Tonite, 2005 ends. As usual, it’s time to look back. When I check my blog archives, I say to myself “man, you should have written a lot more”. Actually, I had the same feeling one year before, I’ve put off many good articles about guesses that became true. One good thing is that I keep reading a lot on the web and 2005 was definitely a very good year for the techies.

Apple was brilliant. 2004 was a good year but 2005 was definitely far better. They made tons of great products. I got my second Apple computer and I’ve saw people switched all around me. I had a lot of fun with Macs and I’m definitely a big fan. I look forward for the next move of Apple in 2006. I’m pretty sure we’ll see great things happening again.

Web matured one step forward this year. People made great use of it and the web 2.0 phenomenom brings a lof of good idea for apps design. It’s a new departure for the web and 2006 will be a very exciting year for online services. Lot of startups emerged in 2005, that a good sign for the future. The web is becoming more professional and I expect to see a lot of job opportunities in that field in the next years.

On the developers side, this year brought a very deep interest in dynamic programming languages such a Ruby or Common Lisp and in agile methodologies. A great move that I’ve been waiting for a long time. Adoption of “new” technologies is a slow process that needs to gather people. 2005 definitely marked an important change in minds. Important people in the field start to look seriously at the alternative to classic development environments. Sure, that won’t change your developer job immediately but I can ensure you that it will.

2005 was a good year for me. I turned myself more on web technologies and I’ve invested more time in blogging. Even if I’m not producing as many articles as I wish, it worth the time and I’ve learnt a lot.

My job as a software architect in the company I work for starts to pay off. Due to major troubles we had in the mobile business we definitely had to change minds, make practical decisions and to focus on customers. Sure, 2006 will be tough, but I’ll have the occasion to do better my job.

It was not easy to took that position from my previous developer job. Being a software architect is more than being a technical guy, you have to be closer to the business of your company, work with product managers, marketing and sales, I had to learn. But it was a good move. As computer systems complexity is growing, architects are very valuable position in the industry. Also, one of the reason that makes me jump into this position was the challenge to embrace “new technologies” and to experience new system designs. I suppose I managed to change some minds and I’m pretty happy with it.

This year, I also started to think more about business. I spent a lots of years in front of my computer making things only for my own knowledge. 2006 will be year for me to make more concrete things out of this knowlegde.