Articles written by Mark Ollig

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About me - Mark Ollig

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I grew up in the rural area of central Minnesota and enjoy writing about technology past, present and future.

Telecommunications is my career (writing is my fantasy!)

I am also a freelance columnist for three Minnesota newspapers,

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Business > Entrepreneurship Information technology might be the perfect industry: 1 of 6

Tim Berners-Lee developed the Internet protocols for connecting hyper-links to images, text, video and audio files over a web browser in 1991. However, a man named Paul Otlet was working on this "information industry" idea back in 1934. Otlet (pronounced ot-LAY) researched how information could be acquired over a global netw...
Computers & Technology > Website Reviews Websites and referrals: 1 of 6

American Memory library is open 24-7 Are you working late again on an important school history report and you need to have that report completed soon? Does the first impulse you have include going online to "Google" or "Yahoo" for the information you are trying to find? As you know the Internet is a large place, with many so...
Computers & Technology > TV The conversion to digital TV from analog TV: 3 of 14

Get ready, because the days of analog television reception are soon to be over forever. The Congress of the United States recently passed a law specifying the date of Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009 to be the deadline for all television broadcast stations to stop transmitting their analog signals over-the-air and convert to all digit...
Computers & Technology > Computers & Technology (Other) A brief history of American technology: 1 of 4

Martian surface harbors earthly intelligence This intelligence is still "roaming" the red planet. They have been traversing the surface of the red Martian landscape since 2004. The two spacecraft, Spirit, which arrived on January 3, 2004 followed by Opportunity 21 days later, hold some of our planet's best intelligence insid...
Sciences > Ecology & Environment Solution for the energy crisis: Solar power: 6 of 19

Solar power may eventually be directly 'beamed' to earth. Mr. Scott, can you beam a little sunshine onto the Enterprise's bridge please? Yes, my Star Trek reference is cheesy, but I just couldn't help myself. In reality, there is an active energy program being investigated for an earth-orbiting solar power-collecting satelli...
Computers & Technology > Internet (Other) History of the world wide web: 1 of 3

Tim Berners-Lee is the person who wrote the programming code that we use when we "point and click" our way through the hyper-links of documents, sounds, videos and information that we access via the World Wide Web portion of the Internet. Berners-Lee called his creation a "global hypertext system." Some people think that the...
Computers & Technology > Internet Access & Providers Would you like cheaper high speed internet: 1 of 3

Last month, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new study on individuals using high-speed broadband for accessing the Internet. I was surprised to learn that high-speed broadband connection growth actually was lower than the previous year. The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a non-profit organizatio...
Computers & Technology > Internet (Other) How the Internet changed the world: 7 of 20

Sending an e-mail is such a common part of our lives today that we probably don't think much of it anymore. I began to wonder out of the billions (trillions?) of e-mails that have been sent, what was the first network e-mail message and who sent it? The name of the person we need to thank for e-mail is Raymond S. Tomlinson. ...
Computers & Technology > Consumer Electronics (Other) The gadget craze: Whether to consider the latest electronic toys for your kids: 5 of 12

Recalling a Christmas without the high-tech' As we head down the stretch to finishing (or starting) our holiday season gift shopping, some of us will consider purchasing a high-tech gift for our kids. Have we become too accustomed to just looking at the popular electronic toys or games? Do not get me wrong about this; I have...
Sciences > Astronomy Great educational resources about space and astronomy: 3 of 7

Study the galaxy using the WorldWide Telescope! Microsoft has developed a new way to explore the vastness of outer space. This technology will merge telescope feeds from all over the world and satellites orbiting the Earth. It will combine these sources to build a wide-ranging view of our universe. I watched a fascinating vi...