You think you had a tough year? OK, maybe you did. But for some in the technosphere, the pain went beyond the long hours, flat pay scales, and never-ending FUD that you probably encou-ntered. Famous careers flopped, and some of the buzziest technologies and tools failed to live up to their hype — or began to hear their own death rattles. The vast fortunes of two of the most prominent women in technology’s recent past— former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and ex-HP chief Carly Fiorina —weren’t enough to get them elected in California. The Gulf oil spill — probably the single-biggest news event of the year — ca-st a negative light on the energy industry, which undoubtedly trickles down to its IT leaders. IT workers across the cou-ntry sweated out another year of the Great Recession era, although those with jobs know they are still among the fortunate ones. Then you had crooks and criminals from all levels of the IT hierarchy—from the CEO seat down to malevolent hackers. If you are not on this list of losers, maybe it wasn’t such a bad year after all.