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02.28.25

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Hi, folks. So the asteroid isn't going to hit us in 2032? So much for an easy out.

Alphabet's "moonshot factory," known as X, has long cultivated craziness in its edgy projects. Perhaps the most outlandish was Loon, which aimed to deliver internet via hundreds of high-flying balloons. Loon eventually "graduated" from X as a separate Alphabet division, before its parent company determined that the business model simply didn't work. By the time that balloon popped in 2021, one of the Loon engineers had already left the project to form a team specifically working on the data transmission part of connectivity—namely, delivering high-bandwidth internet via laser beams. Think fiber optics without the cables.

It's not a new idea, but over the past few years, Taara, as the X project is called, has been quietly perfecting real-world implementations. Now, Alphabet is launching a new generation of its technology—a chip—that it says will not only make Taara a viable option to deliver high-speed internet, but potentially usher in a new era where light does much of the work that radio waves do today, only faster ...

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In 2013, I went to New Zealand to witness the first Loon flight that delivered internet to real people. As crazy as the idea was, the optimism at Google X (as it was called) was soaring ...

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Noah asks, "What was the first major piece of software for a home PC that wasn't business- or productivity-oriented?"

Thanks for the question, Noah. This may shock you, but I actually wasn't covering the field when the first home PC's began rolling out in the late 1970s. By the time I started paying attention, there was already VisiCalc, the first monster product that ran on machines like the Apple II. Predating it, though, and dominating sales was a collection of fun programs, including a vast variety of games and other frivolities, ranging from biorhythms to horoscopes. Commercial software hits included games like Zork and copies of popular arcade hits.

Since you asked me to pick one, I'd choose Flight Simulator, created by Bruce Artwick who formed a company in 1977 and released a version for the Apple II in 1979. It was a hit then and even a bigger hit when Microsoft licensed the game in 1982 and eventually bought the game, which is still selling. By now, however, the experience is so realistic that one might call it productivity software for current and future pilots.