Since this is my final SciFriday column of 2006, I promised everyone on the staff that I would keep it short. I have no idea what I'm even going to talk about, so I can't make any guarantees at the start. But if you're reading this, then you know how long it is already, and you can either thank me or bop me on the head. Your choice.

The end of the secular year (and I say secular because my new year's happened months ago) always seems to inspire us to write down resolutions. How many times do we have to see columns and new stories talk about resolutions? Probably more times than we can count. But I do have some resolutions of my own, and they benefit you, my favorite reader, and I expect you to hold me accountable for each and every one that I share.

My first resolution is easy: Keep Airlock Alpha up every day in 2007. OK, it's not as easy as it sounds. This time last year, you visited Airlock Alpha to find a holder page because we went offline for what was supposed to be two weeks to launch our new design. Unfortunately, that two weeks went well into three months, and it wasn't until March before we got the site back up and running again, and even then, it wasn't complete.

I had coded the original SyFy World and its several early incarnations, but by the time we merged with Star Trek Portal in 2000 or 2001 (I can never remember the year off the top of my head), all the programming has been beyond anything I could do, and we depend on other people to program the site for us. We were very lucky several weeks back to pick up Nick Chase as the site's new lead programmer, and you can already see a difference he has made. He's continuing to bust his butt to finish a lot of things that need to be done with the site, both what you see all the time, and behind the scenes.

We are committed to giving you the very best, and our staff reflects that. So Nick, obviously, is a perfect additon.

I resolve to provide a lot more original content than years past. We always strive to bring you columns from interesting people like Scott Nance, Wayne Hall, Sherri Lonon and even myself, as well as cutting-edge reviews from people like Alan Stanley Blair and occasionally from our lead graphic designer Bryant Griffin, but we want to do even more for you in 2007. Outside of the original content you already see here, we plan on having more interviews in the coming year from your favorite TV shows and movies. We also will be doing a new way to reflect on the television week that was (borrowing from a recent year-end special feature we did), and we'll be giving you, the reader, the chance to submit opinion items of your own that can be published here from time to time.

Yes, it's important to get all the news here, even news that originates from other news sources. But at the same time, we want you to get some of the original quality writing you expect to see here, and we're going to do just that.

I resolve to keep you thoroughly entertained. Most of Airlock Alpha's fame has come from the fact that we don't pull any punches, and we do it in a way that makes you laugh, makes you cheer (or boo), and makes you want to come back for more. Because of our technical problems cutting into site traffic in 2006, we softened that a bit as a way to not piss off those of you who continue to come and support the site. But we're going to go back to our snarky ways in 2007 and show you how fearless (or idiotic) we are.

We will launch our new podcasting feature, SyPod, this year. Yeah, I know I promised it would happen last year, but read about our technical problems above. I think you'll really like SyPod, and we hope that it provides something original, something fun, and something portable for you to enjoy from Airlock Alpha.

Airlock Alpha will begin to publish stories in multiple languages. From the very beginning, Airlock Alpha is not only big in the United States, but in other countries as well (especially Europe, thanks to our "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" coverage). Nick Chase, our aforementioned lead programmer, is putting together a quick and easy way for our news stories to be translated into several different languages. Yes, the translations will be done automatically and not by a human being, so it won't be perfect. But at the very least, we hope those of you who are translating our pages for your own person use already will be able to save a step with the new feature.

There is so much more I would like to resolve, but damn, that's a list that will keep all of the staff here at Airlock Alpha quite busy!

Have a great and happy New Year! Thanks for sticking by Airlock Alpha through all of its quirks in 2006, and join us as we put together an amazing 2007, and our best year yet! And don't forget, beginning Aug. 14, Airlock Alpha will begin its year-long celebration of our 10th anniversary! Sheesh, can you believe that we will be entering our 10th year in just a matter of months?

Thanks for everything, and we'll see you on the other side!

SyBits
Some of you may be aware that I opened up a new MySpace account recently that talks about my fear of dolls. You can find it at www.myspace.com/michaelhinman. I do encourage you to join my friends list, and get your friends to do so as well! Our goal is to get that friends list up to 500 or so just before we make a major announcement about the future of Airlock Alpha's parent organization, SyUniverse, and a new project related to that MySpace page on Jan. 20!

We're very excited about this new project, and I can't wait to share it with you next month. Trust me, you don't want to miss out on this!

Send us your questions or comments or whatever you want to talk about to me at mhinman@airlockalpha.com, and if you're lucky, you might even have it included in an upcoming SciFriday column. Please include a name we can use, as well as where you're writing from.

If you're not yet a member of our free breaking news/headlines mailing list, then it's not too late to sign up. Simply send a blank e-mail to syfyportal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and enjoy the latest in science-fiction and fantasy entertainment straight to your e-mail box. I promise you you won't regret it!

Have a great week, and don't be a stranger!

Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha, writing out of Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at mhinman@airlockalpha.com.