Finally, Fish-n-Flush is bringing the toilet aquarium to market! This proves: if an idea’s good enough, and you wait long enough, someone else will do it for you. The aquarium toilet is one of my longest held It’d-Be-Cool-If ideas. I still remember the moment 15yrs ago when the idea called me. Something about the fish …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Markets Self-Correct
from “Divine Intervention”: Drilling Boom Revives Hope for Natural Gas, Prices Fall By 42% in Two Months – Mark J. Perry I love when markets self-correct. When prices or activity reaches a point where they start to turn back on themselves.
Look + See: Curation in Eyewear
I just picked up a new pair of glasses from George over at Look + See Eyecare in Minneapolis. Until I found Look + See, I was weary of eyewear places. It was a classic case of the paradox of choice. Lots of potential options and difficulty discerning differences without trying on every pair in …
Workaround for IE Overly Accepting in Rails’ respond_to format
Looks like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will accept any format a web server is willing to give it. This doesn’t play nicely with Rails’ 2.0+ respond_to feature. A slick little bit of code that asks the browser what it wants and replies accordingly. Here’s a conversation between Rails & Firefox Firefox: “Hey Rails, I want this …
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What if We Had Just 10% More Energy Producers?
If memory serves, the internet was originally developed as a national defense mechanism. A way to keep communications – in a distributed manner – flowing after a nuclear attack. Each node a client and a server, a receiver and producer. Today, not only are the vast majority of Americans online (receivers), but a good chunk …
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Daily Bread: 12 Aug 2008
The boy and I have been making bread (almost) every morning for the past few weeks. I find it a relaxing way to start the morning as he picks at breakfast. The loaf in the photo above, I made this morning. The simplicity of bread-making is compelling. 4 ingredients: flour, water, yeast, salt. Separate they …
My 11 Favorite Eponymous Laws
Amara’s law — “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run”. Brooks’ law: “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.” Conway’s Law : “Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.” Edwards’ law: “You cannot apply …
Soft Landing?
I’m not a fan of roller coaster rides, so this is almost comforting compared to California, Florida, or Arizona. Thanks to Mark Perry for the pointer.
“It’s been devastating to innovation”
While listening to John Gruber & Dan Benjamin’s – The Talk Show #24, I was reminded about one of my pet peeves with all the free software – it completely kills the innovation1. John and Dan were talking about email. I feel the same way about email clients as I do about feed readers – …
First Crack 110. Bruno Bornsztein on Open Sourcing CommunityEngine
Bruno Bornsztein and I talk about; Open-sourcing CommunityEngine – the social network code behind Curbly, Uncooped, Teacherly, and many other community sites. Bootstrapping and maintaining a successful niche community site. [24 min].