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15 Important Tech Concepts In 2006

MBoy wrote to mention a Popular Mechanics story discussing 15 technology concepts that are likely to be important in the coming year. From the article: "Body Area Network (BAN) - Like everything else, implantable medical devices are going wireless. A new in-body antenna chip from Zarlink Semiconductor is in preproduction, and should appear in pacemakers and hearing implants this year. By transmitting data to and receiving instructions from nearby base stations, BAN chips can reprogram your heartbeat at your doctor's office or make a diagnosis from a bedside wireless monitor at home." I prefer Personal Area Network (PAN), myself.

7 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. GB isn't Gb by cloudofstrife · · Score: 5, Informative

    Someone messed up while writing this article. Samsung said that they were making 16Gb (gigabit) chips, not 16GB chips. TFA: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/ 13/0243231

    1. Re:GB isn't Gb by booch · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bytes and bits might not have SI-defined abbreviations, but the IT/computer/tech industry is quite consistent in using 'b' for bits and 'B' for bytes. I actually see the SI prefixes used incorrectly (i.e. mbps for Mega-bits per second) much more than 'b' and 'B' mixed up.

      --
      Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
  2. Re:FIOS, Baby! by matt21811 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "But didn't Bill Gates once say that 640k of memory should be more than enough for anyone? :-)"
    Yes, he didnt say that.

  3. Re:EMR by tim_uk · · Score: 4, Informative
    I do EMR for a living.

    In case of a natural disaster, they are on a server

    No, mine aren't. They are on multiple site, geographically dispersed, diverse routed synchronous data arrays in secure and hardened data centres.

    who has the proper copy and what data gets lost during automatic updates

    There are 16 "proper copies" of each instance. Each instance represents a doctors surgery, a hospital trust*, an ambulance trust etc. There are no losses during updates, it's designed to be fully available and resilient in the event of the total loss of a datacentre.

    (*trust is UK medical system speak for a local area and may contain one or all of the above)

    I seriously doubt they can even call this a method to save storage space

    Agreed. Last time I looked it was projected to be +9Pb. I have around 1Pb to look after here.

    the weekly/monthly backups would take nearly as much space

    The datacentres are synchronised. No old-fashioned "backups" take place. See my first point. However, non-patient related data is taken to tape daily and offsited.

    It's a serious undertaking. ;-)

    I laughed out loud when I saw that Bush had allocated $125m for EMR in the USA. This will cost BILLIONS.

  4. Re:FIOS, Baby! by Varitek · · Score: 4, Informative
    Just like most broadband service offerings, speed will be asynchronous.
    Asymmetric.
  5. Re:FIOS, Baby! by Mr.+No+Skills · · Score: 2, Informative

    I wouldn't hold my breath for Verizon to remove the "no server" clause from their contract. At least not until every single one of their T1 lines no longer produces revenue for them.

    To be clear, the Verizon FIOS agreement says no fixed IPs, no serving, residential use only (which seems to preclude home office professional use). Plus "Microsoft Windows required and MSN Premium", whatever that means. Plus you must switch your voice lines to FIOS and keep at least one voice line in the agreement.

    If you discuss any of these feature needs with them the price quickly becomes $129 a month and up.

    I was waiting for FIOS too. But I'll probably wait until their pricing reflects someone using the service besides kids websurfing on a Microsoft box.

    --
    Sleep is for the Weak
  6. LOTS of things break bookmarks. by syntax · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ajax is not the first thing to break bookmarks. Hell, POST DATA, used very regularly, will break your bookmarks as well. Plus, google maps still gives you a dedicated link you can click on which will reload the page with the real link if you really need to bookmark it or send it to others.