Inspired by my son’s interest in cars, I share some stories from my car history. Listen to Garrick’s Car History [16 min].
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Spanking is Striking
There, I said it. Spanking a child is child abuse. There, I said it again. For three reasons: If same action anywhere else on the body would be considered abuse – it’s abuse. It shows children that bigger, stronger people have the right to hurt smaller people. So, big brothers think it’s OK to strike …
New Work Playlist – Thanks to Tangerine
Since discovering Tangerine a couple months back, I’ve been tweaking the BPM-based playlist to find the ideal collection of tunes that keeps me working without calling too much attention to themselves. Here’s the iTunes Smart Playlist that’s been working for me for 2 weeks: BPM – is in the range – 90 to 110 My …
Where Do You Want People Talking About You?
One of the complaints I continually hear about companies supporting forums, comments, reviews under their own domain is that their customers will say something “bad”. The reality is, customers find places to have these conversations – with our without formal support. Case in point: KottkeKomments.com. Jason Kottke doesn’t have comments on his blog, so a …
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New Year. New Approach
The FeedSeeder Project is awakening from a brief hibernation. While the core ideas will remain (they’ve even gotten more defined), the code is undergoing a rewrite (thankfullly, there wasn’t much to begin with). First item on the To Make Better list: OPML import speed.
Low Hanging Snark
“An inexperienced picker would pick the low-hanging fruit first” – Albert Pell quoted in Fast Company In the instances where I’ve heard the phrase ‘low-hanging fruit’ the above is true. Rarely does picking the easy stuff solve anything than checking something off a list. The real important, long-term actions take the commitment of getting a …
The Problems with School Choice
Seems to me, programs that encourage parents to send their kids to schools outside of their immediate neighborhood is a bad idea in a number of ways: Gives parents no incentive to improve their schools or neighborhoods. Makes bad schools worse by reducing their resources. Redirects education dollars into fuel tanks to bus kids further …
Food Industry Admits HFCS isn’t Natural
The best news I’ve heard in a while – High Fructose Corn Syrup isn’t ‘all natural’. The Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Kraft and Cadbury Schweppes until they agreed.
2008 Presidential Candidates as Tech Gadgets
For being really attractive, an expected move forward, and making it fun to improve ourselvesJohn Edwards = Nintendo Wii For being a really good solution with enthusiastic support, but never quite feels rightDennis Kucinich = RIM Blackberry For showing us what we all know the future looks like but still making us wonder if now …
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Awake in 5
Just got word that Jon Steinhorst‘s latest short film, Awake, is up at 3to1Studios.com. It’s a great looking, if emotionally tough, 5-minute piece. You may remember Jon from our podcast conversations.