The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

It’s a new month, which means a new Ruby/Rails Project Night at TSOT on Tuesday, February 12th!

The last one was a success — we had over 50 attend (you can see photos and a quick writeup here) and this one looks like it’s going to be as big a hit. Better still, based on feedback from the attendees, we’re going to delve even deeper into technical matters, because that’s what you asked for!

Several eager Rails developers have asked us about presenting their projects at our Project Nights, and next Tuesday, we’re proud to feature these presentations:

• How to Avoid Hanging Yourself in Rails (or: Optimizing Your ActiveRecord Associations) by Rowan Hick
• Helping New Businesses be Memorable with EasyBrandingTools.com by Mike Bowler and Steve Vetzal
• Clinical Research Management System (CRMS) by Luke Galea. CRMS is a Rails and Prolog/XSB application used to manage drug and procedure trials at the some of the biggest hospitals in the US.

TSOT’s Ruby/Rails Project Night takes place next Tuesday, February 12th at our development office at 151 Bloor Street West (just east of Avenue Road), Suite 1130. Doors will open at 5:30pm with presentations beginning some time between 6 and 6:30. This event is free but space is limited; reserve your spot today by emailing corina.newby@tsotinc.com or joey.devilla@tsotinc.com.

[This article was also posted at Global Nerdy.]

The third Toronto edition of Facebook Developer Garage/FacebookCamp (it goes by both names) takes place tonight at MaRS Discovery District (101 College Street, just east of University Avenue).

Here’s the agenda as of the time of this writing:

If you were wondering what happened at the last Facebook Garage/FacebookCamp, you can see my notes at:

• Notes from FacebookCamp Toronto 2, Part 1
• Notes from FacebookCamp Toronto 2, Part 2
• Notes from FacebookCamp Toronto 2, Part 3

[This article was also posted on Global Nerdy.]

Click the photo to see the birth announcement on Boing Boing.

Congratulations are in order — Cory just announced on Boing Boing that Alice gave birth to a healthy baby girl! Weighing in at 9 pounds, 6 ounces and bearing these names, in order:

• Poesy – As in “poetry”
• Emmeline – After Emmeline Pankhurst
• Fibonacci – After the mathematician who popularized the Hindu-Arabic number system and who has a mathematical sequence named after him
• Nautilus – after the fictional submarine created by Jules Verne
• Taylor – Alice’s last name
• Doctorow – Cory’s last name

A hearty mazel tov to Cory and Alice, and once again, welcome to the world, Poesy!

From the Tom the Dancing Bug comic, here’s a team-up featuring two superheroes: God-Man and Human-Man…

Click the comic to see it on its original page.

If you’re dreading the commute home in the aftermath of the bad weather all over the country, here’s a little something to keep it all in perspective: Guangzhou train station, during their bad winter weather:

Click the photo to see a much larger version.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Composer Hector Berlioz and AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson.

My calendar’s full, but if you’re thinking about making those first baby-steps into — ahem — culture, may I recommend Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, which the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will perform tonight and tomorrow at Roy Thomson Hall, with super-maestro Charles Dutoit conducting. I think it’s pretty accessible: after all, it’s all about trying to impress a chick with your music, lust, obsession, orgies, drugs, devil-worship and a big-ass bell — dude, it’s AC/DC, if they’d formed a band 150 years earlier!*

(* It could also be a loose summary of my social life — or a very accurate summary of Robert Downey, Jr.’s — from ages 27 to 37.)

Links

• The Wikipedia entry for Symphonie Fantastique
• A video of the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo) performing the 5th Movement of Symphonie Fantastique, a.k.a. “Things get freaky“
• The Hector Berlioz Website

Wow, has a year already passed?

There’s more here and here.