This New Year's eve there is no fear that two-digit clocks may bring down civilisation. A lack of millennium bug preparation is just one measure of technology's advance in the noughties. Another is the spin-out of AOL from Time Warner this month, with a market capitalisation of $2.5bn. At the 2000 merger, the company's value was almost 100 times greater and AOL was America's largest internet service provider, mostly dial-up accounts attracted by free CDs. The shift from the closed garden internet of AOL to today's anarchic online world is one of the biggest stories of the decade.
这个新年前夜，人们不会再担心以两位数表示年份的时钟会摧毁人类文明了。不用为“千年虫问题”做准备只是衡量本世纪头十年科技进步的标准之一。另一个标志性事件是美国在线(AOL)本月从时代华纳(Time Warner)分拆出来。美国在线目前的市值为25亿美元。两家公司于2000年合并之时，美国在线的市值几乎比现在高100倍，且是美国最大的互联网服务提供商——其用户大多是被免费注册CD招揽来的拨号上网用户。从美国在线“封闭花园式”的互联网，到今日无政府状态在线世界的转变，是这十年最重要的事件之一。