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1982
IBM PC: Computers as a low-cost assemblage of electronic Lego parts made every neighborhood electronics geek a computer technician and every small office and home work room a data center. -
1983
GPS/GIS: The Global Positioning System was opened for use by civilian aircraft in 1983, beginning a trend that ' combined with great advances in geographic information systems and mapping tools ' led to agency data visualized in layered maps and cars telling their drivers where to turn. -
1984
CD-ROM for computers: Flattened two entire industries, data storage and music dissemination. Its successor, the DVD (1996), killed off the video tape. FLASH MEMORY: Invented in 1984 at Toshiba, it found its place in small devices. Smart phones, digital cameras, other devices (and, soon, laptops) all rely on Flash. -
1985
NETWORK FILE SYSTEM: The file system that brought us to the age of network storage. No longer would your data be hostage to the computer in which it was created ' or to backup tape. -
1987
POWERPOINT: The one you love to hate. All the knowledge in the world boiled down to easy, succinct, bullet-pointed meaninglessness. PERL: God's own duct tape, at least when working in Unix-based systems. -
1989
WORLD WIDE WEB: Invented by Tim Berners-Lee, it would soon change the way governments, business and people operate. -
1990
the American government passed the Clean Air Act, which among other things asked automobile companies to develop cleaner and more fuel-efficient cars. -
1991
The world's first "webcam" comes into existence at Cambridge University. The actual camera remained in use for ten years (until 2001). It was invented by James Quentin and Paul Jardetzky. -
1995
Prior to the invention of Java programming language, C and C++ were the only popular languages used by coders and software developers. -
1999
Mobile wireless file sharing came into the picture with the invention of Bluetooth technology.
