that canadian girl

I wasn’t so hot on this panel, found there was a lot of navel-gazing and not enough direction. Also, I don’t know what world these guys live in but do they not also have to contend with marketing, business dev, crazy bosses with wild ideas? There was no discussion about how to integrate the real-life demands into collaborative processes. Nice people, but rubbish panel.

Creative Collaboration: Designers and Developers working together
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Ottawa New Year 2008, originally uploaded by Seamus @ Flickr.

Last night, we braved the crowds at the Museum of Civilizations in Hull so that we could see the beautiful fireworks.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to bring my camera along and my iPhone would have been pretty much useless in such a condition, so here is one shot taken by a Flickr user.

Wishing everyone a wonderful new year, filled with new experiences, exciting opportunities and lots of love.

Happy new year to you all!

Vero
xoxo

Reason #3 spending Xmas back at home is worthwhile: Talking Julie into eating an uncooked Pogo (corn dog) covered in Nutella for the measly sum of $12 in small change.

Julie likes pogos with Nutella, originally uploaded by thatcanadiangirl.

Since I started blogging, iStockphoto has been my source of images to illustrate and accompany blog entries. The images were once cheap enough that a blogger who made no revenue like myself could afford to pepper the occasional post with an image to joosh it up a bit.

Now, however, I think I’m going to have to go a different route since prices are getting jacked up for the second or third year in a row. I know if I were to complain, the answer I get would be filled with words like “artist recognition” and “inflation” but it’s still getting out of my realm of comfort. I’ll be sad to go, especially seeing as it’s run by a bunch of (apparently) lovely Canucks, but it might be time to break up now.

So what are the alternatives? Flickr images which are licensed under Creative Commons, sites like stock.xchng and photos I’ve taken myself. Any other suggestions?

Jack & Rose checking out Super Mario Galaxy, originally uploaded by thatcanadiangirl.

In their professional opinion, the game rates 11 out of 10. With the exception of intro scenes, which could do with some basic anti-aliasing.

Best bit? That little blue hand that moves around the screen, definitely!

I promised everyone photos as soon as the kittens get home. I expected to have to stick the camera in the cat box, where they’d be hiding all nervous about their new home.

Rubbish! They were chilled during the whole journey home, after about 5 minutes of meowing, then once home, they explored the entire house within a few seconds. They ate, had a wee and promptly fell asleep on their little activity centre. Now they’re pouncing up and down the stairs, playing together, taking the occasional break to purr against my leg like a little engine - so it’s time to share a few of the photos we’ve taken so far.

Couldn’t ask for sweeter kittens, they’re absolutely adorable. I’m sure I’ll find time to upload a video tomorrow, but for now, time to play!

I’m at the Future of Web Apps in London today. So far, I’ve attended the intro keynote with Om Malik and Michael Arrington, followed by Heather Champ & Derek Powazek on “We’ve got this community: Now what?”. I’m now in Tony Conrad’s “Future of Search”.

The main running thread of all talks so far is quite clear: Nobody knew what would happen next after launching their app. And in fact, few ended up where they expected to go. Someone this morning said that the real work on a web app really begins after you launch (see, I was listening, but didn’t take note so not sure who said this…) You need to listen intently, watch your users and see what they make of it. Odds are you’ll notice that they’ve hacked your app and use it in ways you would never have imagined. That’s your cue to harness their creativity and evolve accordingly.

Sometimes, Web 2.0 big names can get a bit cocky about success, but I think this is one point everyone agrees on: You just don’t know what’s going to happen next when you launch a startup.

IMG_4787.JPG, originally uploaded by thatcanadiangirl.

Hold on tight, kitty, hold on tight!

The photowalking Bojangles, originally uploaded by thatcanadiangirl.