Well, in just a few short hours the year 2010 will draw to a close. I for one am very glad to see the back of it - for the most part, 2010 has been a particularly difficult year for me, certainly far more stressful and worry-filled than 2009 ever was. I am kinda hopeful that 2011 proves to be a much stronger year for me, truth be told - on a personal level, I’ve implemented a number of changes in my life that should see things automatically be better for me as a person in 2011 when compared to 2010. But as is customary at this time of year, I thought it not a bad idea to put some of my thoughts down on the blog about how I think 2010 has gone as a year - both from a personal and a real-world perspective. I’ve decided to group these under the various “umbrella titles” I’ve used when referring to the entries on this blog. This is partly because of convenience, but also partly because these reflect the actual entries posted on the blog in the 6 months that it has been operating. And besides, I couldn’t really think of any other way to approach this kind of retrospective, and this seems as good a way as any other.
Technology
2010 seems to be the year everyone is referring to as “The Year of the iPad”. While I agree that what Apple tends to produce is revolutionary, and trend-setting, it does upset me to think that something like the iPad - with its inherent limitations and existence primarily as a portable iTunes device - was the trending topic for tech in 2010. Having said that, no-one is yet to produce anything that rivals the iPad in terms of sheer simplicity, but I hope 2011 fixes that. We need competition, for sure. Other notable tech stories of 2010 was the continuing emergence of Google as an Internet superpower, and a really negative attitude towards basically anything that Microsoft does. Major tech blogs such as Engadget seem very happy to laud Apple for virtually anything they do, but whenever Microsoft do something there’s a strong flow of criticism. Which makes little sense to me. This was also the year of the Wikileaks saga, and the year in which the world realised that the Internet is very much reshaping the landscape of global communications and information & content delivery.
Politics
2010 was the year that Federal politics in Australia jumped the shark. The biggest story was, of course, the sacking of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister, apparently because it would help Labor’s chances in the 2010 Federal election - which in the end it did more damage than good, particularly in Queensland, where the ALP lost a very large number of seats. And while the resultant Federal Parliament has a lot of positives going for it, the fact is the result has given renewed energy to the LNP Opposition, which I do feel is a bad thing just at present. There seems to be a lot of signs emerging from the LNP that they haven’t yet learnt the lessons of the 2007 Federal election, and that they should never have been removed from power. My worry is a return to Government any time soon could be a bad thing for Australia. We need about 10 years worth of a Federal ALP Government to bring back some balance to the system. Lastly, 2010 was also the year of big inaction on climate change, which means that while 2010 was seemingly no different from 2009, the fact is we’re getting closer and closer to a deadline, and something needs to be done ASAP.
The Media
2010 saw the irrelevancy of the print media reach new heights of obviousness, with newspapers attempting to find new ways of justifying their old fashioned delivery method and costly production process. With the arrival of the iPad, there seemed to be some vague sensation sweep the industry, and that their saviour had arrived - only to discover that as the year came to a close, despite an initial burst of interest the punters weren’t that interested in reading newspapers for a fee on their iPad, not when there are dozens of quality news web sites out there that are free. Another trend that 2010 will be remembered for was the slow transition towards Internet-based TV content. With services like the BBC iPlayer, Hulu Plus, and an ever increasing level of content on Netflix, the Internet really was where it was that in 2010. Combine that with the release of set top boxes such as the Roku Box and Boxee, you have the elements for a brand new emerging content delivery platform - one that has the potential to be truly global, and service every user at the same time, no matter where they live. Assuming the producers let that happen.
Food & Health
Not much to report on this front - 2010 was a shocker of a year for me personally on this front. The diet kind of went out the window completely, but this was because of my troubles related to my knee injury last December, and subsequent reconstruction in March, followed by 6 months of intensive physio recovery. This was probably the biggest negative for me in 2010 - the whole situation related to my knee was a major downer for me, and something I am very pleased to have behind me now. I am hopeful that 2011 is a good year for me health-wise, and that I can get my diet back on track as of next week, because since I’ve moved back to Brisbane my vain hope is to make 2011 the healthiest year I’ve had in recent times. This will be helped by having much easier access to quality medical services in a capital city, for sure. But yes, 2010 was not a good year in this area for me personally, so I am more than happy to see the back of it tomorrow. :-)
Well, that’s it - 2010 is a very tiny nutshell. A lot of other stuff happened this year, but this post is more about the stuff most interesting to me - and seriously, it’d be impossible to try and sum up everything from 2010 in a single post. Anyway, farewell 2010 - and bring on 2011, and all that it holds!!
Matthew Kopelke | 
