Here is my own little five minute creation.

GoAnimate.com: Kirk Love

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The following are the movies that I have found that are sci-fi or fantasy related that have a set release date.

Outlander - January 23rd, 2009
Push - February 6th, 2009
Fanboys - February 6th, 2009
Watchmen - March 6th, 2009
Race to Witch Mountain - March 13th, 2009
Knowing - March 20th, 2009
Monsters vs. Aliens - March 27th, 2009
Dragonball Evolution - April 9th, 2009
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - May 1st, 2009
Star Trek XI - May 9th, 2009
Terminator Salvation - May 22nd, 2009
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - June 26th, 2009
2012 - July 10th, 2009
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - July 17th, 2009
District 9 - August 14th, 2009
Pandorum - September 4th, 2009
Game - September 4th, 2009
9 - September 9th, 2009
Surrogates - September 25th, 2009
Astro Boy - October 23rd, 2009
The Box - November 6th, 2009
Planet 51 - November 20, 2009
Avatar - December 18th, 2009

If I have missed any, please let me know. Also, if you have some favourites from that list, please let me know which ones they are. I am super excited to see what happens to the genres in 2009 and beyond.

Here is an example of what I thought consumer level computers would be like in 2010:

• 12 GHz Processor
• 6GB of RAM
• 2TB Hard Drive Space
• 64x DVD Burner
• 2GHz Video Processor with 2GB Memory

With recent news that Samsung has created a 4GB chip to allow desktops and laptops up to 32GB or RAM (Engadget), and Western Digital drawing attention for their 2TB hard drive (Engadget) it is easy to see how close I was on some predictions.

The biggest mistakes I made were in assuming that clock speeds would continue to increase over the next decade, and that increasing the speed of DVD drives would be important.

I think, what is most amazing to me, is that other than the CPU and the DVD Burner, I could have created this computer a few months ago for under $2,500, especially considering that when I made this list, we had just bought a Compaq computer for nearly that price, and it’s features were nothing glamourous.

How will consumer level computer technology change over the next two years? What about the next decade?

My predictions are that we will see more processor cores being fit on a single CPU, with it maxing out at around sixteen. We will also see a continued trend on packing in more RAM until a new technology comes along to bring CPU’s and RAM closer together, maybe eventually tying them into one packaged product.

Another interesting trend I am seeing is the increasing dependance on the Internet. With applications first going online to the web, and now coming back to the desktop thanks to Google Gears and Adobe AIR, I wouldn’t be surprised if hard drive sizes stopped being a key selling point to most consumers. Gamers, video editors and whatnot will still opt for larger hard drives, but the price will flatten out, and stop dropping at the rapid rate we experience today as people do most of their computing on the cloud. Storage and applications as a service will grow as an industry. People will pay twenty-five dollars a month to access a whole suite of applications as well as storage, paying only for their computer and operating system as a “one time fee”, while nearly everything else will be free, per-use fee, monthly fee or yearly fee to access.

Thumb drives will make most optical drives obsolete in the next decade. Even movies will either be downloaded right from the Internet onto your computer, television or set-top box or you’ll bring your USB drive to a video kiosk, purchase a movie rental, a DRM-laden file will be transferred to it, and then disappear once your rental time is up.

Because most applications will run through things like Google Gears or Adobe AIR, they will quickly become platform independent, allowing operating systems to compete in other ways.

Mobile devices are really where things are heading. Desktop computer’s are nice, but this whole Netbook craze has proven that its days could be numbered. I still think a more modular computer design where I could bring my screen with me while on the go, and then dock it at home for a more powerful computing experience would be ideal.

What are your thoughts on the future of computers? Have you been surprised at how fast they’ve changed over the last decade?

Currently, when you log onto a computer, it checks your permissions against a local file, and then displays your desktop relating to that single computer. With more and more computers going onto the Internet, why wouldn’t you check login permissions based on a central server, and display the desktop and applications relating to that account, rather than that single computer?

While many people talk about an Internet based operating system, I think the first step should be an Internet based user authentication system that pulls the basic “display and organization” settings from the Internet.

Microsoft could implement something like this fairly easily. The advantage being that you would always have the desktop you know and love, on nearly any computer connected to the Internet. Also, if you were using storage space on the web, and had it mapped as a drive, it would be there waiting for you.

Lastly, while it might not be feasible to have all your applications follow you around, it should be easy enough to correctly implement the settings you use on certain applications that are installed on the computer you are using.

Say you are using a friends computer, and they have an FTP program. That FTP program is the same as you use at home. When you log into your custom account, it should poll the computer to see what software it has, if there are any matches to the software you use on your primary computer, it should drag the related settings to your account on your friends computer, allowing you to easily FTP into your site with any saved session data you may have at home.

Syncing would be a real pain for this type of “bring your home experience with you” Operating System, but in the end, most everyone I know has tweaked their settings in one way or another at home, creating efficiencies that are lost when hopping onto someone else’s computer.

While I think an operating system on the Internet might be too large, heavy and frustrating, this idea could be the bridging step to that goal, as the file size related to a database of information, settings, background images, network shares, and more would most likely be miniscule compared to transferring a whole operating system.

Does this idea have any merit, or am I just crazy? Let me know in the comments below.

Everyone knows that we live in the Milky Way galaxy, correct? Well, scientists have recently realized that the MIlky Way galaxy is not only spinning faster than they initially thought, but it is also larger than was previously calculated.

We used to think the Andromeda galaxy was larger than our own, but now it seems the Milky Way is of a comparable size.

From CBS News via the Associated Press:

Scientists mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that it’s 15 percent larger in breadth. More important, it’s denser, with 50 percent more mass, which is like weight. The new findings were presented Monday at the American Astronomical Society’s convention in Long Beach, Calif.

That difference means a lot, said study author Mark Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. The slight 5-foot-5, 140-pound astrophysicist said it’s the cosmic equivalent of him suddenly bulking up to the size of a 6-foot-3, 210-pound NFL linebacker.

This means that our galaxy will intersect with the approaching Andromeda galaxy much sooner than previously predicted, but still billions of years from now.

It could mean though a higher chance of finding intelligent life in our own galaxy though as a higher density means more stars, and possibly more habitable planets. I am very interested to see if this effects the overall calculations on the number of Earth sized planets in the Goldilocks zone.

Could you live in a world where everyone was forced to be equal? Seems that this movie already has a bit of a cult following.

Part of the short story, Harrison Bergeron, after the jump.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though. April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel’s cheeks, but she’d forgotten for the moment what they were about.

On the television screen were ballerinas.

A buzzer sounded in George’s head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.

“That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just did,” said Hazel.

“Huh?” said George.

“That dance – it was nice,” said Hazel.

“Yup,” said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren’t really very good – no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped. But he didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.

But right now everyone is all buzzed about the next Dr. Who, a young, twenty-six year old actor named Matt Smith. A relatively unknown actor, and not the favourite for the part, many people are wondering if the show is going to be negatively effected, both by his inexperience, and his youth.

For those that are Dr. Who fans, you’ll probably want to watch this interview which will either make you feel better about their selection, or worse.

Expect to see Matt Smith starring as the new Dr. Who starting in the fifth season which premieres in 2010.

So it looks like the creators of Star Trek: Online have released specifications on the NX-91001, a multi-purpose vessel that looks like a slightly modified Sovereign class.

No word yet on the class name of the ship, but it definitely seems like a powerful ship. With ablative armor, adaptive and regenerative shields, as well as a healthy compliment of new phaser strips, and torpedo launchers, the NX-91001 seems like a great anti-Borg ship.

Here is some other details from the Star Trek: Online site:

A starship designed to carry Federation influence throughout the Alpha Quadrant and beyond, the NX-91001 is one of the first multi-role starship designs since the Sovereign class was commissioned in the early 2370s. Able to function as a deep-space explorer with extensive sensors and laboratory facilities for scientific research, the NX-91001 also is outfitted as a heavy cruiser armed with some of the latest in Starfleet weapons technology for deployment in hostile areas.

A holoemitter array system allows Emergency Medical and Emergency Command Holograms to operate throughout the ship when needed, and the ship is equipped with a Class 10 warp drive for normal operation and an advanced hyper impulse drive for sublight operation. The Class 10 warp drive is equipped with an advanced quantum sublimating theta-matrix compositor which recrystalizes the ship’s dilithium into a much more stable form than earlier models. This allows the NX-91001 to go much longer distances at high warp velocities before needing to replace the crystals.

This tells us a few things regarding the ship:

• We will definitely see holographic crew, though mostly stuck aboard the starship in game, unless mobile emitter technology improves
• Warp range and/or time will probably be nearly unlimited, though still limited to sub-transwarp speeds.
• Fighting is going to be an important part of the game, with scouting/science also being a key focus.

Other people are making interesting guesses on the direction of the game based on this release, but other than my guesses above, I will, like others, just enjoy the new Star Trek ship.

“We’re just making final tweaks to the movie — we should be totally locked next week. Then we’re going to flash-freeze it so it’s totally fresh for you in May.

I can’t wait for you to see the movie. The cast is awesome. The action and effects pushed the stunt team and ILM beyond their limits. I’m so grateful to this cast and crew — and to all of you for your interest and patience.”

It should be an interesting action movie, and I can’t wait to see it come out so I can give my own verdict on the movie, and where the franchise is heading.

This news comes from Dark Horizons.

When 9 (Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

I think I will want to see this early in its release cycle, as it looks like it could be a fun ride, and if it has the darker elements I have become used to from Tim Burton, I think it will be a great science fiction movie.