The end of a year and a decade

So as 2009 draws to a close, I look back over the year and consider what has happened.  With this being the end of the decade for everyone but pedants (that will be another year yet), I've also thought about the previous decade.

10 years ago I was halfway through my degree, determined that I would become a famous game designer, or at least be designing with a  major games studio.  I was still determined not to become a programmer, and instead wanted to spend my days fiddling with excel, scripting langauges and writing design documents and so forth.  Fast forward 10 years and I'm now working as a programmer in the web industry, speaking at conferences and even organising conferences like scale camp!

This year has been real fun, I've really settled into my role at the Guardian newspaper, and the coming year will hopefully see me extending that role into more developer evangalism focused areas.  I was pleased to recently read a list of a number of technologies that one "must have used" in 2009, including a NoSQL datastore, a dynamic language framework and a non-blocking long poll framework such as node.js.  I've had the opportunity this year to spend time using Reddis, Django, Python and even a brief play with node.js and the tornado framework.

How about resolutions for 2010?  Well I'd like to increase the quantity and quality of my blogging.  That will hopefully mean writing more often, as I'm repeatedly told that the best way to improve ones writing abiity is to practice it as often as possible.  I wont promise any particular update schedule, as I've tried that before, but rest assured like all new years resolutions, january will be more active before I get bored and forget to do any more!

I also wish to try my hand at some more new technologies, trying to keep up with the changes in the industry and the way in which programming is changing.  The main aims for the early year is going to be trying to have a play with Yahoo Application Framework and the Facebook platform, and trying out some more social tools to explore the concepts and patterns involved.

I hope you have had a great 2009, and have a good new year and an enjoyable 2010.