On 'The Internet Of Things'

I wonder if you ever thought about 'Cloud' – it's gone way past looking up at the sky and seeing pretty patterns. Now, when we talk about Cloud, we think about huge amounts of data stored in remote data banks somewhere out there. I was listening to John Barrett as he talked about 'The Internet of Things.' He says that there's about 4000 exabytes of matter in the Cloud. That's how much it is in terms of size – 4000 exabytes. Very few of us have any understanding of how much that really is, as we think about megabytes, gigabytes and tetrabytes. Barrett helps us understand.  He says, "Think of a stack of books from here to the planet Pluto and back, and then multiply that 80 times. That's the amount of information and data that is stored in the Cloud." It's absolutely mind-boggling, isn't it?

But now all this data is beginning to talk to each other and communicate and that's what "The Internet of Things" is all about, or the IoT as its acronym is known as. What is the Internet of Things? It's a network of physical objects or things, embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data.

FROM THE CORNER OF MY EYE

by Dr. Cecil Clements (6th November 2012)


For many of us, we have seen our daughters, as they’ve gone into their early teens, how they have loved to play with their Barbie dolls. Barbie dolls have been around for so many years and have been such an integral part of a young girl’s play kit. Mattel brought out the Barbie and it was a huge success as they carved into a niche that girls needed as they got into their teens, to have a sophisticated doll.