check the countdown here
http://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/

Clock here
http://bitcoinclock.com/

30 weeks to go
[/quote]

Thanks for the response,
Well thats great, kinda makes me think well whats the point then...
only benefit I can see would be the difficulty lowering but then the large pools are in a far better financial position to carry on mining so the individual miners would probably drop out before anyone else.