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  • PHP Québec CodeFest 2.0

    I will be attending the CodeFest2008 hosted in Montreal on January 5th and 6th. This year’s theme will be all about microformats. Here is a link to the Facebook event, if you’re having trouble reaching the official wiki.

    I will be vying to address an hreview project I am getting involved with, unless I’m already done with it by then, in which case I’ll find something Diso related to tackle (if not both).

    Note: the event is not limited to PHP by any stretch, and anyone is welcomed. Join us, it’ll be fun. And as always, it will also be a great opportunity to network with your tech-peers.

  • Happy Holidays to You and Yours

    Since the next couple of days will be entirely devoted to my family and friends, I will be brief and wish you all the merriest of Christmas, as well as the very best to you and yours.

    Turn off that computer, and go spend time with the ones you love. I know I am.  🙂

  • Last Sprint to the Holidays

    It sure has been one busy quarter! Between switching jobs and my many other projects, I need this break like a fish needs water.

    A time for family, [hopefully] rest, reflecting on the past year and deep thoughts on what I’d like to achieve in the soon to be new year, and how to best make it happen.

    Two more days to try and complete as many tasks as possible to finish my business year on highlights, then I’ll wind down for what I think will be a well deserved break.

  • 11 out of 56: Something to Be Scared or Proud of?

    56 Geeks
    56 Geeks poster, by Scott Johnson.

    I’ll leave to your imagination which 11 out of 56 types I could be associated with.

    And by the way, it’s a rhetorical question. 😉

  • iTunes Canada Gets the TV Treatment

    Patrick Tanguay led me to Apple’s announcement of the new TV programming offering through iTunes Canada.

    I have to admit that I share his lack of enthusiasm for their offer… There’s just no way I’m going to spend money on 4:3 ratio video.

    All my screens are 16:9 or 16:10: mac laptop, external monitors, iPhone, and so on. And whatever I’ll buy in the foreseeable future will obviously not going to be any other way.

    They’re obviously targeting the last two remaining iPod models with such screen proportions, the Classic and Nano, but it’s just not for me. Sorry.

    Nice try though. A bit late maybe but nice.

  • Inculcating Basic Human Rights through Comic Books

    From Comic books give Kandahar kids insight into basic human rights:

    KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Despite rampant police corruption and a prevailing sense that it will be years before law and order is effectively restored in Afghanistan, a simple comic book is being distributed among the children of Kandahar City in an effort to increase public awareness about the Afghan constitution, civil rights and legal reform.

    A joint project by USAID and the Canadian-run Provincial Reconstruction Team.

  • To "Is" or Not to "Is"

    Facebook, standard interface, with non editable “is”. Facebook, iPhone interface, with editable “is”.

    To the left, Facebook‘s status edit field in the standard web interface. To the right, the equivalent status edit field, but in their iPhone interface instead.

    Spot the difference. 😉

  • DiSo Is Born. OpenSocial Delayed Until Next Year.

    Ha! I knew I could almost taste the mythical open, decentralized social network of tomorrow. In context, turns out it was the network of the day-after-tomorrow, with Chris Messina posting today that:

    Steve Ivy and I have embarked on a prototype project to build a social network with its skin inside out. We’re calling it DiSo, or “Distributed Social Networking applications”. The emphasis here is on “distributed”.

    The initial implementation of the project is built on WordPress, though making clear that this project is intended to be an example whose concepts should be able to be implemented on any platform. Since Steve offers a path to contribute to their effort (see “What’s Next”), I think the floater in my break list might just have found a permanent slot. With a twist and all for the better, so long as I find an area I can effectively contribute to.

    I’ve tried to address related subjects on wp-hackers before, but the thread never picked up. The plugin paradigm is always a good approach, and if the implementation solidifies, code could ultimately make it into the WP core. +1 for that on my side! Just visit this very site with the excellent Operator FireFox add-on, and you’ll see what I mean. 🙂

    On the other hand, Open Social is now being reported as being delayed until next year:

    OpenSocial received a ton of hype when it was announced. Rumors of an early November launch surfaced following Arrington’s announcement of Maki Maki. The announcement turned out to be only that, an announcement. Soon after, I spoke with developers that suggested would open their platform by December 5th. That hasn’t happened either. Techcrunch has pointed to a Google group about OpenSocial in which a Google employee states “This puts us into January before the API is ready to be implemented by containers, so expect some early adopters to have a public launch early 2008.”

    With so much activity at the standards/architecture level in the identity and social spheres right now, I’m one to say waiting a few months might actually be a very good thing for all involved parties here. A project of Dilo’s scale will thrive on the experimental angle and be malleable enough to rapidly adapt to changes, but OpenSocial is expected by many to be a stable platform to invest in, and has been presented (or represented) as so.

  • The Corporate Art of Concept Bastardization

    From GigaOM: AT&T, Verizon…We Are All Open:

    Ever since Verizon announced that it was going “open,” OPEN has become the new buzzword. For instance, this morning USA Today ran a story on AT&T being open, with extensive commentary from AT&T Wireless CEO & President Ralph de la Vega.

    It really pains me to see such hypocritical behemoths jump on concepts that are dear to me, such as “open” or “green“, and turn them to their advantage when in reality, they are amongst their most vile opponents.

    Between Microsoft’s Open Initiative, GE’s greenwashing campaign and so many others, it’s an ever rising trend, even if far from a new one. Turns out they can’t even be original in their dishonesty: “Hey, me too! I’m cool too! Look at me!“.

    But one way or another, analysts and consumers see right through their… uh, spin?

  • OpenID 2.0…Final(ly)!

    From OpenID 2.0…Final(ly)!:

    While its certainly been a long process in the making, we’re now quite excited to announce OpenID Authentication 2.0 and OpenID Attribute Exchange 1.0 as final specifications (”OpenID 2.0″).

    See, I told you there was still time (yeah, okay, I wasn’t exactly convincing).

    Nice work. The final specs look great, thereby once again proving the old adage true: good things come to those who wait.