July 1998
State of Net Privacy
On the first anniversary of the US government's Framework for Global Electronic Commerce, the Department of Commerce reports to President Clinton on the state of privacy on the Net. The president wants to make sure that overzealous online marketers aren't abusing personal data. For online businesses, the stakes are high: If the industry's attempts at self-regulation fail, ecommerce faces the daunting probability of intense legislative scrutiny.
Fall 1998
Next Internet
The next-generation Internet protocol, IPv6, reaches draft status, a benchmark that means major hardware and software vendors can ramp up the production of IPv6-compliant products. Yet it's up to network operators to make IPv6 commonplace. Despite nifty networking technologies -- such as autoconfiguration of addresses and support for mobile computing –- the Internet community is likely to be most impressed by the new standard's expanded address space, which will ensure that there's enough room for the Net's continued growth.
October 1998
Geek TV
Nerds 2.0.1: Glory of the Geeks airs on PBS with host Robert X. Cringely (aka Mark Stephens). The computer columnist first made a TV name for himself in the well-received 1996 series Triumph of the Nerds, which chronicled the growth of the PC industry. The three-hour sequel covers the ascendancy of computer connectivity and features provocative interviews with Vint Cerf, Marc Andreessen, and John Doerr.
December 1998
Interactive Standard
MPEG-4 arrives. Venturing beyond the traditional audio/video compression specs, the standard allows for new types of interactivity, including control over the individual elements of a television feed. Boob tubers with MPEG-4 set-top boxes and TVs can hit the remote to select a different camera angle or call up the scoreboard during a football game. While the major networks remain firmly committed to the old MPEG-2, satellite-TV services adopt MPEG-4 to woo new viewers.
December 1998
SKG Dream
On 18 December, when DreamWorks's Prince of Egypt opens in theaters, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen await the reception with digits crossed. The all-star studio's previous movies -– the unspectacular debut The Peacemaker, the moderate moneymaker Mouse Hunt, and the acclaimed but underperforming Amistad –- failed to lure record crowds. After spending about US$60 million on its latest effort -- an epic account of Moses' struggles with Ramses -- the media giants are relying on an animated Bible story to ring up box-office receipts. Uh-oh.
January 1999
Dollarg\&ayml;nger
Mondex, a new multiple-currency smartcard, lets travelers download dollars from ATMs in New York to spend pounds at shops in London and extract yen from cash machines in Tokyo –- without ever having to exchange money. Brought to you by MasterCard, the Mondex chip card holds five currencies at the same time, which means effortless shopping wherever you roam.
March 1999
Market Melee
The World Trade Organization's multilateral financial-services agreement goes into effect, opening up 75 percent of the world's banking, insurance, and asset-management markets to global competition. Merrill Lynch now competes with local financiers in foreign countries. Proponents of this plan claim that the free market's invisible hand will help prevent currency collapses –- er, fluctuations –- such as the recent Asian crises.
2001
Healthy Honda
While environmental activists demand electric vehicles, Honda salespeople pitch the Z-Lev internal-combustion engine. Propelled by a converted 2.3-liter, four-cylinder Accord engine, the Z-Lev produces one-tenth of the pollutants allowed by California's Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle standard, the most stringent exhaust requirement in the world. In fact, air sucked straight from the Z-Lev's tailpipe is six times cleaner than the air you breathe on the Santa Monica Freeway.
January 2001
Timed Release
On 1 January, the international team behind the Biological and Environmental Specimen Time Capsule project bores 65 feet below the Antarctic ice cap and buries several metal tubes containing embryos, seeds, pollen, and DNA, along with documents and instructional material. Since the endeavor is intended to study change in the specimens, capsules will be opened one, five, 10, 50, and 100 years later -– with a special set of tubes to be excavated by our distant relatives a millennium hence.
2001
Quantum Power
Scientists at Sandia National Labs in California build the first practical quantum mechanical transistor. Operable at room temperature and soon to be stable enough to use on a circuit board, the new transistor heralds the age of low-power, ultrahigh-speed computing. But because the new transistor is unlike anything that has ever existed, engineers head back to the drawing board to design brand-new quantum computers from the ground up.
This article originally appeared in the June issue of Wired magazine.
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