Year in Review: 2009 in your words

Phorm

Behavioural advertising system advocate Phorm hasn't had it easy since it arrived. And readers certainly had a lot to say on the matter when we asked you what you thought about its deep packet inspection plans.

Frank cut straight to the point. "Phorm is just another invasion of an individual's privacy and I am glad to see that BT has seen sense and discontinued working with them," he said. "Personally, any IP that takes up with Phorm or any other company who implements this sort of software will not be a company that I will deal with."

Ian felt just as strongly. "I am extremely unhappy with the concept behind Phorm, I don't like the principal nor do I trust that it would be implemented fairly and transparently," he wrote. "I am currently with Virgin, if they deploy it I won't be."

Intrusion and invasion of privacy were the areas that ruffled Gordon's feathers the most. "I do not expect my snail-mail to be opened in transit and neither should my email," he said. "I do not expect my telephone conversations to be monitored, though I accept that, with proper and considered judicial authorisation it may, sometimes, be necessary to do such things when investigating crimes."

Where is Apple without Steve?

When Steve Jobs announced he was taking a break from Apple back in January for health reasons, many worried what would become of the computing giant.

Stephanie didn't think anyone could fill Jobs' shoes. "Unless Apple finds someone as dynamic as Jobs, Apple will fall steeply. No two ways about it," she said.

Someone can do a good job at the helm, according to Graham, provided they are willing to make bold decisions. "Nothing is more likely to impede innovation than fear of failure," he said. "Whenever Jobs goes the worst thing that could happen to Apple would be to be led by 'a safe pair of hands'."

While Max thought that Jobs should quit permanently and make way for a new leader. "It's not healthy for any company to be so publicly tied to one person that if that person should leave, the company is stranded without a rudder," he said.

"Given the state of the company, now would be a good time for Jobs to move on or at least bring in a new face, and allow the company to develop a momentum all of its own, away from individual egos and ambitions."

To the moon and back

We celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first moon landings back in July. We asked you what you thought of Britain's successes and failures as far as space is concerned.

"My abiding memory of the moon landings is that of thinking what could now be achieved by mankind and what wonders the future may hold," said Martin. "40 years on I can only say that I feel badly let down by the then hype."

Saving the planet for future generations was top of Edward's agenda. "Either we take a long-term view and prepare ourselves to colonise other planets or we stay as we are and watch the population grow whilst the resources on Earth run out," he said.

Mike was a bit more upbeat, saying: "While it is difficult to reconcile the hardships many are facing in this present recession with talk of mega investment in a return to the moon, our collective achievements as a species are what defines us and, who knows, may one day sustain us all, out there - even on that lump of cheese."

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.