Your Choices For Top 10 Posts Of 2007

I guess it tells you what kind of year I had that I'm just getting around to doing this now (I've been hitting "snooze" on the Outlook calendar appointment for, oh, about two weeks).

Now that I've apologized in my indirect manner, let's get down to the list.

Top 10 Trafficked Posts Of 2007 (In Ascending Order)

1. Bill Gates Is Hungry For Your Blackberry
No tech-oriented blog would be complete without a mention of the folks from Redmond, who made their mark on the blog a number of times over the course of the year, for good reasons as well as, shall we say, not so good ones (like the SAP acquisition rumors).

2. Oracle's Insatiable Binge Eating
In this series of posts, I used the (perhaps insensitive) metaphor of morbid obesity to describe the relentlessly (some might say pathologically) acquisitive nature of this business software giant. After a couple updates, I just gave up counting. 2008 won't be very different, as BEA hears the sound of knives sharpening and Ellison and Icahn look for a seat at the dining table.

3. Anyone Else Hate Public Speaking?
In this humor-oriented post (note I didn't actually say "humorous") post, I asked if you suffered from any of the random, crazy thoughts that go through my head whenever I'm asked to get up in front of people. In retrospect, I should have asked for forgiveness in advance for trying to be John Brandt.

4. Maybe You Shouldn't Read This
I wrote about the problem of unintended email transmission (quick aside -- Microsoft should build a "30 second auto-delay" feature into Outlook immediately) and then made a huge gaffe of my own -- just to make you all feel better, of course.

5. Business Traveler Beware (Or It's Curtains For You)
(Full disclosure -- the second part of the post title came from a brilliant addition at the hands of our Web staff before sending this one out in our enewsletters.) This post contained this reporter's honest accounting of an absolutely jaw-droppingly ridiculous experience I had dealing with the Tampa/St. Petersburg Bayfront Hilton involving grand theft curtains, rock star hotel-room thrashing, and all sorts of other cool stuff that I wasn't around for.

6. Market Saturation Is For Losers
In which I took aim at a commonly touted reason for shutting down shop -- and predicted Wal-Mart would soon become a "self-saturating entity" (big leap of faith there, I know).

7. Deloitte Reaches Out To Gen Y(ouTube)
The changing of the generational guard in workplaces worldwide was a huge topic in 2007, and this post highlighted an interesting program from the folks at Deloitte designed to capture some of the energy and enthusiasm of their younger workers, and use it to gain a recruiting advantage.

8. How The Mattel Fiasco Really Happened
The death of a disgraced Chinese toy manufacturing company owner by his own hand humanized this situation for many company owners here in the U.S., and this post detailed the back story on how the tragic story of globalization gone wrong actually unfolded.

9. Tire Recall Looms, Chinese Product Problems Roll On
The topic of quality fade in China was a consistent blowout (sic) in 2007, as my post about dangerous Chinese-made tires highlighted the continuing defect problems with Chinese products (and stirred a lively debate amongst the usual suspects, as well as quite a few newcomers to the forum flame game).

10. Chinese Exporters Making A Killing With Poisonous Ingredients
Written at the height of the melamine scare, I took aim at the lack of consistent, effective oversight on imported goods in this post; however, I also pointed out that the same exact poisonous supply chains can originate much closer to home (like right here in Ohio) demonstrating that it's not just a "free trade" issue -- it's a manufacturing quality and lack of oversight issue as much as anything else. Once again, a lively debate was had by all, and I look forward to many more in the year to come!