Throughout history there has been a need to create a secret code in order for a small group of people to communicate with each other. A cipher is an advanced secret code that codes each individual letter instead of focusing on the words. These secret codes can be very simple rearrangement of letters or numbers into a code or something more elaborate. Many ciphers are impossible to break because the codes are based upon unknown mathematical formulas or substitute symbols for letters and numbers. Most famous cipher’s are used during periods of war with one side creating the cipher and the other side trying desperately to decode the messages but ciphers

Probably the most well known cipher of all time is the German Enigma of World War II. German military and diplomatic information was encoded using an typewriter style machine called “Enigma.” This device had three wheels which would type a different letter than the one you choose on the keyboard. To further complicate the encryption, after each character, the wheels would change so that a different letter would be produced for repeated characters. This made the classic style of decryption and code breaking impossible to complete on an Enigma created document.

To decrypt an Enigma code the receiver only needed to know which wheels to use and which position to start them in. Eventually, England was able to break the Enigma code but they kept the information highly confidential until thirty years after the war. In order to break the Enigma code, computers were used. It would have taken years for some to sit at the Enigma typewriter and try every wheel and every position but computers were able to run through ever different combination as quickly as possible in an attempt to decode the words.

During World War II, the Japanese military had their own cipher. While not as detailed in creation as the German Enigma code, the Japanese Navy cipher consisted of 33,000 words, phrases, and letters and was the primary code used for all military operations. Using a series of mathematical analysis, IBM punch-card computing machines, and a cipher machine, a team of American’s was able to crack most of this cipher before 1942. The Japanese cipher was much easier to break because many of the intercepted messages started with the same phrases and constantly repeated information that was easy to verify. The Japanese also failed to change their cipher key often enough to keep ahead of the code break efforts.

Not ever famous cipher was used during a war, for many people creating and decoding ciphers is a hobby. Recently a cipher called the Smithy Code was embedded into the legal judgement from Justice Peter Smith on The Da Vinci Code copyright case. As the book The Da Vinci Code was based upon the idea of a cipher being included in art and information around the main character the justice presiding over the case included a cipher in the court documents. The letters of the code were actual text of the written judgement, but were italicized to stand out from the rest of the text. After the letters were extracted from the text and several hints were followed, people were able to decipher this amusing challenge.

The Beale cipher is another fun cipher created to challenge people to crack the code. This cipher is a set of three texts which allegedly state the location of a buried treasure claimed to be worth over 30 million US dollars. It is claimed that the texts in the cipher were written in 1885 and detail a treasure being buried by a gentleman named Thomas Jefferson Beale in a secret location in Virginia. Beale left the box with the encrypted messages with a local innkeeper and then disappeared. After the innkeeper’s death, the paperwork was taken by a family friend who was able to decode the first text. People have spent the last 100 years attempting to crack the codes in the however until the second and third texts are decoded the treasure remains a mystery.

Today, we use ciphers for internet security and personal privacy. Encryption software created a cipher based upon the guidelines set up in the program. Many encryption programs allow you to create your own security code which is required by the receiver in order to view the data as unencrypted. Encryption can make our personal information safer from casual theft but nothing is completely safe if someone really wants or thinks they need the information. We must never believe that our codes cannot be broken, even codes created by computer programs and personal keys. History has shown time and time again that with the correct equipment and a meticulous though process, any code no matter how complete or crack proof we believe it to be can be broken.

Many people use technology to communicate with their friends and love ones but never give a thought to how technology has improved their lives. Technology surrounds us every day, the grocery store is dripping in technology, the buses run on computers, and even the dentist uses digital cameras and computer imaging systems instead of x-rays. While we live our lives surrounded with technology, have you ever stopped to consider how society can be changed through technology?

The internet opened up forms of communication that we never thought were possible before. Today we have hundreds of social news sites where individuals can write and post news reports pertaining to the world around them. People can also comment and respond to ideas through forums and commenting systems which means we can share ideas and knowledge with anyone in the world at any time. Imagine if we created a forum where this open communication path was used to create social policy and laws? No longer would social policy be created by the elite few who find themselves governing others but by the masses.

Open source software allows many people to provide their own input and knowledge towards the creation of useable software. There are still many societies where the exchange of ideas is not open or acceptable. We should bring open source software to these societies and help to teach that sharing ideas and knowledge with others can be a profitable endeavor for everyone. We can also take the ideas of working together to create other open source projects. Using the ideas of open source will increase the eduction level of people around the world, teachers can and are releasing their lessons and knowledge the world through the internet. Children who live their whole lives without access to teachers can now learn by listening to audio recordings or watching a television show.

Many employers area already using video technology to connect their office locations together and avoid large travel expenses. What if we connected employers with possible employees around the world through video communication? Technology could help raise the level of earnings for many people who barely make enough money to survive. A new form of work would be created through the use of video communication. Some workplaces already communicate mainly through email, why not expand this idea and hire the most qualified person no matter where they are located in the world.

Another method of sharing has been created through creative commons. We can improve society by releasing all forms of art under the creative commons licensing structure. Allowing other people to spread our art and use as they see fit can help spread the ideas behind our creations and challenge others to create as well. Time and time again society has been changed by the artistes within and today we have the ability to spread art to every corner of the world by using the internet and technology. Of course, all of our ideas towards using technology and the internet to improve society can only succeed if we have net neutrality. Individuals need to be able to choose what they access on the internet without the interference from an internet provider or their government.

The ability to share knowledge and information with anyone in the world through the internet is one of the best ways we can improve society. However, without a computer hardware infrastructure the internet is nothing but a communication idea. The One Laptop Per Child Initiative (OLPC for short) is a great example of how we can get computers into the hands of people who need them. Computers do not need to be top-of-the-line gaming computers designed to produce high end 3D graphics. We can provide low cost equipment to people who have never owned a computer before. These low end computers are able to connect to the internet and therefore connect to the world.

With an OLPC style computer and a webcam, individuals will be able to document the horrors inflicted on people in third world countries and post the information to the internet for all to see. No longer will one man or one government be able to hide behind their silence and abuse people in their countries. When a society is under siege by a despot, the truth can become societies best weapon. That truth can be recorded on computers and posted to the internet. Even if we can not get a computer in to the hands of every person in the world, there are other technologies that work just as well. Digital cameras can store thousands of pictures on a chip smaller than a postage stamp. If we arm people around the world with cameras we can still communicate and learn through the photos.

Cell phones are also a great technology that will help to improve the lives of people around the world. Even something as simple as a voice conversation can change a person’s life. If all you have is a cell phone that makes voice calls, you could connect to voice recognition software and communicate with the world. People could use cell phones to listen to educational recordings and expand their knowledge. We could teach people new skills and give them training all through a cell phone conversation.

Finally, advanced in manufacturing technology should be shared with all the countries of the world to help improve not only society but the environment as well. By training people on high speed manufacturing processes we can improve the working conditions of millions of people around the world. Clothing manufacturing will not longer need to be completed through sweatshop practices instead high-tech cloth cutters and sewing machines could be used.

Many times technology surrounds us and we fail to notice how our lives are improved. We have become so immune to how improved our lives are because of technology that we often fail to see that there are other people who need assistance. We need to spread our technology to all countries of the world and help to improve their societies as well.

Long before Bill Gates began to sell Windows and even longer before Google became the king of the internet, there were people laying the ground work for the computers we have today. Did you know that computers have actually been in existence since the mid 1930’s however these early computers looked and acted nothing like the machines we use today. How did we get from there to now? With the help of a few key scientists and mathematicians who concentrated on the ideas of computing and improving the computers we had.

George Boole is consider by many to be the father of computer science. While his work fell out of fashion after his death in 1864, today the ideas that Boole developed are considered very relevant. George Boole is the creator of Boolean Algebra which is the basis of how all digital computers work. Boole was born in England in 1815, he became a teacher during his teen years and at 20 years old he opened his own school. At 34, Boole moved to Ireland and became the first professor of mathematics at Queen’s College where he remained until his death. Boole concentrated on mathematical research that linked the ideas of logic to algebra instead of philosophy. Boole’s greatest achievement was his use of algerbra to express logical propositions. Boole was considered to be ahead of his time, he wrote many essays in the mid 19th century expresssing his understanding of logic and the relationship to mathematics. You probably know a few Boolean words yourself because we still use his algebra when using internet search engines.

Konrad Zuse was a construction engineer during WWII where he earned the unofficial title of “inventor of the modern computer.” One of the most difficult tasks of doing a large calculation on a slide rule or adding machine is keeping track of the intermediate results and correctly replacing these results later in the process. Zuse wanted to create a process to complete these large calculations easily and he realized that an automatic calculator would do the trick as long as it had a control, memory, and the calculating processor. In 1936, Zuse made the first binary computer called the Z1 unfortunatley this computer was destroyed during World War II but Zuse continued to work on his binary computers creating the Z2, Z3, and Z4 through the 1940s.

John Von Neumann was considered a child prodigy when he was born in Hungry in 1903 and was another mathematician and scientist who has been credited as fundamental to the creation of the computer we use today. Before Von Neumann, most mathematicians used computers to create tables of data that were then applied to abstract mathematical ideas. Von Neumann was interested in applying the processing power of computer to specific mathematical problems instead of creating these abstract ideas. Von Neumann focused on developing the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) computer which was to be the first computer that could store and recall programs. Later in life Von Neumann worked for the IBM company and was responsible for accepting new computer ideas into their research and development program. Von Neumann became one of the most influential people in the computing field as any new ideas for development that were taken to IBM had to pass his approval.

Alan Turing, born 1912 in London studied mathematics at Cambridge University and was greately influenced by the early publications of Von Neumann. Turing worked during World War II on deciphering German code cyphers and is credited as instrumental in cracking the German secret codes. Turing is also credited for designing what many believe to be the first electronic computer. Turing designed the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) but this machine was never built. Had the ACE been completed it would have been faster and had more memory than any computer created before it. Turing understood the concept that Von Neumann exponded upon with a computers need to store and recall programs. In 1950, Turin invented the Turing Test which is a philiosophical and logical test designed to test for intelligence in computers.

As we progress through the history with computers there is often great controversy about who to credit for specific findings and discoverys. Many scientists worked together to publish papers and create working models of their theories and in some cases this has caused great debate on who to credit for a theory or discovery. While one person may believe that the EDVAC computer bares no resembelance to the computers we use today, there is someone else who directly sites EDVAC as the grandfather of the computers we use today. In general, we need to be aware how the ideas of one person have been built upon by the scientists of the next generation. You may have your favorite historical person fundmental to the creation of the computer and the truth is that without all of the great minds associated with computing we would not have anything at all.

Do you often find yourself trying to remember things from your life and failing? Do you need to learn a lot of facts or details in your job and never seem to be able to remember everything completely? Or maybe you simply want to be able to concentrate on a project for longer than fifteen minutes. If any of this is familiar to you, it is time to boost your cognition and improve your memory. Technology allows us new methods of brain stimulation and memory tools. You no longer need to resort to creating paper flash cards and quizzing yourself hourly. You can use your computer and technology in general to help improve your memory.

One software program that can help boost your memory is SuperMemo. SuperMemo is a database of material you need to learn. You can either create your own database of information to learn or use a pre-created database. During a review session, SuperMemo quizzes you on the material in its database and tracks your responses. Then, depending on the goals you set for yourself in SuperMemo, the program creates the ideal review program for the material you need to learn. You will not spend time reviewing information you already know because SuperMemo tracks the information you already knows and helps you to focus on the facts and information you still need to learn. Psychologists believe that improving your memory requires repeatedly study and SuperMemo is able to help you study efficiently.

If you are trying to boost your memory to help learn unfamiliar items, you may want to create a mnemonic device. Mnemonic devices associate lists of items with other words or acronyms. Mnemonic devices are can be either silly new sentences or entire stories and usually devising the mnemonic terms is hard if your brain is not working at its full capacity. To aid in creating a mnemonic device, there are many programs available on the internet that can help you. One such website is The Mnemonicizer which can help you build the best mnemonic device for the information you are trying to learn. The sillier the mnemonic saying you create, the easier it will be to remember the information for the long term so if you are stuck on a list of material you need to learn quickly, give the mnemonic device a try.

Improving your cognition increases not only your ability to remember items you have learned or been exposed to but your ability to think and communicate as well. The human brain starts to slow down as we age and there is evidence that this slowing begins as early as age 30. By playing simple brain games we can halt this brain slowdown and in many cases actually speed our brains up again. Lumosity is a brain training program that has been developed to be fun and engaging while allowing our brains to be challenged and worked. The Lumosity program is a scientifically designed brain training process. This program contains many different computer games designed to be entertaining and brain stimulating at the same time. After you being to play the brain games available through Lumosity, you will discover that not only are you able to concentrate better and think in a clear and concise manner but you actually feel better emotionally and physically.

Even when you do not have time to spend on a brain game or quizzing yourself with SuperMemo, you can still use technology to boost your cognition. Sometimes our brains may either not know or forget how to create the brain waves necessary for learning and concentration. Remember, our brains start to slow down around the age of 30 and part of this slow down may be forgetting how to create certain brain wave patterns. A brain enhancement CD is designed to stimulate your brain to create brain wave patterns similar to the patterns found in highly intelligent and over-achieving individuals. Do not worry, this will not hurt, all you need to do is listen to the CD containing music and sounds while studying, reading, or performing tasks that need increased concentration. You can even incorporate the sounds into your own music playlists and into some music streamed from the internet which will allow you to listen to the music you enjoy and improve your cognition at the same time.

Whatever process or program you decide to use in order to boost your cognition, you do need to change your process periodically in order to re-stimulate your brain and to avoid muscle memory. If you constantly perform the same learning process again and again, you take the chance on memorizing the process which will stop the process of brain stimulation necessary to boost your cognition. Keep boosting your cognition and you will soon discover that not only are you able to remember items better but you will have a better outlook on life in general.