If you like, you canskip straight to the iGeneration statistics page, to show you what you've been doing on here over the last year.
By running your life in a VHD (virtual hard drive) and synching that file to the cloud, you can in theory access your computer from anywhere, as if you were really there. Sure, you could just use LogMeIn like I actually do, but it was an interesting thought.
I also threw my laptop out of the window in a minor fit of rage, with interesting results, and sparked a mild controversy when I put Google against Live Search in a battle of the search engines. Another high point for me was bringing together two controversial topics which thought would interest the readers; the lack of women in the IT industry which my former colleague, Philippa Snare, discussed with me, and the effect of being gay in the IT arena and whether it can hold your career back and sparking a mild international incident.
July, August and a bit of September -->
With nothing more than my depressive stories, dial-up Internet which was still being charged to the previous owner, and Tammy Cavadias, who pretty much runs behind-the-scenes and pretty much posted everything I had for that month, acting as my proxy. If it wasn't for her, it would have been one hell of a crap paycheque for July.
One of my most commented posts to date was published, discussing the top technology tips for students, including using the university network to download large files (and on-demand television) and considering investing in a wifi-cell phone. My campaign to abolish crapware, software which is pre-installed on computers just bought, began.
My insight into the depressing future ahead for the Internet seems to have come true to some extent, especially in the last few days with the massive flaws detected in the Internet Explorer browser.
This got 50 TalkBacks and remains one of my most popular posts to date. I took August as a month to show off certain new cool things for students; the research parts of the BBC News website, some tools provided by Microsoft to make life easier when writing those essays and dissertations, as well as the look at Windows "Fiji", the failed new pack for Windows Media Center.
Looking back after writing that article about IE7's killer feature (although, stolen shamelessly from Mozilla), the web gallery, which didn't allow any add-ins to be downloaded for it, because it didn't work. I learned a surprising lot from that article, and had some great feedback from the IE7 team afterwards. I discussed global security, and could be the first person on ZDNet to get an quote from an MI6 officer. It doesn't count the fact I know them in a social setting, but nevertheless, the article worked.
I'm proud of. Even my little sister had a go at writing an article, bless.
The rest of September, October and November -->
October also saw me getting into a bit of bother in regards to the Windows 7 screenshot I posted, then pulled, then re-posted again. It also saw the first pro-Mac post that has appeared over the course of the last year. The new MacBook is pretty good looking, albeit with a glossy, shiny screen which makes it difficult to read off.
With the announcement that the Windows 7 beta has begun (or rather back then, was nearly ready), I had a good old think about the new features and a way Microsoft can avoid the Vista-feature-gate it had last time round. I proposed an off/on switch of features, with two modes available. Suffice to say, Microsoft declined the offer, but it made a good read nonetheless.
I took a look into Twitter to see whether there was any point in the web application. It turns out there isn't, but it made a good talking point for people - which ultimately, is what I'm here for.
December, statistics and acknowledgements -->
I wrote about universities taxing students to download as much "illegal music" as they wanted, as well as Windows Server 2008 fast becoming my favourite operating system of all time.
I also thought it was about time to quickly skim over some of the latest, and near-final features in Windows 7 ahead of the beta program. So far so good, is basically what I had to say, with a full in-depth image gallery which seemed to prove quite popular.
And finally, the most popular article on this blog, which is still increasing in momentum, was my post on Internet Explorer never being as secure as other browsers are today, in present day. It was controversial, but again, it's the talking point which I like to give people; the ability to shout, talk, bitch, moan, whine, consider, ponder and think about.
From looking behind the scenes in the ZDNet looking glass, some of the visitors over the past year have come from, or at least visited from:
Michigan Technological University, Ohio State University, the University of Washington, the University of California, Oregon State University, West Virgina University, Colombia University, Harvard University, the College of New Jersey, Flinders University, Stonybrook University, Princeton University, Pittsburg University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and my own lovely little home, the University of Kent.
Others who have visited also include:
South Australian Central Government, Microsoft Corporation, British Columbia Government, Google Corporation, US Department for Homeland Security, California State Government, and no less, the Royal Family... ma'am.
Considering it was only a few days ago, I got my highest visitor recording on the 15th December 2008, and more people use Windows (87.53%) and Internet Explorer (46.31%) to read the blog, with Firefox only a few percent down at 42.66%.
Many thanks go to my university colleagues who allow me the time to work and to take time out for meetings, conferences and suchlike. A big thanks to Mary-Jo Foley, my long suffering friend who has guided me along the journalism route; and Dennis Howlett which we worked together for the second half of the year. Not to mention, Jen Leggio who started just after me; we've been learning the ropes pretty much together, and I'm proud of her for doing so well in such a short space of time.
I've never had a better bunch of colleagues on ZDNet; I can genuinely say, even though being over in the UK, I haven't met a great portion of them, but they're the best bunch of guys and girls to work with. Thank you, to all my colleagues.
And you. Thanks for the views and thanks for the arguments; it's been fun and I'll carry on as per usual into the new year. Even though I'll be posting more over the next few days; season's greetings to you all, whatever your religion, faith, belief or banana.