The year 2008 is here, finally. Even though a lot of significant things happened in 2007, here’s how I would remember it:
1. India got her first female President.
2. Television got some really great new shows.
3. The US still tried to force-feed its way of life and governance to countries worldwide, only at the cost of national pride, credibility, and the economy.
4. Lots of school shootings, including one in India.
5. The resurgence of Apple Inc. as a dominant force in the computing industry.
6. The year of the iPhone. (This needed special …

Background: Google runs a mapping service that’s available for mobile devices, as well as in the form of an application for the iPhone. Microsoft’s subsidiary TELLME Networks runs a similar service, only with more features available on their free 411 service.
So, last week, I was in downtown Washington DC for business, and decided to get a hotel room for the night. Someone suggested the ‘Renaissance’. I quickly keyed in the hotel name and location on my iPhone and Google presented me with the address and the phone number. Only problem …

I was thinking how much things have changed in the last 10 years. We now live in an increasingly connected society, at least from a technological point of view. Yet, at the same time, there are things that haven’t changed at all. We still have the middle east crisis. We’re still fighting hunger and poverty, and we’re still in search of a new source of energy!
10 years ago:

I was trying to get in a good college.
My primary computer was a desktop PC running Windows 95. The processor was 66Mhz Pentium.
I …

…and I just saw three snow scraper trucks make rounds on the street in front of my apartment. It’s 5:50 AM. Compare this to 2 days of disrupted life in NC when the snow first strikes.

I just registered my profile at dodgeball.com. It’s a pretty unique service that lets you take the whole online social networking thing offline. You can tell all your friends about your current whereabouts by simply sending a text message from your cellphone to DODGE. Not only that, the service allows you to broadcast simple messages like party reminders/invitations. It is integrated fairly well with Google Maps and Google Local, giving you the option to add reviews about places you go to through your cellphone.
The service is limited to …