Here is an innovative way of using your web browser to run a fully functional unix shell. If you go to http://cb.vu you will actually be logging in to a shell terminal on a web server. You can define which commands "www" users will have access to run. For those of you from the Windows world this is like having your windows desktop available over a web browser without the need of any special clients

I believe this site actually launches a shell within a bunch of java scripts. A very nice use of a web browsers capabilities. This type of utility may have some good practical uses.

EyeOS is trying to redefine the operating system. It is an open source initiative that aims to create an operating system that is accessible over over the web from anywhere around the world. OuterVillage in its top five strategic technologies for 2008 suggested the need for "enhanced web platforms that deliver applications over the web reducing the need for stand-alone OS's". That is what EyeOS seems to want to deliver on.

MIT is working on a project that will allow electricity to be transmitted without the use of any wires. Marin Soljacic and his team at MIT have developed a technique to allow them to transmit electricity wirelessly over short to mid range distances.