Categories
Uncategorized

"Ask Tucows" Chat: Tuesday, August 1st

It’s almost that time again! The next “Ask Tucows” chat will take place next Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 between 12:00 noon and 3:00 p.m. Eastern (that’s 9:00 a.m. through 12:00 noon Pacific, or 16:00 – 19:00 UTC). Just point your browser at chat.tucows.com then and you’ll be able to join in the chat — no plug-ins or downloads necessary.

This will be the third of four “Ask Tucows” chats scheduled for this year. They’re an opportunity for you to talk directly with various people who work at Tucows, from me (the developer relations guy) to product managers, support people, sales engineers, developers and even our CEO, who’s participated in both previous chats. It’s one of a number of initiatives we’re taking this year to ensure that the lines of communication between us and our customers are open.

I’ll post more details about the chat as the date gets closer.

Categories
It Happened to Me Music

Bouncing with the Ramoniacs

Bill Griffith's comic character, Zippy the Pinhead.

My brother-in-law Andy Ramoniac, the bassist for the Boston-based Ramones tribute band, the Ramoniacs, invited me to be the Pinhead for the song of the same name during last Saturday’s show downstairs at the Middle East club. They were opening for Bebe Buell (Liv Tyler’s mom and the person whom “Penny Lane”, Kate Hudson’s character in the movie Almost Famous, was modelled).

Pinhead, for those of you not familiar with it, is the song from which the Ramones’ catch-phrase “Gabba Gabba Hey” originates. In turn, the Ramones borrowed it from the 1932 movie Freaks, where the freaks in the movie chant “We accept you, one of us! Gobble Gobble!”.

The Pinhead dance involves a “pinhead” (someone with microcephaly, like Schlitzie the Pinhead from Freaks — usually a roadie in with a pinhead mask — who bounces about the stage during the song waving a sign with the words “Gabba Gabba Hey”. If you’re interested, you can rent the Roger Corman teen movie classic, Rock and Roll High School (a cult favourite that got a mark of 81% on Rotten Tomatoes) or see this video on YouTube.

Here’s the video [4.2MB QuickTime] that Wendy shot of Pinhead, featuring Yours Truly as the pinhead. In the audience, but not shown, were Wendy’s parents and aunt and uncle, all of whom are used to this sort of goofiness from me.

Still from the video of the Ramoniacs' version of 'Pinhead', featuring Joey deVilla as the Pinhead.

Click the image to see the video.

I had a blast. My thanks to Andy and the Ramoniacs for inviting me to be the pinhead!

As for the show itself — it was excellent. These guys play and sound just like the Ramones, from the non-stop energy to Andy’s perfect imitation of Dee Dee’s “One Two Three Four!” count-offs. Remember how I posted that “One does not simply ROCK into Mordor?” Well, the Ramoniacs could.

I’ll post more videos from the show later.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

DemoCamp 8 Tomorrow!

'Toronto DemoCamp' logo.

Don’t forget, Toronto’s monthly show-and-tell event for techies, DemoCamp, takes place tomorrow night! It takes place at No Regrets (42 Mowat Avenue, not far from King and Dufferin) with the first presentation taking place at 6:30 p.m.. There’s be a follow-up social at the same location once presentations end, which should be about 8-ish.

The scheduled presentations are:

  1. WildApricot: Web-based software that automates daily administrative routines for associations and non-profits.
  2. JobLoft.com: Google maps-powered job board
  3. Filemobile: Power tools for bloggers, letting users videoblog and moblog with ease.
  4. Languify: A not-yet-released tool from the Nuvvo team & Nicolaas Handojo to manage translating your user interface to new languages.
  5. Mike McDerment from FreshBooks.com: How to Measure the Success of Your Web Service
Categories
It Happened to Me

Mistakes on a Plane

Mistakes on a Plane or 'Oh, yeah, that's why I never fly on American Eagle if I can help it'.

We had an even-crappier-than-usual experience flying to Boston on American Eagle, but I’m too busy to write it up right now. Luckily for me, Wendy’s written up her impressions of the whole thing.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Auction for Tickets to the Biggest Charity Party in Town, Featuring Burton Cummings

Poster for 'Bridle Bash II' featuring Burton Cummings.

If you’ve got more disposable income than I do, like good ol’ rock and roll, parties and charity events, here’s an interesting thing to do this Saturday: Bridle Bash II, featuring Burton Cummings.

Bridle Bash II is a charity event/pool party held in someone’s back yard. This isn’t just any old back yard, but one in Accordion City’s most exclusive neighbourhood, the Bridle Path. It’s full of big mansions on big lots and home to media moguls like Moses Znaimer and Conrad Black, the artist formerly and once again known as Prince, my old upstairs neighbour Jesse who sold a good chunk of his company WebHosting.com for a hundred million or so dollars, and my dentist.

Because this isn’t just any old back yard party, there will be entertainment, and it will be provided by none other than Burton Cummings. Yes, the “Guess Who” guy. If his excellent performance at “SARStock” is any indication, this should be a real treat. Better still, Burton has a reputation to not just simply play a set and leave, but for playing as long as the party’s going. Even better, the best view of the stage will be from the pool, since the stage will be right beside it. How many rock concerts have you seen from inside a pool?

Finally, the cause: Camp Oochigeas (pronounced “OO-chi-GAY-us”). It’s a camp for kids with cancer, where they can receive the care and attention they need but still enjoy the quintessentially Canadian experience of camping. “Ooch” as the camp is often called, provides a high degree of support by assigning one camp counselor per camper and medical facilities to support people with cancer, including a chemotherapy unit. As you might expect, running such a camp is a very expensive proposition. The idea behind Bridle Bash II is to help out “Ooch” by raising $300,000 for them — in a single night. As of this writing, they’ve managed to raise two-thirds of that money.

The party will also feature as DJ, go-go dancers, a barbecue and bonfires, and the bar will be an open bar (with booze provided by attendees — it’s a BYOB event writ large). There will be about 1000 people in attendance, most of whom will be Accordion City citizens of high standing.

Tickets for this event are hard to come by, but if you’ve got the cash to spare, there’s a pair up for auction on eBay. The starting bid for these two tickets is CDN$1000 and the auction will end on Thursday, July 27th at 8:52:50 p.m.. If you’re interested in attending this event, go and place your bid!

Categories
Uncategorized

Hypnocat Commands You to Hand Over the Tunafish

Hypnocat!

Categories
Uncategorized

Continuing the "Dungeons and Dragons" Theme…

Boromir with guitar saying 'One Does Not Simply ROCK Into Mordor!