Bad start
I don't know about you, but I'm knackered. What a year!
There's nothing like going through the biggest economic slump since the great depression to motivate you to keep your head down, and I've got a feeling that everyone who has been lucky enough to keep their job this year has worked as hard as they ever have.
In spite of the foulness inflicted on us by the short-termism of western banks and the spineless incompetence of those who were supposed to regulate them, there has been a huge amount of activity in the technology industry this year.
In this HEXUS.channel review, we look at the events that have defined the tech business over the past 12 months.
January
The year started on a low note as the world waited to see how bad things would get following the economy falling off a cliff in Q4 2008.
To name just some of the grim economic news that came out in January:
Intel to close five factories, affecting up to 6,000 employees
Lenovo announces 2,500 redundancies
Dell to move EMEA manufacturing from Ireland
NVIDIA issues dramatic revenue warning
And to rub salt in their wounds, there was this contrasting news: Apple reports best ever quarterly revenue
The profit warnings and generally apocalyptic news coming from all directions prompted governments to drop interest rates to their lowest ever levels, and keep them that way for the rest of the year.
In other news, an issue that was to be addressed continually over the course of the year - illegal filesharing - took a further turn with the news that ISPs may be forced to identify end-users who indulge in this practice.