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 …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
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 …
Continue reading “Workaround for IE Overly Accepting in Rails’ respond_to format”
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 …
Continue reading “What if We Had Just 10% More Energy Producers?”
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].
I’d Rather I Could Read You Here
“the more time I spend w/ FriendFeed, the less I like it. I’d rather read y’all through my own blog.” If services like Friendfeed, Twitter, etc, have an innovation, it’s in present reading and publishing in the save view. This single view – often described as ‘presence’ or ‘social-ness’ – makes it easy to write …
Are Some RSS Formats More Reliable/Faster than Others?
via Twitter, I was asked the above question. It’s a good question, cutting to the core of my ambivalence over the religious wars between RSS, Atom, etc. The flavor of XML a feed is published in shouldn’t matter. Neither to the publisher nor the receiver. Any parser able to handle multiple flavors should be able …
Continue reading “Are Some RSS Formats More Reliable/Faster than Others?”