On July 21, the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed for the last time, ending three decades of missions in space. With the conclusion of the Shuttle program, the quest to restore the United States’ ability to send astronauts beyond the Earth became far more urgent. Though NASA has been working on a new vehicle since 2004, it also began supporting a number of home-grown commercial space operations. As part of the Commercial Crew Development initiative, four companies have started work on spacecraft that will eventually carry astronauts to the International Space Station — and perhaps beyond.

We’re currently living in an age where we as a population are less impressed by new technological advances. The computer age sped up the rate of invention and innovation, and children of this age are tuned to simply be less impressed. The high frequency of viable new inventions and incredible innovations made us grow accustomed to them. Amazingly, we actually expect new inventions and innovations to drop at an alarmingly high rate, and rarely, nowadays, do they impress, even though they should. However, another way to look at our collective apathy toward modern day invention and innovation is to wonder if, possibly, the technological age in which we live redefined what it means to be innovative; so it’s not that we’re less impressed by innovation, but we don’t necessarily know what it means to be innovative anymore.

When done right, nothing is more instantly recognizable and associable as a catchy sound bite. Once upon a time, instantly recognizable jingles were the backbone of the advertising industry. Today,  audio clips are a little more pervasive, considering our seeming dependence on electronic devices. Receive a phone call? Catchy audio clip. Get an email? Catchy sound bite. Turn on just about any modern electronic device? Memorable tune. We’re living in a world where companies and devices need to differentiate themselves from the competition as much as possible, and an instantly recognizable sound bite is a three-to-ten second mean to that end. So, come with us as we check out some of the most instantly recognizable, brand differentiating, nostalgia inducing sound bites in tech.

We’re currently living in a world in which technology seems to innovate more quickly than it ever had previously, partly due to the kind of technological Golden Age we’re experiencing, and partly due to the current Golden Age of communication, in that news travels as quickly as ever, which both helps get the word out on new innovations and gives said new innovations a chance to shine. Only a decade ago video games looked like something akin to not wearing your contact lenses and were controlled with plastic controllers, and it was a pain to transfer a single large file. Sleek tablet computers were things only seen in science fiction and PDAs were kind of silly, and printers generally only printed flat words and images on flat paper. Technology has come a long way, and as time goes on, innovation in tech seems to be picking up speed. So, let’s take a look at some of the more unusual innovations in technology.

Remember ReBoot? That awesome Saturday morning cartoon show about the world within computers? You know, the one that made history because it was the first half-hour fully computer-animated television series? Remember how it was actually good, even including the horrifying series ending?

Well, if you don’t remember, or want to brush up on your ReBoot, the fine folks over at Shout! Factory supplied us with two sets of ReBoot Season 1 & 2 DVDs to give away to you, our loyal, obviously attractive readers, but there’s a catch:

The world of Mainframe was filled with physical manifestations of the bits and bobs within a computer. For instance, Bob is a Guardian, which basically translates to the system’s antivirus or maintenance tool. Ray Tracer is a fella who surfed around the Net and the Web on a floating surf board, which translates to a search engine. So, if you want to win a totally alpha numeric ReBoot Season 1 & 2 DVD set, here’s what you must do:

How to Enter to Win:

Create one character or place with a modern day computing staple and tell us how it’d fit into the world of ReBoot. What kind of person would Twitter, Facebook or Photoshop be? Would Foursquare be a villain? Would free-to-play MMOs be a slum? Would memes be fast food chains? Send us a few sentences following the above guidelines, we’ll judge using our very advanced system of metrics and submetrics, and hopefully, you’ll win!

Post your entries on our Facebook page, pray to Phong and hope for the best.

Friends, we here at Geekosystem believe in sharing the love. That’s why we’re giving away five copies of the Cowboys and Aliens comic book that inspired the movie to you, our gentle readers. But if you want one of these handsome hardbacks, you’re going to have to fight for it.

Update, 2/25: Well, this is pretty awesome: Platinum Studios, the comics-to-film company behind the adaptation of Cowboys and Aliens, has sweetened the pot on our giveaway by offering a copy of Cowboys & Aliens signed by series creator Scott Rosenberg as a grand prize for one lucky winner. Go to cowboysandaliens.com for official news and fan info on the film, and also check out Platinum Studios on Facebook and Twitter. Everyone who has applied up to this point is eligible; if you haven’t applied yet, the contest deadline is 2/28.

The game is simple. Head over to our Facebook page and tell us what improbable but awesome match-up you’d like to see made into a movie. The possibilities are limitless:

• Robots and samurai
• Zombies and basilisks
• Mega Shark and Giant Octopus vs. Sharktopus
• Godzilla and my kitchen radiator
• Sherlock Holmes and the 1999 Detroit Red Wings

But we want to hear your ideas. Give us your unnatural (or surprisingly natural) pairing, and you could take home a copy of Cowboys and Aliens.

Platinum Studios, creators of graphic novels, comic books, and pioneers of digital comic book distribution, have recently shifted their focus towards movies with the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens, as well as Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, starring Brandon Routh. The Platinum ethos: ‘comics can fuel media anywhere and everywhere.’

‘Tis the season for giving; and since HarperCollins has furnished us with no less than five copies of Harry Potter: Film Wizardry, their retrospective viewbook on 6/7ths of the Harry Potter movies; we’ll be passing them along to you.  If you can gives us a sentence on why you should teach Defense of the Dark Arts, you might be getting a really beautiful book, that is full of other, smaller, beautiful books.

More details after the jump.

Geekosystem readers may have noticed that beginning today, a Bing search box now appears at the bottom of each post. What is it, exactly?

Here’s the deal: After Geekosystem’s crackerjack reports on, say, robots, World of Warcraft, or Rickrolling pranks have fired up your interests in those subjects, you can use the Bing tool to search for more. Depending on what you’re looking for, you can toggle between video, web, and image search, allowing you to take advantage of Bing’s nifty multimedia search as well as more traditional web search.

Please try it out!