Attention web designers – Sure. Helvetica is a fine typeface. Just stop using it in your CSS stylesheets. Or at least stop specifying it first. Second. Or third. There are more readable, more appropriate, and more distinctive, available for your website. If you must specify it, how about putting it on the other side of …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
A Good Project Eats Everything
I’m floored it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve written anything here. Feels more like 3 days. I’ve been working with a number of very cool start-ups and Kernest is the only one I’m able to talk about. Thankfully, all 3 are on track to go public this month. And I hope at least one does …
Hackintosh Success: OS X on Dell Mini 9
There’s been lots of chatter about the sub-$300 laptops, dubbed “netbooks” and their ability to run OS X. After reading through the How-To instructions on hacking OS X onto a Dell Mini, my initial thought was: By Step 5, I’ve already paid for a used MacBook. I picked up an 8GB Mini 9 for $250 …
Dr. Sheepthrow Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media
A while ago, I heard Someone Influential1 arguing that the problem with social networks like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc, is that they are inherently interpersonal spaces designed and built by asocial people. Who else happily spends that much time between-chair-and-keyboard rather than out, with, um, people? As the argument goes, our actual social relationships are …
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Maybe I’m Searching WolframAlpha Wrong
Admittedly, I haven’t watched any of the WolframAlpha demos. I could have no idea how it’s supposed to be used. Either way, I didn’t find it very helpful with the handful of questions that immediately sprang to mind. I expect any new service to immediately show a unique characteristic. It doesn’t need to be fully …
Calling Double-Sputnik on Google
One of my favorite past-times is to dissect competitors within a business sector. Sometimes the pairings are obvious (Barnes & Noble vs. Borders, Honda vs Toyota), other times I’m less confident (Target vs. Wal-Mart3, Facebook vs. Twitter). These pairings (or groupings) point as much at commonality across market offerings as they do project the direction …
Secret Project 09Q02A
I dig it when my client’s enthusiasm for the project infects me. And why not – this project has all the qualities of a project I’d really like. It even has that extra bit – an approach I credit to Chad Fowler – of taking something you don’t like and doing it in a way …
How Could the National Pork Board Have Better Responded?
If you listen to Minnesota Public Radio, perhaps you’ve caught the promotional spot from the National Pork Board declaring “cooked pork is safe” from the recent flu outbreak. I already assumed cooked pork was safe. Now, an organization financed by pork producers is telling me it’s safe – the conflict of interest and dismissive tone …
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Arik Jones on Failbox
I’m please to see Arik Jones keeping the Failbox torch burning – in a post on the need for a smarter email client ” However, it could group todays messages in a “top 25 most important” list. That’s all I’d ever see for an inbox. Talk about getting your email priorities straight.” – Arik Jones …
What’s that Sound?
As a kid, I watched The Right Stuff more times than I can count. It’s a fun story about the beginnings of the NASA space program and test pilots. But mostly it’s about egos. Lately, the opening’s been stuck in my head. “There was a demon that lived in the thin air; they said anyone …