Спереводом telecommunication a group of people enter a room, the lights go down, the screens the videoconference is under way. tomorrow's scientific fiction has become today's new technology -a daily reality for global companies who recognize the importance of regular communication between groups of people in different locations around the world. essentially the videoconference room resembles a usual conference room. delegate sit along one side of a table facing their colleagues on screen on the other side. they can see, hear and talk to each other simultaneously and can present slides of diagrams, even pieces of equipment. the technology is relatively simple. a device called video codec takes the picture, digitalizes it for transmission over a special network and reforms the picture at the other end. the problem today is to manufacture codec to the new international standard and to improve picture quality through faster transmission speeds. research and development is also focusing on mobile videoconferencing with broadcast quality pictures which enable to have instant communication with colleagues around the world. there is no doubt about the effectiveness of videoconferencing, as the videoconference eliminates the working time lost through the first travelling post office the first travelling post office in the united states was abraham lincoln's hat. that was a strange place, indeed, for mail; but that is where it was kept. lincoln was appointed postmaster of new salem, a small western town, about the year 1833. the postman visited the place once a week and brought the mail - a dozen letters, perhaps, and two or three newspapers - in his saddle (cедло) bags. he was always met by postmaster lincoln who put the letters into his hat for safekeeping. lincoln was also the clerk in the country store, so he had a good opportunity to distribute the mail. but if people did not come for it, he put on his hat and delivered it. so new salem was the first town in the us to have rural free delivery, even though the postmaster received very small pay for his work. at that time, stamps and envelopes were not used. when the sender of a letter paid the postal charges, the postmaster wrote paid in the large letters on the face of the letter. but the postal rates were so high that the sender seldom paid them. thus, the mailing charges were usually collected from the person who received the mail. the postmaster always held his postal receipts until a government representative came for them.
Первое почтовое отделениеПервым дорожным почтовым отделением в Соединенных Штатах была шляпа Авраама Линкольна. Это было странное место, действительно, для почты; но именно там он был сохранен. Линкольн был назначен почтмейстером Нового Салема, маленького западного города, примерно в 1833 году. Почтальон посещал это место один раз в неделю и приносил почту - дюжина писем, возможно, и две или три газеты - в его седло (cедло) мешках , Его всегда встречал почтмейстер Линкольн, который положил письма в шляпу на хранение. Линкольн был также клерком в загородном магазине, поэтому у него была хорошая возможность распространять почту.Но если люди не пришли за этим, он надел шляпу и доставил ее. Таким образом, Новый Салем был первым городом в США, который имел бесплатную доставку в сельской местности, хотя почтмейстер получил очень небольшую плату за свою работу. В то время штампы и конверты не использовались. Когда отправитель письма уплатил почтовые обвинения, почтмейстер написал заплатил большими буквами на лице письма. Но почтовые ставки были настолько высокими, что отправитель редко платил им. Таким образом, плата за пересылку обычно собиралась у человека, который получил почту. Почтмейстер всегда держал свои почтовые квитанции, пока к ним не пришел правительственный представитель.