how to remember birthdays anniversaries and other important dates ?

unable to remember your best friend bday and could not wish him? with many friends, relatives and loved ones out there it is hard to remember each of them's birthdays and anniversaries sometime we tend to forget our own family member special dates and i am bad at remembering the dates so below are some of the online, offline tools that comes to rescue in such situations. below are some of ways to mark and remember birthdays and special dates:

Old way
though old way of doing things is obsolete now, i believe this is the best and interesting way of remembering things

Marking the calendar:
With mobiles, computers, smart hand held pda's people rarely use wall hung calendars but this is the best way to remember birthdays and anniversaries purchasing nice calendar at the beginning of the year and marking all the dates in free time and quick morning grasp at calendar to start the day but i don't think so people still like this retro way except few oldsters.

Journals:
Our elders used to have a journals similar to small dairy/calendar to remember birthdays and other special dates and appointments but i think now no one remembers or knows how the journal would look like.

Online tools:
Social networking sites: if your a person who will be most of the times connected to the web and attached to your system then there can be no other tool like social networking site where you will always be updated about your friends and relatives birthday provided they are all on the site and added as your friend though it helps to remember most of your friends and relatives special dates still its not a full fledged reminder and partially serves your purpose.

Reminder Portals:
There are tons of reminder portals out there both free and paid depending on the type of service they offer you can find 100's just by simple googling. just sign up for one of the site which best suits you and fill all the information these websites will automatically sends your reminder email, sends sms and even rings your cell phone depending on the options you have configured but make sure to opt for the trusted web service.

Cellphones, PDA's and HandHeld Smart Devices.
These are one of the best tools to use it as the reminder as it will always be with you as almost all the phones come with calendar software even the least priced low end nokia phone has decent calendar to remember around 1000 events so this might be your best alternative.


Reminder Software

There are tons of free and paid software's out there installing one of these tool according to your needs will be a good idea even outlook is decently enough if your requirements is basic if you want a powerful reminder system then you can go for free or paid tools available on the net.

and between how do you remember important dates and events?