Technology in Layman’s Term

by Marlon Viloria

The rapid advancement of technology is mind-boggling for many and has revolutionized the way people do their business daily, whether it is categorized as personal, domestic or corporate one. In every household, it is now common to own at least one pc. A typical office has a computer on every desk, a set of printers and maybe one or two fax machines. Wired telephones seem like accessories these days, gathering dust somewhere in a corner and has become a secondary method of communication, superseded by the wireless phone where everybody seems to own and carry one - an affordable luxury. Instead, phone lines have been upgraded to xDSL or broadband for fast internet connections, eliminating the need for modems.

For cell phones, the all-in-one integration of voice, video and data (internet) calls, together with other gizmos like mp3 player, satellite navigation and camera, makes it even more popular, a ‘must-have’ for everyone especially the teens. The world has shrunk due to the emergence of the World Wide Web, commonly known as the internet, the MVP site as one proof of that where Magsingalenios dispersed around the world, can converge and communicate with friends and relatives, or simply get a sneak view of what’s new in and around Magsingal. And with that came different applications being thought of and developed - electronic mail, short messaging service, commonly known as “text” and instant messaging are the most popular ones. To the common user or consumer, what lies behind such technology is not so important nor has any inclination to find out how it really works, that’s the job of people in that field. If it is something new in the market, ‘cool and wicked’ and if Mr/Miss/Mrs Jones wants it or buys it, everyone tends to follow that trend too. Keeping up with the Jones’s so to speak!

The problem is that, it is not really easy to explain in layman’s term how such a technology like the internet works. Standard and regulatory bodies were formed, together with numerous organisations, all working together to standardize its implementation, which means ‘opening up’ the process so that every network, local or wide area (LAN or WAN), hooked up in the internet is compatible with other networks, thus the term internetworking, thereby eliminating the need for manufacturing companies to develop their own proprietary products, but adhere to that defined set of rules.

How can it be translated in simple terms and explained in simple language that transmission control protocol and internet protocol (TCP/IP), a project developed by the US Defense’s ARPAnet in the late 60s and later released to the public for commercial use, are the main technology behind the internet? And within these two protocols, lies a suite of other protocols too - protocols within protocols or protocol stack as the technocrats call it, and each one has its own rule of implementation and engagement as well as its own functionality to perform. It’s quite like the military wherein a chain of command and strict sets of rules are observed and followed, from the lowest to the highest ranking officer, and vice-versa, each one obeying and serving his/her immediate superior.

The best analogy that can depict real life scenario would probably be the good old post office. Writing a letter, enclosing it in an envelope, putting a destination address and a stamp on, and posting it to the nearest post box is just the first and easy part. As far as the public is concerned, that is all they need to know or do. What happens after that is somebody else’s business. Next, a group of people will collect those letters; sort them out according to their destinations, bundled up, labelled and prepared for despatch to different places. The method of delivery or transportation would be determined by its label, for instance overseas letters would go by air or sea and so on. Once it reaches its final sorting office, the process is reversed. That is, unbundled, unlabelled, sorted out further and delivered door to door according to the address given. In technological terms, the process is called encapsulation and decapsulation.

Translating the above into electronic form based on the 7-layer open standard, takes a pool of people with specialised skills in that arena. In a very simplified top to bottom approach: writing a letter and enclosing it in an envelope can be classified as the application and presentation layer respectively. Then the people collecting and sorting them out can be regarded as the session layer. The delivery of letters based on priority or importance like first/second class or registered/special delivery is the function of the transport layer where TCP protocol belongs to, followed by network layer which can be thought of as an interaction and cooperation between different post offices across the globe determining the exact location of every address on each letter, and where IP functionality is utilized, hence the terms IP network and IP address. The last two layers, Data Link and Physical, are simply the tools used and methods of delivering letters from A to B, whether by air, land or sea. All in all, this ‘division of labor’ as proposed by ISO’s open systems interconnections (OSI) makes it much easier to understand and implement. A task of such magnitude needs to be broken into smaller tasks but bearing in mind that each layer is serving the need of the upper layer.

A URL like http://www.magsingalvirtualplaza.blogspot.com is simply four sets of numbers separated by a dot, ranging from 0 to 255 (e.g. 192.178.25.9) and is called the IP address. The http part is the protocol used to transfer the contents of this website into a readable format on a computer screen for everyone to read or see. The raw content itself or source code is presented in another format called html or hypertext markup language, where other small programs or scripts can be embedded as well for cosmetic makeovers or adjustments, i.e. presentation.

Designing, implementing and developing each single layer is of course a different matter, much more complex and where the real technology lies. And this is where operating systems, middlewares and application softwares come into effect, not to mention hardwares and other equipments like switches and routers with high processing power to carry every single packet or data to its final destination. But one has to bear in mind that for computers to talk to each other or execute a given command or program, everything is transformed at the very last step into nothing more than one’s and zero’s (e.g. 10101010), the ultimate language that computers know, where an 8-bit combination of 1’s and 0’s like the example above is termed as byte.

Indeed, the world has shrunk many-folds because of technological advancement. Going back to the concept of atom and further discoveries and studies of its nucleus or structure by our intellectual scientists in the past, gave rise to multitudes of applications as we see today, resulting in the advancement of science and the creation of intelligent objects or tools and equipments used in all sectors of the industry including medical, aviation, automotive, etc., and has given us comfort and mobility of such dynamic proportions.  Hence one particle in particular (electron) is being used as a root word in the English language for anything electronic. It is still hard to imagine that the speed of an email travelling to its destination is equivalent to the speed of light. That is, 186000 miles per second, or 5.4 microseconds per mile (in a vacuum)! Can you imagine that? Obviously, it is not quite as fast in the real world due to its numerous hops (or stopovers) in between where each hop is processed before being forwarded to the next. But one second is definitely a very long time in electronic world.

Could there be a time perhaps in the future when a term like “electronic emissions or waste” come into everyone’s vocabulary and become an environmental issue too? Well, rest assured dear brethrens, you would be glad to know that the author of this article uses recyclable electrons only, a proactive approach into dealing a potential environmental catastrophe.

Umisem ka bassit, kailian!