If you’ve been watching the technology industry as long as I have, you may like to think you can detect an historical turning point while it's happening. The big picture stuff is the most fun. Today, for example, as the... If you’ve been watching the technology industry as long as I have, you may like to think you can detect an historical turning point while it’s happening. The big picture stuff is the most fun. Today, for example, as the Internet generation grows up and achieves Twitter velocity, I’m convinced we’re on the brink of a cultural transformation that will go way, way beyond the effects of the Web’s first decade. But sorry, my sixth sense lacks the power to get much more specific than that. Fortunately for Contributing Editor Neil McAllister, the power of hindsight was at his disposal when he wrote 15 turning points in tech history. Neil has a good eye. As readers of his Fatal Exception app dev blog might expect, Neil’s trademark “insight with a bite” pervades the article. But his choice of turning points is the best part. Do you know the real reason AJAX was created? What event gave offshoring a kick start? Or which image ’70s ARPANet geeks chose as fodder for their experiments in image compression? You’ll find lots more tasty bits, along with a few marquee events Neil would have been remiss in omitting. Although this article deals with history, the most striking thing about Neil’s turning points is the degree to which they define the current IT landscape. Of course, we’ve missed some important events, so we must rely on you to point out the omissions — or, if you’re really brave, take a whack at identifying the turning points you think are occurring now. I promise to save those e-mails and see how they measure up years from now. Busting the hype machine By now you may have heard of products that put the browser in its own little sandbox, virtualizing it away from malware threats. There’s only one problem: that doesn’t work. As Senior Writer Tom Kaneshige discovered, there’s a fatal flaw: “A sandbox browser’s walls are permeable,” says Tom. “They have to make them that way, so people can use the browser for plug-ins, downloading files, and so on. But that also allows potentially malicious code to pass through.” Finally, Contributing Editor Randall C. Kennedy has been doing some of his own myth-busting, burying once and for all the wishful notion that Microsoft’s Windows 7 will be much different from Vista. If you have a system that chokes on Vista, it’s going to choke on Windows 7, too. Yet another reason to sign our petition to Save XP from oblivion after June 30. This battle’s an important reminder: some tech turning points hinge on the introduction of a new technology, while others pivot on technology going away. Technology Industry