…in the McLuhan sense. “Hot media are high definition (“well filled with data”) and demand a relatively passive audience; cool media are low definition and require intensive audience participation to fill in the blanks. Hot media intensely engage a single sense; cool media loosely engage multiple senses. According to McLuhan, movies and radio are hot …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
5 Things That Should Always Be on Mute
Telephones Car Alarms Home Alarms Email and Calendar Applications Websites
Security is Really Customer Service in Disguise
A confused, elderly woman with a full, knotted, plastic shopping bag was in front of the scanner. The security checkpoint line out of Minneapolis stalled as I put all my stuff in multiple bins. When a uniformed TSA person asked her if she had a boarding pass, she mumbled the need for help getting a …
Continue reading “Security is Really Customer Service in Disguise”
The Least Helpful Search Result
The Adpaper, Who Needs News?
“Like many of my geek compatriots, I rarely read a newspaper anymore. Paradoxically, when I do, it’s usually for the ads…..The news part of the newspaper was unread and discarded, a big waste of paper in my case.” – Brian Benz
Computers and Cars – Both Need to Be More Efficient
Rex pointed me to the NYTimes article on Google’s energy efficiency proposals. I’ve been reading so much Jonathan Schwartz (“Value of Being Green“)lately that I’m happy to see another big player talk about improving the energy efficiency of computers. The energy efficiency issue made sense to me when explained it this way: “But you know …
Continue reading “Computers and Cars – Both Need to Be More Efficient”
Sending Static to the Satellite
“It’s only a matter of time until this content is free, FCC-filtered, and ad-supported.” – Mark Ramsey Ramsey’s talking about Sirius’ new Internet Radio offering. While I’m not a big fan of the satellite model, the strength of satellite is that it’s an alternative to the AM and FM dials. Admittedly, I’m coming at this …
Second FeedSeeder Dev Screencast Up
Check it out at FeedSeeder.com, 10 minutes, 65mb.
Put a Hold on Your Real Estate Agent License
“The National Association of Realtors report on existing home sales showed that the median home price in August was $225,000, down 1.7 percent from a year earlier.” “It was the first year-over-year decline in median prices since April 1995, when that measure slipped only 0.1 percent. And it was the biggest year-over-year drop since the …
Continue reading “Put a Hold on Your Real Estate Agent License”
Amazing Race Season 10 – Episode 2
Outer Mongolia. It’s a threat in my mind. Somehow worse than Siberia. A place where you “get sent”. A bit of romance there if only for the seemingly still nomadic lifestyle. Until the rain storm, seemed like a nice, quiet vacation spot. Like northern Wisconsin in autumn. Remote. If only I had a hand-cranked Russian …