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What Would We Do Without Technology ?

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Technology, though, if our preference or not, we have already put into every aspect of our lives. So, even when considering these issues I need to look at images from the Internet, and write using my tablet..At Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, free wireless internet available everywhere, enslaved thousands of people in the waiting saloons, heads all bend forward, having been broken from the world, just indulged to smartphones or tablets. The 3-4 year-old babies watching cartoons on the tablets, using it as skillfull as a baby bottle,at the sam time retired ladies and gentlemen over 70 years old, no matter which country they are from, are in social networking shares..a very familiar picture, a common picture we may face wherever we go nowadays.

We live in an age that we feel naked and vulnerable, with constant restlessness when our mobile phone is not with us. Naturally, we often ask the question “what were we doing in the past ??”..We are likely to have forgotten how we communicated without technology. Yesterday I very clearly saw the answer in Cuba. In this respected country where internet and smartphones are not popular even in the largest city, Havana, people had not distorted the overall face to face communication. A rubber ball or a wooden toy is enough for the presence of childrens intimate sharings, where the olders keep the small traders affections and street chats of the neighbors in front of the doors of the houses even a nail is not driven for 40 years. Although we have forgotten, life was exactly like that for those X generation and older, like me. So how is the picture in Havana? Music everywhere, entertainment at every corner, and most importantly, a lot of smiles, lots of hearty laughter and happy conversations.

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The picture for sure destroys the idea of necessity of technology to be happy, furthermore, leads to think as if technology is just an instrument to miss the good old days. But we still say “at least we should not give up internet..!” helplessly. “We can not be happy without technology” is no longer so easy for me to say ..

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Why Do We Have To Turn Off Our Mobile Phones in Aircrafts?

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At these days of feeling as if naked at a deserted island when we don’t have our mobile phones with, it is for sure the most hated announcement of aircrafts hearing “Please turn your mobile phones off”. Like it or not we abide the  rule,but why is this measure necessary? Well, the answer to this question is right in it, this is a measure as most rough form..!

As I had shared in my previous articles, affecting other electronic devices with intentional or unintentional emissions from electronic devices is known as “Electromagnetic Interference” (EMI), where operating without causing or being affected from interference is known as “Electromagnetic Compatibility” (EMC). It is not difficult to find out that the main reason of the measure is this matter of fact..So, do the  mobile phones really cause harmful EMI? This question does not have clear and universally valid answer, it can be, or it is likely to be, because the matter depends on many factors; frequency of source, amplitude, environmental conditions, realization of the coupling requirements etc. All electronic devices of their nature, have electromagnetic emissions, more or less… It is unquestionably a fact that in case of this emissions build interference on the sensitive aircraft systems, it poses a vital risk!

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Although the flight permissions are given after the aircraft passed the EMC tests and is certified to be in compliance with the standards, both as a system an also as equipment base, there is no guarantee that the test scenerio will exactly suit to the conditions of the real daily life! Think of it, notification of even a one percent margin of error is adequate for us to give up the use of the aircraft, taking the risk of this interference does not look very rational…

So, how big is the risk???

When using the mobile phone apart from its communication functions (as taking photo, playing music etc.) I can briefly state that the unintentional emissions are very small in amplitude. So the risk is “bigger than zero”, but clearly much too small. However, if the the subject is messaging or having a call, that requires wireless communication, we surely know that the intentional emissions of the device while trying to connect to the base station reach to high power levels, and also we know that those levels may be high enough to create risk to disturb the sensitive navigation systems of the aircraft. Although in today’s technology this risk is minimized with EMC precautions, it is still important  and can not be ignored…

Result; Stay away from mobile phones during flights! This will reduce the risk of danger, besides it also will lead to create an opportunity to socialize by contacting other passengers, face to face…

 

 

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Is Mobile Phone The Only Criminal??

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We are quite pleased for the introduction of technology into every stage of our lives, because of the comfort it brings. But surely all of comforts pleasing us somehow have damage also.. 15 years ago mobile phones usage was quite limited while today we are carrying two phones and buying a seperate one to our children. The subject how much harm does the  mobile phones have on human health is not only the work of the academic community, but also is a popular topic of environments where soccer, dinner recipes and even fashion is spoken 🙂

There are thousands of studies done on this subject and numerous articles and books are published. In the period I served for TUBITAK this issue was more popular… we did academic work on the subject, we may consider it later, but questions from our daily lives posed a serious e-mail and telephone traffic …

There are two basic curiosity about mobile phones; first concerns people resting at an office or house close to a base station, anxiety about radiation…the second is more general; how much we give harm to our health when using a mobile phone…

The Base Stations..!

You should first note that mobile phones do not communicate between each other, but with the base stations. So we use the phones by transmitting and receiving signals to the base station. The service can only be possible if the power of that base station is enough and the number of the mobile phones benefiting from the same base at the same time is below a certain limit. Each base station broadcasts GSM signals using antennas on them. This signal emission, depending on the direction of the antenna, radiates at a certain angle. To make it easier to imagine, you can think of a lighthouse in the darkness, usually like the ones in cartoons. Like the one on that scene, starting from the base stations antenna, electromagnetic radiation goes ahead getting wider by the distance, such as the light of the lighthouse. Is it possible to be affected by the light while sitting at the foot of the lighthouse..?? taking also into account the proverb “candle does not illuminate its bottom”.. It is the same case for base stations, the base on the top of our building does not have any harm, but also any benefit. Although no widely accepted standard,  there are limits of  World Health Organization and ICNIRP for electromagnetic emissions. Turkey’s accepted limit values ​​are well below these limits…

What about the phone itself ..??

Coming up to the mobiles we use…We can send  our voice, messages, photos, even videos from place to place wireless, so it is certain that an electromagnetic radiation exists. As time goes on, less environmental health  damaging technologies are being developed and products are tested more strictly. Very basic rule of electromagnetics may benefit us pretty good:  “electromagnetic field decreases with distance..!”. There is a  serious difference between talking with a mobile phone while leaning it on our ears and keeping the phone at 2 inch distance from our ears..! Using headphones and keeping the phone away from our body is the ideal solution.

I made dozens of emission measurements on base stations, I’m not saying this to justify this system but in areas where people are present,  I’ve never seen a value in remotely approaching the limit. What about mobile phone usage?? More or less it is certain that there is an affect to human body, especially the metabolism..but isn’t it a conflict not getting our minds busy with the electromagnetic radiation of household appliances like vacuum cleaner, blender, hair dryer, air conditioner, computer etc. that we use in our daily lives..make a search for the amount of radiation of those equipment..! 🙂

Consequently, without a shadow of a doubt, exposure a long duration to a high amplitude electromagnetic energy have a serious damage on health. Because the limits are given with derived values but not the realistic results gained after series of long lasting experiments on human health, nobody can claim that limits are reliable. Is it the cause of the increase in cancer cases, the becoming spread of amount of electromagnetic emissions from technological devices..??? Probably… In today’s technology, mobile phone is just one of the hundreds of devices around us, radiating electromagnetic  energy as the source…do they give damage too much??? Greater than zero… 🙂

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Are R & D People Unsocial??

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I had shared the importance of research and development issues for companies, its position in the organization, characteristics of the manager etc. in my previous posts. What about the R & D employees?? There is an indisputable realty for companies especially showing size in the technology sector; R & D’s performance draws the fate of the company…R & D employees are in a decisive position for the companies. So what determines the performance of R & D employees??

An overall valid rule: the teams with strong team spirit are at least one step closer to success in business. So, is it the same for R & D?

The term unsocial, as the opposite expression of social is defined as “the one exhibiting non-social human behavior”. Unsocial people are the ones who can not enter or do not prefer to enter into society, thus who don’t give priority to communicate with people. Now we come accros with two questions: are the R & D people unsocial? If yes, should R & D people be social ..?

For companies working in technical fields and doing R & D in the real sense, R & D engineer’s first task is to do research and then to develop with the data they obtained. The research issue is much easier today, thanks to a miraculous tool such as internet. But still, libraries, books, publications, articles and so on are the basis of many sources of research. Research, in this context may be considered as an individual activity. When we come to development, in the new design stage it is possible to work individual, but it is impossible for a development activity to be completed without having contact with the buyers, the testers, the mechanic designers, graphicers etc..! Nevertheless, especially R & D activities that require high concentration and continuous operation, can cause to spend hours or may be days without communicating with environment…and in time, this kind can turn to be a habit or a behavior characteristics. I can briefly say that I often observed this in the teams I used to manage.

The ability to communicate in the workplace, although not a hundred percent applicable rule, is in fact parallel with the ability to communicate in daily life. An R & D person who needs a request from a collegue of his department or another department, considers this as an opportinity to chat or share something if he has a social character. But an R & D person of asocial type thinks many methods to escape from requesting something, and at last tries to finalize the subject by sending just an e-mail instead of having a direct contact.

An R & D person who doesn’t have sharings or doesn’t try to have a place in the community in his business life generally also continue to do so in private life..or vice versa, a person adopted  an unsocial life in private, exhibits a behavior that avoids communication in business life. However, work is more enjoyable for R & D people who loves to be in the community, feels pleasure from engaging in social activities with private friends and collegues. I strongly recommend using the business environment to socialize, sometimes of course..! 🙂

It is very clear that it is not mandatory for R & D people to be social like the people working at sales, marketing, public relations, corporate communication…but it is undeniable that sociability provides positive performance for R & D teams targeted the success with team spirit. Anyway, sociability feature which is optional for R & D staff is a standard and mandatory characteristics for R & D managers 🙂

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Morning Exercises

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Are we being awakened when we come to work in the morning?

No matter  at what time of night we go to bed, it always feels hard to get up in the morning and go to work. Most of the time we face to such a lots of people going to work in public transport vechiles, transport services or even in the cars we use, who still exactly hasn’t woke up … it is quite common to wake up after drinking coffee in the office. From the days when I started my career till today, I continue to start the day early, which is a way of life I gained from my student years. On the base stands discipline, then you pick it up as a habit, so it is easy to maintain …

The time to start to day should not be the time you enter the office, or get on the service bus or leaving the house..!

Weekdays in the mornings, I can briefly state that getting up at least 1 hour before you leave home, doing the personal hygiene and making sufficient execise saves the whole day. The “sufficient” expression is important, because, we let our body into the rest all night, and forcing it to a sudden and coercive sport is especially risky for heart health. Early in the morning to do exercises generally based to flex muscles, but necessarily in a section including light and not very long-term  instantaneous burst (short-term jogging, jumping, series push-ups, sit-ups or pull-ups, etc.), is the golden key to win the day. After the fitness, a good breakfast to meet the rush of the day means taking the golden key on a golden tray. Now that what I’ve written, early get up, doing exercise, then a good breakfast sounds quite utopian, but belive me it’s not hard to .. it becomes addiction after you get used to it..

In the service bus, while your collegues are sleeping or staring around with sleepy eyes, you will  already have started the day, looking for a book to read during the journey or chatting with a friend who has started the day like you.This means that you can dream of the well-done coffee that you are going to drink just for “joy” when you reach to the office… You will observe that the morning execises keeps you fit whole day, thus increasing your work efficiency. And if you have a manegerial position where you work, you will be a role-model for your employees …

Look to the CEOs of the companies of which have grandeur names. .. Or to successful business people…You will see that they have applied their disciplines not only to their professional career, and also to their lives, and they have discovered the importance of the exercises done in the start of the day…

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