Categories
Geek It Happened to Me

Marc Canter Sez: “Bring Accordion Boy!”

Photo: Marc Canter.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.

Categories
In the News

Great Quips from "The Daily Show"

On pathetically incompetent FEMA director Michael’s former position as

commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association: “Most Bush appointees are beholden to Arabian people.”


On the administration’s new favourite talking point — “everyone is playing the blame game”: “Those who complain about the blame game? They’re usually to blame.”


A little perspective on the President and Sean Penn (who really is on the verge of turning into his puppet from Team America) “[Bush] took four days, and then he visited Trent Lott’s house, while [Penn] actually got in the sludge and rescued people.”

(I still think that Penn’s bringing along a photographer was a bit much.)

Categories
In the News

As Seen on Last Night’s "The Daily Show"

Photo: Still frame from Sept. 6 'Daily Show': Major disasters of the Bush administration.

I find it interesting that for “V”, they went with “Voldemort” and not “Vader, Darth”.

Categories
Uncategorized

I Need Your Digital Camera Opinions

Photo: Two pictures of the Nikon Coolpix SQ: one in the 'swiveled' position, one in the 'closed' position.

I like the form factor of my Nikon Coolpix SQ, but its sluggish

response time and the graphical “noise” it adds to images is beginning

to drive me bonkers. Since I have an upcoming wedding and plan to take

lots of photos of what’s supposed to be a major day in my life, I’m

giving some serious thought to purchasing a new camera and giving my

old one to my sister so she can always shoot pictures of the kids.

I’m still looking for a compact 3-or-more megapixel

mostly-point-and-shoot camera in the CDN$300 – $500 range that also shoots

movies with sound. It would be nice if the camera had a decent reaction

time. I might be willing to overlook a little compactness if it takes

standard AA batteries (I’d use rechargables, but it’s nice to be able

to buy fresh ones from the corner store in a pinch. I’d also like it if

it can shoot movies with sound.

I’ll be cruising a number of digital photography review sites as well as the Henry’s catalogue

to see what’s out there. If you have any suggestions that you’d like to

share with me and the rest of the web, please let me know in the

comments!

Categories
Uncategorized

By the Way…

You have donated to a relief organization for Hurricane Katrina, haven’t you?

Categories
In the News

Nobody’s Gonna Come Out of This One Looking Good…

Not the people of New Orleans:

Trick bikes and firearms: the necessities of life.

Certainly not the cops: [5.6MB, Windows Media video]

Helping themselves to shoes in aisle 3. Click the photo to see the video.

Not the municipal government, who could’ve used these now-useless buses in an evacuation:

Could’a hauled out a lot of people with these…

Not Sean Penn:

Read here for the story.

…and definitely not the federal government.

I’m hoping that the soldiers they sent over do a better job.

This is downtime, kids. I’d have posed for this picture in the exact same way.

Categories
Geek

VB or C++ Contractor — Looking for a Gig?

My friend “Bones” is looking for a VB or C++ developer to do some work

for a client based in the Toronto area. The basicgist of the application that the client wants developed:

The

client needs a VB or C++ programmer to develop a taskbar

app that accesses DB information over the ‘net and relays it to a Flash

app which acts as the user interface. The Flash app will be

developed separately

but there will obviously be sufficient back-and-forth between you and

the Flash developer so that the development process will happen

smoothly.

I’d take it, but I’m swamped. But maybe you can! Does this sound like your kind of thing? Drop me a line (joey@joeydevilla.com) and I’ll hook you up.