109. Frickin’ Lasers Achieve 20 Gigabit Per Second Transfer Rate

Apparently lasers aren’t just good for driving your cat bonkers as it tries to catch the uncatchable varmint, but they’re also capable of transferring data through the air much faster than any commercial wireless systems. Even more impressive, engineers at Battelle, a research and development firm in Columbus, OH, demonstrated a 20 gigabit capability using off-the-shelf telecommunication components. Here’s your wet blanket - a shipping product small enough to make the technology feasible remains out of grasp for years to come. Sorry!

 108. Nvidia Cooks Up 9400M, Integrated Graphics Still Weaksauce

Despite all the hoopla surrounding Nvidia’s well publicized problems with its previous mobile GPUs, the graphics chip maker found a suitor in Apple for its new GeForce 9400M. And compared to the integrated GMA X3100 graphics the 9400M was chosen to replace, Apple’s refreshed MacBook line is, according to Steve Jobs, up to five times as fast in the graphics department. Meanwhile, advances in discrete GPUs make it hard to get too excited over any integrated solution.

 107. ThinkPad W700

It’s hard not to channel Paul Hogan and say “that’s not a mobile workstation” when some Mac head pulls out his Mac Book Pro. “Now, that’s a mobile workstation,” you say as you drop your Lenovo W700 ThinkPad on the table. With its Core 2 Quad, 1GB frame buffer graphics card, built-in color calibrator, high color gamut screen and integrated Wacom tablet, the W700 makes all other mobile workstations kneel before it.

 106. Samsung Skirts Mobile Drives Halfway to the Terabyte

For a long time, notebooks have been the red-headed stepchild of the storage industry. How else do you explain desktop drives exploding to 1TB and beyond while laptop drives shipped at only a fraction of that capacity? Props go out to Samsung, who brought mobile storage halfway up to par with the first ever 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive, putting 1TB within reach for anyone willing to run a dual-drive array.

 105. FCC Censures Comcastfor P2P Throttling

 In a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communication Commission concluded that Comcast violated the rules of net neutrality by monitoring and selectively blocking P2P traffic. Comcast was mandated to immediately cease any packet shaping initiatives and to publically disclose the full extent of its traffic blocking policies. 

104. Suing Spree Catches Up with RIAA, Ordered to Pay Legal Fees

Call it the modern day David versus Goliath if you will, but Tanya Andersen, a mere mortal, found herself staring face to face with the RIAA, who had already sued 20,000 people before her for copyright infringement. But in this instance, the RIAA dropped its case when it realized it Andersen wasn’t pirating music. A federal judge ordered the RIAA to pay Andersen $108,000 in legal fees for its gaffe.

 103. Former Intel Engineer Indicted in $1 Billion Trade Secrets Case

Dr. Evil would be proud of Biswamohan Pani, the low-level ex-Intel employee who managed to make off with $1 billion worth of information before his final official day with the chip maker on June 11. But wait, it gets even better. As it turns out, Pani had obtained employment with rival AMD, for which he was to start on June 2. The case has yet to go to trial, and of course Pani maintains he’s innocent.

 102. Intel Thinks Small with First 45nm CPUs

The saying ‘size matters’ takes on a whole different meaning in the chip industry, as manufacturers race to see who can produce the smallest unit. This becomes even more important in the mobile market where smaller chips translate into lower power consumption and often times less heat. Intel, having already re-asserted its dominance on the desktop, also becomes the first to unveil mobile chips built on a 45nm manufacturing process. Wave it proudly, Intel!

 101. Google and Mozilla BFFs for 3 More Years

The money for developing open-source software has to come from somewhere, and in the case of Mozilla, that somewhere is Google. By 2006, Mozilla had milked Google for roughly $57 million in exchange for making Google the default search engine. Set to expire in 2008, the two agreed to extend their relationship another three years.

100. Free Full-Featured Games

 Paying for games is so passé. Quake Live and Battlefield Heroes (both still in beta) prove that free games are worth your time. Now we wait to see if revenue from in-game advertising and micro-transactions will be enough for publishers to keep these freebies alive. 

99. Asus Striker II Extreme

In a horrible, low-power, all-in-one computing future not too unlike Mad Max, someone will come across an Asus Striker II Extreme and proclaim it as the last of the nForce interceptors. Fast and boldly different than the 790i reference design pursuit specials, the Striker II Extreme will likely mark the zenith of Nvidia’s chipsets.

98. Kindle Makes a Killing, Encore to Follow

An estimated 240,000+ Kindle sales can’t be ignored, and so Amazon doesn’t and makes plans to release a follow-up version. While Amazon remains tight-lipped on sales figures, at least one analyst values the Kindle as a $1 billion business for Amazon. And while on the topic of speculation, supposedly leaked photos of the second generation Kindle shows it to be slightly larger than the original.

 97. Wal-Mart Waves Goodbye to Linux PCs

Lackluster demand forces Wal-Mart to end its four month, 600-store trial run of selling $199 Linux-based Evermax computers on store shelves (online sales remain). A spokesperson for the chain concludes “This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for,” but that could more of a reflection of the Evermax system than Linux itself. Nevertheless, the decision is a blow to open-source advocates in a time when frustrated Vista users are more willing than ever to consider a Linux alternative.

96. Oil Immersion PC

Immersion computing went mainstream with the release of Hardcore Reactor PC. Perhaps the coolest custom PC we’ve ever seen (and we’ve seen a lot) the Reactor relies on 4.5 gallons of oil to keep all of its components cool. Of course, we guess that mainstream depends on your checking account but with its base configuration weighing in at $4,500, the Reactor PC is still truly an amazing work of art.

 95. OpenOffice 3.0 Launches with Improved Document Standards Support

The open-source productivity suite steps up its game by implementing filters for Microsoft’s XML format, allowing for easy importing of Office 2007’s .docx files. In addition, OpenOffice 3.0 boasts native compatibility with the Mac OS X platform eliminating the need for X11. The update proved so popular that eager users crashed OpenOffice.org’s website on the day of its release. Later in the year, an independent study found OpenOffice to be five times more popular than Google Docs.

 94. Skulltrail

DP isn’t just for the professionals anymore. Intel’s insane, over the top Skulltrail platform gave consumers (well those with the initials BG or WB) the ability to have their very own dual-proc, eight-core monster. Even better, Intel even swallowed its pride and integrated two Nvidia nForce 100 chips so the board could run quad SLI or quad Crossfire.

 93. ICANN Votes Unanimously to Allow Custom Top Level Domains

Following a week-long meeting in Paris, ICANN, the internet’s nonprofit overseer, loosens its grip on generic top level domain names. At the time of the vote, only 21 gTLDs existed to serve 1.5 billion internet users. The real winners are big corporations, who are not only capable of funding the roughly $185,000 per applicant fee, but also might have a legitimate need for a custom TLD.

 92. John Carmack Deems DirectX 11 Unnecessary

In a sit-down with us at E3, Carmack admitted he doesn’t see a need for either DirectX 10 or 11 given the maturity of the DirectX 9 API and prominence of compatible hardware. Steam survey numbers appear to back his claim, as do the lack of must-have DX 10 titles. In Carmack’s mind, after DX 9, Microsoft’s focus turned to churning out new DX APIs to keep the department alive as opposed to implementing clearly needed features.

 91. Hybrid Graphics Hop onto Desktops

Rivals ATI and Nvidia both release Hybrid graphics solutions enabling users to combine integrated graphics with discrete graphics cards. The odd coupling of low and high end GPU solutions turns in mixed performance results, but the real upshot is in power savings, particularly in mobile PCs. By only tapping into the more powerful graphics solution as the need arises, the net result is extended battery life for notebooks, and a feel-good conscious on the desktop knowing you’re not wasting electricity.

 90. Kodak Develops 50MP Sensor

Kodak comes up with a new flagship CCD sensor capable of 51.6 million square pixels, promptly giving every other digital camera on the market megapixel envy. According to Kodak, the 50.1MP sensor would allow you to crop objects no bigger than a notebook in an image that covers a width of 1.5 miles. That is, if you can afford the $40,000 price tag.