The Hickensian
44 comments
Lists of 2004
It’s that retrospective time of year again. Looking back over all the highlights of the year and recording them for posterity.
Albums:
- Antics by Interpol
- Everybody Makes Mistakes by Starflyer 59
- Good news for people who love bad news by Modest Mouse
Quite simply, I’ve not been so excited, enthralled and addicted to an album as I have with ‘Antics’ in a long time. ‘Everybody makes mistakes’ didn’t actually come out in 2004, but I didn’t manage to get a copy until this year, and I’ve played it to death, so in it goes. Then end track “The Party” is a perfect song to finish the day on. Honorable mentions go to Wilco’s “A Ghost is Born”, Tanya Donelly’s “Beautysleep” (again, not actually released this year) and ‘I am the Portuguese Blues’, also by Starflyer 59 (which was released this year).
OS X Browser
- Omniweb 5.1b4
- Safari (+ Saft + PithHelmet + Stand + Safarisource)
- Firefox
Ah, Omniweb how I love thee. The latest beta build is an almost perfect balance of features and performance. When I use other browsers, it just makes me pine for its doing-anything-with-them tabs, form editor and oodles of other things I can only do in OW. The interface isn’t perfect, but hopefully that’ll be improved in the future. Safari came in at a very close second. Depending on which day you ask me, numbers 1 and 2 can change places). Sorry Firefox, you’re not quite there yet on the mac, although you’re close. Maybe after 1.1? Camino has possibilities, but is still too bare bones for me. I’ve been really impressed by the latest Opera, with its combination browser/email/rss reader, but while being fully featured, it looks like a dogs dinner.
Site design I wished I’d come up with first:
Blog Posts
- A story about someone else’s ass – Dooce.
I cried with tears of joy - Screen Grab confab – Cameron Moll.
Fascinating insight into peoples work. - I would RTFM if there was an FM to FR – Design by Fire.
Andrei, I wish you blogged more often.
Events:
- The very first Geekend
A very special time, and we’ve even managed to fit in 2 more before the year was out. Nice to finally meet you all chaps. - Firefox
I had no idea what I was getting myself into. - Being called the 13th most influential design blogger. I’m nowhere near, but it was flattering all the same, thankyou Cameron.
finally…
Thankyou Samantha and Daniel. You’re the highlight of every year
Looking forward:
Before the year is out, the family of Hicks is heading out to Sydney for two and half weeks. Its 0 degrees as I write this, and 42 over there. I’m just gonna melt, but I can’t wait. I love living in England, but the weather can really lower your spirits sometimes. It can be like living in Bladerunner – always dark, always raining.
So…
Using the same categories, name your top 3’s!
Recent Posts
29.06.09 Icons for Interaction
16.06.09 Unite
10.06.09 Discovery
5.06.09 Daniel's Daily Monster
6.05.09 The Art of Penguin Science Fiction
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Colly said 1663 days ago:
Yes, yes! Interpol rocked – a great return. Off to see them on Sunday. Hoorah. I think it’s been a very optimistic year. Great to meet you and the others at a recent Geek-meet, great to be regularly communicating with those I’ve been reading for years.Not so great that it’s freezing cold. You’re off to Sydney and I’m off to bitter Scotland for Xmas. Oh well, there’s always the screen tan…
Rob Mientjes said 1663 days ago:
Cold? Yes, the best part of Europe’s too cold to be nice. Not yet cold for snow, but still cold enough to go anywhere by bus. You are so lucky…No lists from my hands for now, but I wish you a mighty good time.
Bodoggy said 1663 days ago:
It’s funny how the one essential app for me (the browser) still eludes perfection.Safari: Undying cache, a couple of non-working sites crucial for my work.
OmniWeb: Too often renders incorrectly. Otherwise amazing.
Camino: Runs like molasses.
Firefox: Horrible widgets, but nearly there.
In my opinion, OmniWeb has the most potential and has enough features to be worth the price. Hopefully, paying for my license will help them get there.
Derek said 1663 days ago:
I just downloaded OmniWeb for the first time. Holy crap why didn’t I do it sooner? The “edit field in separate window” is worth $30 by itself! With so many online CMS systems allowing you to edit templates in a browser, my HTML has become really nasty since I can’t use tabs in those form fields. But with OmniWeb you can actually use tabs in a form field! Hooray! And the workspaces are great too. I’ve already set up one for “work” and one for “fun”, and it’s so easy to switch between them. Fast too! In case the boss comes in! :)Jeff Clark said 1663 days ago:
How can you not consider yourself an influential design blogger? Every design of your site (and a design of at least one other I know of) has made it to CSS Vault with glowing reviews!Don’t sell yourself short – the smaller box design of your site (two version ago…?) was the total inspiration for me to have a website in the first place, let alone with CSS.
Krzysztof said 1663 days ago:
Warm your bones, visit d and have a good time.My top albums: Björk “Medúlla”, PJ Harvey “Uh Huh Her” and Dani Siciliano “Likes…”
Rob Wilmshurst said 1663 days ago:
Krzysztof, I was just about to list those first two albums of yours :)going to have to add Hope of the States’s the Lost Riots to that. Saw them a few weeks back and it was sublime.
I keep meaning to post here but always find something trivial like coursework to be getting on with.. .
Loving the site Jon, everytime it’s changed i positively glow with excitement.
Not so sure about the beard though ;) heh heh heh
Turnip said 1663 days ago:
Albums (these are not the albums that I’ve liked best this year, but they’re the albums from this year that I’ve liked best this year):1. The Killers – Hot Fuss
2. Snow Patrol – Final Straw
3. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
OS X Browser (Anyone wanna get me a Mac?):
1. Firefox
2. Firefox
3. Firefox
Site designs I wished I’d come up with first:
1. Cafe Lisa
2. Sidesh0w
3. Biddlebugs
Blog Posts
No idea :/
Events:
1. Getting a site :)
2. Firefox 1.0
3. ?? (I can’t remember much)
Jon Hicks said 1663 days ago:
Krzysztof – I intend to – and ‘J’ as well.“Not so sure about the beard though ;) heh heh heh”
– its coming off very soon! The missis likes it though!
Feaverish said 1662 days ago:
Albums1 – Blueberry Boat — The Fiery Furnaces
2 – Oh Honey, We’re Ridiculous — Pas/Cal
3 – Chutes Too Narrow — The Shins (came out last October, but I didn’t hear it until ‘04)
Browsers
1) Saftaristand (Safari + Saft + Safari Stand)
2) Camino + Camino Extra Prefs
3) Firefox + Web Developer Extension
John Oxton said 1662 days ago:
Albums ( listened too most this year)# Radiohead – Amnesiac
# Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love below
# Atmosphere – Seven’s Travels
OS X Browser
None, Firefox on a PC reigns supreme! Even if it doesn’t look as good!
Site Designs I wish I’d thought of first
# Hicks design (with cotswold landscape)
# Design by Fire (version two)
# spine-arrest
Two of these are no more, but they made me very excited when I saw them nevertheless.
Blog Posts
# 3D CSS Zen Garden
# I don’t like Paul Scrivens (Let the games begin!)
# Suck it up (I can soo relate to this!)
Events
# Driving home from Tate/London geek meet… oh! my!
# Watching the last episode of Futurama, sniff!
# Getting on CSS Zen Garden, made my month!
Looking forward
To having a holiday in 2005, fingers crossed!
Have a nice time in Oz Jon.
John Oxton said 1662 days ago:
better just add to events the birth of my daughter AhemM.e. said 1662 days ago:
OmniWeb is by far the best browser on any platform.Cameron Moll said 1662 days ago:
Hmm, let’s try this one:Top Redesigns:
1) hicksdesign I
2) hicksdesign II
3) hicksdesign III
;)
JD Myers said 1662 days ago:
“A story about someone else’s ass – Dooce.I cried with tears of joy”
That is too funny. I about fell out of my chair. Thanks for that!
Remi said 1662 days ago:
Albums:1. Brian Wilson – Smile
2. Wilco – A Ghost is Born
3. A.C. Newman – Slow Wonder
sk said 1662 days ago:
You know, I just dont “get” OmniWeb yet. What’s the compelling feature(s) over Safari? The only thing that stands out to me so far is the option to have other apps open in tabs instead of new windows.The Tab drawer is horrible. It takes up a ton of screen real estate and feels like it slows down the browser substantially.
Malarkey said 1662 days ago:
Jon,Hmmm, predictable, but here we go…
U2: How to dismantle an atomic bomb
Firefox
Blogger
JSM: Grey boxes
The third Geekend (London)
My new happy pills
Have a groovy poptastic time in Oz. Give my love to Kylie if you see her, she’ll always be my mini-pop munchkin.
blue said 1662 days ago:
i enjoyed your list! agree w/ most…. here’s to the new year ‘clink’bv.
Steve Mark said 1662 days ago:
In no particular order,Album of the Year:
U2 – How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb
Browser (Not on a Mac):
Firefox 1.0
Blog Posts:
Collylogic Ticks and Crosses
Site Design I wished I’d Come up With:
Stop Design
Events:
My 30th year on the wonderful planet
Sam said 1662 days ago:
AlbumsFeeder – Pushing the Senses
Filó Machado – Jazz Brazilia
Pirates of the Caribbean OST
OSX Browser
Firefox – I’ve been using it a lot, and it hasn’t faltered yet.
Camino – It has potential, but there isn’t much to it.
Opera – As you said, gosh its ugly.
Events
Increasing popularity of Open Source technology, especially to the mainstream audiences.
Firefox being written about in the SMH every week since its launch!
Sydney for NYE, see you there Jon!
R. Marie Cox said 1662 days ago:
Album – _PJ Harvey ‘Uh huh her ’_» I wish No Child of Mine was ten times longer, but that would probably spoil it… when I ‘sing’ along to It’s You, I can’t help by close my eyes. A close second: Rilo Kiley (note: turn your volume down)
Blog Posts – _SimpleBits : SimpleQuiz Series _
» The discussions generated from these simple questions are priceless.
Site Design – _Serco TransArcitc Expedition _ & _ Digital Web Magazine _
» Oh, how I love these sites. I would add Just Watch the Sky were it not already listed. I’ve also really enjoyed watching the progression of this site too, obviously. : )
Events – _Getting a puppy _
» My first dog, at age 25.
Sid... said 1662 days ago:
Well since I have only been around for 14 years I can’t say much but heres mine;Albums:
OC Mix 1. [SOUNDTRACK] [ENHANCED]
OC Mix 2.
OC Mix 3. Have a Very Merry Chrismukkah
Browsers:
Mozilla Firefox 1.0
Mozilla Firefox 1.0
Mozilla Firefox 1.0
Site design I wished I’d come up with first:
Hick Design (and verion)
Any one on this page ...
...and this page
Events:
My 14th Birthday
Getting 7 credits in Middle School.
Learning basic web design .
ecco said 1662 days ago:
musicfranz ferdinand
plastic constellations
modest mouse
futureheads – and some more. it was a great year
browser
camino w/ cep – what else :-)
events
my birthday and my new iPod
return of the ‘Blue Note’
and of course
my wife and my daughter
all in all: good news for people who love bad news :-)
Ian said 1662 days ago:
the family of Hicks is heading out to Sydney for two and half weeks.Nice! Have a great 23 hour flight mate!
Jon Hicks said 1662 days ago:
“You know, I just dont “get” OmniWeb yet. What’s the compelling feature(s) over Safari?”– oh man, where do I start? I could do a whole blog post on why Omniweb is good, and its advantages over Safari. You’ve just got to try it out and discover all those features, keeping a look out for the form editor widget. Thats something you don’t get on any browser!
Its interface isn’t quite as beautiful or polished as Safari, but its close.
“Nice! Have a great 23 hour flight mate!” – Yeah, I’m going to have fun with that! Any ideas on how to entertain kids for that long?!
Adrian Kostrubiak said 1662 days ago:
Just thought that I’d throw out there that it’s actually ‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’.:p
Ian said 1662 days ago:
Well I did the trip a couple of months ago, though mine was more like 40 hours via Taipei, Bangkok and Amsterdam arriving in Heathrow with a beard.You can get some flights with built-in gaming machines for the kids and 2-3 movies. That or just drug them with sleeping pills!
It will definitely be warm here, so bring your flip-flops and board-shorts and hit the beaches with the rest of us.
Jon Hicks said 1662 days ago:
_“Just thought that I’d throw out there that it’s actually ‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’.”_oooh picky! ;o)
Cory said 1661 days ago:
They’re not all from this year but the following worked for me during 2004.Favourite albums :
1. Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power
2. Iron & Wine, The Creek Drank the Cradle
3. Bishop Allen, Charm School
Favourite songs:
1. Wilco “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”
2. Radiohead, “There There”
3. The Fugees, “Fu Gee La”
4. Mos Def, “The Boogie Man Song”
Favourite films :
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Fog of War: The way documentaries should be made. None of this gimmicky Fahrenheit 9/11-Supersize Me crap.
3. Pink Floyd : Live in Pompeii
Favourite books :
1. William Faulkner, Light in August
2. Nicholai Gogol “The Nose”
Chris Fonnesbeck said 1661 days ago:
Omniweb is great, except that it isS
L
O
W
I would also substitute “Funeral” by Arcade Fire as the album of the year (though Jon’s list is admittedly good). Buy it now!
Ryan said 1661 days ago:
Play Count stats in iTunes informs me of the following (by artist, not album):1. Lucinda Williams
2. Elliot Smith
3. Eels
Favorite Sites:
1. 43 Folders
2. Cooking for Engineers
3. Big Empty
Web Browsers:
On Mac OS X – whichever one annoys me the least at any given moment. ;-)
Favorite New Discovery:
Vorleser.net – free downloadble audiobooks of German classics.
The Wolf said 1661 days ago:
Favourite Albums:*1*. Rage Against The Machine – Self Titled (I know, I know, its 12 years old but its just so good).
*2*. Tommy Emmanuel – The Journey & The Journey Continues (Even older, but I just got my copy).
*3*. Well, lets just say that not much music has been released this year that I really LIKE.
Favourite Songs
*1*. Freedome – Rage Against The Machine (Old, but applies so well to us now).
*2*. I love work – Butterfingers. Oh so funny!
*3*. There There – Radiohead. Strange but good.
I can’t type any more because it takes 10 minutes for the computer to catch up with me… must be the preview javascript. Can you give us an option to turn it off?
The Wolf said 1661 days ago:
It took half an hour for the computer to catch up with what I typed…Derren said 1661 days ago:
Records, in no particular order: Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union, Wilco’s first record (it takes me a while).Having been on the same looooong trip to Australia earlier this year (when it was cold) I can suggest seeing if the airline will reserve the bulkhead seats (the ones next to the emergency exit with more legroom) for you and your children. Other than that, there’s not a lot you can do, except wait for it to be over…
I’ve only been to Sydney for three days in my entire life, but I can recommend the Sydney contemporary art museum in an old 30s building on Circular Quay (http://www.mca.com.au/) and for rekkids, Red Eye (http://www.redeye.com.au/). And don’t forget the aeroguard…
Vincent Grouls said 1661 days ago:
Albums (totally different style)Anthony Pappa – Balance 006
Sander Kleinenberg – Renaissance presents… This Is Everybody Too
Sasha – Involver
OS X Browsers
Camino (reliable)
Safari (crappy cache management, stupid URL autocomplete)
Omniweb (a lot of features, sometimes a bit slow)
Site designs
Design By Fire
Jason Santa Maria
Justwatchthesky
Looking forward
Great new things :)
Jon, make sure to bring some warmth back from down under. It’s freezing up here in the North-East!
Chris Hester said 1661 days ago:
Jon, I really like the way you cropped that photo with two opposite rounded corners. The new look here is great too!Best Browsers Of 2004
There can be only one… Opera 7.54 on Windows.
(7.60 Preview is looking pretty hot too! Expect the new features to appear in Firefox later.) ;-)
Runner up... Firefox 1.0. Just for beating the hell out of IE. 11 million downloads and counting.
Music – I have yet to make my annual list, so here’s a few albums I’ve liked a lot:
Orbital – Blue Album (possibly my fave – a superb farewell.)
Goldie Lookin Chain – Greatest Hits
Courtney Love – America’s Sweetheart (?)
The Blue Nile – High
Alanis Morrisette (spelling?) – So Called Chaos
Jay-Z – The Grey Album (2004?)
I’ve probably missed a few out there, plus there’s a lot still unheard, including U2, which I’ll be playing soon.
MIA
Calling Kate Bush and Roger Waters… 1992 was when you put out your last studio albums I think… where are you!
Games
Half-Life 2 (PC). I can’t believe EDGE magazine missed it out completely from their list of top games of 2004. What, are they insane? We’ve waited years for this to be released! And it was worth it, if a fairly easy game to complete. (Lots of us are replaying it though and finding new stuff!)
Site design I wished I’d come up with first
Too many to mention! (Hmm, why doesn’t the preview show bold when I use a semi-colon before the last asterisk?)
Blog Posts
Too many to mention!
events
The release of Half-Life 2 at last. Also Firefox 1.0. Other events too numerous to mention (or remember – LOL.)
Joel said 1660 days ago:
Good call on Starflyer… Great albumMichael Heilemann said 1660 days ago:
No list here, just wanted to ask why this entry is being updated in my aggregator every day?Chris Hester said 1660 days ago:
Yowser – new comments styles!Looks like I was wrong about EDGE. Well it wasn’t mentioned on the cover I looked at in town, but I admit I didn’t read the whole magazine. (They gave 3 awards to Half-Life 2 including a rare “10” rating.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4102685.stm
Sunil said 1659 days ago:
Omniweb is great in a ton of ways, but one… RSS.The fact that I couldn’t import my large OPML file and view news content in a standard way (like Firefox’s Sage) made it a no-go for me. Hopefully, the next version of OW will make this important feature more user-friendly.
John C. Aldrich said 1658 days ago:
* Albums This YearDream Theater – Train of Thought
Avril Lavigne – Under My Skin
Eminem – Encore
* Favorite Songs
Avril Lavigne – Nobody’s Home
Maroon 5 – She Will Be Loved
Gavin Degraw – I Don’t Wanna Be
* Favorite Blogs
vanderWoning.ca
Big White Guy
Photo Dude
Ben Ward said 1656 days ago:
And low, some thought was given to my list. I should probably blog this myself at some point.. strange how time distorts.Regardless, my list for the year:
Music
The Libertines – The Libertines. I was late to the party with them, I still haven’t picked up the first album, but this rocks my world. It’s different, it’s lively and it’s just so… fun!
Kasabian – Kasabian. So so so good. Like latterday Primal Scream mixed with other bands, sortof. Ish. Maybe.
Green Day – American Idiot. So maybe some of the lyrics are a bit cliche in an age of more intelilligent satire but it’s so energetic and agressive, but without losing the ability to actually sing (rather than shout, which puts me off a band immediately). The ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ medly is fantastic.
Interpol – Antics. Mr Hicks raving has finally converted me, so a special mention.
Software
Firefox – it’s been one hell of a ride getting here and it’s great to see it do so well. It’s not perfect, some of the edges are still rather rough, but it’s good. Very, very good.
Eclipse – Probably not really a ‘this year’ thing. But it’s the only reason I installed Java this year when I needed an IDE for working with PHP. Not only is Java5 much better at GUI than I ever remember, but Eclipse is wonderous software. I’ve been trying to collect plugins for the handful of other languages I use ever since!
iTunes – So very, very good. This has nothing to do with my long-awaited 4G iPod. At all.
I’m not feeling clued up enough to pick out site redesigns – but (no suck up) I still love the HicksDesign + Tree from earlier this year. It caught the imagination more than anything else I’ve spotted on the web.
Also, a mention to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2004 collection at the Natural History Museum in London – I think it’s a source of wonderful inspiration for those looking at ‘natural world’ designs and especially those in need of a shunt when it comes to colour.
Heather said 1656 days ago:
Albums – Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand – Astronaut by Duran Duran – Medulla by Bjork(Franz Ferdinand because it makes me happy during my commute, Duran Duran because I’m bloody thrilled their back with a rockin’ album, and Bjork because of her insane creativity.)
OS X Browser – tied between Safari and Firefox for me
Site Design – 28mm.org – shauninman.com – blog.veer.com
(And the whole post comments thing here. Holy crap, this is cool.)
Blog Posts – Dooce. Period.
Events – Marriage to my boy – Various events surrounding my photography – Finding a job I love