Monthly Archives: November 2007

PopSci's Best of What's New 2007

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From this year’s Best of What’s New:

Innovation begets innovation. Efficient thin-film solar technology leads to panels so inexpensive, they could blanket city skylines. GM atones for killing the all electric EV1 with the plug-in Chevy Volt Hybrid. The iPod begets the iPhone. Click around to see these and 97 more of PosSci’s picks of the latest revolutionary technologies that will drive the next 20 years of innovation.

I agree with PopSci‘s 1st place choice, but I also really like the Infinitely Geared Bike.

Anyone else sees a disturbing pattern?

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All three stories are on the front page of CNEWS as I’m writing this (2007-11-15 22:12).

The current poll on the same front page is entitled “Should there be a judicial review on the use of tasers?“. I think they might want to push that review a little further.

The RCMP should be, can and has often been one of Canada’s prides. What’s happening to the “Organization of Excellence” thing?

Release: WPhone 1.4.1: Winner Edition

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I can hardly contain myself: we won the challenge that got us started with WPhone! :-)

Well, the true starting point was a question/challenge sent by one of my teammates, Doug, to the wp-hackers mailing list and the animated thread that ensued. A true ode to OSS, in many ways.

So to celebrate, we decided to release version 1.4.1 tonight, which brings the first bundled translations into the mix (Russian and French), and addresses issues discovered through our truly helpful user base.

Now, what am I gonna do with an iPhone in Canada, uh Apple/Rogers? *nudge nudge, wink wink* Well, who knows, maybe I can get Android running on it. :-p

FaceBookCampMontreal

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One more! Tonight was FaceBookCampMontreal, an unconference for everyone with an interest in building on the Facebook Platform. Once again, great event, great crowd, very interesting subject.

I’d venture to say that the event was actually a bit late for the developer crowd, since we’ve all drunk the Facebook API Kool-Aid months ago, and most of us have been playing with it publicly or in private sandboxes. On the other hand, the PR crowd was there in full force and was visibly excited by the torrent of opportunities the FB ecosystem truly is.

So if you need a Facebook application and don’t know where to start, a good first step is to call Plank. :o) We’ll hook you up with a strategy that makes sense for both you and your users/audience.

I also have my own pipe dreams, but I’m just too busy to take on yet another project right now. Maybe in December…

BarCampMontreal3

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I spent the afternoon at BarCampMontreal3 yesterday, and let me tell you, it’s good to be in Montreal! Startups, Open Source projects, successful ventures, etc. You name it, we’ve got it. But most of all, it’s the people that really make the difference. And we’ve got that too!

Can’t wait until FaceBookCampMontreal next wednesday, especially in light of what is expected to be launched by Facebook on tuesday. Despite the event’s name, I’m fairly sure OpenSocial won’t be a stranger at this event though. ;o)

Edit: Be sure to check out Heri’s complete report on the event, as well as Sylvain’s notes on the OpenSocial BOF.