Star Tribune on Muni WiFi: FUD or Just Wrong?

The Strib’s Steve Alexander is on a Muni-WiFi bashing kick. In Sunday’s Slowdown in the Fast Lane, the angle was how the forthcoming Minneapolis muni-WiFi will make the current cable and DSL offerings look paltry and non-competitive. Oh – and we don’t get the maximum bandwidth out of our current pipes anyway. Really? Muni-WiFi isn’t …

A Recording in Any Medium Still Isn’t Buttermilk Pie

Rex Hammock doesn’t declare downloading music and video is the same as being there, but a PDF of a magazine is akin to a photograph of Buttermilk pie. All recordings are “photographs of buttermilk pie”. A pale, pale substitute for being there. It continues to baffle me how digital artifacts are treated differently – images …

The All Commercial Television Channel is Nearly Here

A decade ago, I had this vision of a television channel – MTV for commercials. Above is the logo I drew up for it. Commercials would be presented in a structured way – by theme, brand history, actor, etc. In other words, the ads themselves would be the program. Fast-forward to today, and I think …

The 5th Congressional District Race from My Corner

A couple weeks back, the family and I checked out the St. Anthony Village VillageFest parade (How could we not?). Of course, the candidates for the 5th District were there – well…I shook hands with Ember Reichgott Junge (points for a cool sign and strong German name) and Mike Erlandson (points for Sabo endorsement). I …

Is Competition Simply Lack of Articulation?

“The main idea is that whatever market you are in, whether it’s big or not you should be number one and should do whatever it takes to get there.” – Aneil Weber I’ll extend this and say, the only way to guarantee success is to pursue an a single niche to its extreme – be …

Make Yourself at Home – The Internet is a Place

“…the place where any telephone call takes place” – William Gibson This morning’s Citizen’s League conversation reminded me how not everyone considers this website a location. In the same way a park or a coffee shop is a location – a place where people meet for conversation. I’ve long seen blogs as back porches and …