped us keep her going. We had a portable heart monitor at home that recorded her rhythm and allowed us to transmit it over the telephone to doctors. She was partly schooled at home, linked to her classroom through an educational network that allowed her to converse with classmates and teachers in an early form of chat.
I got my first cellular phone which was hard-wired into my car allowing me to stay connected to home when I was travelling. That was in 1985. The $2,000 investment seemed extravagant but necessary.
It’s 35 years since that first cell phone purchase and 41 years since I assembled and soldered my first home computer. Technology has changed our world. We are more aware of what is going on 12,000 kilometres away today than we are about what is happening in our own neighbourhoods. We are always on and always connected through an infrastructure of servers and telecommunications devices.
My desk has two screens and a computer that has processing and storage capability a billion times greater than the computer I first assembled in 1979. I dispose of calculators when the solar cells no longer work. My cell phones get tossed every few years as technology advances. What was just a phone is now a personal assistant that keeps me informed about everything. My Google Home Mini reminds me of what is on my calendar. I don’t buy hardcopy books anymore. I download them and read them on my Kobo device.
When I was born the world had 3 billion people. In 2023 the number has surpassed 8 billion. Gasoline was 14 cents a gallon when I was a toddler, and today sells for $3.50 or more. I telecommute more than I drive these days. I bank online. I pay bills that way as well. Our home, now by the lake is wired with fibre optic cable that brings the world to us.
When I was born CO2 levels in the atmosphere stood at 311 ppm. Today we are at 419. I know this is significant and I know that it’s something to pay attention to.
I write about technology and science because the changes I have seen represent only the beginning. I hope you find that the subjects I choose to write about that are interesting to me are equally interesting to you. I am also supported by a number of guest authors who send me interesting postings for me to publish. I hope you find these of equal interest to you. So thank you for visiting here and please come back often.
