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A colleague asked his grandfather, who responded quickly: "Barbed wire, screen wire, and indoor plumbing."
In my lifetime, I'd say it would be the internet communication protocol which has changed how we do work and play, and makes it possible for this question to be asked of so many so quickly.
Albert Einstein spoke highly of compound interest, though. 
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TCP/IP gets my vote too...just within my lifetime, I believe.
Although, I do miss those random "Pub/Playground facts" that people would spout, that you just couldn't verify immediately....the original, original "Fake News" 
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Genetically Modified Organics. Biggest issue facing mankind is overpopulation and increasing the food supply is the best bandaid (plaster) we have.
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My first "computer" was a huge block of electro-mechanical relays and the next was a large chassis full of thyratrons. The first program I wrote was on a 256 byte Univac digital trainer circa 1964. My vote for the most important technological innovation in my lifetime is the transistor without which there could be no integrated circuit or any of the more recent innovations.
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Black light posters. But not the ones with the black fuzzy stuff on them. We could have gone without the fuzzy stuff.
Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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I have to concur with many of the other respondents here: the personal computer. When I think how it's morphed into the many forms it takes now from PCs to phones to watches to IoT and how the computing engine has shrunk and is in so many objects, I marvel at how much we take this immersion for granted. It's had so many impacts on our lives, too many of them not so good but many that are.
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From a technical innovation, as being on the more consumer receiving end, I will mention some things which were made avaialble at a consumer level in my lifetime.
Yes GPS and gyroscopes were made available at a enterprise level in the 70's and 80's, but the iPhone brought these into a mass availability.
First Compact Disk player.
Then MiniDisc
Then MP3 - Oh wow, I can put 4x as much music on 1 disk now!
PS2 (PlayStation 2 and not the port) - Old enough to realise the sigificant step change in technology. Had MegaDrive, Gameboy, n64 but memory being more as entertainment.
First PC - win 95 (Magic School bus was a great game)
Zip Drive
My first external hard disk drive storage. 500MB external storage. (5inch HDD in in case, power brick just as big as the drive and case)
First USB drive - 20MB in such a small thing, oh wow.
First USB drive with 1 GB
ISDN internet - you mean i can be on the internet all the time now!
my first mobile phone
my first mp3 player (30 gb of storage - i was a Creative fan, nomad jukebox, instead of ipod)
iPhone (my first smart phone would be a sony years later, but this was a big step in the consumer space. I think blackberry was more popular in the business space. Dont recall seeing sidekick out in europe?)
Chrome with auto updating software.
my first SSD drive
Nothing outstanding in a while.
Improved driving safety features I think still in the upper middle class section (tesla AutoPilot, lane assist, car follow)
Carbon Nano tubes - lots of hype,
4k - its great, but until 80% of the computers in the office MUST require it, I dont think a stand out need.
(semi)Contact-less credit card payments - has a very high usage in such a short period of time.
QR codes kind boom and busted in Europe. I understand they are massive and still growing in Asia due to "old" less "smart" phones (nokia pre 2006 type phones, which have more then cable camera to scan QR)
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I like these comments.
I've always had a music collection. Originally this was in the form of vinyl records (and 4 track tape). The anticipation of the CD by music buffs was quite frenzied. I can remember going into my record shop and explaining all this to the owner whose comment was "It won't catch on". At that time the videotape format wars were going on.
MP3s are interesting technology but in my view a backward step.
ZIP drives were a good idea - the implementation was abysmal.
On the subject of hard drives the first IBM PC had none so booting up and loading some useful software took multiple 170k disks. The first hard drive available was 5mb - they were unreliable but a game changer (they all failed prematurely but by the time they did we were up to 20mb from memory).
Like you I'm a huge fan of SSD.
Your post has made me think about robotics and AI. Yes it's all computers (so is the Internet for that matter) but these are quite sophisticated applications.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
modified 10-Oct-18 6:31am.
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maze3 wrote: Yes GPS and gyroscopes were made available at a enterprise level in the 70's and 80's, but the iPhone brought these into a mass availability.
Gyros were also available throughout the 1990's, 3000$ could get you a piece of sh*t with 5 degrees of precision an 2 degrees of drift per minute.
Then Nintendo came along in 2004 to one american accelerometer company and said: "I know you sell 100 of these a year at 3000$. We want you to make a new model that sells for 2$ and we'll buy 50 million of them".
Once that ridiculous tech/money barrier was broken, then all the other manufacturers picked up 2$ gyros (why wouldn't they?).
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I wrote that email a bit quick. Looking it up and now realising, wow, Wii came out in 2006 (2007 global) as well.
So yeah, them bring the price of gyroscopes down, and size of the component, to a hobbyist level I think helps push what applications people use it for.
A lot of things like VR, AR, turn by turn navigation, benefit from more people programming with the devices and finding out algorithms
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Many of the things listed here, like PC's, the transistor, IC's, and TV, are excellent candidates.
Electricity was the first thing I experienced. It was brought into my area the year I was born. Our house was wired when I was one year old. It brought lights, indoor plumbing and television within five years.
My first radio was a 3 transistor portable that ran on two AA batteries. Could only get one or two AM stations.
Watched nuclear power go from a miracle saver of the future to a public relations disaster.
Watched the moon landing on a color TV. Black and white from the moon, but colored announcers.
Watched C/Unix evolve from a experimental laboratory language and system to the common structure of most current languages and systems.
Cheap gas and muscle cars followed by expensive gas and crappy cars that couldn't do over 80.
Watched the Intel 4040 evolve into the 8080, to the 8086.....
Watched the stock market rise, crash, rise, crash, rise crash.....well, you get the picture.
Watched Google become a silent giant.
BUT...the most impressive and significant development, IMO, is the PVR!!!! I can watch a TV show without being blasted with commercials.
My vote: The Personal Video Recorder.
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Very nostalgic. I grew up with kerosene pressure lamps so can remember the day we switched on our first electric light in the house (to explain would take time but there are always refugees making new lives).
The transistor radio is very interesting because when I was a child Japan was notable for making cheap toys and kitchen utensils. Then they started making transistor radios (as you note always defined by the number of transistors). My Dad brought back a beautifully made 8 transistor National Panasonic from Singapore for me as a kid National Panasonic 2 Band 8 Transistor T-801H Radio Panasoni[^] . I treasured that for many years and taped it to my bike handlebars. Transistor radios were banned at school but I used to take it often and remember listening to the Cassius Clay / Sonny Liston Fight at school one day.
Google is an interesting mention and I regard Wikipedia as one of the most marvelous things that technology has brought
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
modified 10-Oct-18 9:00am.
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Greens maybe get advice from here to reserve drug (7)
maybe get advice from here = CAB ( Citizens Advice Bureaux )
reserve = bag
drug = e
Cabbage = greens
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
modified 8-Oct-18 9:24am.
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Two hours, and the best I can think of is VEGGIES
No justification other than GREENS == VEGGIES so it's probably miles out.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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You're right it's wrong ( but not miles out ) 
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Do I wait until 14:00 BST before posting the solution ?
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Pretty much - we get exactly 4 hours before it's your go again tomorrow!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Get your thinking cap on
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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I got nothing, and I'm due out in about 5 mins to pick Herself up - nothing can help me if I'm late and keep her waiting!*
* If she's chatting and that makes her late and keeps me waiting, that's OK, of course...
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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pkfox wrote: Greens maybe get advice from here to reserve drug (7)
Chemist.
Cause it's got 7 letters, you get drugs there and faarrrkkkked if I know what else it could be.
If I'm right, you're up tomorrow cause I don't do cryptic sh*t.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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What? Its not scrotum? Everything is a lie. [cries a little]
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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lw@zi wrote: What? Its not scrotum? Everything is a lie. [cries a little]
That's reserved for Griff when he stuffs up and puts up a clue for 7 letters.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Ah! Nope, not even close ...
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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(Posted early, because he's always late... )
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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