Month: June 2005

Monday, 20 June 2005

Theres Always More Than One Way

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on Theres Always More Than One Way

“Don’t ever allow yourself to believe that there is only one way to make ideas real.” – Scott Berkun

Stated more traditionally, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

The great thing about roadblocks is they force an evaluation of goals.

For example, you’d like to publish a book and are continually rejected by publishers. Is is that you want to have a physical book on Barnes & Noble’s shelves or that you want to share your ideas with the world?

One answer says mold yourself to what publishers want and wait for them to like you. The other says start a blog over lunch.

Sunday, 19 June 2005

Exactly the Same Thing as a Treo from Earthlink

by Garrick van Buren 1 Comment on Exactly the Same Thing as a Treo from Earthlink

The reception on my T610 has been awful lately. A month or so back the signal was so clear people could hear the birds in my backyard. Last week, I’d be lucky to make out words under the tidal waves of static. On road trips, the T610 lost it’s signal the moment the “Wisconsin Welcomes You” sign was in view. While Jen’s Samsung E310 always kept at least one bar.

As I’ve mentioned before, the I’m heavily using Apple’s iSync and BluePhoneElite to keep my phone and Powerbook playing nice together. T-Mobile offered to replace the T610 with a comparable model. None of their current handsets support iSync via Bluetooth let alone match my ideal phone – the opposite of a Treo.

Bryce Howitson suggested an unlocked Nokia 7280. The 7280 fills all my requirements, though I’m not quite comfortable buying an unlock phone off eBay…yet. This left the Motorola RazR and the Treo 650 in the running. Emails with T-Mobile customer service confirmed neither are available through them.

It was OfficeMax’s $299 after rebate price on a Treo with Earthlink Wireless finally sold me. Eight hours after taking it out of the box, Earthlink had ported my number. During that time, I quickly remembered all the things I loved about Palm’s OS and the awkwardness of HotSync/Palm Desktop on the Mac. The Palm OS itself has matured quite a bit in the 3 years since I ditched my Visor, those two apps seem to be frozen in time.

I’ve bumped up against some oddness; Bluetooth polling seems to be more frequent than necessary – if only because it locks the Palm up completely, it’s not obvious how to record just audio, and the ‘@’ key an option-click. I’d rather it be a shift-click (like other QWERTY keyboards) or better – a key all it’s own.

Overall, I’m extremely happy with the Treo. Just as Christoper Mark Brooder said I would be.

Not only does the signal stretch well into Wisconsin, I discovered there’s something both wonderful and wrong about checking your email from a pontoon boat.

Also, if anyone wants my USB phone charger, make me an offer.

Is Closed a Cultural Benefit?

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on Is Closed a Cultural Benefit?

This weekend, I caught up with a college friend in central Wisconsin. Starbucks recently opened their first storefront in Wausau. Given Starbucks’ consistency and my lack of knowledge of other options, I suggested we meet there.

“How about something local, like Jeannie’s Cafe?”, Tom asked.

I’m always up for tasting the local flavor and we planned to meet there.

Neither of us were aware that Jeanie’s, like the majority of downtown Wausau, is closed on Sundays. This reminded me of my time in Germany. There the shops were also closed on Sundays. While I agree, closing at 6pm during the week, noon on Saturday, and all day Sunday, keeps a designated time for personal and preferably family-focused activities, it only works best when everyone plays along. And when the economy isn’t based on retail sales. Conversely, not playing along hurts everyone and can make actually getting things done a modern day, dual-income family a really hassle.

In Wausau, the ice cream shop, chocolate shop, gelato shop, and the downtown enclosed mall were all open – with a couple of patrons in each. With a handful of shops open and the majority closed, I imagine the traffic for the open shops is dramatically lower than what they see on Saturday. The open shops don’t get walk-in traffic from non-open shops.

In the end, Tom and I drove across town to Starbucks, it was packed.

To me, this felt like small-town American example of the EU’s economic issues.

Thursday, 16 June 2005

P&G Cuts Network TV Ad Spending 5 Percent

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on P&G Cuts Network TV Ad Spending 5 Percent

In response to unconfirmed rumors Procter & Gamble Co is cutting TV ad buys, Mark Ramsey asks, “What do you think this says about advertising from the perspective of a company that knows as much about it as anybody?”

Exactly. When a company with a 130 year history of advertising says something isn’t working, it’s time we all rethink our marketing dollar.

A while back, I offered an argument on the benefits of interruption marketing (only the good stuff is worth interrupting).

I’m a far bigger fan of product placement. Sounds like Mark is also. I think it’s far more representative of real life. For example, from where you’re sitting right now, how many items can you see with a name on it; books, cans, boxes, photos, anything?

(I stopped counting at 10, when my eyes hit the bookshelf)

All of that’s product placement. Is it obnoxious, disingenuous, and annoying? I hope not.

A Better Dircaster for the FastCast

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on A Better Dircaster for the FastCast

In my quest to make podcasting as easy as possible, I’ve hacked the dircast (turns a directory of mp3s into a podcast) to support getID3() (reads the ID3 tags; artist, album, comments, from an mp3 file). I’ve also cleaned up the code a little, making it easier to customize.

Download BetDirCaster from here

The first project using BetDirCaster is my fastcast experiment. In contrast to the long, conversational form of First Crack Podcast, fastcast will be more like voicemail. Very quick, unedited thoughts, under a minute. Messages rather than conversations.

I’ve set up Audio Hijack Pro to write the ID3 tags, when I stop the recording, Automator tells Transmit to upload the mp3.

Wednesday, 15 June 2005

First Crack 47. Documenting Push the Future 2005

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on First Crack 47. Documenting Push the Future 2005

Push the Future 2005 was held this week at the newly renovated Walker Art Center. This episodes of the First Crack podcast are bits of my conversations with Loretta Hidalgo, Push Singha, Ethan Zuckerman, Leif Utne, Tom Mandel, and Push the Future founder Cecily Sommers.

Listen to Documenting Push the Future 2005 [17 min]

Let’s Be Honest, also in the PodcastMN aggregator, covered Push the Future in their 5th episode.

Tuesday, 14 June 2005

Primer – Like a Time Travelers Convention

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on Primer – Like a Time Travelers Convention

Last night, Jen and I watched Primer. Its got the same amateur, black-n-white, intimate cinematography as Pi. I like that. Makes the story feel raw and unpolished – real. Though, unlike Pi, I didn’t feel there was a central hub Primer’s plot spun around. I agree with Kottke;

“…that’s ok because the science fictiony stuff was actually not as interesting for me as what happened to the characters in the film.”

During the Q & A session at today’s Push the Future Conference, someone cynically asked about the MIT Time Traveler Convention. Push Singh replied with how brilliant an idea it was; first, there only ever needs to be one convention and second, a time traveler could attend and then not attend cause it was lame. Sounds like a win-win for everyone.

The plot in Primer could have been around high school friends going separate ways, a dot com blowing up, or a son reconciling his father’s death, for the interactions between characters and each characters’ transformation were the good parts. Shane Carruth could have started with the plot and simply removed it at some point deciding time travel was lame. Like the Time Traveler Convention, it would have been just as powerful.

Put the Ask After the Parade, Not Before

by Garrick van Buren 1 Comment on Put the Ask After the Parade, Not Before

A month or so back I got a knock on the front door. It was a couple high school kids asking for donations for the marching band’s new uniforms. I wasn’t thinking about the marching band at that moment. Nor was my wallet right next to the front door.

Tonight, moments before Jen and I sat down for an after dinner movie, there’s marching band faintly in the background. Our town’s 4th of July parade route is a couple streets away and considering it’s Flag Day, I thought nothing of it.

The marching band was getting closer. After pondering it for a few minutes, I went outside, looked down the street, and here comes the St. Anthony Village High School Marching Patriots. Right down my street – not a typical parade route.

Initially, I thought it was a parade (Flag Day and all) yet, as they got closer I could hear the coaches shouting out orders and I noticed all the kids were wearing normal clothes.

It stuck me – this is when to ask for donations. When I can hear the band members, all tattered and worn, trying their hardest to walk and play instruments at the same time.

Yes, other neighbors came out to watch, and yes, they made a second lap. I’m not sure there’s a better time to ask for community support. Yet they didn’t.

Monday, 13 June 2005

First Crack 46. Broadcast Radio and Podcasting with Noah Lamson

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on First Crack 46. Broadcast Radio and Podcasting with Noah Lamson

Noah Lamson, New Media Director at ABC Radio in Minneapolis and I grab lunch at Diamonds Coffee Shoppe. He’s publishing feeds for 92KQRS, Drive105, and 93X and we discuss the interesting relationship between broadcast radio and podcasting.

If you stop by Diamonds, try the grilled cheese with bacon & tomato. Very tasty.

Listen to Broadcast Radio and Podcasting with Noah Lamson [15 min]

Mr. and Mrs. Smith Blow Things Up

by Garrick van Buren Comments Off on Mr. and Mrs. Smith Blow Things Up

Tonight, while another summer t-storm swept through our fair city, Jen and I caught Mr. and Mrs. Smith. First off, I prefer Brad Pitt playing insane people (Fight Club, Snatch, Twelve Monkeys, the Mexican) and his odd body language throughout the movie was just enough insane for me. The his and hers hit squads with Vince Vaughn as Pitt’s buddy made it feel like Dodgeball mixed with Ocean’s Eleven; trash-talking dialogue mixed with lots and lots of explosions. Did I mention the shoot outs? or the explosions? or where Mr. and Mrs. Smith change into something more fashionable before walking into a gun fight?

My disbelief was suspended like an elevator right before the charge on its cable detonates.