
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Future networked society raises privacy concerns Imagine things like doorknobs, toasters and light bulbs communicating with one another in a network that far exceeds anything we know today. The concept, often referred to as ubiquitous computing, isn't new. What's new is that technologies are now emerging to make it happen sooner than many of us imagine. 
Tuesday, October 24, 2000
Will the Lights Go Out? Ten seconds to midnight, December 31, 1999. Megacorp's brightly lit computer centre hums with the sound of servers. The sprawling room is festooned with a few cheesy garlands left over from the company Christmas party and a couple of dozen limply floating balloons. Gathered round a desk in the middle of the room are a few unfortunate employees who have pulled skeleton crew duty. Henderson has smuggled in a bottle of bubbly, the contents of which have been more or less evenly distributed in eight raised glasses. Everyone's eyes are glued to a computer on the desk, logged onto a millennium Web site showing a clock ticking out the last few strokes to the dreaded year 2000. Everyone prepares to celebrate — three . . . two . . . one. The entire North American power grid fails. The monitor dies. The room plunges into darkness. Silence . . .