What Happened? 2014 Technology News

2014 saw advances in space exploration while closer to home security online and safety in the real world came under threat.

World Wide Web

With more personal information out in the world it was the security threats that garnered the most attention with the Heartbleed attack showing major vulnerabilities in one of the internet's most critical systems, SSL. The never ending saga between the NSA and Edward Snowden continued with more releases showing the problems the NSA faced with certain security measures and scrutiny of Silk Road resulted in the cracking of Silk Road 2.0 due to vulnerabilities in the TOR network.

With safety a concern the next hurdle was net neutrality and it's impact on users with the FCC being inundated with complaints crashing their site at one point, even President Obama stepped into the debate giving his support for net neutrality. In Europe the Right to be forgotten act was introduced resulting in over 12,000 requesting information be removed from Google in the first day alone. Facebook managed to annoy it's 1 billion users when it was revealed it had manipulated the news feeds of over half a million users while some websites faced censoring with India blocking access to many and China blocking access to Gmail. Finally both the PlayStation and Xbox networks suffered outages due to attacks.

Scientists

Out in space scientists were set back when tragedy struck a Virgin Galactic test flight claiming the life of one pilot. Pushing forward the crew on-board ISS received the first ever zero-gravity 3D printer and used it later in the year to print a wrench which NASA had emailed. NASA's Orion rocket managed a successful test flight along with a successful recovery from the Pacific Ocean.

Further out in space the European Space Agency's Rosseta spacecraft managed to successfully land a robot craft, Philae, on a moving asteroid. NASA's Mars Opportunity rover suffered memory issues after more than a decade on Mars but it's younger sibling, Curiosity, managed to discover organic matter on the red planet.

The annual Nobel Prizes were handed out for excellence in the field of Physics for blue light emitting diodes, in Chemistry for capturing nano scale images and in Medicine for discovering the brains inner GPS. In other areas we weren't so lucky with the Ebola outbreak recorded as the largest to date with over 7000 people dying and the flu was declared an epidemic by the CDC after 15 deaths.

Tech Keeping Tabs

It was revealed this week that all your private information is there for Facebook's amusement and Government perusal.

Internet

It was revealed this week that Facebook had manipulated the news feeds of over half a million users in an experiment on "emotional contagion" for 1 week in January 2012. Naturally the backlash was swift but Facebook addressed the issue stating that they "care about the emotional impact of Facebook" however this hasn't quelled the masses with the UK data regulator probing the experiment.

In Google news, Google chair Eric Schmidt reportedly visited Cuba. It was announced that Google would shut down it's other social network Orkut, no word on Google+. Google will face claims of spying on WiFi networks after the supreme court refused to hear it's street view appeal.

After one year the UK's porn filter now blocks 1 in 5 sites most of which aren't related to pornography. Speaking of a bit of naughty, a music industry site was hacked and redirected to the file haring site The Pirate Bay.

Bitcoin had a busy week when the entire haul confiscated from Silk Road was auctioned off to one bidder but California was left embarrassed and had to update it's laws after it was revealed that Bitcoin was illegal in the state.

Space

NASA successfully tested a new "flying saucer" vehicle which could be used in future missions to Mars. In closer to earth news 2 Astronauts had their heads shaved on board the ISS after losing a soccer bet and finally pictures have also been released from the ISS of Hurricane Arthur growing along the US Eastern seaboard.

Security

While there are serious threats in the world with the energy sector facing attacks from Russian hackers it was Government overreach that raised the most concern's with the FBI and CIA having joined the NSA in so called "backdoor" searches of Americans while the new NSA chief downplayed fears claiming Edward Snowden's leaks are "manageable". New reports on the NSA spying scandal have revealed that the NSA was allowed to spy on all but 4 countries but never fear because an "independent privacy board" says it's alright for the NSA to do what it does.

Science

And if all that security news doesn't make you paranoid, the World Health Organization called for more drastic measures to stop the recent deadly outbreak of Ebola. But that's not all because the CDC are trying to retrace events to see how several scientists came into contact with Anthrax. Never fear if it all comes to an end we can always rebuild you after it was announced that scientists have figured out how to grow blood vessels in 3D printed organs, as long as we don't run out of ink.

Technology Moving Forward

Technology marched along with new discoveries and announcements while others, the usual suspects, abused technology for their benefit.

Moving Forward

Apple held it's annual WWDC conference where it announced several new developments most notably the new iOS8 and OSX Yosemite and a new programming language called Swift.

NASA was busy when it announced it had discovered a new rocky mega-planet called Kepler-10c capable of hosting life. Amazing new X-ray images of space were released revealing whirlpool galaxy's dotted with black holes. Not keen to leave space to the pro's Google announced it is planning on building a satellite fleet to bring internet to everyone, I guess the balloons weren't up to the challenge.

On the medical front scientist have created the very first 3D printed blood vessels but were shocked to discover 21 new cases of Ebola reported in Guinea.

Some people never learn

The NSA was in hot water again after it was reported that they have been collecting millions of photo's for facial recognition software. The NSA was also blasted by the EFF who claimed that the NSA had intentionally destroyed evidence in a case between the two. If you thought you were in the clear after the Heartbleed bug wreaked havoc a few months back, well sorry, 6 new bugs have been discovered in OpenSSL.

Speaking of the internet, it was reported that the FCC site had crashed after trolls swarmed the site making comments regarding net neutrality thanks to a piece by John Oliver on his new show 'Last Week Tonight'. Turkey came to it's sense when it allowed access to YouTube after a 2 month ban. And lastly Pirate Bay co-founder, Peter Sunde, was arrested in Sweden after 2 years on the run for copyright infringement.

Well that was unexpected

Users of car lift services have been warned after an Uber driver was arrested for kidnapping a women. Speaking of breaking the law, Google allowed people to sign up for the new EU mandated Right to be Forgotten and received over 12,000 requests on the first day alone, allowing any one with a questionable past to be "forgotten".

History was made when US Ambassador, Suzi LeVine, took an oath of office on an electronic device. And finally, in what can only be described as idiotic, the Greek letter Pi was trademarked proving once and for all that the US patent offices need a serious review.