New tracks for Rock Band available for download via XBox Live have been announced: Complete Control by The Clash, Truth Hits Everybody by The Police and Teenage Lobotomy by The Ramones. They’re available for 160 Microsoft Points each for 440 Microsoft Points for the set of three.
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Big Box Linux
My friend Paul has opened an online store aimed at making life easier for Canadian Linux users: Big Box Linux is a place where you can buy computer parts and peripherals that are known to work with Linux. The site has a feature that lets you select parts based on which distro they’re known to work with. Big Box Linux ships anywhere in Canada.
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Linuxcaffe
Photo from BlogTO.
Click the photo to see its original article.
BlogTO, one of the local city blogs here in Toronto (“T.O.” is local shorthand for “Toronto, Ontario”) has posted an article about Linuxcaffe, a local spot that combines coffee, community and open source code. In addition to coffee, pastries, sandwiches and all the other stuff you’d expect to find at a local indie cafe, Linuxcaffe also boasts free Wifi, laptops for rent, space for community gatherings from techie user groups and workshops to art openings and live music.
In the article, BlogTO interviews Linuxcaffe’s owner David J. Patrick. Here are a couple of questions from the interview:
What’s different about the linuxcaffe than other cafes in Toronto?
Everything! Because I’m a filmmaker, with broad theatre experience, but almost no restaurant background, linuxcaffe has no preconceptions. The joy of open source has affected every aspect of the operation, using nothing but free software and enjoying real contributions from the community. Our trade secret is that we have no trade secrets.Who is your typical customer?
We are lucky enough to be frequented by several distinct communities; the locals and dog-walkers, who pick up a dark organic coffee on the way; neighbourhood folk who seek out home made healthy food (we offer nutritious vegan and gluten-free alternatives); we attract all sorts of students and creative types with the free WiFi; and many of our open source interested customers will come from surprising distances to learn more and hang with like-minded enthusiasts.In what way does the cafe interact with various tech communities in the city?
I’m a board member of the Toronto Linux Users group and linuxcaffe is host to several open source programming user groups. We are a magnet for Linux newbies and those looking for tech support, and we share all of the code we develop in-house.
For more about Linuxcaffe, read the rest of the BlogTO article or visit their website. They’re located at 326 Harbord Street (at the corner of Grace and Harbord, directly south of Christie subway station). Their hours are:
- Monday – Friday: 7ish to 11ish
- Saturday: 10ish to 11ish
- Sunday: 10ish to 5 p.m.
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RubyFringe: July 18-20
There’ve been hints about it all over the ‘net for the past couple of weeks, but it’s finally out: the RubyFringe conference is taking place in Toronto on July 18th through 20th. Its organizers — local Ruby/Rails heroes Unspace — describe it as “an avant-garde conference for developers that are excited about emerging technologies outside of the Ruby on Rails monoculture”. If the “sold-out and over-sold labradoodle shows that are now staged with alarming frequency” are Kenny G, RubyFringe aims to be the Sex Pistols.
“We believe that the most important function of a geek conference is to encourage networking between smart people doing awesome stuff,” the site says. “We have plans to keep everyone engaged for the entire duration of the event, with several meals as well as after-hours socializing covered.”
The event boasts:
- Just one track
- A limit of 150 attendees
- No technical sponsors
If there’s a group capable of making this gathering — calling it a conference would be contrary to its spirit — it’s Unspace, who are the folks behind Toronto’s original regular gathering of Rails developers, Rails Pub Nite.
Also adding to the event is the speaker list, which already has an interesting assortment of people. Hampton Catlin wrote in his blog that when coming up with the idea for the conference, they had a list of 10 dream speakers and they’ve secured all ten, and from the list below, they’ve got even more:
- Ezra Zygmuntowicz (Merb)
- Zed Shaw (Mongrel/Utu)
- Evan Phoenix (Rubinius)
- Obie Fernandez (Hashrocket)
- Damien Katz (CouchDB)
- John Lam (IronRuby)
- Yehuda Katz (Merb/JQuery)
- Tobias Lütke (Jaded Pixel)
- Chris Wanstrath (ErrTheBlog)
- Jay Phillips (Adhearsion)
- Leila Boujnane (Idée)
- Matt Todd (Halcyon)
- Luke Francl (Slantwise)
- Blake Mizerany (Sinatra)
- Geoffrey Grosenbach (Topfunky)
- Hampton Catlin (Haml/Unspace)
The conference will take place at the Metropolitan Hotel in downtown Toronto, just a hop, skip and a jump away from some of Toronto’s more interesting neighbourhoods, including Chinatown, Queen Street West, Kensington Market and College West. The early-bird registration rate is $650, and you’ll be able to register starting February 18th.
If you’re looking for a change from the usual big conference fare, this might be the event for you, and Toronto — a great city with all sorts of things to do — is a great place to have it.
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Now THAT’S a Computer Book Cover!
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Floppy Fail
Here’s a geeky image, courtesy of The FAIL Blog.
Next Tuesday is the second Tuesday of the month, which means: Ruby/Rails Project Night, hosted by TSOT!
The Quick Version
- When: Tuesday, February 12th, 2008:
- Doors open around 5:30 p.m.
- Presentations begin sometime between 6 – 6:30 p.m.
- Arrive early to get fed!
- Where: TSOT developer office, 151 Bloor Street West (just east of Avenue Road), Suite 1130
- Admission: FREE (but please register!)
- Register with: Corina Newby or Joey deVilla
About Ruby/Rails Project Night
Ruby/Rails Project Night is a Toronto-area gathering held at the TSOT developer office on the second Tuesday of every month. It’s an event that lets people developing projects in either Ruby or Ruby on Rails show them off in front of their peers in 20-30 minute presentations. Presenters are encouraged to go into as much technical detail as they like (even showing the code, if they’re so inclined) and cover all sorts of aspects of their projects, from programming issues to visual design and usability to the business of making a living off their software.
Whether you code in Ruby and Rails for a living like we do, dabble in it in your spare time or are just curious as to what the fuss is all about, we encourage you to come to our office next Tuesday for Ruby/Rails Project Night! It’s a chance for you to see software that’s being developed right here in town and to mingle with other developers interested in Ruby and Rails. We provide food and drink, so you can focus on the presentations and not your grumbling stomach.
Who’s Presenting
Yours Truly will start the night with an opening monologue to get things going, after which I’ll be followed the the evening’s main presentations:
- How to Avoid Hanging Yourself in Rails, by Rowan Hick. This presentation is subtitled “or: Optimizing Your ActiveRecord Associations”.
- EasyBrandingTools.com: Mike Bowler and Steve Vetzal will talk about their project that helps new businesses be memorable.
- CRMS – Clinical Research Management System. Luke Galea will present this project, a Rails and Prolog/XSB application that manages drug and procedure trials at some of the biggest hospitals in the U.S..
What Happened at the Last Ruby/Rails Project Night?
Click the photo to see it on its Flickr page.
Check out this article, which has a quick write-up and photos.