 Chris Goh's "On the Net"
Occasionally I have seen fog obscure the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, but never have I seen smog like this caused by the fires that surround Sydney. It makes a bitter-sweet start to a new millennium.. I remember when I was 10 in the school library looking at all the things that would be possible by the year 2001 and I couldn't wait ... to think I would live in the era when our whole way of living would change.
Indeed it did, but not in the ways I had envisaged.
The Abilene Project, (alias Internet 2) made a quiet debut earlier this year, and the list of universities supported by research and government agencies is growing. By 2003, when the project is aimed to be completed, major universities around the world will have 2.4 Gigabit per second backbones.
http://www.internet2.edu/abilene/
Recap 2001
The Itanium marks Intel's & Hewlett Packard's foray into 128-bit computing. Though 128-bit has been around shy of a decade, Intel's (and now AMD's) products mean that we're only a short leap from the general consumer market.
The Arthur C Clarke foundation also quietly snuck in a new desktop computer with built in encryption, lip-sync and voice recognition, based on their own hardware OS called (significantly) HAL.
The entertainment market has also been a major benefactor of better technology with the Playstation 2, the Game Cube and now the XBOX, all with DVD support, launched.
2001 also marked the final maturation of the DVD player. DVD has been selling in IT shops since 1996 but now it has gained support from the movie industry, who have realised what a security boon it was for their copyrights. Though they know that there will be piracy, the general consumer market won't have access to it for a couple of years, and even then, the expected piracy rates should only be slightly higher than cassette (though pirate copies will be dramatically better).
The Human Genome project was completed in 2000 and the final published results became front page news on the 12th of February 2001 - one of the greatest feats of modern science. If there was ever a more fitting use of the term 'Pandora's box' this is surely it. Already cloning embryos, using aborted foetuses, gene swapping and gene therapy will mean the long term impacts will be immense on our everyday living.
In the midst of its lawsuits, Microsoft launched WindowsXP, which finally merged the server operating system (NT/2000) with the standard Windows operating system (95/98/ME). The move has been widely welcomed.
Apple also released its totally new and rewritten MacOS X 10.1 which stabilised and increased performance in both native and emulation modes. It is also the first mainstream desktop OS with a Unix kernel.
IBM made in-roads with Quantum computers using Atoms to transfer 0 and 1's, and more recently a program was stored in DNA and retreived.
Winners and Grinners
Microsoft is at the rear end of it's law suits with Judge Jackson's initial rulings overturned. Several US states are still holding out for the initial ruling - which would see an independent body looking into Microsoft's business dealings for the next 5 years. What powers the body would have are still unclear but it seems the threat of a split is now over.
Ebay was one of only a few Internet companies to actually make a profit this year so they are definitely on the grinning list.
Linux support grows every year, with IBM and Apple now also on the bandwagon. Linux comes in expanding flavours as well as operating systems for pocket computers to even wrist watches.
NVIDIA has achieved market dominance in the video card industry, and has both the IBM PC and Apple market sewn up.
Compaq's Pocket PC made remarkable market penetration with its iPAQ which is both stylish and practical.
ADSL was launched in Australia, but that was about the only positive for many consumers.
Losers
Things weren't all rosy in 2001 - the IT sector suffered a series of mergers, bankruptcies and sell outs. Polaroid disappeared. Palm is now out of the top 100 IT companies after losing 50% sales in successive quarters.
The Compaq and HP merger is on a seesaw with the Trusts of HP not supporting the merger.
In Australia, One.Tel died a miserable death and with HIH and Ansett doing likewise, it has cast a large doubt over all of the economic climate.
A number of providers merged or were taken over. But there was something more sinister this year, and though it may be the Year of the Dragon for some, others have more appropriately dubbed it the Year of the Virus. This year has seen the most destructive sets of payloads, surpassing Melissa. Love Letter, Sir Cam, NIMDA, Goner are just a few.
Kids born in the Windows and burgeoning Linux era are now today's teenage hackers. Only 5 years ago, viruses were considered a small threat. The wide acceptance of the Internet, and messaging systems, as well as more diverse application functionality from programs like Word, Internet Explorer and Outlook have created opportunities for digital sabotage.
The outlook seems to be bleak, with teenagers that have yet to develop a social conscience reveling in mischief as their form of self indulgent entertainment.
Knowledge about how to hacking is spreading. A number of handbooks can be found on chat and news circles and special websites. It doesn't take too much effort nowadays to create a devastating virus, and more worryingly it's become a trendy thing to do.
The 3rd generation spectrum that was to spark new generation mobiles did well in Japan but nowhere else. Then there was the underwater cable cut off the coast of Singapore that left Internet users in Australia stranded.
It was also the launch of our biggest broadband pipe to the rest of the world through the Southern Cross Cable via New Zealand.
Australia went fully digital with mobiles. Digital Television was bungled and we still lack any form of compelling content.
Napster scared the Music industry, and although the startup was beaten to a pulp, the awareness raised has meant music piracy increased in popularity. Peer to Peer software like Napster eliminates the need to depend on one site for music, making it very difficult to catch pirates in the act.
China shut down literally thousands of Internet Cafés and have started mass monitoring of people's online activities.
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