Yesterday I had the great pleasure of partaking in the first of what I hope will be more Mobile Geeks Meetup.
The event was organised by Tom who you may recall hooked me up with an N900 a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since I’m more of a geeky phone user rather than a developer but I went, thinking I might learn something new and go figure, I did.
The night started with a presentation from Samir, a Nokia expert (I think – it was so loud I missed his formal introduction) who started off by wowing the crowd with the N900 and its various features. From the built in social networking aspects (like integrated uploading to services like Flickr and Facebook) to multitasking and the awesome browser which plays in-browser flash (meaning you don’t need to open a new application to watch YouTube videos and the like). It seemed a few folks in the crowd were pretty familiar with the device even if they hadn’t actually seen one (though I did get a couple of over the shoulder looks while I was tweeting away before the meeting started – mind you, with the new red protective case, it’s hard to tell what phone it is).
Samir then continued with an overview of
MeeGo, the recently announced new platform Nokia is helping to develop. My non-geeky understanding of things is that MeeGo is a sort of cross device open source OS which will allow users to run the same system on all of their devices from their cell phones to their connected TVs. What that means is that rather than running one set of applications on your phone or pocket pc, your netbook, laptop and whatever else you might use on a regular basis – you’ll be able to run the same applications on all devices. The bonus for developers? One set of APIs with only minor user experience changes for each device.
From here the discussion moved into some “above-Marina’s-head” talk about development, DRM and cross platform integration (there was some muffled chat about Android application on MeeGo devices).
One of the major highlights of the night was news of the first MeeGo device to be released later this year. I’m excited to see what that new device and what MeeGo has to offer. It may mean another upgrade next year but from my limited reading so far, it looks like there will be a MeeGo install available for the N900 later this year. We’ll have to wait and see what it offers over the current OS and what sort of applications I have to choose from.
Tom also had some cool toys on display including a couple of
E72s and the two
Booklet 3G mini laptops which are really spiffy. I’d love to play with one of those for a few days. If all the new info wasn’t enough, I also walked away with a bit of swag – a great new bag and one of the coolest USB sticks I’ve ever seen.
Thanks again to Tom for organising and for extending the invite my way. I’m looking forward to the next one!
It's hard to believe, especially considering that I haven't been watching for a while, but one of the best shows on TV is calling it a day.
When I was sent a notice about the BSG finale I expected it to be coming months from now so you can imagine my surprise when the date said March 20th. That's just a little over than a week away. I guess once it's done, hubby and I will have to get caught up (we've only watched to the middle of season 2) - even if I already know how it ends.
You see, the local BSG group,
The 13th Colony, is organized by a wonderful lady who I have the pleasure of calling a friend. Val is fabulous and she never does anything half way so it's no surprise that to the ending of show is going to be a bang.
She's organizing a huge farewell that is going to be so big, it's attracted the attention of
SPACE's very own
Natasha Eloi. The SPACE crew will be in town to capture the action at the finale and guess what? You're *all* invited!
I know, you want details! Here we go:
When: Friday, March 20th - starting at 5PM
Where: La Fontana Caffe, 3701 Hastings St, Burnaby, BC V5C 2H6 - (604) 298-4004(
Google Map)
There are loads more details on the
Meetup and
Facebook event pages.
Organizers are asking that if possible, you come in costume and if you have them, to bring along your mini-mates and any other BSG related action figures (old or new) you may have.
If the opportunity to be on space isn't enough encouragement for you, I'm sure there'll be loads of photos and twittering going on and I'll be on hand with camera and phone ready for action (I promise, no spoilers).
If you're in town, be sure to come by and join us - it's going to be fantastic fun!
Admission: I’m not a Dr. Who fan but I know there are many who are and for this reason, I’d like to pass along a little information.
The local Dr. Who Meetup is hosting a little get together to celebrate 45 years of the good doctor and I’m helping spread the word. Event is Sunday, November 23rd at La Fontana in Burnaby and the group will be watching the pilot of the show along with whatever else they can dig up.
So if you’re a fan and want to celebrate with other fans, be sure to head over to the Dr. Who Meetup Group site and check out all of the details of the event. You may also want to join the group to stay up to date with other Dr. Who related events!
I may have been MIA for a few weeks but I promise you that outside of a nasty cold, I've just been really busy.
Dale is pushing the boundries of comfort (in a good way) by forging ahead with new technology and to prepare for some video coverage of the 1st Annual Vancouver Brazilian Film Festival, we did a short video last night at the Vancouver Bookcrossing Meetup. It was good fun and I promised I'd share, even though I look worn down and was having a hard time with the microphone positioning, but overall, not a bad first attempt. The only other thing I have to remember is to not yell into the mic (like I do in the opening few seconds) but otherwise, not too bad. Enjoy!
A few cool things mentioned in the video:
Oh jeez.
I was going to do a post letting local folks know that the only place screening "Hellboy 2" this weekend is Tinseltown. So I head over to movietickets.ca only to find that they've updated the schedules since Saturday night (when I scheduled the Meetup).
Not only is the film now playing at Metrotown and Coquitlam (either of which would have been so much easier to sell to hubby) but the Tinseltown screening I had posted has disappeared. Out comes the phone and a call to the management office at Tinseltown. They had to change it, I understand that, but you figure they'd let the people that bought tickets to that screening know. Instead, I had to find out about it by chance. If I hadn't caught it, the entire event would likely have ended in disaster.
Thankfully that was averted but it sure caused me a minor anxiety attack!
Oh man. It's been a bad evening/morning.
Last night I was supposed to meet my movie group for a screening of "Seven Samurai". Since I wasn't meeting the group until 6:30, I decided to stick around the office to make up some of the lost time from last week's major snowfall. BIG FREAKING MISTAKE. I mean HUGE MISTAKE. I was doing some filling when, at 5:45, all hell broke loose. I can't go into details but lets just say that the entire project, the only thing we're working on at the moment, was a pin's head away for falling through. I spent the next two hours digging through files trying to put together an emergency package for the lender. NIGHTMARE.
I actually considered going to the movie but since I've already seen it and I was going to miss the first hour (not to mention I was irritated), I went home instead and took out my frustrations on Guitar Hero. I've now completed my career in "Easy" mode and have moved up to "Medium" and HOLY SHIT, it's hard. Love it.
To make things all that much better (drip sarcasm) it was SNOWING at my place this morning. Big, wet, ugly flakes that were actually sticking and making the roads a disaster. We made it as far as 6th before I convinced hubby to leave me there to catch a bus. He turned around and headed to the highway to make his way to work. When I talked to him, he'd made it in one piece. Freakin' snow.
Still have to check if classes are still on for tonight. Apparently it's supposed to turn to rain but then, they didn't predict that the snow was going to stick either...GAH!
The tides are a changin'! The movie group get together yesterday was very successful with a few new members coming out and, for the first time, the men outnumbered the women. Not a huge deal but definitely something that's not a common occurrence. To boot, they were a lively bunch and the discussion before the show was excellent. It's nice to meet new people who have so much to say. Occasionally we get a quiet group and it's a bit of work to get conversation happening but not last night and it was SOOOO nice. A great turn out indeed.
Tonight, I'm having the pleasure of meeting Steph's man. They've been dating for a few weeks and I have to tell you, she seems so much happier. It's not that women need a man to be happy, far from it, but she's been looking for a relationship for a while and she's starting to look for that special someone to settle down and have a family with and her ill luck was starting to rub her the wrong way so this relationship is welcomed. I'm excited to meet the man that's making her so happy!
That's about it for now I guess. Just a note to readers out there that my other site, MAD About Movies, is running a contest for a free copy of My Super Ex-Girlfriend starring the very beautiful Uma Thurman. Make sure to check out the contest link on the left hand side of the page!
Happy Hump Day Everyone!
