What is Technology?

"Technology" gets thrown around to describe lots of different things, some of which are truly technology while others are just boring "stuff." I listen to WTOP during my commute and a fair number of ads seem to be companies offering technology "solutions" that meet "critical requirements." My hunch is that the majority of these "solutions" are just attempts at using some newer boring stuff to replace older boring stuff clients already use. The newer stuff will hopefully be an improvement over the older stuff, but that's assuming the contractor is able get the newer boring stuff in place within time and budget constraints--a surprisingly difficult feat (and a whole other topic). Here are some examples of boring stuff passed off as technology:

1. Standards (CSS, EJB): A standard is nothing more than an agreed way of doing things that people implement in partially incompatable ways. Nothing that can be done using one standard that can't be done with a different standard.
2. Programming Languages (.NET, Java, Ruby): New languages allow people to do the same things they've always been able to do with a different syntax. Ultimately, though, all languages end up as a bunch of zeros and ones pumping through a processor. And that's boring.
3. XML (XSLT, Schema, XForms, XML-RPC): XML is a standard (and a yucky programming language), but it deserves it's own bullet because it's the parent of dozens of derivative standards that are all equally boring.
4. Web-enabling: This is the process of moving applications from one OS (Windows/Unix/Mac) to another, more limited OS (Internet Explorer/Firefox/Safari).

Things that are really technology require scientific research to discover and implement, in my opinion--things that are produced by engineering not marketing.