Features

The everyday use of computers in the home and the workplace becomes a continual battle against malicious viruses, spam, Trojans, scams, spyware and identity theft. The Santy worm exploits search queries to infiltrate 40,000 websites and turn them into sources of infection. Ten million computers are body-snatched by the insidious Storm Botnet and dragooned into slavery for purposes too scary to imagine. MyDoom sets the record for the fastest spreading mass-mailer worm, and it causes over £20 billion of damage in 215 countries.

In the UK, 16 million households have internet access, of which 85 per cent are using broadband connections. Two hundred million people worldwide use eBay to sell their old junk to one another, using electronic cash that governments cannot monitor or tax. Social networking websites allow anyone to upload mass trivia and download more of the same. The global leader is MySpace, claiming over 300 million members and accounting for around 10 per cent of global web time. It is bought by Rupert Murdoch. Another breathtaking growth is the Google search engine. Its corporate slogan is Don't Be Evil; just as well, as it is used by over 80 per cent of the world's internet population.

Computer power continues to increase exponentially as the high street cost continues to fall. Apple still bucks the trend by wrapping its kit in designer packages and charging more. Its UK iPhone deal costs an extortionate £899, yet it makes headline news as punters queue round the block. Sadly, there are fewer headlines as the extraordinary XO-1 clockwork computer goes into mass production. Running at 433MHz, consuming only 2W of power, WiFi enabled and running open-source software, it costs less than a hundred quid and is given free to children in the developing world.

AMD ships its first dual-core 64-bit desktop processor. Intel introduces the Core 2 processor, as it announces plans for an 80-core processor that will deliver more than one teraflop. The Sony PlayStation has 20 times more processing power than the Apollo moonlander and a hundred times more memory than an Apple Classic. The personal details of 25 million UK citizens can be recorded on two CD-ROMs and then lost in the post.

The Mozilla Firefox web browser becomes the biggest competitor to Internet Explorer, possibly because it works brilliantly. Windows Vista is launched more than five years after the last major new operating system from Microsoft Corporation, as the European Court fines Microsoft a record £350million for abusing its dominant position. The European Commissioner predicts a glut of new cases against the software giant, but surely this sort of unpleasantness will be resolved quickly?

1 2003-The present: The way we were DVDs adorn our covers. Our News digest is a one-stop resource for in-depth stories. What's New is the UK's ultimate resource for reviews and ratings. The results of our Labs reports are second to none. Our Help files deliver us from evil and lead us not into temptation. The Learn section is what I'd like to have had when I was starting out, and I'm happy to admit I'm still learning. Our features are still as eclectic as ever. As for the section called Favourites, it was ever thus. These days I submit work by electronic telepathy from wherever I happen to be on the planet. When I think of what a struggle it used to be I'm not sure whether to laugh or weep. On reflection, I have to laugh. We have about 40 members of staff and 20 freelance contributors, all working for you, the reader. I'd like to say we've come a long way from that basement mausoleum in London where Shopper was hatched, but actually we have come about half a mile. Mission Control is up on the fifth floor of the palatial Dennis Publishing headquarters in Cleveland Street, topped by Regents Park and tailed by Soho. The last time I wandered in, the lady at reception smiled and asked who I was and what I wanted. When I confided that I'd been writing for the magazine for 20 years and was popping in to steal some PCs, she gave me a look normally reserved for accident and emergency. I realised she had not been born when all this began. For her it's always been the computer age and Shopper has always been the nation's favourite computer magazine. Now there's a sobering thought.