For anyone who’s wondering: my old email is still functional!
STILL. FUNCTIONAL! Yeah, surprisingly, my email space ran out, blocking and sending off emails in every which direction. I have resolved the issue after some flushing out and iPage’s lovely assistance.
Please feel free to continue with your emailing to this account. I’ll answer. I promise.
Sup, gang? I have alotta ‘splainin’ to do. Especially with …the contest.
… no, not the Seinfeld one.
But anyway. Toronto Podcamp 2012. Yeah, I heard about it. Yeah, I knew about it. But really, it’s hard to plan to attend an event that gets mentioned like… once or so in the spawn of its’ creation to the actual time of. The organizers look as if they lost some sort of interest and faith in the event. I heard the content was great, with the likes of Third Ocean’s Karim Kanji, and the Toronto elite like doing talks. And the last time I checked, even Rogers was backing this event. How could it slip so easily? Poor advertising. Simple. Regrettably, I had previous engagements. By the time the second one came about, I was pretty knocked out.
Now, interrupt this thought to tell you this one. I was at a hackathon. Yes, my second. Was I prepared? 
probably…
Laptop – check.
Power Bar – check.
Independent Development Environment(my’s Eclipse) – check.
Stein – check.
it was the first HTML5 Toronto User Group Hackathon! Which resulted in a calling out out 21 folks from the industry to get at it. Of course, we had to do a special test which got the scenesters out of play with a CSS test. Usually, it’s a file, similar to http://www.csszengarden.com/, but it’s more of a nomad’s land. Matthew, the organizer of the HTML5 Toronto Group took on the organization of the event with Blackberry as the co-organizers. Other members of the interactive “underground” scene also stepped in to assist. Some GTUG, some Bnotions cats.
A few days before the event, there was a bit of a change in the structure, which resulted in a more focused product than what was expected: the identification of the HTML Toronto User Group. That came hella out of nowhere. Still, it meant that we would break into two teams: one covering the content while the other taking on the task of creating the site. Obviously, I took in a content role covering the importances of Semantic content through the use of Outline Algorthyms. A topic that is engulfed with the very basis of HTML5′s tag structure and how it helps with SEO, accessibility, and other moments of note. Yes, not the usual thing to do at a hackathon, but hey – felt different. And some of the conversations were so deep about the game, that I felt as if I was lacking at the end of it. That’s the thing – learning doesn’t stop. Especially in an ever changing industry such as ours.
So we hammered it out, in a hotel, to a point of having a great amount of material on HTML5 and a site that’s probably 80% done, but from what I gathered, looked great. Hopefully, we’ll see another. Perhaps with the Blackberry Playbooks that were received for uploading an app. Still, it was a good time at the Marriott. All 15 or so hours of me being at it.
Question being: will I return to see the HTML5 Group’s progression?
In the last week, I’ve been invited to several groups about interactive construction and the Toronto area. The bombardment. Dang. I’m flattered immensely. To go out of your way to hold an event, that is more hands-on, is way more meaningful than an event that ends up serving the same content style as a crapload of others that I’ll probably have no real interest in. As for this group, I had a great time and learned alot, or attempted to keep up with. It was quite a well-received dowsing. And a contribution to the group on the first time in: that’s quite rewarding to know that I passed on knowledge.
Definitely worth checking out this group if you’re into HTML5.
The last few weeks have been quite a doosy for me as I was covering a few project management duties for the head-fellow as he was on vacation. Usually, as a consultant, I’d need better pointers than what I am as a constructor. I have friends who can vouch for my skill yet they’d tell you that socially I’d need an entire training centre. Especially with what was said, by me, to a client who isn’t sharing our uncontrollable parameters. Or patience.
A few weeks ago, I opened an email regarding a update that was needed. Then, I noticed that there was a duplicate email, saying the same EXACT SAME THING AS THE FIRST.
Alright. Hoping to resolve my own patience, I started the search for any mail-daemon text. Usually, it’s that “email not found and bouncing back” stuff. Well… I didn’t see any. NONE. The client would have got this and, out of the moment, would have sent the email back to the correct address. No, he was able to get my email address right the first time. The second time, too. Odd.
Now, I checked out a similar email. This being the third. Pretty much the same. The timing was slightly younger than the first few. I also noticed that these were happening at times where I would be either shut down, or returning from a night of debauchery.Of course, two was not much of a problem, but consider this: what if it wasn’t just 3 emails. More fuel to the fire: what if it was not just one client? Sifting through several letters, all meaning the same thing. For the client – sure. Just being thorough. For me, though: a waste of time. There’s forgiveness and then there’s that WTF moment. Lines do need to be drawn in some sort of Crayola since there is no tidy way to break them. If the client
Don't Drink And Code
threw up a “To Review” or “To Follow Up”, I would have turned the other cheek. Waiting a couple hours during business hours and with some sort of *due date would have sufficed.
* I don’t understand ASAP, or Yesterday, from clients at all. It’s a different language completely. You can’t EVEN tell me “DUE YESTERDAY MORNING” and hope that I didn’t blank out, thinking that you were speaking Markham Cantonese. I’d break out the popcorn and expect subtitles.
So, I decided to be vocal and as diplomatic as I, and whatever my old College Writing course, could possibly allow me. Somehow, I thought that I was well in the paint with my response. I didn’t say anything abrasive. I just pointed out that it would be difficult to meet a standard so high. Especially when my thoughts were not with my body.
Of course, there was a discussion about what I wrote. Which was pretty much a pat on the back. Even to this very day, as glorious or curt as it was. And of course, as I heard in a classic Smart Guy episode will paraphrase it: I was not sorry about what I wrote, but I would gracefully apologize about the way I said it. There has to be limits to what’s acceptable as good communication from clients and from the providers. Multiple emails, that only repeat to-dos in hours, isn’t solidifying the ever-warring relationship any further. Pro-Tip.
Hey gang:
First off, I DO have a correction to make about my last post on the Microsoft Giveaway: I’ll be making a new hashtag for it. Just can’t seem to think of a GOOD one yet.
I interrupt that thought to tell you this one: Perhaps everything ISN’T done yet. Then again, when I’m busy talking to you right now, someone’s already making a Mass Effect follow-up or a calendar app that will make folks do all sorts of things. But really: it can’t all be done by now, the apps.
Two friends of mine were brainstorming about apps on the phone, and of course we had to throw ether on Minecraft’s wild success. But it’s hard to ignore the numbers when someone has a great idea about apps to build. If they ever threw in the F word into what they’re trying to assimilate.If you’re a developer of any kind, you know where THAT ONE is going.
But yeah, several 100k apps on Apple’s side, with the rest looking to catch up to its’ foes. But really: does THAT actually stop you from making a good app that solves problems better than the other one. This always exists. Plenty of time to see what did work from what didn’t. Which horses need to be sent to the morgue on arrival. There’s always need for improvement.
Just remember to watch out for that tree of NDA when you’re pitch it. And no, it’s not a barber shop idea. As for myself, I’ll just watch from the sidelines. 
Five…
Five…
Five t-shirts! It’s a Giveaway!
Thanks to the boys at Microsoft, and probably one extremely talented member of the Canuckian Empire, I have been blessed with 5 of those HTML5 T-Shirts that Wes Bos was talking about. Now, I have a few of those shirts and was looking to give these shirts to some lucky winners with the awesomeness that is HTML5′s logo…. in cotton Canadian form! Luckily, these didn’t come out in 2014. Standards can wait, but me? nah. Can’t wait that long.
Catch? Or How To Enter:
Of course there’s a catch! THIS IS KEVIN KELLY WE’RE TALKING ABOUT! Well… first of all: you’re gonna have to follow @kevinkcodes. Then, you’re gonna have to tweet: “We’re gettin’ #HTML5canuckshirts with @kevinkcode’s giveaway! http://ow.ly/94HDA”. I’ll probably be doing this Internationally to the states and here only.
Winners will be chosen with the super-dee-duper http://twittertwitterchickendinner.com/ tool by February 24th.
Badassity doesn’t last all that long, I figure. Better get cracking!