Author Archives: Garrick van Buren

Thursday, March 22, 2007 12:02:28 PM

“Turns out CDs melt.  So we started shipping USBs” – Ross Mayfield, SocialText Actually, I’m still surprised more music, movies, software, etc, aren’t sold in USB form. A while back, I predicted that Apple would be the first to stop shipping computers with optical drives. That’s yet to happen. I still think it will.

Ad Standards for Newspapers?

“Several wondered if the ad met the Star Tribune’s standards for acceptable advertising or if it was a mistake.” – Kate Parry, Star Tribune’s ombudsman Here’s our panel’s reaction to the issue: Snarky Garrick: “Until readers directly provide the Strib with enough revenue that advertising isn’t needed, their complaints should go in the recycling bin …

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Still Lusing

“I’m thinking that there is something inherently subordinate to the term ‘user’” – Prof Mary Wong. via Doc Searls The term “user” has bugged me since I worked at “HannaHodge: User Experience Architects” 8 years back. A couple Octobers back, in First Crack #2 [mp3], I declared “There are no users”. “‘User’ is a term …

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There’s Lots of ‘Un-Interviews’ here ;)

“I listened to a fascinating interview on the radio the other day. What made it fascinating was that the interviewer’s voice, and questions, had been entirely edited out. What you heard was a very eloquent explanation of a difficult topic, in which the questions were tacit, unheard. Compared to most radio articles, op-eds and even …

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Off Balance

Focusing on the trade deficit encourages the implementation of poorly designed protectionist policies that will only serve to undermine the American and global economies in the long run.” – Pejman Yousefzadeh via Ben At a micro level, tracking the trade deficit is like tracking a grocery imbalance with your local supermarket.