Visiting Belgium and not enjoying a big pot of mussels just isn’t worth the jet lag. So, last night, Jen and I walked down the street from our hosts’ house for dinner at Friture René a small, traditional, steak, mussels, and fries place. Yes, that’s all they serve: steak and mussels. Maybe 5 or 6 …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Castelling
Our amazing and wonderful hosts took us on a roadtrip on Saturday to a couple castles just outside of Brussels Beersel – a Brusselian defensive castle from 1310. Visitors can fully explore it and on this day, the place was all ours. From the ground floor through the tight, steep, worn stone stairwell to the …
Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet
Yesterday, we celebrated St. Nicolas Day. Five kids (15 months to 7 yrs) loaded up on chocolate, gingerbread, and taai-taai while awaiting the odd, rumbling noises (well-time washing machine) indicating Sinterklaas and his mischievous helpers, the Zwarte Piet, left presents somewhere in the house. Instead of chocolate, Cooper finished off the carrot we left for …
Initial Thoughts on the Rojas-Winer-Calacanis Podcast Device
I’ve been pondering the dedicated podcast devices tossed around by Rojas-Winer-Calacanis. The power and simplicity of it are quite attractive. I’m on board with the following: Data Input/Output: Wifi. No need for anything else. Supported Media Formats: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, anything else open & cheap. Pre-selling a small initial run as financing. As an interface …
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What’s Your Traveller Risk Score?
“It’s probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected” – David Sobel, EFF lawyer. Like all these systems, we are all judged in secret, by a computer algorithm, with no way to see or even challenge our score. Kafka would be proud. – Bruce Schneier
What Price iPod?
Interesting conversation last evening about the price of iPods specifically, and ecommerce differences in general between the States and Belgium. Check this: 80 Gig iPod: $350 or €399 With the current exchange rate, that makes the European price tag: $529 Dang. For that price, it’d be worth flying to the States and loading up a …
Old World Smells
The first breath of air as I stepped off the plane brought a big smile to my face. The air here is a little mustier. A little earthier. A little more natural. The increased intensity of the smell are one of my favorite things about Belgium (and the Netherlands and Germany). The onions chopped for …
Failed Ideas as Fuel
“Ideas are easy, so let’s have lots of them.” “Invest in them incrementally.” “Make sure that the ideas we invest in can be “recycled” by adding to the collective intelligence and business capabilities, so that if they don’t work out individually we have created food for other groups to use.” – Adam Richardson
Brussel Me
We landed in Brussels a couple hours ago. Smoothest trip we could have imagined. I let out a jet-lagged giggle at the ‘inspected by the TSA’ sticker on the car seat we checked.
Unlock-in
“The US copyright office will permit mobile phone subscribers to unlock their phones, allowing them to be used by rival network providers.” – Andrew Orlowski, The Register “The exemptions become effective on 27 November 2006 and will only remain in effect for three years.” – Tim Finn “This is really only applicable to Cingular and …