Tomorrow is 2009, so as tradition goes, the ReflectionUpon Blog is going to review what happened this year! So I hope everyone thought positively about 2008 and have a happy new year.

The biggest (and probably most obvious) is that I switched to Wordpress and got real hosting. I also revealed my real name to be Eric Ouyang and blew away my pseudonym Kevin Johnson. Here is a month-by-month review of this year’s blog posts.

In February of this year, I signed up for Flickr and posted up a few photos that I took. Now it is a part of this website (see the “Photos” page) the original announcement post is here.

In March, Super Smash Bros Brawl came out and gave it a review (see here)

This May, the Phoenix Lander touched down on the surface of Mars to look for water on the red planet. What was different about this robot was that it has its own “Twitter” feed as well as a website and a blog. The mission ended on November 10th, 2008 when the Martian winter came along and NASA lost contact with the lander.

E3 was in July and at that video game showcase, I talked about Wii Music (which FYI, I still do not have), Wii Sports Resort, the Wii MotionPlus, and the Cooking Guide. (see the original post here)

Also in July, a highly anticipated product was released and sold quite well (which is quite annoying):the iPhone 3G. Yeah, itdoesn’t feel like it was even this year, but it was, on July 11th, but I had a post on it in June. (see the post here)

In August, I talked about the (at the time) upcoming netbooks which now are quickly becoming the new “laptop”. And yes, I did get a Lenovo S10. See the post here.

This September, the T-Mobile G1 (Google Phone) was the first phone to come out with Google’s Android open-source mobile operating system. I talk about it in this post.

This year’s Blog Action Day was in October where bloggers from around the world joined to talk about poverty. My contribution is located here.

The successor to Windows Vista (which began as quite a flop, but now is pretty good), which was discussed on originally the Funknowledge Blog,  Windows 7, was introduced to my blog readers in November. Again, the beta is expected to come out very soon (in fact, Steve Ballmer is expected to talk about it at CES). My post on Windows 7 is here.

Finally in December, again, started the ReflectionUpon blog. I also posted up a video on the Scratch Meetup @ MIT (Note: I do say Kevin Johnson at the beginning, I can’t really change it now). You can see it here. I also created my.ReflectionUpon.com, an experimental social network where you post up your own goals and then learn from the experience of others. See the post regarding that here.

Over the course of the year, ReflectionUpon also got a bunch of add-ons. Some of them being the the Forum (click the tab at the top), a gallery (photos tab), a wall for readers to post up something (see the right sidebar), and a mailing list that’ll automatically send subscribers an excerpt of the latest post which you can sign up at the bottom of the sidebar (originally, I manually sent emails).

Again, best wishes for the new year, and I’ll see you over the jump in January 2009!

Well, Earth Day passed about a week ago, and I never got a chance to write a post. So here is the post I was supposed to write on April 22, 2008.

All of us have to type up documents and often times, we have to print out multiple copies for others to review and then that person has to edit them and print them again. The paper used in this process could easily be saved by online document apps.

Google Docs Screen-shot (From Wikipedia.org)

I know many of you, the readers, use Gmail. Did you know that Google also has a office suite online? And amazingly enough, it is called Google Docs. It is simple and easy to use. And one of the most shining parts of it is that you can collaborate with others on one document. Save paper, eliminate multiple copies, and best of all it is free! Included in the program is a word processor, spreadsheet editor, and even a presentation creator. All you need to use it is a Google Account, and go to http://docs.google.com/, so try it out. The interface is simple, quick, and clean. The experience is really enjoyable.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace (From ZDNet.com)

There are also many other apps online that help you accomplish this. Microsoft has the product Office Live Workspace. This integrates the Microsoft Office Suite with the internet. But the thing about the app is that you can’t actually write and edit on the site. But you can share, comment, and upload your document to the site. If you have Microsoft Office, I would recommend installing the plugin into Office. I personally don’t like having to have to go through so much to work on a document. I like how on Google Docs, everything is just there for me, or a collaborator, to go and work on it.

Zoho (From Wikipedia.org)

Zoho is currently one of my favorite online office apps (But, I do mainly use Google Docs because I can easily collaborate with my peers since many of them also have Google Accounts). It does a very good job making Microsoft Office users feel at home. The interface is much like Office (not the 2007 version) and is fast and easy to use. This is the most filled app with almost everything you can think of. It has the typical word processing and spreadsheet apps. But it also has a wiki creator, a database maker, a people manager (I have not tried this yet), and a few more. I would highly recommend trying this one out.

ThinkFree (From LifeHacker.com)

ThinkFree is another online app. I actually just found out about this one. Although this isn’t my favorite, it is still pretty good. The main thing that I don’t like about it is that it is slower than Google Docs or Zoho. It uses Java to run the editors and the loading times are just too long for me. But the product is well bundled with a easy to navigate interface, again similar to Microsoft Office, like Zoho, but is much, much more alike (look at the screenshot and you’ll see). It even has the whole ruler thing and a toolbar with the File, Edit stuff. It comes with apps similar to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Another app for notes is also coming soon. In Firefox, I have an issue with it in that the bottom toolbar is slightly cut off by Firefox’s own toolbar, but I’m not sure if it is the same for IE.

But if you have to print out drafts, please do it on the back side of another paper. This way we eliminate the cutting down of trees and help reduce waste. Of course, for a final draft, print it out on clean sheets of paper.

So those are the four main apps for online office work. If you already have a Google account, I would say to go with Google Docs. If you have Microsoft Office and would like to easily upload things onto the net, you could try Office Live Workspace. For an “at home feeling” for Office users, you can go with Thinkfree. But for an all purpose, easy to use program, go with Zoho. But the choice is up to you. All of them are free for personal use and allow you to bring your office docs online. Please leave a comment on which one you prefer, you own thoughts, or if you have another service you would like to mention. Again, Happy Earth Day and continue to keep our Earth clean and alive.

Well, I’m back! I hope all of you had a great new year. As many of you know CES passed (or almost will) and has shown us many of great gadgets for the comyear. Although I usually don’t like Apple products I actually like the the iPhone, it has almost everything I want. Such as Wi-fi, a touch screen, nice interface, Cingular (all of the other good phones are on a different carrier) and of course a sleek design! One thing that I hate about it is that it costs $500 dollars for the 4 GB model and $600 for the 8GB. It will come out in June but only through Cingular and Apple. I’ll post more stuff about the iPhone but for now if you want it get it here (it’s a paper version): http://www.sneakmove.com/2007/01/diy-cut-and-fold-paper-iphone.html.