Tag: computers

The bandwidth bonanza

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
August 31, 1999
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August 30 was the 30th birthday of the Internet. On that day in 1969 a group of scientists and technicians at UCLA plugged two computers together through a refrigerator-sized box designed to let them talk to each other–and it worked. Originally involving just four university-based computers used by only a few dozen people, the Internet …

Wearable computers

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
January 25, 1999
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Computers have become so ubiquitous they’re in most of our gadgets and on most of our desks. But guess what? They’re on the verge of becoming even more widespread: soon, we may be wearing them. The quick definition of a wearable computer is one that is always with you (and always on), is comfortable and …

Biometrics

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
January 18, 1999
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Are you fed up with having to carry 2,762 separate plastic cards in your wallet for buying gas, getting Air Miles, withdrawing money, renting videos and collecting frequent-ice-cream-eater points? Then you’ll be glad to hear about biometrics. Biometrics is the measurement of tiny differences among individuals for the purposes of identification. Fingerprinting is probably the …

SETI @ Home

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
December 7, 1998
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Alas for the good old days, when we thought the Earth was the center of the universe. Today we know our sun is only a very average star in a very average galaxy, in a universe where there are 50 billion galaxies, containing half a trillion stars each, around which, based on recent observations, planets …

Hackers and crackers

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
April 27, 1998
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In the1983 movie WarGames, a teenager with a modem nearly triggered World War III. It was pure fiction, of course. Then, just last week, a group calling itself Masters of Downloading claimed it had stolen a suite of programs used to run classified US military networks and satellites from the Defense Information Systems Agency. Previously, most …

Comdex ’97

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
November 18, 1997
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Each year, more than 200,000 people descend on Las Vegas with more on their minds than gambling and Wayne Newton. They’re there for Fall Comdex, the largest computer show in the world (a.k.a. “Nerdvana”). This year’s Fall Comdex just wrapped up, and the one trend that stood out was the ongoing effort to change the …

Spam

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
October 6, 1997
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Few things equal the thrill, when you first get an Internet account, of receiving e-mail. But it’s not long before the thrill gives way to annoyance, as you discover that much–sometimes most–of the mail you receive has subject headings like “Get Rich Fast!” or “XXX HOT BABES XXX”. Yes, just like your regular mailbox, …

The science of the stock market

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
April 28, 1997
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After 145 years, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s 30,000-square-foot trading floor, where traders bought and sold equities primarily by shouting at each other at the top of the their lungs, closed recently. Buying and selling can now be done much more quickly, easily and efficiently using computers, so the TSE has gone to a completely …

Virtual reality

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
April 1, 1997
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My first novel is coming out next month. Entitled Soulworm, it’s a young adult fantasy set mostly in Weyburn–sort of. For plot purposes, I moved the hospital of my fictional Weyburn up onto South Hill. With just a few words, I created an artificial reality, distinguishable from the real thing only by those who have …

Y2K: the Year 2000 problem

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
March 3, 1997
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The 21st century doesn’t actually begin until January 1, 2001, but for most people, January 1, 2000, seems more significant, just because of the change from writing 19 in front of the year to writing 20. That little change is even more significant for businesses that rely heavily on computers, because computers, too, are used …

Computer viruses

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
September 9, 1996
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There’s a virus going around. In fact there’s more than one. But don’t worry; these viruses don’t infect people–they infect computers. Just a couple of weeks ago there was a flurry of excitement surrounding one such virus, a flurry that may be repeated in a few more days. This virus, called Hare, activates itself on …

ENIAC

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
February 19, 1996
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Fifty years ago this month, a machine in the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering solved in 20 seconds an equation that would have required a human mathematician using a desk calculator 40 hours. The feat astounded the world, and launched the age of computers. The machine was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and …