I noticed something strange on a sign on Bloor Street, just west of Avenue Road:
Note the services offered: “Imagineering”?
I read the sign: “Accupuncturist, cardiologist, dentist…imagineering? As in Disney ride engineer?” (Clearly Cory Doctorow has rubbed off on me.)
It turns out that Imagineering is also the name of a multimedia company. Ah well.
Switching jobs from Tucows to TSOT means that for the first time in four and half years, it’s quicker to commute by subway than by bicycle. Hence for the past couple of weeks, I have been doing something I haven’t done in a long time: I’ve been riding the subway during rush hour on a regular basis. I’m concerned by what I’ve been seeing.
It’s been a while since I was a regular subway rider, so my memories may be wrong. Could someone tell me if there’s been a downhill slide in the Toronto Transit Commission’s service? I’ll admit that my commute is incredibly quick — it’s a quick walk to High Park station, 10 stops to Bay station, then a quick walk to the office — but even in that short trip, I’ve faced trains too full to board, trains running at half-speed and trains sitting idle at the station, sometimes for five minutes at a time.
I know that when it comes to its website and to promoting itself through merchandise, the TTC often tempts me to declare “Toronto Transit Commission, Thy Name is Half-Assery!”. The TTC’s apparent attempt to mimic San Francisco’s MUNI’s core incompetency at public transport worries me.
TSOT Ruby/Rails Night
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 (and the second Tuesday of every month)
@ TSOT’s office — 151 Bloor Street West (on the south side, just east of Avenue Road)
11th floor
Door open and food at 5:30 p.m.
Presentations start at 6-ish
FREE ADMISSION (but limited space)
To register, please email joey.devilla@tsotinc.com
TSOT is a Toronto-based start-up that develops — look out, here come the buzzwords — social networking applications using Ruby on Rails. Our first applications are FraternityLive and SororityLive, social software built specifically for people in fraternities and sororities. Both apps are currently being tested with a userbase of thousands of university students and alumni, and we expect to release them in early 2008.
We believe that it’s good for Toronto to have a healthy developer ecosystem — it’s good not only for us as a Toronto-based development shop, but also as a group of developers who are passionate about the work we do. We’d like to see Toronto as “Silicon Valley++” — with the vibrant high-tech scene, but with all the amenities that make Toronto a better place to live than the Valley (such as not being a dreary 50-mile stretch of suburbia and having decent places to go at night).
Hence our contribution to the local developer scene: TSOT Ruby/Rails Project Nights, which will take place on the second Tuesday of every month. They’ll feature in-depth presentations by developers working on interesting projects — primarily Ruby and Ruby on Rails — along with drinks and munchies and a chance to socialize with your fellow developers. They’ll be hosted by Yours Truly, TSOT developer and DemoCamp regular Joey “Accordion Guy” deVilla.
This first Ruby/Rails Night will feature presentations by a couple of Ruby/Rails local heroes on their current Ruby/Rails projects:
The doors will open at 5:30, the first presentation will start at about 6, and we hope to wrap up the evening by 8:30 or 9. We’ll provide food and drinks, and if there’s enough of a demand, we can always go out to a nearby pub afterwards. There’s no cost to attend (but be advised that seating is limited).
If you’ve been thinking about making a Ruby or Rails presentation (perhaps you want to rehearse for RailsConf 2008!), we’d like to have you present it at one of our project nights!
Add TSOT Ruby/Rails Nights to your list of New Year’s resolutions!
Registration is free, but space is limited. To register for the upcoming Jan 8th gathering, please email joey.devilla@tsotinc.com
For more information about TSOT Project Nights, please contact:
The event is also listed on Upcoming.org.
John Bowker of the Roncesvalles Village branch of the indie record store She Said Boom! informed me about this unfair development in Roncesvalles Village:
Today, the Toronto Star spent hours interviewing staff and customers at Karl’s Butchers and Grocery (105 Roncesvalles), which has sold fresh sausages on our street for 46 years. Karl’s has been forced out of business by the province.
In October, the provincial government decided to enforce a harsh, literal interpretation of the 2001 Food and Safety Quality Act. The Province took Karl’s out of the Yellow/Green inspection system operated by the City (where they passed every inspection), and placed it under provincial regulations. According to these regulations, Karl’s is now considered a “manufacturing plant,” because it makes its own sausages. These sausages, which have helped make Roncesvalles famous, are prepared fresh in the store, unlike most sausages which are packaged and shipped from centralized plants.
Under the regulations, Karl’s is forced to pretend it is like some mass-production facility, forced to conform to a massive list of regulations that make little sense for a small, local business – even one dealing with raw meat. The province must even test the water every week, as if they were some rural factory taking water in from a local well. The province is simply incapable of distinguishing between a local butcher and a factory slaughterhouse, and a part of Roncesvalles is being destroyed as a result.
According to Walter Jarzabek of Karl’s, they decided they could not fight the province, and so they decided to close just before Christmas. A lot of local residents are upset. We should be too.
Unless the province can show how a local butcher like Karl’s poses a threat to public health, they should find a way to distinguish a business like Karl’s from the large factory slaughterhouses that are the Act’s intended target. Just because a sausage comes from a box out of a truck does not make it healthier, and it certainly doesn’t make it tastier. The public should have the choice to buy fresh sausages from a trusted and responsible butcher like Karl’s.
I recently received an email from my friend Michael O’Connor Clarke who informed me that our mutual friend Jeneane Sessum was doing PR for a web company named MizPee, which has just launched here in Accordion City.
Here’s a quick description of MizPee, taken straight from their own site:
Do you ever find yourself desperately looking for a clean toilet in the city?
MizPee finds the closest, cleanest toilets in your area. You can add and review toilets, get some cool deals in your area and challenge your knowledge of toilet trivia.
(It has been a while since my knowledge of toilet trivia has been challenged…)
Here’s a sample of MizPee’s results when I asked for toilets near TSOT, where I work — 151 Bloor Street West:
Someone out there needs to rate the women’s washrooms at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel. It seems closer than the Second Cup, and I’m sure its washrooms are pretty good.
Don’t forget — DemoCamp 16, the show-and-tell and networking event for Toronto’s tech community takes place tonight at the Toronto Board of Trade in First Canadian Place.
As of this writing, there are 51 free tickets remaining, after which you’ll need to purchase one of the 74 outstanding $10 tickets. You can order a ticket on DemoCamp’s EventBrite page.
For more details about what’s happening tonight, see this entry.
Last night, I took part in Band Camp, “an evening of ridiculous noisemaking” put together by Kelly Seagram. She sent out a call to a couple of dozen musicians here in Accordion City to join her for a free-form musical jam at Guitar Girl studio. Since I love jamming with other musicians, I couldn’t refuse the invitation.
I’d never been to Guitar Girl studio before, so I expected the typical inexpensive music studio: a dank, dark industrial space with only the most basic of amenities. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in to find this:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Yes, it was converted warehouse space as I expected, but it was nicely converted warehouse space. Bright, well-heated and with nice furniture and paintings on the walls, it was even nicer than a number of warehouse lofts that people call home.
The studio is divided into three large areas, two of which seem to be specifically for performing and recording. We spent most of our time in one of these areas, which is shown in the photo above.
The third area, shown below, seems to be for hanging out.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
An important part of a music studio is the couch — I’ve never been in a studio that didn’t have one. I was expecting the standard issue ratty fifth-hand Goodwill sofa, but that’s not the case at Guitar Girl:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
The place had a nice little kitchenette:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
And there were even a couple of “floater” instruments: a decent electric guitar and bass, each hooked up to a pretty decent amp:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
People started arriving at about 8 p.m.. As one would expect, there was no shortage of guitars:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Gavin brought the synthesizer rig. This being the 21st century, “synthesizer” these days means “keyboard hooked up to a laptop computer”:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
I brought the you-know-what:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
And people brought other, less typical instruments — there was even a Theremin, which has hooked to an amplifier via an assortment of guitar effects pedals.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
What jam session is complete without a big inflatable mattress?
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
And then, the jamming began:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Someone brought a projector and projected Baraka and other films on the wall, which made for some great pictures:
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
There’s always room for poi!
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
Click to see the photo on its Flickr page.
To see all the photos I took, click here to set the Flickr photoset page or click here to see all the photos as a slideshow.
We got a lot of great jamming done, I got to meet new people and everyone appeared to have a very good time. My thanks to Kelly for putting Band Camp together — I’m looking forward to the next one!