When I was in high school and I was first exposed to computers, I was taught a programming language called Fortran and shown what a CPU, or Central Processing Unit, looked like. It was a massive box that would take at least three full grown men to lift. Things have definitely changed. Programming is done in different languages now and often by other programs. CPU's can fit in the palm of your hand and many are manufactured overseas. International shipping of computers, which were once closely guarded technology, has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry.



As technology advances and computer components get smaller and smaller, the practice of international shipping of these components becomes more common. Where once computers were the exclusive property of high tech businesses and government agencies they have now become an essential household communication device. The ability to go on line and communicate over the internet is taken for granted much like the radio and television signals of yesteryear were.

International shipping of computers is done by plane, boat, truck or railroad to every country in the world. Companies like Apple and Microsoft have made the home computer one of the most coveted items ever created and have caused the world to become a much smaller place. The international shipping companies themselves require the use of computers for inventory, personnel records and route management.

That high school computer class was a mere twenty-five years ago and I have seen the bulky white monitor with the green LED lettering replaced by flat screens with 256 color packages and graphics that bring images to life right in my bedroom. Processors are now the size of matchbooks and hold gigabytes of data. Wires have been eliminated and laptops have been created that are as thin as a pad of paper. All of this has been necessary to help the computer industry keep up with the public demand and be able to hire international shipping companies to transport massive shipments of machines that are getting smaller, lighter and more powerful by the day.

When the home computer was first introduced to the world it weighed over twenty pounds and was priced high enough that only the wealthy and upper middle class could afford it. This is very common with new technology. As the demand for these machines increased, the industry had to find practical ways to make it more affordable and easier to ship. International shipping companies charge by size and weight so to open up new markets computers had to become smaller and lighter. The research and development that followed has brought us palm pilots, cell phones and GPS systems for our automobiles that were science fiction twenty-five years ago when I was in high school.

These significant advances and the decrease in the size and weight of computers has made international shipping more cost effective and brought new technology to every corner of the earth. Computers have brought us into a new age where communicating with someone three thousand miles away on another continent is an everyday occurrence. Just imagine what the next twenty-five years will bring.