For some the next few paragraphs  will bring relief and happiness for I feel the time has come to wrap up the technology theme and move onto pastures new.

Its been really great to touch on the many impacts that innovation has played in our lives and gradually things have changed beyond the average imagination.

One example of this was when I watched the recent offering of “Goodnight Sweetheart” (staring Nicholas “Rodney you plonker”Lyndhurst). It showed him coming from 1962 London to 2016 London via a time-travelling hole in the time system fabric or something like that.

Imagine it!! You come straight from a time of dull colours, straight-laced haircuts, clothes and architecture of browns and greys, with gramophones, wired phones and basic media to today where old tenements and shops are clean parades of internet cafes, smart phones in everyone’s hand, bright clothing and things that talk to you.Haircuts are individual and wierd. Cars are sleek and rounded with more technology and gadgets than one could imagine. Watches that can receive texts and one can talk into. Tiny headphones that would just look like strange ear plugs and mobile phone shops.Phone boxes have been converted into cash machines (they are new too)  or baristas. And that’s just what to experience in the first few minutes of landing in this year.

We take all this for granted because the changes have been small, subtle and gradual. We would also find it extremely difficult to go back not just for convenience sake but economically and socially as computers and gadgets have taken the place of needing so many of the shops, workers, spaces and time.

If one had the money and the inclination and the ability to create their own home it could be truly amazing.

Automated gates and video cameras to alert and help visitors and the owners to the front door. Robots to cut the grass and a watering system worked out and implemented by the home computer. Cars that park themselves (which have also driven you driverlessly)  into the luxury heated garages. All this before you even get through the bluetooth door lock and alarm system. Already on is the heating or air conditioning along with the lights, kettle, oven and hot water all controlled by your smartphone and the window you like opening in the bedroom when you go upstairs is gliding into the open position via the Ap.

The carpets and windows are spotless thanks to the clever robots employed to take care of those niggly chores and as one uses milk and other comestibles you are safe in the knowledge that a message has been sent to the supermarket to deliver the next shopping order right to your home.

As one walks round the house, doors open on approach and lights magically turn on and off. The media system brings up TV programmes or music choices at the command of your voice and when bored with that then the computer or tablet can connect one via a video call  to a friend half way round the world. One can also plug into the game console to play whatever the latest viral game is taking over the world of gamers.

So off upstairs to remove the self-tying shoes and stab-proof fabric clothing, set the shower via another phone Ap and undress to wash under the massaging water.

Then its offto the vitual indoor gym where a bicycle is set up so simmulate the ride out on the road or cross country route that is desired and the same goes for the running treadmill, the rowing machine and climbing wall. Fitness has never been so safe or technical.

So gadgets really are all around us and are gradually integrating into our lives without us realising so much.

The one or two  major challenges for ALL technology is battery size and ability to hold a charge and data memory and size.

Most mobile gadgets like the phone, watch, tablet, laptop, car, robotic mower/vacuum, radio or say, defibrillator rely on a battery and these are restricted to size and the ability to hold charge and give lengthy use is very limited but breakthroughs are on the horizon (yippeee). Data memory and size is also another bugbear as more power is needed to run the complicated programs and greater storage is required to save photos, videos, music, written documents and lists of things. Again there are backup systems being looked into or available now to ease this.

But CRACK these two issues and our technology and gadgets could see no bounds.

As for automated everything such as cars, work, humanoid robots and flight well lets just wait and see.

I have been around for fifty years this September 20th 2016 and have certainly seen a massive change in the way we live and interact. Some brilliant ((how did we manage before?) and some downright absurd ( how can we manage with that?). Whatever the scenario it has all changed and only one’s  imagination and patience will tell what the next fifty years will bring but make a note of what you see now and compare it to then; in the future.

You may just be amazed!!

We all live in our own little spaces whether it be a mansion, a small house, a bus, a cardboard box, a  tent or a mud hut.

We all have our things and we all call our spaces “home” and defend those spaces. “get orf moiy land!!!”

But have you ever considered about the changes that have taken place in the home (and more importantly in the kitchen and cleaning and decoration environments along with the garden), even in relatively recent years?

I have shared my limited wisdom about television, music, art, computers and entertainment technology but now want to take you into the realm of home help.

Why? Why not! I just would like to.

In the kitchen when I was a wee little boy we had a coke fired back boiler for heating and hot water, a sink and an oven (which my parents still have 50+ years on and working in some areas; basically its scrap but dad won’t chuck it.)). Yes there was a kettle and a toaster but that was about it.

Look in any modern kitchen today and its a whole different world of beeps, flashing lights, shiny this and that, electronics and gadgets.

Some sit proudly on the work surfaces (often only when new) but usually they clutter up cupboards and shelves (after being used once) as they weren’t the help that one thought they would be.

There is a however to this story though. Gadgets and Technology can help in the home and garden. Take the modern cordless vacuum. Would you really want to go back to beating the carpet with a thing that looked like a floppy tennis racket? Or does it float your boat to sharpen the scythe or hand shears to trim the hedge or thicket of stingers? How about mixing the cake batter by hand with a big spoon, does that fill you with joy? Better still is having the skin on your hands chapped and burned a fact that causes delight or is the washing machine a God-send?

If the answer to the above is no then more than likely you have bought into the modern world and invested in a vacuum cleaner, a strimmer, a mixer and other such labour-saving devices and this my “friend” is technology.

There are more exciting things going on though. The modern oven, fridge, washing machine and freezer can all use the microchip technology to talk to the cloud so when one runs low on powder, fishfingers and milk then an order can be automatically place with the supermarket to bring it to your door.

Bread makers can be filled and set so the morning loaf is ready for that breakfast time experience and fill the home with that fresh bread smell so coverted by estate agents when showing prospective buyers round. Just add a percolator for the coffee,which can be turned on using an AP  from the phone, and the home smell acolade is yours.

The Smart-Phone certainly does play a massive part in our daily lives.

Ovens can be set to talk to a smarphone AP so recipes and cooking times can be employed.

We have light bulbs, burglar alarms, vacuums, heating thermostats and all sorts now that can be controlled by a tablet or phone using “The Hive” or “The Internet of Things Connected” which is mind boggling. Even the humble door lock can be blue tooth enabled to allow a phone or card to access the loock rather than having to carry a separate bulky key. I mean how rediculous is it to carry a key?

Even more surprising is the use of glass. It can be just that a glass window but put it in the hands of  a technology company and they can produce panes that can become mirrors at the push of a button or opaque so as to frost over to stop glaring light or nosey parkers from ruining your day.

Want a warm home? No problem. Install underfloor heating. Sorry thats old hat. The Romans did that with their Hypocaust heating system several thousand years ago but we can use modern methods to power it; so there Mr Roman.

Robots can cut the grass, polish the floors, clean the windows and prepare and cook a basic meal in the ultra modern home and one day will form part of our daily needs. Possibly a modern version of Jeaves but a far better option than having to employ dodgy home-help that will snoop a steel as soon as your back is turned.

In the kitchen there is a gadget for almost everything from pealing spuds to opening a can of beans and I mean everything. If we bought them all then we would need another room just to store the gadgets and then would need a robot to find the one best suited for the job in hand but there again if one had a robot then it could do the job instead of the gadget or maybe “it” would use the gadget that we used to. Enough of that. Lets justt wait and see hey?

But do we need it all? I  like making bread by hand but sometimes its convenient to use a machine. But… try living without a fridge or freezer, experience life bereft of a modern oven/hob, break your back  scything the grass and get arm ache holding the toasting fork with your unevenly sliced piece of bread towards the fire. Now ask yourself that very question. YES YES YES we do!!

But granted we don’t need it all. Once again it boils down to balance and what is right for the individual.

Art is everywhere and has been around since the dawn of time; well at least since people used colour to adorn walls and things and possibly themselves, oh and make things, which is a very long time indeed.

But art isn’t just drawing!!! No it is  not….Its about expression and joy and wanting to share. Art is in music, painting, writing, sculpture, dance and filming. It plays a part in cooking, selling, shopping and work even the way we look and communicate.

So you could say that art is in everything and in all that we see and do…You may be right but as I am not a professor in this subject I only have my judgement to go on so please accept my humble apologies if I happen to  be wrong.

“Oiy!! I thought these here blogs were about technology and gadgets?” My reader in the single asks.

“I know it sounds daft but the thread does indeed carry on in this arena of expression through the arts. So please be patient.”

Lets try and look at it from a technology angle then.

Until recently things, like most areas in life, didn’t change much. Styles may have and fashions definitely did but on the whole the mediums employed and displayed remained quite steady and quietly (sometimes loud processes of prodution made it noisy) traditional.

Then came along dramatic inventions such as the camera, the printing press, electricity and sound recording. All had a huge influence on what was produced, how we could interact and where it could be enjoyed.

But this was still just an infant beginning to find its way.

Along came technology in a big way in the latter part of the twentieth century and now artists have  all manner of ways to express themselves and share their work.

Digital photography, a swear word or phrase to some, allows manipulation of a subject to create  images that would have been impossible before and to some that is so exciting they will loose their trousers. Others though will still want the purity and honesty of the pre-digital age as that is where the skill is in their eyes and certainly want to keep their trousers firmly on. You make the choice on which camp you stand in.

Then there is the quite modern tablet computer and these can now be used to draw and artificially paint as one would on a traditional canvas. The differences are that things can easily be changed and altered and one doesn’t have to have an entire room full of easels, paints, dirty pots and brushes and all the other paraphernalia that goes with actually painting something. Again not for all but a worthy contender in todays busy society. But its your choice yet again as to where your loyalty lays.

Modern printing and up to date materials also allow the budding imaginations to produce textilies and ornaments that twenty years ago would have been laughed at. Its not just that humourous lettering or image that adorns so many t-shirts around the streets but one can actually print three dimentional objects; yes objects that can be displayed as art or used as building or usable things. Take measurements from all around yourself and feed that data into a computer and you could find yourself staring at a life-sized printed model of you. Now that would be nice wouldn’t it?

Lets not forget advertising. Is that actually art? I certainly think so as its an artist or designer who has to think and produce the work. Billboards used to see a bloke come along with a bucket of goo, a ladder, a brush and a rolled up piece of paper whilst sucking on a jauntily place roll-up ciggy.

Well you can still see this but more than likely today one will have the pleasure of watching vast screens displaying a plethora of designs and products. Not on that;  the features seen in Harry Potter films where photos were brought to life and people could actually move about is now a reality and advertisers can tap into this technology to produce lovable animations of real scenes.

Music and video, which I have written about in previous blogs,  have also had their upgrade into the digital and modern age of gadgetry and reading is also included as a  part of this onward march.

So you see technology and the gadgets we use and see today have repeatedly come to the aid of the geeks and lovers of the NEW and art is no exception.

I for one love art in many forms and have great admiration for  those lucky enough to be able to express themselves through whatever avenue that pleases them. There are the crafters (one for Lucy there to reward her for her support in reading all my crap), musicians, photographers, painters, potters, writers, makers of strange things, sculpters, welders and bakers to name but a few artist out there and most have seen technlogy and gadgets help and change their fields whether they like it or not. The question is do they accept the modern and use it to their advantage or do the stay with the traditional? Or maybe some just mix it up to produce something else more funky?

No matter what then art is art and technology has touched it.

Well I am thinking that, like me, you thought that this gadget and technology thread could go no further but who knew we could be so wrong?

Its fascinating how much change goes on all around us every day and as the years go by those little changes amount to a revolution in what we use, how we use things and what it means socially.

Games are as much a part of the Olympics as they are of our daily lives albeit on very different styles and genres.

Everyone plays games of some sort and I mean everyone. Thats from logging train numbers, solving soduko puzzles, flicking tiddley-winks to board games. And that hasn’t touched on computer games.

But that is what I am saying. Things have changed dramatically over the last fifty years or so.

Just look at what play was like in the 70s. There were things like The Johnny Seven gun, Action Man, Lego, Hot Wheels, Fuzzy felt, Stickle Bricks, Play people and Plastacine but not forgetting Cindy, Tiny Tears and all the other girlie things that I am not OhFay with.

Adults had amusements such as Jigsaws, Board games, The Times Crossword and who could grow the stupidist moustache or wear the most ridiculous outfit.

It all needed an imagination and it was a great way of learning new skills. It was simple and I loved those engrossed and complex stories that played out in my mind where scenes were acted out as though real but no one was hurt and a new story would start from new the next time one played.Scenarios were endless and the knees of trousers worn through much to the harrassment of mothers who had to patch and repair them. (Good old Cholet; my very, very patient mum).

Games and toys were also well made and easily stood up to daily use unless you were like me a were ditermined to see what it took to break a Tonka toy ( a coal hammer, bricks and a blind spot at the bottom of a garden if your ineterested). Action Man was changeable by use of the varied uniforms and accessories so one doll could be a multitude of characters or Cindy would be changed to follow what she was planning for the day  by use of her fashionable and endless wardrobe.

Todays Toys are endless in the amount available but so often are poorly made, meaningless or fads. Even the humble Action Man is ruined by having set figures which can’t be changed so one has to buy a different one for certain actions.

“Oiy Lord Frog, whats this got to do with technology and gadgets?” I hear you cry.

Just you hang on in there my old fruits as I am about to get to that.

So thats what games were like.

Today games have changed so much so that to bring a child kicking and screaming into a modern home  he or she would be utterly dumbfounded. Okay there would be a few cars, dolls and lego but the amount of technology there would be staggering.

I can remember going to a friend’s house (Duncan Curnow, you know who you are) in the 80s and being introduced to this thing called Atarii. It was so utterly brilliant and state of the art but in actual fact was just a couple of moveable lines that could be manoevered to block a dot. Computer Tennis was invented.It took no imagination but was addictive and great.

Now scroll on thirty or fourty years and see what we have now.

Kids have remote controlled cars, boats, robots and flying drones.There are electic scooters and sit on cars and even voice activated toys. Many of these can be controlled from their mobile phones too. Computer games are so advanced that it takes an adult to understand them and hone the gaming skills. With the introdution of Virtual Reality these games can become almost a living event and the internet means that oponents and partners can be anywhere in the world. Yet once again the imagination has been replaced by someone else’s ideas and one has to follow their rules of use.

Sure kids and young adults alike have become more computer literate but their creative and commonsense abilities have been compromised. Even social interaction has changed as many youngsters sit at home and wander around in their virtual worlds. With this comes health issues. Becoming overweight and unfit is a result of not physically going out a doing things like walking, running, riding or climbing about in woods.

Even the simple board game and crossword puzzle along with jigsaws and even drawing have had major facelifts to allow them into the 21st century. Computers have taken over the platform of play but thankfully one still has to actually play or use a stylus to create.

There are a few geeky similarites though that have remained the same even though they have evolved immensely.

Decades ago the more technical or engineerial types could buy and create electrical circuits some of which would be complex pieces of equipment that could be employed in a wide spectrum of uses.

Today with the use of Raspberry and plug in components much the same thing can be done. One could theoretically make a complex robot or computer drone at home by cobbling together a combination of electronics.

So what have we learnt today? And I don’t mean that in a patronising way as I have learnt things too.

The Gadgets and technology surrounding play today might make things  more exciting and immersive but does it improve us and people?

Think about and look at the younger generation’s capabilities. Those who have not been allowed to be exposed continually and have had a balanced education may buck the trend but there are many that haven’t and they are my focus.

When I left home I could cook, clean, change light bulbs, do DIY jobs, budget the household and generally live unaided. Play and games also came naturally.Today I hear so many parents saying that their kids have left home but eat out or get takeaways as they can’t cook, ask dad to pop rould to change a lightbulb, fuse or battery and stare blankly when challenged to put a shelf up.

They have so little imagination that they all dress and look the same and god forbid they have to talk to someone.

So the answer to the question above is yes gadgets and technology have improved our entertainment but unless used in a balanced and more traditional way they have damaged us as human beings so be wary of an unbalanced education but everyone needs to have fun.

Until……Pokemon go!!!!