Marc Canter, in a roundabout way, has played an important role in my career. He was behind the multimedia authoring tool Director,

the first development tool I ever used after graduating from school.

Although my computer science degree and strong marks in my database

courses meant that I could’ve landed a job at a bank or insurance firm,

I wanted slightly more offbeat work. I ended up working for an

interactive multimedia company, Mackerel Interactive Multimedia, where

I used Director. Thanks to Director and Mackerel, I’ve been doing “road

less travelled” techie work ever since.

(Cory Doctorow wrote a piece about Mackerel for Wired titled Burying the Fish. Although commissioned, it was never published.)

Canter’s in Accordion City this week, and sent Boss Ross some email inviting

him for lunch. The most notable line in the email, which was cc’d to me:

OK dude - so how 'bout lunch on the 8th?

We’re staying at the Four Seasons - wanna do dim sum or something like that?

Bring Accordian Boy.

That’s Accordion MAN, dude!

Coming along with me and Boss Ross is Tucows’ new VP of Product

Development, Alain Chesnais, who in former lives worked at ATI and

Alias, partially because this is the sort of meetup that he should be

attending and partially as a “welcome to the herd!” activity.

It should be a fun lunch — dim sum — and I’m sure photos and a blog entry will follow.