We're used to thinking of digital technology in connection with the future, but it's astounding what advances computers are now providing in terms of the past. In fact, advanced digital methods are not just analyzing history in new ways, but actually recovering documents long thought to have been lost. An example is the resurrection of an obscure philosopher from the 1st century B.C. named Philodemus. A robot must protect its own existence, except where such protection would conflict with the First or Second Law. Hard as it may be to believe, we're running out of Net addresses, and with millions of devices coming online in the next few years, we have to find ways to give each a distinct identity.
Speed is no longer king.
These days people are looking for value and usability. That's why a company called Transmeta continues to make news, even if the original luster attached to its name has faded a bit in the past year. I wrote some time back about a search tool called GuruNet, a free product launched in mid-1999. GuruNet would then race through various information sources and provide you with an overview on your topic. The program was simple, fast and helpful.