Diffusion of Innovations: CDs

     

    I have talked about CDs before, but I never thoroughly discussed its rise in popularity. The Diffusion of Innovations is a theory about how new ideas break out and how others fade. What made CDs sell so well as an Idea? Who made it and who bought them? Here is the story of the CD.

    The CD was brought to the market by the 2 corporate mega-giants Sony and Phillips, but the true brains behind the invention was genius physicist, James Russell. From a young age, was fascinated with classical music. However, he was annoyed by the wear and tear on his vinyl collection, not to mention the low sound quality. He thought of numerous ways to try and improve the record player, but to no avail.

    Russel then discovered that the needle scraping the record was the cause of the wear and tear. If only there was a way the player could read the disk without touching the spinning disc. It was with this thought that Russell used for the next decades as he tried to create Compact Disc. Eventually, Russel would refine his invention of the CD player throughout the 70s. After earning several big investors, getting chewed out by Philips, and getting his idea commercialized by Sony in 1982, Russel's work payed off. Russel earned over 50 patents for his work in his life. CDs were small, cheap, could hold more storage, and lasted longer than all predecessors. Russel's idea completely replaced nearly all alternatives of data storage and music/video playback. 

    Here's where the invention of CDs fits on the Diffusion of innovations. The pioneers were definitely the investors who backed Russell throughout the 70s, as that period was all about experimenting with the idea. The uptake started when the CDs were commercialized in 1982, and the people who bought them were early adopters. The 90s was perhaps the tipping point of the invention, as this was when personal computers, video game consoles, and other major technologies used at the time. After that, the CDs started to normalize and fell down after being replaced in most areas by DVDs and now, CDs are completely obsolete thanks to music streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, which can be played on any computer device for free.

   In conclusion, CDs came and went. The slowly rose in power, became a normalized format of media storage, and then got outclassed by future innovations. This is the cycle that the Diffusion of innovations theory presents. New technology comes out, takes the world by storm, and eventually becomes the standard until the next innovation. CD's became the standard format throughout the 80s and 90s thanks to their durability and efficiency. In doing so, they replaced cassettes, laserdisc, vinyl, and all other formats. Now, CDs are replaced by music streaming services. In comparison, CDs are more expensive, can break, and are less convenient. The Cycle continues and will continue for all time.

    Na (no date) Compact Disc of Jack Russel History https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/compact_disc.html 

What I learned about Wifi

    

    WIFI, aka wireless fidelity, is a standard in today's technological world. Many modern jobs and activities are impossible without a connection to the internet. WIFI is a huge part of everyday life at this point. How did WIFI become this? This is the history of WIFI.

    

    The first part of WIFI's creation wasn't even for using the internet. It was a spectrum band that was used for home appliances in 1985. The first wireless router was made in 1988, and was mainly used in businesses like warehouses. It wasn't until the 1990s where WIFI would slowly adapt for personal and commercial use. 

    

    

    The 90s was a huge era for WIFI. It started with cordless phones. prior to this, phones were all wired into the phone's body. Cordless phones meant they no longer needed to be attached by a bulky cord while you're talking. A lot happens in this era and eventually, the first standard for WIFI (radio frequency of 802.11 with 2mb) was created by Vic Hayes in 1997. Steve Jobs releases the first laptop in 1999 called the iBook. It is the first instance of a portable computer that could connect to the internet wirelessly, as opposed to a dial-up modem. 

    Wifi only grew in the 2000s. The late 2000s was when Laptops replaced most desktops in buildings. Plus, this was the era where smartphones were invented. The ability to access the internet anywhere was a huge breakthrough. It meant working online with coworkers, streaming videos online, online gaming, searching for information about anything. The possibilities were endless starting starting from this era.

    In conclusion, WIFI is a small innovation that made a huge impact through its versatility. WIFI is an absolute standard in todays world. Without it, business won't function, people would be unable to communicate long distances, and entertainment, like movies, tv, and music wouldn't be able to be streamed. Obviously, we've functioned without WIFI for centuries, but WIFI is such a standard nowadays, it's nearly impossible to turn back. It's amazing how a small invention impacted the next decades so hard.

Bellis, Mary. "Who Created WiFi, the Wireless Internet Connection?" ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/who-invented-wifi-1992663.

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The Evolution of Technology: CD's

    

    Compact Discs, (also known as CDs) are a standard format and a major breakthrough in portable communication media. The disk is made of a thin layer of plastic, aluminum, and acrylic. The disk is capable of storing large amounts of digital information for personal or commercial purposes. How do they work though? How can a small piece of plastic carry so much music, information, and/or graphics? Here's how they work.

    The way a disk works is rather simple. Imagine, a small, almost invisible spiral pattern of bumps on the surface of the disk. When read by a disk player, the player spins the disk, and scans for where the reflections are (the bumps aren't reflective). This action sends a signal to the machine that plays whatever is contained in the disk. The technology is similar to what you would see on a record player, only smaller and higher quality.

    The technology came out in the 1980s thanks to a collaboration between corporate mega giants Sony and Philips. As I said, the technology is similar to vinyl records, or more accurate to the time, Laserdisc. However, CDs store information digitally rather than physically, meaning it can contain more information at higher quality. Plus, the vinyl material lp's are made of degrade with age. CDs do not tarnish over time. Cassette tapes, another similar medium at the time, also had the same problem. They were also weaker and tarnished over time. CDs were small and portable, long lasting, and higher quality. As a result, the CD replaced all alternatives at the time.

    The primary use of CDs was for commercially selling music. The first album on a CD was a re-release of Billy Joel's "52nd Street." After that, CDs became the new standard for music releases. Another common use was for storing computer software. A lot of applications and PC games were stored on Discs. There were even video game consoles that came out in the 90s to capitalize on the breakthrough.

    The most popular console that used CDs was the PlayStation 1. The product of a dropped partnership between Sony and Nintendo, the PlayStation was a breakthrough for video games. While it wasn't the first CD based console, this was the first popular one. The CD technology allowed for fully animated or live action video footage to be stored on the games. This was the first instance of video games combining elements you would see in movies. The graphics were also better than other systems, easily drawing the eyes of consumers with how good everything looked. Some notable PS1 titles include Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, and many more.

    Today, CDs have been slowly fading away. Digital versatile discs (DVDs) replaced CDs for a lot of uses. All video game consoles with disks now use Blue-rays. The primary use for CDs for the last 2 decades were once again for commercial music, but that has been replaced by online services like Spotify and Pandora. Throughout the 2000s, most computers and cars had CD players built in as a standard, but now everything is either downloaded online, or played via Bluetooth. CDs have unfortunately fallen out. Strangely, vinyl records, the inferior technology have been making a comeback. In stores, vinyl are very prominently displayed, while CDs pile up in bargain bins. It's amazing how inferior technology survived longer than superior tech purely out of nostalgia. 

Contrad, Stacy (March 8, 20) The Quick 10: the Scoop on CDs cited from https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/24151/quick-10-scoop-cds

H. B. Peek, "The emergence of the compact disc," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 10-17, January 2010, doi: 10.1109/MCOM.2010.5394021.