Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

Zepfanman's Best of the Web 2004

Updates: VH1, Jennings, earthquake tsunamis, Phelps, and Atkins, & freeware
As this year comes to a close, entry 68 reviews my internet and blog discoveries in 2004 (Zepfanman's Best of the Web 2004 = ZBoW). Use the Wayback Machine [Z] if any of these links are dead. There will likely be several edits (which I'll clearly make special note of) to this page, as well. Here's a table of contents for quick access ([Z] denotes a hover-over internal link):

1. Zepfanman.com Development
2. Blogging (others' favorites, awards, useful)
3. 2004 News Headlines
4. Religion
5. Entertainment (books, movies, music, TV)
6. Technology

1. Zepfanman.com Development

After graduating in December, making my first regular business trips [Z], and settling in to the married life, I began searching around the web for a way to improve Zepfanman.com. I was fortunate to run across SitePoint (SP), where I started posting all sorts of questions throughout February and March. I give SP a lot of props for providing a great community, decent articles, and up-to-date books in print. My News Blog Archive [Z] is a good place to look at how the site progressed into the summer. I've learned a lot about web standards [Z] this year, but I've got a long way to go before I have an understanding like these folks. The new Zepfanman.com design has a pretty good backbone now (thanks to design standards) so future changes probably won't take as long to correct. Like most personal sites, Zepfanman.com is a work in progress, so look forward to even more development in 2005!

2. Blogging

Stepping back to look at the internet world in general this year, did you know that Merriam-Webster puts blog at the top of their list of the 10 (online lookup) words of the year? In case the CNN article about this goes offline, here are some more details:

blog noun [short for Weblog] (1999): a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

Most of the hype this year was over political blogs aimed at the presidential election, as evening television news watchers have probably discovered. Blogging services like Xanga and Blogger have really taken off in their membership, as well.

I've been planning this entry for a while - it was inspired by one of the many lists other bloggers are making, especially Fimoculous, who has a huge List: 2004; I highly recommend his list if you're looking for 2004 summaries by category (movies, books, people, etc.). My own entry pulls ideas from some of his links, but I wanted to present my thoughts in a more narrative form. Other bloggers have compiled their own lists this month. Here are a few from pages I read frequently: Google Blogoscoped favorite blogs, Jaredigital also mentions two other lists, Jake's two year review, Kottke's favorite blogs, Andy Budd's top 5 web apps, highlighted posts from 456 Berea. 2003, if you're interested in comparing: Jake's '03 Best Of lists, Asterisk Top Ten Sites, 456 Berea 2003 web trends, Forty Media's Web Design in 2005 (predictions)

Blog and general web awards. You can see some of my own favorites on my Bloglines blogroll. There's a Yahoo! Directory Annual Best of the Web category for more of these, as well. Here are a few I've found worth mentioning in order of popularity (not necessarily ordered by my own preference). Nomination deadline, nominees listing (if existing), and winner announcement dates mentioned.

• Webby Awards - Online Oscars highlighting largely funded websites in over 60 categories. Jan28, May.
• SXSW Interactive Festival Web Awards - Uncovering the Best New Sites that are technologically innovative; 18 categories. 2004 winners (their award names are listed one year ahead, the date of the ceremony). Dec17, Mar13.
• Fairview Weblog Awards (Bloggies) - Publicly-chosen in 30 categories. Jan1-19, Mar15.
• Wizbang Weblog Awards - 35 categories (many awards by country). Nov3-29, Dec1-Dec12, Dec14.
• Diarist Awards - 8 entry and 7 site categories. Quarterly (e.g. Jan1-15, Feb16-30, Mar5).
• Best of Blogs (BoB) Awards - 20 categories that celebrate the rich diversity of the blogosphere and lesser-known sites, co-judged by the always hilarious Genuine. Dec10-24, Jan1-14, Jan21.
• Web Standards Awards - My favorite, ongoing since this February.

Other highly useful links from the blogging world:

• Technorati is probably the most popular blog search engine.
• Google [Z] is not made for blogs, but I had to mention it somewhere on this list since I use it daily; just look at its stats. Notice my website's tagline?
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine is even more impressive than Google in terms of its storage capacity. It's very useful for finding info from any of your dead links.
• Del.icio.us is a customizable collection of quick links that can be easily shared across the web; they call them social bookmarks. Even though I don't have an account (yet), I find a lot of good links browsing through their popular page. See Us.ef.ul for a how-to.
• Flickr photo sharing and storage is fabulous. Again, I can't personally vouch for this once since I already started using Menalto Gallery to host photos on my own website before I heard everyone raving about Flickr. The new, associated, Mappr! beta uses geo-tagging to place photos from anyone who uses Flickr on a geographical map.

3. 2004 News Headlines

• Time Magazine: People Who Mattered links to CNN Year In Review and April's Time 100 [People]; additionally, the BBC has had a great yearly roundup of headlines since 1950. While I'm glossing over many important recurring world issues here, these links give emphasized insight to continuing headlines (eg. Sudan, Israel/Palestine, and terrorism).
• The Organic Style Environmental Power List highlights 50 heroes making our planet a better place. Take a look at the So what can I do? blog for ideas on enacting social change.
• Open source gains ground. The release of Firefox and its NY Times ad was literally the poster child of this free, collaborative movement which includes Linux, OpenOffice.org, PHP, and many components of Macintosh computers. On the other end of the rope is Microsoft, who keeps pushing back the release date for the new Longhorn OS. Check out the meta OSTG for related cutting edge discussions and technologies.
• Hurricane casualties reach record numbers during the Atlantic hurricane season
• Red Sox beat the Yankees (and then took the World Series title, as well).
• U.S. Election causes heated debates about morality; as mentioned above, blogging becomes a popular playing field for debate; gay marriage laws gain ground.
• Huge corporate mergers: Oracle Peoplesoft, Sprint Nextel, Symantec Veritas, Kmart Sears, IBM Lenovo (Chinese outfit)
• 9.0 magnitude earthquake under Indian Ocean kills over 70,000 from tsunami waves (compare to 3,000 9/11 deaths). All this while many in the world are celebrating Christmas day. Added '04Dec29
• Michael Phelps ties record 8 medals in Athens Olympics Added '04Dec29
• Atkins dies (03Apr) but low carb diets still gaining in popularity Added '04Dec29

4. Religion

• Religion is big news on the net is a good overview. Thanks to the Holy Weblog for the link.
• The Passion of the Christ [Z], produced and directed by Mel Gibson, is one of the biggest and most debated Christian movies ever.
• Intelligent design being taught in schools
• Switchfoot, one of my favorite bands, hits it big with Dare You to Move. Mercy Me's I Can Only Imagine and Jars of Clay's Flood are the only other Christian (targeted) songs to make it big on the major airwaves.
• Beliefnet's Most Inspiring Person of the Year
• Bible and Christmas bonus - If you'd like an interesting take on Immanuel, read Christmas Story Uncut by Gordon Atkinson, RLP. Celebrate the Year of the Bible in 2005 by reading all the way through. My favorite guide is the Cover to Cover chronological book.

5. Entertainment

• Books - Clinton's My Life, Stewart's America, and the 9/11 Commission Report are just a few worth mentioning.
• Movies [Z] - The final Lord of the Rings DVD set closes another chapter in the world of science fiction epics. Star Wars Trilogy (not quite the exact originals) released on DVD for the first time. Fahrenheit 9/11 considered one of the most popular documentaries by the ever-controversial Michael Moore. Garden State and Super Size Me are two other testimonies to indie films gaining in popularity. Jamie Foxx's incredible acting in Ray is one more highlight worth mentioning. The Ray Charles collaborations, Genius Loves Company, couldn't have been released at a better time, either; since the topic of music is on the table….
• Music - I'll have to admit that I've been out of loop this year, mainly due to marriage, a full time job, and a house, all new to me within the past twelve months. Uplifting a benefit of marriage, though, my wife is on the Lost Highway street team, so I've seen Tift Merritt [Z] and Wilco. I know that the latter has been on the top of many music aficionodos' best albums. U2's latest is apparently enjoyable, although I'm not that impressed with the first single, Vertigo. Green Day's American Idiot is definitely a winner and who isn't a fan of The Black Eyed Peas?
• TV (see Television Without Pity if you want to recap the shows you missed) - I've been impressed with The Apprentice, new in 2004. I think they overdid the season 2 finale, but that's what you get for such a posh show. The Amazing Race is another good one; these are the only two reality shows I watch. Wife and I recently discovered DVDs of 24 at the movie store [Z], a very addictive series! There are a lot of good shows out there; it's just too bad that I never seem to have the TV on when they're being aired! How could I have forgotten to mention Ken Jennings and his $2.5 million winnings; he is now a spokesman for Encarta. Somehow, none of the other Best of links mentioned VH1's Best Week Ever, a fun show that they started this year; I guess that's because you have to watch the show; can't get many details just from the website. Jennings added '04Dec29; VH1 '05Jan9

6. Technology

• Palm Treo 650 and Blackberry 7100 battle for the perfect PDA camera phone [Z].
• iTunes and iPod expand beyond the Mac world.
• The long awaited Half Life occupies gamer fanatics.
• More Best Of lists worth mentioning: Wired Tools 2004 (129 products in 11 categories), PC World Best of 2004 (several products in each of the 9 categories), PC Mag Top 101 Web Sites (download exe), Forbes Best of the Web, Winter '04 (over a dozen categories of web sites)
• The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities [Z] from Ian Gizmo Richards at Tech Support Alert. This isn't really news, but I recently found it and its a great, continually-updated resource. Also notable is My Favorite Smallware, from MarkTAW.com. Updated '05Jan24

By rockofvictory | Fri 2004Dec24 11:40 CST | Links & News | Last edited Mon 2005Mar07 23:07 CST
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