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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.
There are those who will put forward the argument that 30 megabits isn't going to improve the average Internet experience over the 5-8 megabit speeds being offered now by a lot of cable and some DSL providers. But didn't Bill Gates once say that 640k of memory should be more than enough for anyone? :-)
Just like most broadband service offerings, speed will be asynchronous. Right now, my 8 megabit downstream line is only 768k upstream. But the 5 and 15 megabit service will be 2 megabits up, which gives you better than a T1 into the home. The 30 megabit service gives you 5 megabits up. The consumer packages, according to their FAQ, do not allow you to run a server, but give it a little time. 5 megabits up is enough to run a nice little web server so long as you don't get Slashdotted or DDOS'ed.
Of course, it also means that compromised PCs will be able to do nasty things their botnet masters command 6-7 times faster. But when I go FIOS, I go 100% Linux.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
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
until some jerk hacks that pacemaker and starts setting elderly people's heartbeats to 250 BPM....
From TFA:
Ajax
When you use Google Maps, the Web site doesn't pause to reload the page each time you zoom in or pan to the side, and the URL remains "maps.google.com" instead of the meaningless string of letters and numbers you see at older sites like MapQuest. Google Maps is using a new technique that Web-watcher Jesse James Garrett has dubbed Ajax, for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML. Weaving together existing technologies, Ajax will help make Web services feel more like programs that run on the user's own computer, Garrett says, releasing Internet content from the limitations of conventional Web design by reimagining the browser as an operating system.
Surely, if the concept already exists, people know (of) it, and it's not one to know for 2006, but one already known from 2005?
"Women are just like ninjas; They lie even when it is more convenient to tell the truth." ~ Unknown
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP): Think of it as DRM for your display. Microsoft will be supporting this technology into the upcoming Vista operating system and others may follow as well.
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI): As seen on the new Intel Macs, EFI is an upgraded BIOS specification as created by Intel. EFI allows for hardware drivers to remain in the firmware and operate independently of operating system. The EFI can also detect and select operating systems, eliminating the need for a separate boot loader.
Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE): While this was created in 2005, Microsoft hopes for SSE to gain momentum and compete with the RSS standard in 2006. SSE extends the RSS 2.0 specification from unidirectional to bidirectional information flows. Microsoft even released it under the Creative Commons license, the same license covering RSS 2.0.
I
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predict
that
fitting
one-page-articles
...[Next>]
on
one
web
page
... [Buy now!]...
will
be
hot
in
2006.
... [Argh!!! Your computer is infected!!! 8-[~~ ]...
Ah,
wishful
thinking
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