One of the secrets to being a good tech writer is being able to make predications about what might be based on what little information you have. PC World's 100 Fearless Forecasts looks at the very near future and paints an optimistic picture for technology that both rids us of some of the annoying nuisances and evolves us in new ways. Here are three of the hundred high tech predictions and what caused them to get made.

Prediction: You'll have a laptop with a display on the outside case informing you about waiting emails or messages without ever having to crack open the lid. of the PC

What they know: Microsoft's Vista operating system has a feature called Windows SideShow that will support a secondary screen, provide access to data on Windows Vista PCs even when they're hibernating, and then output to small LCDs.

Prediction: You'll be able to push and pull images around on a virtual screen (think Tom Cruise in Minority Report).

What they know: A guy named Jeff Han does a fabulous demo using a drafting table equipped with multi-touch sensors.

Prediction: Operating systems like Vista could install themselves in under 15 minutes.

What they know: Jim Allchin, who runs the Vista group at Microsoft, has said it will be so.

Predictions I'd like to see? A laptop battery that lasts 12 hours (and is explosion-free), and cables and plugs that have a built-in homing device to find their device-mate.

John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist said, "There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don't know, and those who don't know they don't know."  Fearless forecasters know something, but how many of the hundred forecasts on this list do you believe will come to pass?