Tag: startups Posts

Ok, seriously. The things I would do if I had a few million bucks. I’m amazed to no end how many things about the internet kind of suck. Things that you’d think would be easy to fix, but for whatever reason nobody gets around to fixing them. First company that I need to bash is YouTube. Seriously, Google buys you for 1.6 BILLION dollars and what’s the first thing you do? Stick your head in the sand. How come there aren’t any cool features, or you know, like standard features coming your way. Why do you always screw up the audio/video sync on EVERY video I upload? Another prime example — they STILL only support 4:3 video. More and more cameras coming out support widescreen, and many of the new CCD sizes are actually 3:2, not 4:3. All new camcorders over a few hundred dollars have 16:9 modes in them, […]

Last Friday I met a pile of people from the Vancouver technology scene down at the Lamplighter pub in Gastown. Apparently that location is surrounded in controversy, since the Lamplighter has recently changed hands and has been transformed into a more “modern” establishment. I can’t say that I ever hung out in it before, but it seemed like a pretty cool place on Friday. I would have shown up and mingled regardless, but on Friday I volunteered to drop by and take some photos of the Vancouver Technology Women for this year. That list was put together by none other than blogger-extraordinaire, Dave Olsen. On that list was good pal and super hero, Rebecca Bollwitt. Rebecca Bollwitt Maura Rodgers was one of the main brains behind organizing the whole event, so a big thanks to her for putting it on (and for feeding me those free drinks all night, although […]

Tonight I went down to the Republic to partake in the second Launch Party. It’s basically a mixer for technology enthusiasts, and an opportunity for a few startups to showcase their new products. There were about 150 people that probably showed up, and it got rather tight and cramped at times, but it was cool meeting a lot of the people involved, and hanging out with a few old friends. The Sxip Girls I’m still on some drugs, so I refrained from drinking, which was actually rather nice in a way since I spent $0 at the function tonight. Maura On Television I’m not really sure why the TV people were there, or even if it really was for television, but there were a few cameras rolling around with bright lights. Some Dude I had a good night, and I’m glad I checked it out. Also, thanks to everyone who […]

Tomorrow night Tonight there is a Vancouver technology mixer down at the trendy night club Republic on Granville Street. I haven’t been out to one of these in a long time, mainly because I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather for the last few months, but I think I’m going to check it out tomorrow. Launch Party recently launched a new website, and if you look very, very closely, you may recognize the header image on it 🙂 So, hopefully I’ll still feel like heading out tomorrow. I will be good to catch up with some old tech friends and see what’s new. Plus, it gives me an excuse to go buy a new shirt or something tomorrow at lunch.

When I first started my current job, the COO and one of the founders was a guy named Erik Lagerway. During the time he was at our company, we shared many a beer and even a plane ride or two together (the most memorable being the one to Phillidelphia where we got to witness first-hand drunken broomball in Horsham and Whatchamachukinchunk). His current brainchild is a service called Gaboogie which was designed in an attempt to simplify conference calls in the enterprise environment. Most conference calls today are setup via email, and involve participants calling into a conference bridge at a specified time, entering a six to ten digit conference code followed by a password, and then sitting around for ten minutes waiting for all the late comers to show up. Gaboogie attempts to circumvent some of these problems by having the conference system call the participants itself at the […]