The process of invention may be intrinsic to human nature and almost entirely unique to humankind, but the process of attributing credit to individual inventors and empowering those inventors to earn a living from the fruits of their ideas has been a long and often arduous one. The changing landscape of inventions and patents Today patent law is incredibly nuanced and complex, but back in 500 BC when the Greeks first held forth that whosoever invented something which improved quality of life should be guaranteed the ability to profit from that invention for a period of no less than one year, laws…

To say that the internet has completely revolutionized the way we communicate with each other would be a serious understatement. People around the world can stay connected in real time through mediums such as Skype and Facebook, and information can be found instantaneously on almost any subject imaginable. No wonder we have so many self proclaimed “experts” out there. Politics has even found its place online. Many protest groups now choose to use Facebook as a means to organize public demonstrations. The Arab Spring protest may be one of the best examples of the Facebook organized demonstration….

2010 saw the launch of what are now two major social media websites – Pinterest and Instagram. These two companies, started by young entrepreneurs, quickly gained users. As of Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in September of 2012, the photo-sharing program had 100 million users. Social networking sights such as these have had major impacts on the way that people interact and share ideas. Pinterest was founded by two failed app designers. When they came up with their unique pinboard concept and stuck to it, many investors and engineers turned away. However, that same pinboard design drew…

Over the first few thousand years of our existence (up until 2003), humankind generated 5 billion GB of data. Today, we generate that amount every two days. Think that’s a big jump? Well hold on to your seats, because experts predict that by next year we’ll be generating that amount every 10 minutes! This infographic takes a look at our “digital footprint” – the amount and type of data we consume as a society, from viewing videos to surfing the web to specific device usage, including desktops vs. laptops, e-readers vs tables and Androids vs iPhones. A full 75% of the information in the digital…

If you consider yourself even remotely interested in technology, you’ve heard the term “algorithm.” An algorithm is defined as a set of instructions for solving a problem or performing a task, and a quick look at history will reveal that humans have been using them for thousands of years – ever since the famed Greek mathematician Euclid devised a system for coming up with the greatest common factor of two numbers (a system which is still used by computers today!) These days, algorithms power some of the most important parts of our lives, including computer operating systems, internet and…

There is something on the web for everyone and with internet usage almost doubling what it was five years ago, there has got to be a way to hold all that data. Through innovation and the way content is consumed, there is a way. To put this into perspective, up until 2003 all the data generated was five billion gigabites; we now create that amount in 10 minutes. So what changed? First of all, people got smarter and saw the future of what the internet could be. We saw the future of sharability; no longer was it confined to hyperlinks in emails. Thus, embed codes and social sharing buttons were born. Devices…

Thinking about giving a gift this year? Watch out – it should come as no surprise that while the amount you’re likely willing to spend is about the same as ever, the cost of things people actually want continues to rise. Gone are the days when the most popular gifts were $20 – $30. These days, you could be shelling out almost $600 to get them that Samsung Galaxy S3 that they want! In fact, in 2012 the most popular gifts all clocked in at over $100 and included things like smartphones, tablets, e-readers, MP3 players and head phones – a far cry from the $5.95 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures…

Whether you’re working hard or hardly working, the Internet is needed for a lot of what you do—from researching for a paper to distracting yourself on YouTube.  But nothing cuts into your web use quite like the pain of slow connectivity.  If you’re like most people living in the Internet age, chances are you access the web a great deal each day, and you’ve probably also been faced with the annoyance of a slow wireless connection. Unfortunately, if you’re not a total tech wizard, it can start to seem like your only option is to live with the frustrating circumstances of waiting ten minutes for a…

Is Facebook affecting the way our minds function?  It’s a safe bet to say that the vast majority of those looking at this infographic will have to resist the urge to click on the Facebook notification icon appearing at the top. It doesn’t matter if you know that isn’t an actual Facebook notification.  It doesn’t matter that you probably have your Facebook page open in another tab.  You still want to click the picture of a notification icon just to be sure nothing will happen.  This is the way our minds have been trained to react to things that have become staples of our society and interactions with…

Today’s world in America is one dominated by the mobilization of technology. So it’s only fitting that even the Presidential election be looked at from a mobile standpoint. With 88 percent of registered voters owning some type of mobile phone and about half of that number owning a smartphone, keeping up with this years Presidential election can be done in various ways. Over 35% 0f the total U.S mobile audience has access to some form of social network on their phone. Over half those people either posted a comment about a candidate’s campaign or either read someone else’s post either on Twitter, Facebook or…