__ Tomorrow Today __
__ Firestorm __
With the return of the Leonid meteor shower, as many as 10,000 "shooting stars" per hour are visible over parts of Asia. The tiny meteoroids pose little threat to the planet's population or even astronauts; still, they travel with sufficient velocity to create electrical charges upon impact, which could cook the circuitry in satellites. Back on terra firma, skygazers in the Western Hemisphere will get a chance to watch the fireworks 12 months later in November 1999, before the show disappears for a century.
__ Clever Carbon __
Deborah Chung, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, completes a solar cell made of a superstrong carbon-fiber composite. Since the substance behaves like both a metal and a semiconductor, it can be used to create intelligent materials sans embedded circuitry. The solar cell, for instance, converts light to electricity without the presence of any wiring; in the future, the composite could be used to produce smart and sturdy airplane hulls, car bodies, even skis.
__ Laugh Track __
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, attempts to wow prime-time audiences anew with his latest animated offering, Futurama, débuting on Fox. The series chronicles the mishaps of an average schmo who is frozen in time - only to wake up several hundred years later and resume life as an intergalactic deliveryman. D'oh!
__ Java OS __
The JOS Project unveils the first consumer iteration of its all-Java operating system. Much like Unix and Linux, the new OS is built by a core group of dedicated coders and is released to the world as open-source software. But unlike other developer-centric operating systems, JOS includes a user-friendly graphical interface - which means the upstart could become a mainstream alternative to Windows.
__ Bandwidth Halo __
Angel Technologies completes its first HALO Network, offering city dwellers hungry for high-speed Net access a new and unusual option. Unlike the increasingly popular low Earth orbit satellites, the HALO broadband scheme uses a 6-ton high-altitude airplane, equipped with millimeter-wave radio transceivers, that flies over population centers and beams down data. While LEO services such as Teledesic offer a wider area of coverage, HALO serves up higher capacity - 16 gigabits of shared symmetrical bandwidth - over a 50- to 75-mile zone.
__ Seeing-Eye Cars __
The Transportation Department wraps up its six-year Intelligent Vehicle Initiative. The program is intended to evaluate the feasibility of cars that can receive traffic data from satellite broadcasts, autonomously avoid collisions, and follow instructions from smart highways. Now that the tech has been road tested, auto manufacturers can roll out the way-new options in next year's models.
