By Jerry Riley

These are innovations to products that mostly didn’t exist, or were in their infancy, when I was in high school (Boy, I am chronologically gifted).
The History Channel ranked them in this order:
10. Barcodes. Not just to let us

get through the checkout counter faster. Stores use the barcode to keep track of what they have on hand, or what they need to order. RFID is a close cousin to the barcode. Instead of scanning a barcode, it is transmitted to a receiver. One of the first commercial use was on the tollway
9. Time shifting. Use of VCRs, TEVO, Video on Demand, Portable Digital Music player.
8. GPS. Global Positioning systems. Originally also a military development that benefited us taxpayers. Can anyone still read a compass?
7. Lithium-Ion batteries. These have improved the performance of most everything else in this list. Without these, you might need a wheel barrow, just to carry power for your laptop or smart phone. Even dumb ones had big batteries.
6. Digital Technology. Television, cameras, video recorders. CDs, DVDs
5. Robotics. Not robots, as we all remember from science fiction, but the 24-7 machine, doing mundane or repetitive jobs. Robotic machines do dirty or dangerous jobs – often helping to protect humans.
4. Renewable energy. Wind Power may well be on the rise, except in Woodford County. Solar power, though, dwarfs wind power. There is thermal power, focusing heat to heat water and make steam. Mostly a commercial venture. Photovoltaics is probably what most of us think of as solar power: panels on top of businesses or houses that convert energy radiated from the sun, into electrical energy.
3. Credit cards. Includes a form of #10, the barcode, and may soon include RFID technology. A RFID reader could remotely collect the information from the products you’ve purchased while another one bills your credit card.
2. Cellular telephones. Since I don’t have one – enough said.
1. The Internet. The greatest public forum available to the average (or, below average) person, so far. Without the Internet, I doubt you would be reading this column – and, what a revoltin’ development that is! As impressive as it seems, it is just starting to grow and expand.

Jerry Riley is an occasional commentator for the News Bulletin. He is a retired telecommunications supervisor.