OS/2 brings back memories, of which I was also reminded when I first checked out Google's code search and found some of my 1995 OS/2 code lying around! [NB: these days, I look at this code and shudder "Eek!... buffer overflow vulnerability!!" ... security just wasn't front of mind back then! ]. But it also reminds me of how much thought I put into the decision to adopt C++ on OS/2. It very much felt like "this is a decision that I'll live with for years". But 12 years later, in 2007, that decision-making process seems so naive and foreign. Now it is routine to dabble in a couple of scripting languages, some Java, even some C++. The right (or most fun) tool for the job, right?If I could say "Programming Language Bigotry" is a skill (some people certainly practiced and honed it like it was), then boy am I glad it seems to be a thing of the past and perhaps it deserves to be #1 in this list!
After a brief post-dot-boom hiatus, the drammatic rate of evolution is certainly back, spurred on by Web 2.0 hype. The rate of technological change has indeed become so "normal" that a top 10 list hardly scratches the surface. Personally I would have voted for int 21h. I'm sure generations to come will have absolutely no idea what that means, but for me and presumably many others, I can sum up a year of computer science with that very phrase.
For many (myself included), To Be Alive is To Be Learning and vice versa. The new religion if you will. "Lifelong learning" or "learning for life" are too trite and miss the essential truth.
Other may say that to be continuously learning is to be in a perpetual state of childhood. Look at some of the toys we are learning about and maybe they have a point!
Postscript: I just re-listened to a WebDevRadio Episode 18 which reminded me that Coldfusion is not dead!! At least according to the guys at Mach ii..