2002: The year in technology

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Helger Lipmaa <helger () tcs hut fi>
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 21:19:03 +0200 (EET)
To: cryptography () wasabisystems com
Subject: 2002: The year in technology

The New Scientist article with the given title,
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993215
has a few interesting entries.
 
 
2002: The year in technology

 
09:00 25 December 02
Will Knight

 
The entertainment industry upped its attack on the internet file-sharing in
2002 by introducing new and controversial "copy protection" technologies to
prevent computer copying of music and movies.

The year began on a sour note when the company behind the Compact Disc
standard, Philips, publicly condemned these technologies, arguing that
protected CDs may malfunction in many normal CD players.

Just a few months later, another copy protection system was found to cause
serious malfunctions in certain Macintosh computers, causing them to crash
and refused to reboot. A piece of sticky tape or a marker pen was then shown
to be enough to defeat another protection system.

And yet in June an even more heavy-handed strategy was suggested in the US.
A proposed law would give copyright owners the right to hack into file
sharing networks and connected computers to disrupt infringement. The plans
have caused outrage and prompted some researchers to develop pre-emptive
countermeasures.


Unbreakable keys 


But 2002 also saw technological developments that promise to keep computer
systems more secure. In May, the first ever commercial quantum encryption
device was unveiled by Swiss company id Quantique. By exploiting the quantum
properties of photons to transmit information, quantum cryptography can
deliver unbreakable encryption keys.

In October, researchers at the UK's defence research agency QinetiQ
demonstrated the same trick through thin air, firing a stream of quantum
bits 23 kilometres between mountain tops.

Efforts to develop a quantum computer capable of unprecedented computational
speed were also given a boost in November, when a team of Australian
researchers developed a simple quantum information processing device. In the
same month Austrian researchers demonstrated the first quantum calculation
involving a single trapped calcium ion.


Exploding nanotubes


The diminutive world of nanotechnology was also abuzz in 2002 with weird and
wonderful new inventions. In February, a "nano-thermometer", made from a
single carbon nanotube, was revealed. With a diameter of only 75 nanometres,
the instrument can measure the temperature change that occurs when a few
molecules react with one another.

The endlessly versatile carbon nanotube was then shown also to have an
explosive side in April. A laboratory accident revealed that a bundle of
carbon nanotubes will explode when exposed to an ordinary camera flash.

A potentially more profitable nano-scale technology was revealed in June by
IBM researchers. They showed that imitating an ancient computer technology -
the punch card - at the nanoscale could potentially push the boundaries of
computer storage beyond current limitations.


Number cruncher 


At the other end of the computing scale, meanwhile, the race to build the
world's most powerful scientific supercomputer gained momentum. In April,
Japan's Earth Simulator at the Marine Science and Technology Center in
Kanagawa was crowned as the new supercomputing world champion when tests
proved it capable of over 35 trillion "floating point" mathematical
calculations per second.

Not to be outdone, long time champion IBM announced plans in November to
deliver two even more powerful machines over the next three years.

2002 also saw the first match between a world chess champion and the world's
leading computer player since another IBM computer, Deep Blue, defeated Gary
Kasparov in a controversial match held in 1997.

In October, the current world champion Vladimir Kramnik took on Deep Fritz,
the reigning computer champion in a contest worth a million dollars. Kramnik
took an early lead by exploiting the weaknesses his computer opponent, only
to draw with Deep Fritz in the end. The nail biting match was only decided
in the very final game.

One of the more bizarre and controversial technological breakthroughs of the
last year involved harnessing a different kind of non-human intelligence. In
May a team at the State University of New York implanted radio-controlled
electrodes in rat's brains to create the world's first radio controlled
automaton.


Great Firewall of China


Unsurprisingly, internet use grew further in 2002, but nowhere more than in
China. In April the number of people in China with access to the internet
increased to 56.6 million, placing the country behind only the US in terms
of internet use. And with a total population of over one billion, China
could have an online population of around 257 million by 2005.

The Chinese government also increased efforts to control use of the internet
in 2002. In September, the government prevented surfers behind the country's
"Great Firewall" from accessing the search engine Google, which caches many
restricted sites. But a reversed version of Google called elgooG, was found
to provide a neat, if eye-boggling, way around this block.

Even more far-reaching are plans for a new operating system that could
fundamentally alter the way computers are used anywhere in the world. In
June, the world's largest software company, Microsoft, announced plans for a
new version of Windows code-named Palladium.

While Microsoft claims this will put security first by controlling what
software can be run on a computer, critics allege it could be used to
control computer usage. Many point out that the system would provide ideal
support for a far more pervasive form of copy prevention.

 
09:00 25 December 02
 

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 © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

 

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