Cullect was fast out-growing the Lifetime M Accelerator it started out on last summer, so this weekend I moved it to a bigger, 1GB Accelerator. As I write this, the database is migrating. After that, Cullect will be faster and have room to grow. As part of this, I’ve started a proper blog for Cullect …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
First Crack 107. DJ Edna – Open Source Website for Musicians
Thomas Bohmbach and I discuss DJ Edna, his open source project empowering musicians, and other artists, to take control of the sales and distribution of their creative work online. [33 min].
First Crack 106. Coffee Review – El Salvador: Finca La Montaña
This is the second in the monthly coffee review series at the First Crack Podcast. This month, I’m reviewing George Howell’s Terroir Coffee: El Salvador: Finca La Montaña The 2007 Cup of Excellence winner that was completely devastated by near hurricane-strength winds in January. Pushing the next harvest out to 2010. In response to this …
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Reflecting on Last Nights New Media Ethics Forum
After a decent night’s sleep, here’s my thoughts on last night’s MPR talk. It was originally an email, so some things might read a little weird. First off, I’d like to thank MPR (et al) for bringing all of us together. I alway enjoy our time together. I think very highly of Dan Gillmor (and …
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Notes from the MPR Ethics in Online Journalism
I’m at the MPR, MNSPJ event on ethics in online journalism1 with the esteemed Dan Gillmor. Greg and Erica are live-blogging. “Most are not…and a few are.” – Dan Gillmor “It’s not about ‘or’, it’s about ‘and.” – Dan Gillmor Again, it’s hard for newspapers to correct themselves. Apologies aren’t news. Who do you trust? …
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Optimization Tips: Ruby on Rails and MySQL
Stop. I’ve uncovered these tips after (at least) the 3rd refactoring effort of some fairly simple, straight-forward Rails code. Rails is great for getting ideas prototyped super fast. These tips will slow down development and make apps less portable. Continue reading only if you’re running a live app in production and not happy with how …
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TwitterCooler v0.2 – Make Twitter More Like Office Chatter
(formerly TweetSpeak, changed as to eliminate confusion with TweetSpeak.com) While I’m fond of the Twitter-as-water-cooler metaphor, there was something missing. Namely Twitter is quiet, and offices are filled with loud, distracting chatter. If you’re on a Mac you can now remedy this issue with TwitterCooler.app. TwitterCooler downloads your friends tweets and reads them to you …
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Correction. Nothing Happened. Thank you.
I’m on the local police department’s email announcement list. Earlier today, a ‘suspicious activity’ alert went out possible attempted burglary. Just now, I received the clarifying email: “…we have determined that the attempted burglary was, in fact, an individual who went to the wrong address.” This message says so many good things about the police …
On the Trust-iness of the Media
In last night’s talk with MN ISPI on wikis, blogs, etc – the issue of citing Wikipedia as a source came up. Like citing the 1911 version of Brittanica is the same as citing the current version. A strawman argument. One based on false assumptions. Assumptions that established organizations don’t have biases, aren’t infallible, and …
Maps of Parallel Americas: Republik van Nieuw Nederland
If you’ve ever wondered what New York would be like if it remained a Dutch colony until the late 1700s? I’m thankful we finally have an answer. “New Netherland achieved independence in 1798, after the ‘old’ Netherlands were overrun by the French. Philip Schuyler, the last Director-General of the colony, became the first Prime Minister …
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