This year's technology markers included the rise of smart phones and Internet connected devices, led off by releases of the iPhone 3G, Google G1, the Blackberry Storm and Nokia N97 smart phones. Do not forget the iPod Touch, which gets rid of the phone and provides excellent wireless surfing on the go.

Mobile computing also took another form. Influenced by the example of the $100 notebook for the poorer countries of the world, manufacturers are now producing low cost mini-notebooks, or netbook, for travellers who do not need all the bells and whistles. Asus' eeePC, sporting a seven inch screen and a price of $249 is typical of the class of 2008.

Those who stayed indoors played with their Nintendo Wii gaming consoles, or worried that their personal data had been lost by some forgetful government flunky or ripped off by the Eastern European mafia for identity theft.

Meanwhile social networking in the form of Facebook and its competitors continued to keep everyone occupied at work. Twitter provided a new outlet for citizen journalists, much to the shock of the mainstream media covering school shootings, aircraft crashes, and the Bombay terrorist attack. The 'citizen' was there first and Twitterers were the first to know.

Facebook wraps up a good year on a slightly amusing note, which also serves as a good lesson to the company not to overstep people's space. Over the weekend Facebook users were protesting outside their downtown Palo Alto headquarters by breastfeeding their babies in public. Yes, you cannot push breastfeeding moms around and the medium allows everyone else to know.

The protest arose when Facebook removed the photos Heather Farley had on her space of her breastfeeding her baby. She kept posting others until the company threatened to delete her account. She decided a protest was in order and the usual groups gathered in her support. About 70,000 have joined her online campaign. Advocates are now posting new photos of breastfeeders round the clock. Some put the count at 3,000 photos and 20 videos. Go girl go!

US president-elect Barack Obama showed how social networking could be leveraged to get his message out past the noise and bring in a record amount of campaign dollars. Expect his administration to lead the way in 2009 in further exploiting the potential. We will all be debating about the impact of the Internet on democracy...facts...and fact checkers.

Obama's promise to bring more broadband to the masses should be a cry taken up in Bermuda, as it is in some quarters. The Computer Society of Bermuda has done a good job of getting the facts and comparisons out via e-mail and the media. The organisation estimates it would cost a Bermudian about $164.90 (and more) per month if they want to use high definition video streaming services over the Internet. In the US the cost is $42 per month or less. Bermuda is however ranked first in the world for broadband penetration, a statistic not unusual given its small size. Affordable broadband should be the call for 2009.

In 2008 the Web 2.0 was much talked about as usual and continued to be among the most fuzzy terms used during the year, along with 'cloud computing'. These are terms searching a meaning in an increasingly connected world. Google Documents has been around for a while, but has not caught fire in the business world. Microsoft is trying it on. The company is testing the move of its software from the desktop and onto "the cloud" of the Internet. Rental fees could be charged accordingly as a means of bolstering the company's voracious coffers.

Watch cloud computing transform itself into the lingo of the virtual desktop. Then a lot of in-house IT workers better think of migrating somewhere else, perhaps to one of these service providers? Do they provide medical benefits in India?

As a test I promise to do all of my writing on Google Docs for a month sometime next year. I will let you know how the test works out.

Then there were the screw-ups in 2008. Jerry Yang put himself above shareholder interests and added to Yahoo's general decline. Now shareholders look longingly at the $31 per share offered in February. Yang opposed the deal and after much wasted talk Microsoft withdrew the bid in May. The stock was at about the $12 mark, a 40 percent drop over the year. Will the deal go through. It could still happen, but at a sharply reduced price given the current economic crisis. Advertising revenues become extremely focused during downturns. Another complication is the proposed revenue sharing deal Yahoo and Google are attempting to get past the regulators.

Vista continued to be a flop for Microsoft, which is now trying to get everyone worked up over Windows 7, which it plans to release either next year or in 2010. Those who convinced their businesses to skip a bad generation and stick with XP should get a raise. Microsoft has acknowledged the Vista mistake by extending its support period for XP until April 2014. The support includes updates and security patches. Once computer manufacturers and retailers run out of inventory try and find a copy of XP, which Microsoft stopped selling in June.

Microsoft might be consoled that a survey shows that of those using Vista, 78 percent indicated that it was satisfactory or better, with 27 percent rating it excellent or very good in performance, reliability and

security. I am not among the fans. Since my laptop keeps choking on Vista, I am considering 'downgrading' to XP.

Another flop of the year was the sound of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which was fired up by ever so clever scientists in September and did not result in the Big Bang, or any bang at all from Switzerland. LHC lasted all of nine days before a design fault led to a shut down. The only black hole it has created so far is monetary. Repairs to particle accelerator, which cost roughly $3.5 billion to make, will add another $21 million to the bill. Oh well, there goes all the bonuses for the year.

Meanwhile the European Commission showed how not planning for success can bring down a site. The Commission's new online library, Europeana, was launched with much fanfare in November, only to crash under the mass of users. Who thought Europe could be so interesting. It is a great resource, and a place every teacher of European history and culture should visit for original source material. The library regained its feet this week and is now available at www.europeana.eu

I send my best wishes to all in Bermuda for the New Year. Thanks for all the comments and support throughout 2008. Keep them coming.

Send any comments to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com