March 1998
Domain Sleeperhold
Network Solutions' exclusive license with the United States expires, paving the way for killer competition in the top-level-domain registration biz. But a little-discussed provision for a six-month extension of the agreement might stymie a free-market free-for-all in the .com, .org, and .gov – as well as the emerging .store, .nom, and .web – name game.
March 1998
PCTV 24-7
Ziff-Davis launches ZDTV, a 24-hour computer channel, and critics worldwide swat their foreheads and yelp a collective Homer Simpson "D'oh!" But before you dismiss the PC-centric programming hub as a blunder of enormous proportions – hell, Ziff couldn't even keep its hour-long serial, The Site, on MSNBC – just remember that no one thought 24-hour news would last when CNN debuted back in 1980.
Q1 1998
Bag It Yourself
NCR Corporation releases a fully automated checkout line to a still-unrevealed major grocery chain headquartered in Kansas. Just scan in the products, and pay by credit card. If you live in Lawrence, you may never have to answer the question "Paper, or plastic?" again.
April 1998
Still Lost in Space
New Line Cinema submits its entry to the decade's most bankable, some say predictable, film genre – small-screen kitsch recycled as big-screen blockbuster – with its remake of the '60s classic Lost in Space. The coolest thing about the new TV-to-flick is the URL, natch, www.dangerwillrobinson.com/.
September 1998
Galactic Phone Service
Iridium's satellite-based digital phone, fax, and data service goes online. But given the difficulty in getting the pesky satellites to work, or even fly – a tacit acknowledgment of which can be read into the company's tolerance for a 5 percent failure rate – don't be surprised by delays. And even after the wait, Iridium's satellite solution is sure to be challenged by other low-Earth-orbit data services, such as Teledesic.
May 1999
DTV Hide and Seek
According to an FCC order, "stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC must build digital facilities in the 10 largest television markets by May 1, 1999." It's a quid pro quo attached to the 6-MHz swaths of the airwaves they received to broadcast digital television. The networks will whine about the cost of upgrading to digital equipment – even if digital compression makes the real estate more valuable. After all, it's never too early for a media mogul to lobby for even more free spectrum.
1999
Herbie the Love Taurus
If you often feel no one is listening, take heart: Visteon Automotive Systems builds speech recognition for cars, and Ford plans to include this technology in one of its luxury-car lines. The system responds to commands such as "phone dial (666) 976-FAST," "CD play disc 3," and "set temperature 72 degrees" – no word yet on its reaction to profanity-laced instructions offered to other drivers.
1999
Chip Off the Intel Block
Is your Pentium II too slow? Is the PowerPC passe? Intel claims that when it takes the wraps off much-anticipated Merced, the IA-64 chip will outclass today's RISC and CISC chips and transform explicitly parallel instruction computing (EPIC) into the standard architecture for high-end PC processors.
2000
Biorhythm Method
In the United Kingdom, couples use Unipath's Persona as a form of contraception. The product analyzes a woman's urine sample to determine how likely she is to conceive. Similar to other ovulation-prediction products on the market in the US today, the contraceptive more precisely measures varying levels of fertility. Thanks to the FDA, Americans can expect to wait until 2000 before Persona hits pharmacy shelves.
2002
Democracia Electronica
Which country will be the first to hold electronic elections? The Western Hemisphere's democratic light unto nations, of course – Costa Rica. A pilot project conducted by the Costa Rican government and students from Villanova University will electronically mimic this year's voting patterns. If the pilot is a success, the Central American nation vows to conduct all voting over the public Internet in 2002.
This article originally appeared in the February issue of Wired magazine.
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