The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

This set of satirical, funny-because-it’s-true org charts for big tech companies has been doing the internet rounds for the past couple of days. (The original version, by “Manu”, is here.) It shows the chain of command at Amazon, Google, Facebook, my former company Microsoft, Apple and Oracle. Take a look:

This weekend, someone showed me the org charts and asked me how true-to-life the Microsoft org chart was. I told him “It’s a satire piece, and as such, they’re going to take some liberties with the truth for comic effect. I’d have drawn it like this…”

I kid because I love.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

This is the first in a series of blog entries that have been sitting in my “Drafts” folder for far too long. They’re things I meant to post sometime in the past few months and never got around to until now. Enjoy!

Here’s a photo that was taken a month back, at a hay ride and cookout on Wolfe Island. I was in Kingston for the 20th anniversary of my graduating class — Applied Science ’91 — at Crazy Go Nuts University.

Okay, now I’m ready to hit the streets.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

Yeah.

I thought that parodies of the movie Der Untergang (re-titled Downfall in English-speaking markets), in which Hitler’s nervous breakdown in the bunker were re-subtitled in all sorts of crazy ways, were played out, but Hitler Finds Out About Final Cut Pro X made me laugh out loud.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

The “interview”, part one

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is being overwhelmed with complaints about this incredibly dickish interview shown on Sun News Network (Canada’s new cable new channel, a very thinly-disguised FOX News clone) featuring host Krista Erickson and Canadian dance icon Margie Gillis. The interview starts with the mandatory faux-niceties but soon devolves into an attack on funding – a fair topic for debate – but in a way so applallingly rude that “dickish” is the only adjective that describes it properly.

The “interview”, part two

Erickson goes through both the standard list of logical fallacies and a laundry list of dickish conversational techniques in the interview (including the aw-shucks “I don’t understand highfalutin’ concepts” and “I’m just a Philistine” quips coupled with the most condescending tone of voice you’ll hear this side of a high school guidance consellor). Perhaps she’s trying to establish herself as Canada’s Ann Coulter. It’s to Gillis’ credit that she handles Erickson’s boorish treatment with composure and grace. This “interview” – it’s so much an ambush that I have to enclose the word in “sarcasm tongs” – is such a good example of the extremes of how to and how not to conduct yourself in an interview that it should be used as media training material.

The caption for the YouTube video provides some steps you can take. As much as I dislike Sun News Network, I don’t think they should be taken off basic cable. I do think that they could stand to have a little heat put on them, and I’m a firm believer in voting with your dollar: if you don’t like what you saw, don’t give their sponsors any money, and let them know why. And finally, no matter what your stance on arts funding is, give Gillis a “like” on her Facebook page, even if only for showing us that grace and kindness is the face of incivility and boorishness is still appreciated.

We can respond by filing a complaint with the the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (http://www.cbsc.ca/english/complaint/form.php) using the following information:

Sun News; Canada Live with Krista Erickson; June 1, 2011; 4:15 p.m.

When detailing your concerns, be sure to mention Sun News’ clear violation of Clause 5 of the CAB Code of Ethics (http://www.cbsc.ca/english/codes/cabethics.php#Clause5).

Update: The CBSC isn’t taking any more complaints for this case; see the update below.

As well, you can send a written complaint, mailed to the CRTC (Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2), asking that Sun News be taken out of basic cable programming. Scroll down about half-way in this link to find the instructions specific to filing a complaint with them (http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/G8.HTM). In your letter, be sure to write out the URL for the online video:

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/971454253001

…so that they can still reference it even after the four week deadline for complaints.

You can also consider boycotting the companies that support Quebecor and thus Sun News. See Margie’s most recent post for the list. English:https://www.facebook.com/notes/margie-gillis/how-to-help-stop-sun-news-tv-hat…

There’s also a twitition to sign: http://twitition.com/6v4go
and you can write to your M.P. and ask him or her to take the issue up in the House of Commons: http://www.parl.gc.ca/SenatorsMembers.aspx?Language=e

And finally, you can show your support to Margie by "liking" her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Margie-Gillis/63111821500

Update

Milan Davidovic pointed me to this page set up by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council on the Erickson case. Here’s the key part:

While the CBSC wishes to thank everyone who has taken the time to send a complaint to the CBSC concerning the Krista Erickson interview with Margie Gillis on an episode of Canada Live, the volume of complaints already sent to us exceeds the Council’s resources.

In other words, the CBSC will be unable to respond individually to each and every complaint received on this topic, as it customarily does.  No problem, though.  The CBSC will deal with the substance of the broadcast via the Council’s normal process and a decision will be released publicly in due course.

May we also request that those of you who have not yet filed a complaint refrain from doing so?  It will not help the disposition of this file in any way since the CBSC never bases its decisions on the number of complaints it has received.  Decisions are always and only based on whether a broadcast has breached one of the CBSC’s codified standards.

So, many thanks for contacting the CBSC or contemplating doing so.  We have more than enough substance to go on to resolve the concerns regarding the interview with Margie Gillis on an episode of Canada Live.

Creative Commons photo by Endlisnis.

You should think of DemoCamp as a grown-up version of “Show and Tell” for techies and creatives. Started by Canada’s very own David Crow as a way to bring Toronto’s then-hidden-away tech community out of the woodwork and talking to each other about what they’re working on, DemoCamp has spread to cities all over the world. I’ve seen firsthand the effect of holding DemoCamps: people have made friends, found work, discovered interesting projects, started collaborations and even landed VC funding. Great things happen when you gather bright, creative minds into a room to talk!

The 16th DemoCamp Ottawa takes place tonight! Here are the quick details:

• When: Wednesday, June 29th, 2011, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. or when the beer runs out
• Where: Mercury Grove / Network Hippo, 738A Bank Street (at Second Ave.)
• How much? Free!
• How to register: Do it on their Guestlist page…and soon!

I’ll be attending tonight – hope to see you there!

The Demos

The DemoCamp philosophy is simple: show us your project in action! Whether it’s complete or on the way there, we want to see a working application or device and be shown how it works, why you build it and what you hope to do with it. This is a technology demo, so it means no marketing – and especially no slides – are allowed. We just want to see your project in action.

There will be 5 demos at tonight’s DemoCamp, and they’ll all follow this format:

• 2 minute introduction
• 8 minute demo
• 5 minutes for Q&A and discussion

Tonight’s demos are:

HIVE-secure – Human Intelligence Verification Engine

Presenters: Chris Ivey and Pierre-Olivier Charlebois

Forget CAPTCHAs.  Choose HIVE instead, and make your customer happy. 

Time Doctor

Presenter: Liam Martin (liam@timedoctor.com)

Time Doctor is a collaborative to-do list to make you and your employees more productive. We are in open beta and would love to show everyone where we are and get suggestions on where we should go next.

JetStreamHD

Presenter: Grant Hall (grant.hall@nuvyyo.com)

JetStreamHD brings all your home based media  (Movies, TV Shows, Home Video, Songs, Photos) to your iPad instantly over any 3G or WiFi wireless network.  We launched the app at Demo 2011 in California and are now ready to open our web store to ship the first production run to our customers.  This will be our final release candidate and we are looking for feedback and suggestions for new or missing features.

iWatchLife – Smart Video Security

Presenter: TBD

iWatchLife is a smart video security system that helps people watch their family, pets and property from any web-enabled device.  We launched officially in May 2011

Coin Collector

Presenter: Kyle McInnes (kyle@pretzil.com)

Coin Collector is a demo version of a tablet-based showcasing tool we’re working on. Whether your customer is at a conference or in their livingroom, we provide a platform for you to showcase to them.

This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog.