I’m a big fan of storms. Everything falls away with a severe storm, summer or winter. Storms simplify. Since I haven’t directly experienced anything more severe than a mild tornado, maybe I’m talking about midwestern storms here – crazy lightening, heavy rainfall, flash flooding, a couple feet of snow, nasty winds, things safely enjoyed in …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Traveling is Funnier with Ze Frank
Whether it be petting giant ducks or something otherwise morally ambiguous, Ze Frank’s take on travel icons (like these) is hi-larious. If you’re at work, might I recommend some headphones? Especially in The Show with Ze Frank July 26, 2006.
Where to Draw the Line on the Freemium Business Model
I’ve been thinking about “freemium” – Fred Wilson’s Favorite Business Model the last couple days, and sketched up where the boundaries feel right for me. How do these feel to you? Jason Fried on freemium-ish.
Nielsen Analytics’ Economics of Podcasting
Earlier this year, Nielsen Analytics surveyed a bunch of people in Las Vegas and found 102 people that described themselves as ‘regular podcast listeners’. Thankfully, those 102 (77 men / 35 women) represented. Some interesting bits 61 people (50 men / 11 women) said they “always fast forward” advertisements The survey found that the average …
Continue reading “Nielsen Analytics’ Economics of Podcasting”
Even Free Registration Has a Cost
Yesterday, I did a good amount of thinking about the registration model of the T-minus aggregator project. At this point, I’m confident that a good portion of the service will be free and without registration. This was confirmed when I went to check out the Technorati redesign this morning and neither the site nor my …
PodcastMN in the Reborn Community Podcast Directory
No, you’re not having de ja vu – Dave Winer has restarted the original community-based podcast directory. In the same spirit as the stale, defunct ipodder.org, but this time it’s over at podcasting.opml.org. And yes, I pull the lastest PodcastMN list to fill out the Minnesota Podcasts branch. Thanks Dave.
Growing a Business – Today, 20 Years Later
I completely disconnected from phone, computer, internet, for a day and a half this weekend. Much of that time was spent reading Paul Hawken’s ‘Growing a Business’. On my way through the book, I had to keep checking and double checking the publication date (1987). Growing a Business reads like Cluetrain Manifesto (2001) – commerce …
Continue reading “Growing a Business – Today, 20 Years Later”
T-68 and Counting
I made enough progress on the core functionality this weekend, that I can actually start thinking about how to implement the interesting bits.
T-71 and Counting
Lots of progress the last two days. The absolute core functionality is in – enough to move forward to the interesting bits. Yes, it’s a feed aggregator, River of News-style.
Using Names in Rails Routes Instead of IDs
I spent tonight cranking through some Ruby on Rails has_many :through association oddities and after pounding my head against the keyboard, I decided to shift gears and figure out Ruby On Rails Routes. By default, the Rails expects ID to be passed in URL strings. But that’s really lame, and passing words is much cooler …
Continue reading “Using Names in Rails Routes Instead of IDs”