Like many of you, many of us are huge Star Trek fans. It not only shaped everyone’s view of technology from a young age, it’s arguably one of the driving forces of technology today. And now you can live it. Here’s a quick intro to what Star Trek Online is all about. It’s about 30 years after the last Next Generation movie.

For all the talk of sexting, you’d think it was the only kind of text out there. Not so! There’s plenty of other ways to message, most of which come with just as much regret: Becksting: Texting after one too many fine imported lagers Sectsting: Blasts to give your cult to-the-minute updates on Xenu’s ETA Flexting: A picture message that doubles as an Admit One to the gun show Anorexting: Updating your friends on calorie counts and Weight Watchers points Hexting: Sending bad juju via SMS T. Rexting: Sending out obscure lyrics from 70s glam-rock bands Dexting: Sharing your Dexter fan fiction, 160 characters at a time Treksting: Spending an hour creating the perfect ASCII Vulcan salute

Computers in movies look nothing like the beasts we lug around today. They’re thin and light, a single pane that jumps to life when touched. Technology follows Hollywood dreams; here’s hoping this montage is a portent of what’s coming soon. The world will be shocked if Apple doesn’t reveal a tablet computer next week. It won’t be the first, not by any stretch, and it won’t be the first multitouch device, naturally. But as we envision it , the tablet represents the fusion of two of the most steadfast dreams of sci-fi nerds and ordinary people alike.

The good news: this Star Trek phaser mod has legitimate blow-em-up functionality and pewpew sound. The best news: you can build one of your very own. The full tutorial can be found at Laser Pointer Forums , a site I’ll obviously be visiting with far more frequency in the future. In the meantime, I’m going to keep watching this video, imagining Romulan sentries in the place of big black balloons. [ Laser Pointer Forums , thanks Jay! ]

The good news: this Star Trek phaser mod has legitimate blow-em-up functionality and pewpew sound. The best news: you can build one of your very own. The full tutorial can be found at Laser Pointer Forums , a site I’ll obviously be visiting with far more frequency in the future. In the meantime, I’m going to keep watching this video, imagining Romulan sentries in the place of big black balloons. [ Laser Pointer Forums , thanks Jay! ]

Actor Patrick Stewart , best known for his role on Star Trek : The Next Generation has been confirmed as one of the individuals to receive Britain’s highest honor—a knighthood—this New Year’s. Let’s sing a song in celebration, shall we? Yeah, I can’t get this damned thing out of my head either. But anyway, many congrats to the soon-to-be Sir Patrick. [ CNN ]

I demand only the most extraneous in genital wedgies, meaning even the uni-piece Star Trek uniform isn’t always tight enough. Thank goodness someone is manufacturing a snugger wetsuit version for $480. Perfect match for this Enterprise toy submarine . [ Roddenberry , Geekologie ]

Uh, I don’t have a clue what’s going on here. All I know is, it’s Star-Trek-related, and it’s very, very NSFW. [ Dinner in the Darkroom ] Click through to the gallery below for the NSFW (and totally baffling) pic.

It’s almost time for the Hanukkah, and what better way to celebrate the Festival of Lights than with Kirk, Spock, Scotty and the the gang? The answer is none. There is no better way. If you want to make your own, all you’ll need are some Star Trek Pez heads, a Deluxe LED Menorah Kit , and a healthy disregard for tradition. In keeping with the holiday spirit, couldn’t they have made room for Khan? [ Evil Mad Scientist via Make ]

140 characters. Automatically translated into Klingon. The future. ( Note: technically, you’re limited to 100 characters to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of Klingon phonetics, but explaining that sorta kills the dramatic presentation of this post .) [ Tweet in Klingon via Mashable via ShinyShiny ]