Category: Lower Mainland

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Venturing around the Massive Tech Show 2007

20070328(004).jpg I’m just back from the Massive Technology Show at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, and it’s safe to say that this was indeed a massive show. There might be others that beg to differ, but when you think that the previous two years had this thing crammed into Science World, this location seems seemingly brainless for such an event.

Not being all too familiar with what the MTS was or is, I wasn’t all too sure what to expect. To me, it was a total melting pot of various technologies, holding true to the show’s name. I ran across a variety of vendors looking to sell their products, ranging from IP routers, telephones, VoIP, and all forms of web presence. Hardware, software, mobile technology, and so on, not to mention fun gadget stuff like segways, electric scooters, and gaming. There was also a fair amount of online education booths as well.

Oddly enough, for an event of this scale, there were a fair amount of empty booths, probably one or two in every other row. As successful as this event has been, it makes me fairly curious if some exhibitors decided to not show up, but they missed a fairly good opportunity to have some tiptop exposure.

20070328(001).jpgPersonally, I had a good time discovering various bandwidth providers in and around Vancouver. These companies tend to specialize in small business, but they prevent some nice alternatives to the standard cable provider that we have at home now. Worthy of a replacement service? I’m not too sure yet, but when I find out that their field techs will show up to your location at a specified time, instead of an anytime within a five hour time window, then I am very interested. Oh yeah, and the bandwidth they offer is noteworthy as well, but I’m not going to give out free advertising just yet.

I didn’t make my way into the conference area, but the presentations that were listed did not strike me as noteworthy. Chances are, I might have missed out on some good topics being presented upstairs, but the reason might come from the way the sessions were marketed. Call it a matter of personal preference, but there wasn’t much that struck me as something to not miss.

20070328(002).jpg I do feel for anyone who tried to watch any of the presentations on the main stage though. I’m not sure that the PA was loud enough to hear the speaker over the crowd on the main floor, which was just mere feet away from the back row of seats to watch these things. Two projection screens at each side of the stage were showing slides, but even I had a hard time seeing exactly what was up there. Of course, I didn’t watch too many of these, but the one I caught about ten minutes of was the experience that I just described.

Bottom line, there is good stuff at the MTS. This is the first time in this location, and it is bound to get better and better. According to David Drucker, this year is very evident of that. I would hope that they would continue to be in a location like this in the future, but imagine what the new expansion of the convention centre might hold for a show like this once it is completed. MTS might be developing a tech show with wide reaching appeal if they play their cards right.

20070328.jpg One last note, I am bothered by the MTS blog, especially the fact that it hasn’t been updated since the end of February. For a tech show, this seems near sacrilege, especially with the amount of web identity and marketing companies that were there today. There should be someone live blogging the event, posting live pictures, or some form of interaction with its website, especially on the day of the event. Something tells me that it might not be “that type of conference”, but it should be.

Uber final note, big shout out to the Bryght crew. Roland’s first question out of his mouth was if I have found a job yet, and the answer is that I’m trying. 🙂

Update: Big thanks to Jeremy Latham for catching a “typo” on this post, and I also wanted to point out this review by John Chow. He says some things that I was thinking, but in a much better way. Also makes me wish I would have played with the segways a little bit.

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Why I will never have an alarm system for a car

Somewhere in a block radius of home, there is a car that has an uber-sensitive alarm. At this point, when I hear a heavy truck, maybe a semi or garbage truck, roll down the street, I pause. Wait for it… wait for it…

There are two outcomes. One is some beeping that is that early warning part of the system that says, “stay away from this car because it has really annoying sounds that will start blaring if you don’t step back.” The other is all of that before plus the really annoying sounds that go off for about a minute or two.

It’s been like this for the past two days. It’s almost a game, making bets if the car alarm will go off or not. And where is this person who owns this car? It’s like they just use it as a system of telling themselves, “Oh hey, I can hear my car outside. It’s still there!” At this point, I think the battery might drain itself because it has gone off so many times. And if I could find the source, I’d report it. For all I know, it’s missing a stereo system by now.

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Massive Tech Show 2006

I know there hasn’t been much for updates as of late, but it’s been a hectic time. A combination of job searching and projects has kept my mind pretty awash in the last week.

I will be hitting the Massive Tech Show tomorrow in downtown Vancouver, thanks to some free, all access passes. To tell the truth, I’m not all too sure what to expect. There’s a conference plus trade show and exhibition. I imagine that means that I’m going to come home with a bunch of pamphlets, pens, and other promotional goodies that will clutter up my work space after their novelty wears off. Then I can say, “I got that from the Massive Tech Show.” Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

This will also be a great opportunity to search for potential employment opportunities. How and what and where, I can’t really tell you. I just like doing geeky things, and someone should totally be paying me to do those sorts of things for them. Watch for on location posts, but no promises.

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Making my way up to Prospect Point

I figure that it’s about time that I do another Stanley Park update. As a quick recap, you can read this post, but the basic jest of the story is that a horrible storm damaged a large portion of the park back in December 2006. I’m doing my best to post updates of what I’m seeing as the park cleans up and opens more portions back up to the public. After all, it’s one of my favorite places to go running.

Last week, I tried going into areas of the park that I’ve mentioned previously, but they were still closed to the public the last time I did this, at least officially. It was very easy to go around these orange and white barricades that had caution tape tied from it, spanning to nearby trees in almost spiderweb like fashion. This time around, the trails were not blocked off, seemingly open for business.

The trails were cleaned up more than the last time I was in the area around Beaver Lake, so I decided to try my chances and head over the foot bridge to the other side of the causeway. Everything on that side looks really good, but heading down the Tatlow Trail ran me into a huge, fallen down tree that is about 50% from being fully removed. There is no easy way around it other than climbing, not hopping or straddling, over the trunk that is about half my height.
Continue reading “Making my way up to Prospect Point”

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A very Vancouver weekend

20070311(002) Rain. So many people are going to be talking about it, but this has been a stereotypical weekend in Vancouver. Not the gentle mist or light rain that is more common place. Instead, nice, steady drops of water, seemingly never ending as they fall to the earth.

We made ventures downtown to find massive puddles in the intersections, proof that even the sewer drains were struggling to keep up with the amounts. Just trying to navigate through the crowds of people was enough to drive one a bit mad. It never fails that you run into that one group of about six folks who are walking along the sidewalk at a snail’s pace, taking up the whole width of the walkway. Give them all umbrellas and ye’ abandon all hope of getting ahead of them.

Riding the SeaBus to meet up with our friends for yet another Canucks PPV game(three in one week is just slightly annoying), I told Rebecca that this is a very, upper northwest day.

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SkyTour seems kinda lame

SkyTour markings at Waterfront SkyTrain stationI know that sounds harsh to say, but this marking on the platform at Waterfront Station caught my eye last night while heading to meet some friends for the Canucks game last night. I had heard of it before, but it inspired me to check into it a bit more today.

You can check out more about SkyTour youself, but the basic story is that you pay for this audio tour that takes you around Vancouver via SkyTrain, telling you various things about the city. There are also walking tours included, but I’m really unsure if other forms of mass transit are required as well.

The one thing that gets me is that you really want to make sure that if you are planning on taking this tour, then make sure you have a nice, sunny day to do it. The audio sample on their website has you looking out the windows of the SkyTrain to see The Lions[wiki] among the north shore mountains. On a rainy day, which we have a few of those here occasionally, you’re hard pressed to see those twin peaks.

At the same time, you better hope for a non-crowded day on the train as well. Trying to listen to an audio tour while trying to peak through the group of kids talking at the top of their lungs, in whatever international language it is that they speak, just screams like a good ol’ time. Ahh, money well spent.

We offer to take friends and family around the city all the time, and I think that the only way to experience any place is with locals. Even though Rebecca has lived here all her life, there’s many places I’ve made her go that she’d otherwise never had explored unless my curiosity didn’t drag us there. It goes both ways.

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What do you want to be when you grow up?

In about a month, give or take one to five because the Canadian government is just that awesome with paperwork, I’ll have my green light to be fully employable. We haven’t had the bash to celebrate because this whole process has been a long story of hurry up and wait. It’s a multi-stage process where you’re happy to hear good news when you just start to abandon all hope. Then there is a wave of elation, followed by the reality of more paperwork that you have to send in to start the waiting process once again.

The biggest dilemma is the question that I’ve been fielding quite often lately, and Northern Voice was the worst places of all to have this come to be a moment of clarity. What do I want to do once I’m able to, legally, work?

That’s a lot harder for me to answer with a simple, concise, non-lengthy explanation. I have seven years experience in radio, a combination of on-air talent, production, producing, I.T. and engineering(not uncommon for people in radio these days to wear many hats). There’s the fact that I’m interested in all things new media, especially the world of podcasting and blogging.

I’ve been doing designing of websites since I was 16, wavering in and out of doing a lot of it. For a time, I worked for my parents where we had a side project doing this for local businesses in the town I grew up in, a different time and era for sure. Blogging has really brightened my understanding of PHP, SQL, and CSS a whole lot, and I’m in the middle of a couple of projects, unrelated to my current ones, that are using these skills in full force.

So when someone asks me this question of what do I want to do, it’s tough. Would I like to get into the radio market of Vancouver? Absolutely, and I’ve actually interviewed with a lot of the major players since first coming here in 2005, CKNW and Team1040 being a few prominent ones to mention. All those ventures came up short when they get to that part about having the necessary status that makes you legit for getting a paycheck.

I’m gearing up to start the hunt when the time comes, but there is no simple answer to the question. I’ve had the past year and a half to think about it, and during that time, I’ve watched a lot of opportunity pass me by, if not slip through my fingers. That’s bound to change, and Rebecca can’t wait until she can have me out of the apartment more often. Quite frankly, I can’t either.

Trust me, everything I have done in life has been an earnest effort of tackling it with persistence. More than a few people in Vancouver have mentioned that about me, and I hope that was a compliment.

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Worst SeaBus ride ever

Seabus adventures I’m not sure if it’s normal, but riding the SeaBus[wiki] to catch the Canucks on PPV last night was an adventure to say the least. I haven’t made the jaunt too many times, but the late afternoon trip from yesterday was a tad rough.

I’m not one to get motion or sea sick, but the three times that we rocked from front to back was pretty nuts. Then the left to right a couple of times was enough to have the little old woman sitting next to me lean into me pretty hard. The kids loved it as the wakes of passing ships thumped into the boat.

Being an inlet, I was told that the waters never got too rough. I’m pretty confident to say that it can, and did.

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Podcasting equates to tourism

At the meetup this past Sunday, a thought hit me about podcasting. In its simplicity, podcasts are highly useful in terms of tourism, especially for a majority of us in Vancouver. That doesn’t limit it to those who are anywhere else in the world, but what that small group of us are doing is what makes me think this. A lot of my thoughts here stem from the meetup, so you might find reading that post helpful to get the completely back story.

Take the Vancouver Weekly Underground Podcast, and if that’s a mouthful for you to say, it is to me as well. Let’s examine what they do though. They check out shows at some of the best, underground venues in town. Now, these are acts that don’t get a lot of press, and Dave, for the podcast, equated it to promoting more information about the bands that are listed to be at a certain club, on a certain day and time. So basically, you get a name, and that’s it.

With their podcast, and nearly every other music related podcast out there, they want to give you more about the artist in the hopes that you like them. If you like them, you’ll buy into their music, meaning a ticket to see their show when they play in town. In turn, that artist will be able to pay rent or, more importantly, eat.

Here is where the heart of my idea kicks in. What about that person who listens to or watches your podcast from a thousand miles away? Suddenly, one day, they want to get the hell out of town and go on vacation. Then it hits them. There is this podcast from Vancouver that has been going into all these great venues to see great bands. Said person is going to know where to check out some killer shows while filling Vancouver with their tourist dollars. Screw skiing, they want to rock!

It’s a slight stretch, but that’s just one angle to view it. I know and have met people who ventured up to Vancouver because of Dave Olsen and his Choogle On with Uncleweed. RadioZoom has garnered fans from various parts of the world who are trying or want to visit or move to Vancouver. The Crazy Canucks reaches to hockey fans around the world, so you never know if it’ll be enough to drive them to take a holiday here to catch a game at GM Place. As Dave O would say, we should be getting paid to do Tourism Vancouver‘s job.