FoodFeed and other Twitter dependents

As Twitter is used by more and more people, the ecosystem around it continues to grow. There are lots of client applications of course, and increasingly, there are lots of services which leverage and in fact depend on Twitter. I came across another one today, called FoodFeed:

foodfeed is a service that helps you share your eating habits with everyone, from anywhere. Just be sure Mom doesn’t get your feed.

Here’s how it works:

Follow the @having account on Twitter.
You get a website generated for your username – mine is http://mastermaq.foodfeed.us
Post updates by prefixing what you’re eating with @having, or by sending the service a direct message (on Twitter, that would be “d having” followed by whatever you’re eating).

I kind of like the concept, so I’ll use it for a little while. It creates a network within the larger Twitter network. Wondering who likes Coke? You can search for people who do.

FoodFeed is also interesting because it cannot survive without Twitter. Like most of these services, it contains Google ads, but I can’t imagine the creator makes much from that. What would happen to FoodFeed if Twitter started charging for API access? What if Twitter goes down? FoodFeed is only useful as long as Twitter continues to exist and enable access.

Some services, like my favorite Remember the Milk, use Twitter as just another method of interaction. RTM doesn’t depend on Twitter at all. FoodFeed on the other hand does depend on Twitter, and I think that makes it both easier to use and less useful at the same time.

Apple Service Experience was AWESOME

apple logo As you may know, my beloved iPod touch died recently. On Sunday, April 6th, I went to plug it in to charge it, and it fried. Wouldn’t turn on or reset or anything. I poked around the support website for a bit, but I was fairly certainly I’d have to get it serviced.

I found myself wishing this had happened after Canada Day – a new Apple Store is opening up in West Edmonton Mall on July 1st, 2008. I had no choice but to fill out the service request online. It told me to expect a package with instructions in two business days, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

Then, on Tuesday the 8th, I received the package. Count me as surprised! The instructions were really easy to follow, so I packaged up my iPod and dropped it off at UPS later that day. I figured waiting for the replacement would take a while, so I sort of forgot about it. And of course, I traveled to San Antonio this weekend.

Less than a week later, on the afternoon of Monday the 14th, my replacement iPod touch was delivered! How’s that for turnaround time?! Of course, I didn’t get back to town until last night, so I didn’t get to restore my iPod until today.

Restoring, by the way, was dead simple. I plugged it in, registered it with my Apple account, and then chose the option to restore my previous iPod. After a few minutes I found myself with everything exactly the way it was before. And I do mean everything (well except the passcode lock, which makes sense). Even the last page I had opened in Safari reloaded!

I’ve heard some good things and some bad things about Apple’s service, but I had never needed to use it until this happened. I’m so happy to report that it was a superb experience.

Thanks Apple!

DemoCampEdmonton2

The second DemoCamp in Edmonton now has a date! It will be held at the Billiard Club on Tuesday, May 20th, at 6:30pm. So far there are going to be demos from Coolite and nForm. If you’d like to demo or attend, sign up at the wiki!

I don’t think I’ve ever been to the Billiard Club; here’s a brief intro from their website:

The Billiard Club is located on the second floor of Old Strathcona’s historic
Post Office building. The Billiard Club is a landmark in an area rich in heritage, culture and diversity. After more than ten years of business in this location, The Billiard Club has established itself as an institution on Whyte Ave.

Sounds interesting! Here’s the Google Local map/entry for it.

You can read my recap of DemoCampEdmonton1 here. Hope to see you at #2!

Questionmark Users Conference Day 3

The conference is now over! Today’s half-day included three encore sessions from the previous two days, and the closing session, “The Road Ahead”. Some news on the next version of Perception was shared, and lots of feedback was gathered using these nifty little electronic voting devices.

It was a lot of fun for me to meet my colleagues face-to-face, many of whom I have only spoken to via email. More importantly though, I got to meet and talk with customers – the people who actually use the software I help to create. Getting their feedback was really great!

If I met you at the conference and you’ve stumbled across this post, please feel free to get in touch! I’d love to catch up.

I’ve got one meeting left today and then I have some time to explore San Antonio before I head to the airport tonight. I probably won’t venture too far, but the weather looks great for wandering. Actually, I’m sitting outside writing this!

Questionmark Users Conference Day 2

questionmark I think today went more smoothly for me than yesterday, probably because I felt a little more comfortable having met a bunch of people. I still learned quite a bit too, so I am feeling pretty good about the trip as a whole. I think it was a worthwhile experience for me.

Sessions I attended today included an overview of our reporting options, a session exploring the ways to integrate Perception with other projects, and a couple of Q & A sessions. Again I was struck by the high level of knowledge that some customers have.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference, but it’s really only a half day. The big news will be an announcement about the next version of our software, so that’s exciting!

After the conference ended today I had the pleasure of meeting up with Jennifer Navarrete and her family. Jennifer is a fellow podcaster, and we’ve been Twitter buddies for quite a while (she’s epodcaster). When she saw my status updates about being in San Antonio, she asked to meet up, and I’m glad she did! It’s always great to meet people in real life 🙂

Tonight’s conference event was pretty cool – they got us all into buses and took us to a place called Sunset Station. They handed out drinks as we walked in! There were nacho and fajita bars inside, and they eventually expanded into a dance room for line dancing and the like. Music wasn’t too loud either, so it was great to walk around and chat with people.

I don’t leave San Antonio until tomorrow evening, so I plan to do a bit of exploring/shopping in the afternoon. Should be fun!

Contributing to Techvibes

I recently accepted an offer to contribute Edmonton-related content to the Techvibes blog. They’re trying to create a destination site with hyperlocal tech content from all of Canada’s major cities. The blog already has some great, unique stuff, such as the Start-up Index series, and I’m excited to be able to help it grow.

I did my first post Saturday, on the official opening of TEC Edmonton’s new TEC Centre. I’m hoping to post a mix of news, analysis, event notifications and reviews, and startup profiles.

If you’ve got an idea or story or event or tip or anything else related to technology in Edmonton, I’d love to hear about it! You can always leave a comment here, you can email me, or you can find me online (for instance, Twitter is a great way to get my attention!).

Joining along with me is Cam Linke, who was the driving force behind our recent DemoCamp event in Edmonton. Rob at Techvibes has written a great introduction post for us, which you can read here.

Questionmark Users Conference Day 1

Today was the first official day of the conference, and it was really interesting. The hotel we’re at (Westin Riverwalk) is a great venue because all of the meeting rooms are on the same level. We started out with a “birds of a feather” breakfast, followed by the conference kickoff and general session. Our CEO, Eric Shepherd, shared a number of company highlights. Notably, Questionmark turns 20 this year!

The rest of the day were breakout sessions. I attended a “Training with the Techs” session to learn more about assessment authoring with our Windows tool, a Product Central session to hear from customers about how we can improve our product interfaces, and another training session on reporting. I learned quite a bit at each one, not only from the Questionmark staff who were presenting, but from customers too. Some customers have an incredible amount of product knowledge, they truly are experts.

This evening was the “Dine Around” event. We broke into groups and ventured out on a photo scavenger hunt! Each group also had a reservation at a particular restaurant along the river walk. It was lots of fun! I can’t wait to see the slideshow tomorrow morning.

I’ve started uploading some photos to this photoset, but it’s slow-going. The upload speeds for the Internet here aren’t very good.

En Route to San Antonio

I’m traveling to San Antonio today for the 2008 Questionmark Users Conference, taking place through Wednesday at the Westin Riverwalk. I didn’t find out I would be attending until late this week, so the flight options were pretty limited. I was scheduled to leave Edmonton this morning at 6 AM.

I left my house a little later than I wanted to, meaning I didn’t get to the airport until just before 5 AM. That would normally have been okay (though cutting it close), except that the self-service check-in machines were all down. So I got in the incredibly long line and started to wait. I gave up on that after about ten minutes, jumped into the first class/business line, and pleaded my case.

The service agent was really helpful, and she helped rebook me on a later flight. Frankly I was fairly surprised at how busy the airport was so early on a Sunday morning. Anyway, I’m in Denver now, on a long layover. I should arrive into San Antonio tonight at around 6:30 CDT.

The great thing about the Denver International Airport is that they have free, ad-supported wireless Internet – something I wish we had in Edmonton. I’ve been using it for a while now, and it seems pretty quick. Uploads are really fast actually, faster than my connection at home, at least to Flickr! I uploaded a bunch of pictures from Megan’s birthday celebration last night. Happy Birthday Megan 🙂

More later!

Windows is not doomed

windows For the last few days, articles about a recent Gartner report have been unavoidable in the tech blogosphere. The report suggests that Microsoft’s Windows operating system is going to collapse under its own weight, and that it needs major changes in order to stay relevant. You know, the usual anti-Microsoft FUD.

Finally, today, I came across Mary Jo Foley’s post on the topic over at her All about Microsoft blog:

It’s not news that Windows is huge and unwieldy. Many (probably most) of Microsoft’s own Windows developers would agree with that premise. But to suggest that Microsoft is burying its head in the sand and hoping its problems just go away is ridiculous. And to pretend that online advertising revenues will be Redmond’s bail-out money for its Windows/Office franchises any time soon is a joke.

Finally someone who tells it like it is. Like it or not, if you think Windows is going to disappear anytime soon, you’re seriously delusional. She finishes with:

Microsoft’s continued unwillingness to talk Windows 7 and Windows futures shouldn’t be confused with a lack of plans for how to keep Windows and its successor(s) alive. I think there’s still a lot more fight left in Microsoft than folks seem to realize. And Windows is going to be a key part of Microsoft’s future arsenal, not just a remnant of its monopolistic past.

Maybe we’ll look back on Vista in a negative light, but that doesn’t mean Windows in general is doomed.

Read: All about Microsoft

2008 Mayor's Celebration of the Arts

mayor's evening for the arts On Monday night I attended the 21st annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts at the Winspear Centre downtown. The annual event features performances by members of Edmonton’s arts community, and awards to celebrate the individuals who helped to make Edmonton the Cultural Capital of Canada. I came across it a couple months ago when I noticed that Teatro La Quindicina would be performing. Sharon and I are both fans, so we decided to buy tickets.

We paid $25 to sit in the front row of the Upper Circle level. The gallery (top level) was filled with students who were sponsored by Epcor and other businesses. The main level seemed to be full of representatives from sponsor organizations, the award nominees, and their friends and family. The reason I mention all this is that we got the distinct feeling we were among the few who actually paid out-of-pocket for tickets. Apparently attendance was up this year though.

The inside page of the event programme contained this message from Mayor Stephen Mandel. I quite like it (wonder if he wrote it, guessing not) so I’ve included it here in its entirety:

Take a bow, if you make your living in the arts – you give us the kind of City we want to live in. You make us laugh and think and smile and marvel and tap-our-toes, and you contribute to our great quality-of-life.

Take a bow, if you’ve supported the arts. Businesses, individuals, groups and volunteers – you’re vital in making sure our Creative Community flourishes so that great quality-of-life continues.

And take a bow if you’ve bought a ticket to be part of an audience. It gives you license to be a critic and a fan – and it ensures that even when we pass the title to another city, Edmonton will continue to be “Canada’s Cultural Capital”.

On-stage, on-screen, in theatres and cafes, out on our streets and in our concert halls, it’s a privilege to live in a City that’s bursting with so much creativity. And a privilege too, to be part of a City that’s filled with those who invest in and support it.

Congratulations to everyone who’s part of Edmonton’s professional arts community – and everyone who supports it.

The event was emceed by Peter Brown from CBC Edmonton, and Carrie Doll from CTV Edmonton. They did a great job, and Peter was especially funny! I found the most boring part of the show to be the awards. You can view the list of winners here (PDF).

The performances were what I really went to see. Kita No Taiko, Renee Brad of the Edmonton Opera, Red Power Squad, Brian Webb Dance Company, Samantha Schultz, Teatro La Quindicina, and Le Fuzz all performed. My favorites were definitely Red Power Squad, Samantha Schultz, and Teatro. The final performance by Le Fuzz was pretty cool too, as many of the attendees got up on stage and started dancing, including the mayor himself.

Not sure if I’d attend every year, but the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts is definitely a great way to sample the variety offered by Edmonton’s art scene.