My 6+ year-old DSL modem is not longer serving faithfully. Yesterday, round dinner time, it stopped. Everything. The kind folks at Speakeasy.net are sending over a replacement, but until then…..I’m bouncing around local coffee shops for access. Ok – DSL is back, looks like it was something wrong with the line itself…but it’s hard to …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Why I’m Rarely Sad When Coffee Shops Close
On my daily walk this evening, I noticed a coffee shop here in St. Anthony Village was no longer. Based on the emptiness on the other side of the windows, it’s been a while since they left. While it’s always sad to see small, local, non-franchise, non-chain, coffee shops close – it’s also sad to …
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Storm Relief
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 …
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 …
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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 …
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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.