2010 In Review

january 1, 2011

Lets recap Mookie's 2010.

The Year in Numbers

The numbers for 2009, for comparison.

The Year of Cost Cutting

2010 was the year of cost cutting for Family Mookie. There were three major cuts for our budget. The first and largest was cutting off Dish Network. By "cutting the cord", we managed to save a sizable chunk of money each month -- and by throwing up an antenna on the roof, we are able to at least have stuff for the kids (PBS is totally awesome). Second, we cut our mobile data costs. AT&T switched their data plans to metered data plans, we jumped on-board right away since we don't use that much data anyways. And third, we cut off the physical disc from Netflix and went streaming only.

The Year of Gaming

2010 was the year that I finally got an Xbox 360. I waited and waited for Microsoft to do a true hardware refresh -- which I figured would get rid of the RRoD issue. When they did, I picked up an Xbox 360 and after almost 10 years, finally finished the Halo Master Chief Trilogy. Then I went and finished Halo Reach, Bungie's last Halo game. I went racing in Forza 3 and experience what Polyphony Digital has yet to deliver: A driving simulator that is fun.

In 2010, I dropped Modern Warfare 2 and started fighting in Battlefield Bad Company 2. I spend countless hours online playing in squads with my buddies (looking at you Brett, Rohan and Josh), taking m-coms and conquering flags.

The Year in Gadgets

2010 saw (as usual) a high turnover rate of gadgets (new incoming gadgets replacing ones that get sold on Ebay). While I saw the same amount of change for the number of mobile phones as 2009, the changes mainly came at the end of the year. 

2010 was almost the end of my run with Blackberry, but Samsung failed so badly that I went back to Blackberry. I came into 2010 using a Blackberry Bold 9000. That was replaced in April by a Blackberry Bold 9700, which I used until late December. Then it was replaced by a Samsung Captivate, which failed in so many ways that it caused me to return the Captivate. I come into 2011 with a Blackberry Torch 9800.

I came into 2010 using a Sony Reader (PRS-300), but replaced it in April with a Barnes and Noble Nook. But, I went back to Sony Readers when they released a better machine, the PRS-650 -- which used the new E-Ink Pearl screen and had an IR-based touchscreen. In the family, my wife got a Kindle 3 for Christmas and is enjoying it very much -- and is a paperbook-to-ebook convert now that she can read (and be in sync) on both her Kindle 3 and her Blackberry.

The Year in Linux 

Like any other year, I spent 2010 playing with the different releases of the major distros. But, my focus was mainly on the two big players: Ubuntu and Fedora. Ubuntu continues to live on my dedicated Linux notebook (the Long Term Supported version, 10.04), while Fedora lives in VMs. I am finding that while Fedora is cutting-edge, I am slipping into the mode of wanting a Linux distro that "just works" and while Ubuntu has some flaws, it is pretty and "just works".

The Year Ahead

I don't know what's going to happen in 2011. Lets hope it is exciting and enjoyable! How was your 2010? What stood out? What kind of numbers come to mind for you?

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