So long decade and perhaps good riddance

I'm not big on reflection, but it's hard to notice that the first decade of the 2000s was pretty tumultuous.

My colleague Sam Diaz brought it up a few days ago: "It just doesn't feel like the decade is over," he said.

Why?

"The feeling we had in 1999 just isn't there."

Indeed, the tech sector and life in general is just missing something. In 1999, tech was the land of stock options, the Web boom and anything was possible.

In 2009, we look back at a 2001 terrorist attack, a 2003 blackout in New York City, two economic busts and more maturity (or is that cynicism?). Perhaps we're just older, but we seem to realize that well, maybe we can't do anything.

Simply put, it's just a different time.

But is it really? Sure, we wound up in roughly the same place economically, but there has been a lot of innovation. Social media, cloud computing, software as a service, smartphones and companies that weren't even born dot the tech landscape. And you know what? The next decade will bring more innovation.

So as we look back to a decade with mixed emotions, here's to hoping that the next one is prosperous and innovative.