One year
Critical Hits: a history of a the battle between gamers and game-designers for nuance in combat systems: The early history of role-playing games seems like a constant battle between the creators of Dungeons & Dragons and its fans. Sometimes, like with critical hits, the fans wanted the game to be one way, but Gary Gygax and the folks at TSR just wouldn't have it. The case of critical hits shows that the fans have the real power, and that even if it takes decades, eventually D&D will implement critical hits, damn it. The history of critical hits was written by Jon Peterson, author of the fantastic-looking Playing at the World, a history of wargames and RPGs. Looks like an excellent companion to David Ewalt's Of Dice and Men.
Five years
Working handcuff keys printed on a 3D printer: German hacker Ray has shown that he can print working Dutch police handcuff keys from plastic on his 3D printers, and has released the 3D files so you can print your own.
Ten years
Earthlink posts P2P app, manifesto: Earthlink has released a new file-sharing tool based on SIP, the protocol underlying Voice Over IP and other systems for peer-to-peer connectivity. What's coolest about this is the manifesto they posted along with it.
