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I first came across the application programming interface (API) directory, ProgrammableWeb, in September 2005, shortly after it was launched by John Musser. At the time, the directory had just 54 listings. How times have changed, because nearly 16 years later ProgrammableWeb lists over 24,000 APIs.
It’s an indication of how pervasive APIs have become on today’s internet. There are even API providers worth tens of billions of dollars, such as Twilio and Stripe. It’s a massive market, primarily because APIs enable developers to plug in virtually any specialist service they require for their applications. You don’t need to build your own communications service, for example just use Twilio. Likewise, tens of thousands of applications use Stripe’s APIs to manage payments.
March 5, 2021
Before the age of electronic computers, humans who did complex mathematical calculations by hand were called computers. The movie “Hidden Figures,” based on a book of the same name, tells the story of three Black women who worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as human computers: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. They and their Black colleagues in the segregated West Area Computing Unit played an instrumental role in sending John Glenn to space in 1962 and getting him back to earth safely, but many of their NASA colleagues remain hidden figures to this day due to systemic racism that allows the achievements of their white colleagues to outshine theirs.
Achieving holistic automation with ICONICS software
ICONICS software is helping manufacturing companies to connect their IT and operational technology and automate their processes to boost productivity and lower costs By Melissa Topp on 09 February 2021
Manufacturers may understand the maxim of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” better than those in other industries. It is as true for the products they create as for the tools they use in their processes. Successful manufacturers have learned to blend their IT solutions with their operational technology (OT) to gain a big-picture view of their enterprise, allowing them to boost productivity and efficiency while lowering operating costs.