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

DemoCamp 3.0 at Tucows – Monday, Feburary 20th

(Originally posted at Tucows Developer.)

DemoCamp 3.0 — the third in an ongoing series of gatherings of developers demonstrating projects on which they’re working — takes place on Monday, February 20th at the Tucows offices (96 Mowat Avenue, just east of King and Dufferin Streets in Toronto).

The first DemoCamp attracted about two dozen people, and the second drew in around 60. This third one promises to be every bit as good and as of this writing, will feature the following demonstrations:

  • DrProject: a “classroom-friendly” version of the Trac source code/project management system.
  • OpenBlueNetworks.com’s Jewellery Search:
    a online sales system for jewellery vendors. There will also be a brief talk about outsourcing.
  • TheLocalGuru.com: Matches up people with skills with the people who need their help.
  • Nuvvo: A site that enables free online e-learning.

DemoCamp will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., after which we’ll talk a short (a few blocks) walk to the Liberty Street Cafe (25 Liberty Street) for food, drinks and extended discussion.

There si no charge for attending DemoCamp — all we ask is that you sign up at its wiki page. Hope to see you there!

Categories
In the News

R.I.P., Ambassador G’Kar

Okay, it’s really actor Andreas Katsulas who died on Monday at the age of 59. However, in spite of his other roles, including the recurring character of Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation, opposite Kurt Russell in Executive Decision, as the One-Armed Man in the movie version of The Fugitive and as Joey Venza in Someone to Watch Over Me, I’ll always remember him as Babylon 5’s Narn Ambassador G’Kar, one of the best characters and actors to appear on the series. He played the role well as the G’Kar character transformed from bitter and revenge-obsessed to enlightened and spiritual, and there was no better on Babylon 5 to administer the Warner Brothers cartoon “Nose in the Book Penalty” in live action than he.

Rest in peace, Mr. Katsulas. May you always get the best lines wherever you may be.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Now Completely in the Cult of Apple

In addition to enjoying some unseasonably warm weather in San Francsico (21 degrees C / 72 degrees F) at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, I also won the door prize in a random draw: a white 4GB iPod Nano, pictured to the left. Wendy gave me a 2GB model in black for Christmas, so her present “boomeranged” back to her (I kept the earphones and cables I’d already used and gave her the new ones). After years of not having owned a personal stereo, my last one being an old Discman in 1999, our household is yet another in the Order of the White Earbuds.

I wiped the old one clean of my tunes — currently a lot of indie darlings such as The Decemberists, Vitalic, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Danielson Famile and Ratatat, as well as some Johnny Cash and AC/DC — and she’s loaded it with 80s music and a lot of earnest-sounding women singing and playing acoustic guitar. Lilith Fair sense…tingling!

We sweetened the deal by buying her a new iPod case at the San Francisco Apple Store at Market and Stockton. We arrived there last Wednesday a little before the store’s opening at 10 a.m. and already more than two dozen people were waiting to get inside. And to think that in the mid-nineties, there was a time when it seemed that you couldn’t give Apple stuff away.

The other Apple windfall from Christmas came from Wendy’s parents, who gave us an iSight camera to hook to our Macs, so things like video chats with the in-laws and me performing strip shows in exchange for items on my Amazon.com wishlist are in my future.

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Appearing on YTV’s "The Zone" for "Musical Week"

Back at Crazy Go Nuts University, I used to say that “If this computer craze blows over, I might try getting into children’s television”. The computer craze didn’t fade away, but I am getting my first appearance on tween/teen television a week from now on YTV’s show, The Zone:

For those of you who don’t live in Canada or aren’t familiar with YTV, it’s a Canadian speciality television channel aimed at youth viewers. My American readers might want to think of YTV as the Canadian answer to Nickelodeon. I assumed that YTV was short for “Youth Television”, but the YTV “About” page says this isn’t so (although one should not take the word of marketers or TV executives — and especially marketers who works for TV executives — as gospel).

The Zone is YTV’s flagship “show”: an afternoon programming block featuring some of their more popular cartoons interspersed with segments featuring two PJs (“Program Jockeys”), Sugar (Stephanie Beard) and Carlos (Carlos Bustamente). You can find out some interesting facts about The Zone and its PJs — including the fact that Sugar was the voice of “Rini” from Sailor Moon — in its Wikipedia entry.

Next week is “Musical Week” on The Zone, and through the machinations of my friend Sandra Kasturi (at whose wedding I played back in 2002), I’ll be appearing on it with my accordion. The other musical guests will be a few members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a local mariachi band, which suggests that the theme will be running from the sublime to the ridiculous. I never cared much for the sublime thing, anyway.

I have to show up at the YTV studios — thankfully only a couple of blocks away from the office — next Wednesday at around two-ish. It should be fun, and I’ll definitely blog the event.

Categories
Uncategorized

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!

Here’s hoping that your love station was fully operational!

Categories
Uncategorized

Tucows Job Fair, Today and Tomorrow!

The Tucows Job Fair that I mentioned last week takes place at No Regrets restaurant (42 Mowat Street) between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. today and tomorrow.

Between departures and the growth of our business, we need people. If you’re looking for any of the jobs below, you might want to come to the job fair. We’re looking for:

  • Business Analysts
  • Database Adminisrator
  • Java and/or Perl Developers
  • Marketing Managers (for channel retail programs
    and channel communications)
  • Network Engineers
  • NOC Analysts
  • QA Analysts
  • Product Managers
  • Project Managers
  • System Administrators
  • Technical Support Analysts
  • UI Developers
  • Systems Architect
  • Usability Specialist

As I said earlier, the Job Fair takes place on Wednesday, February 15th and Thursday, February 16th from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.. Bring your resume, dress nicely and come on down!

Categories
funny Geek

Katamari Dinnertime

I can’t find the online essay I once read about the nature of the relationship between the incredibly tough-to-please King of All Cosmos and the eager-to-please Prince from the quirky videogame Katamari Damacy, but I did find this Jacob Chabot comic showing the King asking the Prince to roll him up some dinner: