In August I decided to finally upgrade my Olympus E-PL2 micro four thirds camera (henceforth referred to as u4/3). While that camera had served me well for a few years, there was still something that really bothered me about its performance, and that was how it handled low light. If you have no idea what a u4/3 camera is, then read on. Basically a few years ago some of the major camera manufacturers decided to come together and agree on a specification for a camera system that would have interchangeable lenses. Why this is important is that with the u4/3 system you can buy the camera body from ...

BarCamp, Photo by John Biehler Tomorrow is the kick-off party for BarCamp Vancouver. While I do indeed have a ticket, I’m not entirely sure I’m going to be able to make it at this point. I’m right at the end of a huge client deliverable, and my attendance will depend on whether or not I can get it all done tomorrow. In addition, I’m also hoping to start moving things into storage this weekend if I can. That said, I’ve been to a few other BarCamp Vancouver events before, and am hoping to make an appearance at the party if I can. BarCamp is an unconference – attendees put conference ...

Gillian Shaw had a great article today in the Vancouver Sun about what it means to unplug nowadays. I think as the penetration of computers, especially mobile internet, continues to spread, it’s going to be more and more relevant. Without a doubt, I think people spend way too much time online these days. In fact, if anyone is guilty of that, it’s me. I was recently trying to think of memories from before the Twitter and Facebook eras, trying to remember what I used to spend most of my time doing. I remember having a lot of nice dinners with my ex, and also going for long walks from time to ...

For two years in a row now, I’ve missed out on going to SxSW. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s pretty much the largest technology / music conference in North America, and it happens once a year down in Austin, Texas. Last year, while watching everyone talk about it online, I decided that I would go this year and check it out. That being said, I still haven’t done anything about it, nor am I entirely sure I could afford to go to it (although I *do* have a pre-paid flight ticket in the US, so my flight is pretty much covered). Pretty much all my friends from Vancouver end ...

I was briefly mentioned in Buzz Bishop’s technology section today in the 24 newspaper. You can check it out here. ...

I recently had the priviledge of attending WordCamp San Francisco, a conference dedicated to WordPress enthusiasts in the Bay Area. It was a great time, and I met a lot of great people. Next month, Rebecca Bollwitt and I are organizing the WordCamp Vancouver event to coincide with BarCamp on Sept 27th. For those of you who are unfamiliar with BarCamp, it’s a day long conference where the participants, first thing in the morning, decide the format and the topics for the rest of the day. Everyone who attends has the potential to be a speaker, and it’s a lot of fun. This year, the event is over ...

I’ve been toying with this rather amazing idea for the last few years. I’m going to toss this out there, because I’m rather fond of it. The Vancouver technology scene is rather impressive. Almost every week there’s a really awesome event taking place that brings together some great minds. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from my peers in the last few years. Given that we all take time out to get together and discuss technology, I always thought it would be fun to all go somewhere all together. Sort of like a less formal SxSW, but with more of an unconference component. So here’s ...

I read an article this morning that made mention of QR codes, and to be honest, I had never heard of them before. After doing some research, it appears that QR codes are essentially two-dimensional bar-codes that are fairly popular in Japan. A user with a camera phone can simply point their phone at a QR code and, assuming it is QR code aware, will decode the symbol. QR codes can be used to encode URLs, phone numbers, text information, and SMS messages. So you can have an advertisement and simply put your URL as a QR code. A user passing by could simply hold their camera in front of the code, ...

DemoCamp Vancouver is officially starting right now. Rebecca Bollwitt, aka miss604, will be doing live coverage of the event. You can check it out by clicking here. ...

I’ve decided to head back home for the weekend. I haven’t been back to Chilliwack since Christmas time, so I figure I’m long overdue. A whole whack of conferences start soon, and I’m going to by fairly swamped up until mid April. So, I’m going to grab a book and curl up on the couch back home this weekend to relax a bit. Also, for those of you that have been patiently waiting for more information about what was previously called “Startup Weekend Vancouver” or “Beer Camp” — the wait is nearly over. Stand by for the unveiling of the website along with more information. ...

if (is_single()) { ? digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/This_is_why_the_world_hates_Microsoft'; } ? So tonight (after a bit of wine) I decided to blow my hotmail account away completely and never look back. Unfortunately, as soon as I tried the circus music started playing and the adventure truly began. Step 1, tell hotmail to go fuck itself. This involves telling hotmail to close down my account. While fucking itself. Oh no! Danger Wil Robinson! Cannot close down your account. Apparently there’s some Microsoft mail thing associated with my account, and I have to close that down first. Not ...

Image from PBase.comThat, my friends, is Canon’s biggest lens, the Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L. For obvious reasons, they only make a handful of these every year. The cost? Approximately $10,000 $100,000 if I remember correctly. ...

This guy just did a huge Apple comparison with the new Air notebook computer, both with and without the solid state add-on drive. The verdict? The Air in general is slower than both the Macbook Pro and the Macbook, and the battery life is only average. Photo by John BiehlerThe writer was optimistic that the solid state drive would be a good investment. Unfortunately though, it provided rather lackluster performance, and hardly increased battery life at all. I’ve had my own Macbook Pro for a long time, and most of my friends have Macbook’s. I’m purposefully holding off the Air because it ...

I love Digg. I surf it at least a couple times a day, usually when I’m bored, sitting a work waiting for something to compile. I would say that without a doubt the majority of my “cool” news actually comes from Digg. Lately I’ve begun submitting the odd story on my own to Digg. No matter how many times I try to submit something though, I always seem to get stuck on the same old problem — what category does the story fit in? The main problem I think is that Digg categories are more mainstream news oriented and less about the things I actually am interested in (even though I think most ...

So, here’s the deal. I really want to attend some of South by Southwest this year. The only problem is that all the hotels in Austin, Texas are pretty much sold out. I worked the phones for a bit tonight trying to find a place to crash, but haven’t had any luck. So, a friend of mine told me to put something on my blog to see if any fish would bite. So, is there anyone that has a floor or a couch they could possibly donate for a few days during South by Southwest this year in Austin, Texas. I’d happily trade some photography skills or web skills in return. Drop me a line if you can hook it ...

Wow, what can I say. That is a pretty impressive sum of money. I read this before going to bed last night on Digg, but I thought it was fake. Turns out that Microsoft has just extended a 44 billion dollar offer for Yahoo! To be honest, Google has really handed Yahoo! their hand in search. I personally don’t know anyone that uses Yahoo to do search, although I’ve been told it’s still fairly popular in Asia. I have friends over at Yahoo!, and I once showed them my web logs from my blog indicating that something like 98% of all searches originate from Google. They refused to believe they were ...

I woke up to my phone ringing basically non-stop thanks to Hesty and Sean at work. There’s a big career fair out at UBC today, and I guess they are all going and wanted me to go too. I woke up with a nasty sore throat though, so I’m going to leave the recruiting to those guys. I’m going to pass around a bit of link-juice this morning. First, we have Rebecca and Keira, who are packing up and heading to the island for some licking and snowboarding. That means John is currently wifeless, so I think him and I are going to figure out something fun to do this weekend. Judging by the weather, ...

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, ...

This is a rather interesting move made by Facebook. Apparently on Friday they announced a new javascript library that would let you put Facebook applications on your own web page. Facebook announced Friday a new JavaScript client library that will allow Facebook apps to be displayed on any website. The client library allows users to make Facebook API calls from any web site and create Ajax Facebook applications on that website. Wei Zhu from Facebook explains the benefits: Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can ...

I got an email this morning asking if I’d like to speak at a university technology conference in Venezuela in May. All expenses would be paid for. Caracas, Venezuela, photo by josemazcona Fun party in Caracas, photo my rmendezHell yah baby. Hell yah. I just have to come up with something to talk about. Maybe I’ll talk about the cute group of women pictured above. ...