So, time for a few days break, but I’ll be back in 2009, with more posts, a new site, and a podcast feed. In the mean-time, check out 2008 in tech from Rory Cellan-Jones, of the BBC (don’t even get me started on the iPhone bit though):  Looking back - tech in 2008.

A gentle reminder of how delicate our global network infrastructure is, via NetworkWorld:

A robot submarine was scouring the seabed 200 meters under the Mediterranean Sea on Monday trying to locate the ends of undersea cables that were cut on Friday, disrupting voice and Internet traffic.
France Telecom said its repair ship the Raymond Croze had reached [...]

OK, not really big name awards, but rather John Willis’s personal suggestions: The 2008 Cloudies Awards. I mention it because a) it is a rather useful who’s who of cloud computing and b) it is a reminder of how nascent the space is. So far there are very few ‘big names’ in cloud computing. That is [...]

Voice services player Viatel warns that over half (54%) of small businesses are staying away from VoIP because of concerns about their broadband connectivity. A study of 200 SMB’s commissioned by Viatel states that unless cost, reliability and performance issues are solved, converged services (including VoIP) are likely to remain the preserve of the enterprise.
54% of those surveyed said that [...]

If you use the Internet, especially for business, then it is time to start paying attention to the net neutrality debate again. Chris Albrecht of NewTeeVee blogged this:
In a nutshell, Google’s OpenEdge initiative will put Google’s caching servers within a broadband provider’s facilities. By shacking up, users of those broadband providers will get faster access to Google [...]