Planetary Computing

by Ed Yourdon

I usually keep up with the buzzwords in the computing industry, so I was rather annoyed to learn that a new one has been floating around for at least a year. I noticed it for the first time last week, in an article about the challenges facing Hewlett-Packard's R&D labs (see " Big challenges lie ahead for HP Labs," by Chris O'Brien, Mercury News, http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/depth/hp112601a.htm). Among the various investigations into new "disruptive technologies," according to the article, is something called "planetary computing."