This morning, I'm reading Time's article on what they consider as 50 Best Inventions of 2008. There's around seven inventions, I think, that can be considered IT-related (especially in the field of communications).
And now, here's the list:
9. The Orbital Internet
In space, no one can hear you scream. But you will be able to send e-mail, thanks to a new protocol being developed for use there. It's hard to maintain a stable connection in orbit, so the interplanetary Internet will have to be especially tolerant of delays and disruptions. In September, a satellite used the new protocol to relay an image of the Cape of Good Hope back to Earth.
10. The World's Fastest Computer
On May 26, at 3:30 in the morning, a $133 million supercomputer nicknamed Roadrunner broke the long-sought-after petaflop barrier: 1 quadrillion calculations per second. Built by IBM for Los Alamos National Laboratory, Roadrunner will be used primarily to simulate the effects of aging on nuclear weapons. Next up: the exaflop barrier.
13. The Memristor
Scientists have known it was possible for 37 years, but it took them that long to actually make a memristor, a new kind of circuit that remembers its history even when turned off. One possible application: a computer that flicks on instantly, like a lightbulb, with no boot-up required.
19. Montreal's Public Bike System
When lots of people use a communal resource — like, say, a cheap public bicycle-rental program — they tend to abuse it. So when the city of Montreal built its Public Bike System, nicknamed Bixi, the designers packed in all the technology they could find, in a desperate attempt to out-engineer human iniquity. The modular bike-rack stations are Web-enabled and solar-powered. The bicycles are designed with tons of sealed components to resist the savage beatings they will undoubtedly receive, and they're equipped with RFID tags so they're easily trackable. Too bad they can't redesign the riders too.
24. Bionic Contacts
The University of Washington's Babak Parviz has created a prototype "bionic" contact lens that creates a display over the wearer's visual field, so images, maps, data, etc., appear to float in midair. The lens works using tiny LEDs, which are powered by solar cells, and a radio-frequency receiver.
30. The Internet Of Things
In September, a group of high-tech companies that includes Cisco and Sun formed the IP for Smart Objects Alliance. Simply put, the organization intends to create a new kind of network that will allow sensor-enabled physical objects — appliances in your home, products in a factory, cars in a city — to talk to one another, the same way people communicate over the Internet.
47. Google's Floating Data Center
The hidden cost of the triumph of the Internet is the rise of the data center. The Net runs on huge complexes of hot, power-hungry servers that eat up real estate and energy in massive quantities — in 2006 data centers consumed a staggering 1.5% of the U.S.'s entire supply of electricity. Engineers at Google may have found a way out: the self-sufficient floating data center. According to a patent filed by Google, wind turbines and wave-powered generators will provide the electricity. Ocean water will cool the servers, which throw off huge amounts of heat. And offshore real estate is essentially free.
If you're wondering why I included Montreal's Public Bike System and Bionic Contacts, well, that's because of the use of radio-frequency communications (like RFID). And for last, I think the weirdest investion on the list is the New Ping Pong Serve which comes at number 36. Wow! =)
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