From the category archives:

Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Tornado at Bloor and Yonge

August 20, 2009
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Tornadoes normally don’t come ‘round our way here in Accordion City, but today’s storm system was quite unusual. Out here in the High Park area, it turned the sky wasabi green and smack in the middle of town, a proper tornado formed. Local YouTube user “Tubocracy” shot this footage:

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Win 2 Tickets to HoHOTo

August 17, 2009
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Nobody in Accordion City throws a charity event quite like its creative techies, and the latest such event is hoHOTo. It’s the summer sequel to HoHoTO, a charity party that got put together in mere days, not weeks or months, by some very ambitious Toronto techies on Twitter.
HoHOTo’s charity is the Daily Bread Food Bank, [...]

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Photos of Last Night’s Storm

August 10, 2009
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BlogTO has some great photos that readers took of last night’s lightning storm in Accordion City.

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The Toronto Garbage Song

August 4, 2009

The Toronto Garbage Strike of 2009 may be over (as might be David Miller’s reign come election time next year) and garbage collection is resuming today, but that’s no reason not have a song about it. The Toronto Star posted a story today about The Toronto Garbage Song (a.k.a. Flush Your Garbage), which was written [...]

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Toronto Coffee and Code: Friday, July 31st at the Dark Horse Cafe (215 Spadina)

July 30, 2009

If it’s Friday, it must be time for another Toronto Coffee and Code! This one will take place at the usual location – the Dark Horse Cafe, 215 Spadina – and will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m..

Coffee and Code is my Friday afternoon ritual (a phrase that my classmates at Crazy Go Nuts [...]

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One of the Problems of Space Travel

July 29, 2009

I’m at the Science 2.0 conference today, the conference for scientists and what they need to know about how software and the web is changing the way they work. In honour of the conference, here’s a comic about one of the problems of space travel:

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City of Toronto and Unions Made a Deal

July 27, 2009

…which means that if it’s ratified on Wednesday, the strike will well and truly be over. If that happens, garbage collection and other services provided by the people represented by CUPE Locals 416 and 79 could theoretically be back by Thursday. For reasons unknown and unfathomable to me, it has been said that services [...]

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Filipino Heritage Workshops Starting in September

July 26, 2009

Are you looking for “Juan de la Cruz”? Let us help you!
“Juan de la Cruz” is a symbolic name used to refer to the Filipino in general. The closest North American equivalents are names like “John Doe”, “John Q. Public”, “Joe Schmoe” or “Joe Blow”. According to Wikipedia, the term was coined by Robert McCulloch [...]

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R.I.P. Mel’s Montreal Delicatessen

July 17, 2009

BlogTO reports:
An Annex institution is no more. Mel’s Montreal Delicatessen, a late night spot on Bloor both loved and reviled by residents of this city, has closed its doors. Or rather, had its doors locked by the landlord after reportedly failing to pay rent that was months in arrears.

It started so full of promise [...]

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Developer Dim Sum Lunch at Sky Dragon!

July 10, 2009

Whether you’re part of the local tech community or a visitor from out of town who’s come in for the FutureRuby conference, you’re invited to the Developer Lunch taking place today at noon at Sky Dragon restaurant in Dragon City Mall.
This is going to be the 14th developer lunch organized by local developer and video-chronicler [...]

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The Unofficial FutureRuby Guide to Toronto , Part 1: What’s That Smell?

July 3, 2009

Last year, for RubyFringe – the offbeat conference for Ruby programmers hosted by the local Ruby heroes at Unspace – I wrote a series of articles about Toronto for people who were coming to the conference from out of town. In the series, I pointed out places of interest near the conference hotel (the Metropolitan [...]

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FailCamp: One Week Away!

July 2, 2009

If you were at last year’s FailCamp, you might remember the best story of FAIL of the evening, which involved warming up some “body lube” in the microwave oven for a little too long, after which hilarity ensued.
Here’s how Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs, the originators of FailCamp, describe their vision of the event:
We believe [...]

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Collector’s Plates

June 28, 2009

Seen in the window at a shop in Bloor West Village and coming soon to your grandmother’s (or a die-hard Star Trek or M*A*S*H fan’s) house:
Click the photo to see it at full size.

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Strike Me Down, and Another Shall Rise to Take My Place

June 26, 2009

I no longer live in Accordion City’s Queen/Spadina neighbourhood and therefore don’t play there very often anymore. Luckily that doesn’t mean that they’re lacking for the accordion: there was a guy playing a fine little red number there earlier this afternoon:

Squeeze on, good sir!

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Toronto Coffee and Code This Friday!

June 24, 2009

The scene at the big communal table at the May 29th Coffee and Code.
There’s a Toronto Coffee and Code this Friday! For details, see the Coffee and Code blog.

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