Advances in technology just keep accelerating. As we get more technologically advanced it seems the new inventions and procedures keep coming faster. When I was a kid there really wasn’t much of a way for people who were protesting something to get their message out, especially if they were in a different part of the world. All that has changed thanks to sites like Twitter and Facebook. Israeli Arabs have been using Facebook to make a case against the Jewish nation state bill. The Arabs are adding a second class citizen stamp to their Facebook profile pictures as a protest. The bill if passed would drop Arabic languages thus making it harder for people to get essential services in Arabic. Using Facebook this way is an example of how the entire world is now connected and communications can occur between people no matter where they are on this planet.

It is beginning to look like we have solved the Ebola disease problem. An experimental drug was given to 20 volunteers in the United States. The vaccine has created a resistance to Ebola by the human immune system. This occurred about four weeks after the shots were administrated. One half of those vaccinated received a more powerful shot and in turn it produced more antibodies than those who received the weaker shot. This was considered first stage testing and it produced no serious side effects. Much larger studies are planned in West Africa and shots will begin in January 2015 in Liberia. Medical personnel are trying to decide the best size dose to use.

When we think of space travel where is the last place we would suspect would be developing a space program? I think it is safe to say Africa. That is about to change. The Cape Town based Foundation for Space Development is going to launch a probe to the moon and either land it on the moon or orbit the moon and then the image is going to be projected in classrooms in Africa. An engineer stated, “We’re planning a mission to the moon led by Africa.” The chairman of the South African Council for Space Affairs said, “Space technology is becoming more affordable and the barriers to entry are getting lower all the time.” It is easy to see the United States lead in space is being eroded as time goes by both the availability of systems and parts, and by the decreasing NASA budgets.

Suddenly after only a few years we are drowning in tablets. Tablets can now be purchased for the incredible price of only $19.99 with a coupon or for $1200 depending on your choice. The $19.99 price even shocked me, but my son-in-law purchased one for this price from the Microcenter computer store using a $20.00 coupon he found online. Apple tablets seem to be more expensive in general than the run of the mill systems such as Android and Windows, but there are high end windows tablets such as Windows Surface Pro. Our tablets are getting so powerful they can now rival many computers and as I have said in the past people do not need the absolute fastest machine, all they need is one which is good enough for what they do. I switched from building my own desktops a couple of years ago to using the HP Envy laptop with an I-7 quad core and it is working fine for me. Soon the tablets will be able to duplicate this performance. The Surface Pro is already using an Intel I-5 quad core and has a detachable keyboard. A Windows tablet can now be had for under $100.

AT&T has said it will not halt the expansion of its fiber internet service, but and this is a big but, it will wait on newer fiber plans until it sees what is happening with net neutrality. Many phone companies among others want to set the rules on where we go on the Internet and give us less of a choice by slowing down connections with sites they are not recommending. This has been a heated debate with many people wanting to keep the internet free and allowing us to go anywhere we want on it. AT&T says even though it is spending billions of dollars a year on its network, the future of its business is contingent on how the regulators are going to address net neutrality. That’s a nice little bit of pressure, isn’t it?

A senior EU official made a statement about a non-binding vote taking place in Brussels to break-up Google. He stated American companies were using this European forum to push this forward and have taken advantage by using “big-money lobbying.” There it is again the dreaded “L” word. Lobbying has driven the investigation into Google by the powerful European Commission. He went on to say, "The American companies are using the European Commission as a battleground among themselves." I guess this is what happens when powerful companies who have competitors go international.

GoPro the maker of action cameras such as the Hero4 has decided it is going to make drones with the camera attached. Apparently GoPro cameras were being used on drones, so the company probably thought why not get in on the action and who can blame them. GoPro cameras were being attached to drones for years before the company decided to build drones so the company must feel this is not much of a risk. Some drone manufacturers have seen a sales increase of 130% from last year to this year.

Do you have Twitter on your smart phone? Twitter has announced it will track the apps you download. The rational for this is said to be because they want to build a more personal experience. I don’t know about this, it seems to me companies can go too far sometimes so I have to ask the question, are they going to give us a choice of opting out or will Twitter have to be removed to get out of this?