Hulu

Another thing to be thankful for is that some of the media giants are finally getting it right when it comes to the internet. Hulu, for example, is a service that hits all the sweet spots: its streams are fast, full length, high-quality and most importantly, free.

We hope that in the future more companies realize that instead of wasting time playing cease-and-desist whack-a-mole with video sharing sites, it makes sense to provide a better, official alternative that they can make money off of.

Social Bookmarking

Let’s be honest here: we spend too much time on the internet, and you probably do, too. We have for a long time, sure, but it only gets easier and easier to waste away the hours as the web continually evolves into an ever-more-perfect time-waster. These days you don’t even really have to actively surf the web, with services like Digg, reddit and Stumbleupon delivering a steady stream of content straight into our brains.

Music Recommendation Services

Services like Pandora and last.fm have made it so that finding new music no longer involves shelling out for potentially-crappy albums or (God forbid) talking to people. Instead, these sites use computer wizardry to find music that you might like and play it for you.

So thanks, Pandora, for expanding our musical horizons.

P.S. Please don’t shut down.

Moore’s law

Moore’s Law is the gift that keeps on giving. Whenever it seems like the stream of better, stronger, faster CPUs and GPUs is going to dry up, some new technology comes along that allows engineers to cram even more transistors onto a chip. This year saw the release of Intel’s delicious 45nm Core i7, and we can’t wait to see what tricks the chip-makers have up their sleeves for the next couple years.

Plug and Play Hardware

This is one of those PC features that’s very easy to take for granted. We don’t spend much time thinking about how our computers communicate with our webcams, scanners, external hard drives and everything else, but we’ve got it pretty easy.  For the most part, if you want to add functionality to your PC with a peripheral, you pretty much just plug it in and you’re set. Sure, there are drivers to install if you want to access all the bells and whistles of your new gizmo, but you can get most of the functionality with no trouble at all.

The only problem? With USB 3.0 soon to join the already crowded field alongside FireWire, eSata and of course USB 2.0, our I/O panels are starting to get a little crowded. Oh, and printers still suck.

Instant Messaging/VoIP

What doesn’t have a messaging feature these days? Gmail has one, as does Steam, the Xbox 360, the sites we use to stream our music, and just about every other service under the sun. The fact that messaging is so ubiquitous is an indication of a simple fact: People like to communicate. Even the biggest shut-in likes to interact with other people in some form, and IM and VoIP allow computer users to stay more connected than ever.

Speaking of staying connected; hit the comments and tell us what you would have put on this list.