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It was a sad day today as we had our last lunch at the Wildwood pub here in Calgary. Most of the beer tuns had been drained and only a few pilsners, dark ales and sour cherry porters remained for us to partake in. After speaking with Brewmaster Brian Smith, he mentioned that the lease was renewed by another (new) owner and they are now in the stages of dismantling things and moving out.

There is no word yet on where Wildwood will relocate to, but Brian said that is the goal. Both the restaurant (upstairs) and the brewpub (downstairs) will close its doors forever tomorrow (Saturday, December 19).

I hope that the crew down at Wildwood are able to find a new location soon and Brian can get brewing that Cranberry-Orange Witbier he was alluding to a few weeks back….

Thanks for the beers and the great food Wildwood and I hope to see you again soon.

John Mayer posted three videos on YouTube during the writing of his new album “Battle Studies”. I thought I’d post them here as they’re pretty funny, insightful and just plain good. Enjoy!

Part I:

Part II:

Part III:

Of course I love you. Now get me a beer! (GCBF 2007)

Nowadays when you ask someone to define “Social Networking” it usually brings out a string of words like “Twitter”, “Facebook”, “MySpace”, “YouTube” and the list goes on. To me social networking doesn’t happen when you’re sitting at a desk behind a computer or on the train with your cell-phone. This happens when you’re out – far away from the desk and anything to do with technology, social media and the like and enjoying time with friends or colleagues.

For me this is when we hoist a cold frothy brew and toast each other’s health and the good times we’re about to have. Spending time with those who matter and enjoying life is what Social Networking is to me. I’ve made more business connections and met more friends over a beer than fishing for contacts on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Think about that next time someone asks what Social Networking is. My answer is – let’s go grab a pint and talk about it!

Cheers.

Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter is launching a new venture this week called “Square”. The business model is quite simple in that it will:

enable peer-to-peer and merchant credit card transactions in the real world far beyond what’s capable today in most countries.

What you get is a small dongle (which I can only assume is the “Square”) and the scanning application to process the transaction.

The idea is if you are a Square merchant and someone wishes to purchase a product or service from you, all they need is a debit or credit card, a finger (to sign for the purchase on the touchscreen phone) and an email address to receive the receipt. From the article on Wired:

Square is targeted partially at small business owners who don’t want to sign up for full-scale credit card merchant accounts through the usual venues. One perk for them: a built-in loyalty program, so that customers don’t need to remember to bring along their stampable card in order to receive a free eleventh coffee, sandwich, bottle of wine, and so on.

Signing for a purchase using Square

The Square receipt

I’ve always been pretty good at interviews. Mostly because I’ve done my homework and know:

1. what the company does,
2. how the company makes money,
3. what my job would entail,
4. what my weaknesses are and
5. how to show confidence in my skills.

Aaron Swartz has a very different interview process which entails a very simple, casual atmosphere (coffee shop etc.) and small talk. No interview style questions in the least are asked during the discussion. His main goals are to find out:

1. Is the person smart?
2. Can they get stuff done?
3. Can you work with them?

I think this is an excellent way to conduct an interview because as the post states:

Programming isn’t typically a job done under pressure, so seeing how people perform when nervous is pretty useless. And the interview questions usually asked seem chosen just to be cruel. I think I’m a pretty good programmer, but I’ve never passed one of these interviews and I doubt I ever could.

I’ve never been involved in the interview process at my work but one day – when the time comes – this is totally how I’d like to conduct interviews to hire developers.

I have found a great comic and it is called “What the Duck?” This one made me laugh out loud.