As possibly one of the last generations to remember what it was like to not grow up with a smartphone or tablet, it’s fair to say that I have a lot of memories of not being connected to someone (or something) 24-7.

Some might say “those were the good old days.” And yes, while I might have been able to just turn up to a place and everyone is there on time without having to coordinate en-masse via social media, or been able to say to my parents “I’ll be home when the street lights come on” without them texting me or ringing me every five minutes, the age we live in now has truly simplified how we as a human race communicate.

“The good old days” would not have allowed us to video call our grandparents in another country or hold a meeting online with 10 other people from the business. And most of us certainly would not have been able to work through the COVID-19 pandemic without a smartphone or a tablet or a video conference tool or ultra-fast broadband or … (you get the picture). The advancements in technology I have seen in such a short space of time is truly remarkable – kudos to the human race!

The speed at which we do things these days is staggering and all made possible by ultra-fast CPUs, fiber optic cable and automated machinery that seem to be the norm -- as appose to when I was a kid and would have been better at home watching a sci-fi blockbuster! Working for NDC Technologies has allowed me to understand more about how these advancements are made and what they do for mankind. Before, I would take for granted plugging in an Ethernet cable and not even thinking about how all the components within it work together to deliver to me what I need. The things that go into the manufacture of these sci-fi-like gadgets is baffling!

Things like length and speed, diameter and ovality, lump and neck, barrier layer thickness and much (much) more are all essential to ensuring a quality end-product.

I now have a great appreciation for what manufacturers of modern technology create for us and how all the components come together. And as brilliant and reliable as NDC Technologies’ solutions may be for helping to control the quality of these products, our measurement systems would not be the same without the very products they measure working away inside them. Like some sort of electrical circle of life.

Thanks to today’s technologies I can do more, find out more and be together more often with the people I care about. It has opened new doors for me as a person – ones I couldn’t have even imagined when I was a kid in “the good old days.”