Summer’s over, and as the sun goes down earlier every day and my balcony can no longer be dwelt upon for hours while I bask in the great sticky Ottawa heat, I’m returning to my usual fall habits, my other basking grounds, better known as the Internet.

As I write this, I’m also having a taste of Strawberry Jam, the Animal Collective’s newest release, and I must say, I like what I’m tasting. Or hearing. I mention this because I caught their show in Ottawa at the Bronson Center last week, and it was a great way to end this delightful season. It’s been a bountiful summer in terms of concerts, events, and also change. My whole world has been turned upside down, as I have finally graduated and relocated to Ottawa, and for the first time in my life, I am not a student!

Despite it being a welcome change, it’s definitely a big, scary step. The real world comes with more bills, loans to repay, insurance, mortgages, investing, etc. The day my roommate and I realized we were discussing interest rates like we used to discuss our weekend plans, it definitely hit home! That being said, I’m doing my best at keeping things simple, and to make the most out of every situation!

My blog might have been on hiatus, but my RSS reader has had quite a few new additions over the summer. Here are a few examples:

• Smashing Magazine: it’s full of interesting articles on design and web development. AND it’s pretty.
• Coding Horror: Jeff Atwood has got some great insights on software development!
• Zen Habits: Leo Babauta offers many very useful tips on how to simplify your life, improving the quality of it, and how to be more effective at reaching your goals.
• Freelance Switch: a collection of tips and articles related to working for yourself.

If you’ve got any other interesting finds, please share them with me!

In other news, Richard Shih has put up the Official CUSEC 2008 website, and it looks great! So if you’re interested in assisting, sponsoring or speaking at this FUN event, do check it out!

I noticed I haven’t posted in about two months, but life has definitely taken over. Please stick around, I have a few half-written posts that should make it out here soon…

ps. I’m Director of Events for CUSEC 2008! Yay!

Last year, I had the chance to see Kathy Sierra speak at CUSEC 2006. She talked about these great products from a company called 37signals.

When I returned home, I signed up for a Backpack account, and soon after started using BaseCamp for a few projects, such as my student council, and, of course, CUSEC 2007.

Recently, I started reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, and noticed that my Backpack account was perfect to use. (And a little less wasteful on paper than Merlin Mann’s Hipster PDA. Although, I guess I can’t bring it everywhere…)

So I ended up dusting my Backpack off a bit, since I’d fallen out of the habit of using it altogether in a while, and realized, once again, how great it really is. I’m not an extremely busy person, but I tend to be involved in many different things at once. The different pages, the to-do lists, the notes, and the WriteBoards just help me make sense of it all and keep track of what’s going on in my little, yet multi-faceted world.

Thank you, 37signals. Your simple, minimalist, yet fantastic software actually help make things happen for me, and many others, no doubt. I can only imagine that it feels great to be responsible for creating these products!

The long drive home was uneventful, yet pleasant, as our poor little sleep-deprived hearts were still warm with CUSEC and memories of the past few days.

(I managed to make far too many fake foam Blackberry jokes, but the sleep deprivation sort of covered for me, and made everyone think I’m actually funny.)

Unfortunately, as you can tell, I didn’t get the chance to blog about the conference during the conference. Trust me, the breach of my promise was not caused by negligence, I was just too darn busy!

Now don’t get me wrong : being busy was the greatest part. I helped make it happen! And with the coolest team I’ve ever had the chance to work with, no less!

So many great things to tell that happened during this conference! Here are a few highlights, in my opinion:

Some CUSEC Highlights:

• Driving in downtown Montreal and remaining in one piece
• Spending an evening chatting with Pete McBreen and Jim Cordy over dinner
• Meeting and hanging out with the whole CUSEC organizer’s team
• Dave Thomas’ keynote
• Venkat’s keynote
• Michelle Levesque’s Google presentation
• Austin Hill’s Chasing Billions with Zero Knowledge - Planning for the Unknown When Starting a Company
• Partying at Tokyo on Saturday night
• The infamous “surprising Kopanas” t-shirt

So congrats to all the organizers, I think I can speak for everyone in my delegation that we had a great time. I’m just proud I got to work with this team.

Unfortunately, I just realized today, as I uploaded my pictures, that I basically didn’t take any! Thankfully, so many people out there have. Have a look!
(I am on Dave Thomas’ flickr! wee!)

I will continue with more details on the presentations in a new post. It’s been a rather hectic week for lil ‘ol me.

Expect a part deux.

How Do Web Apps With Free Registrations and No Ads Make Money?

This seems to make very little sense to me. I’ve always thought, free registration => a pile of ads, but this seems to be fleeting these days.

Here are a few examples of “no-ad, free-registration” web apps:

• Traineo

Traineo is a greatly designed web app, and it has been around for a while now. (At least in terms of website longevity…) It seems to have grown: it now has two offices, one in the US and the other, in the UK. Yet, no ads and free registration. What’s up, guys?

• Remember the milk

Yes, I’m aware that the development team for this web application has only 3 members (and that includes one stuffed monkey), but it’s actually pretty cool, and I think they could make this into something profit-wise. (I especially like the google map integration. Cool stuff, guys.) However, I don’t think I’d pay for this service, but a few ads couldn’t hurt them. Just another type of example.

I know these two examples are on both extremes of the spectrum, and I also know there are probably many reasons for this approach (but I’m still curious):

1. Building your fanbase :

Your company and app are undoubtedly much more appealing to advertisers once they’ve already grown. But why not start with the small fish? What if the big fish never come along?

2. Waiting until big monster company buys out your tiny start-up :

Again, that’s great, but building your company so much without ever really making it profitable on its own and for yourself… doesn’t make much sense, either.

3. Just plain loving what you do :

I can totally understand that some people just make web apps because they are passionate and love creating. My only advice, don’t hire anyone!

So there’s my hopefully-not-stupid question. What do you think?

That’s right, I got to see the man who started it all last week, Mr. Steve Wozniak.

His speech took place at the Mount Allison University Convocation Hall on January 16th and the place was packed. I’m one of the lucky few who managed to get a decent seat! I was very excited to see the Woz, as most of you probably already know, I’m a very big fan of Apple.

Wozniak talked for over an hour about his life, his career, and how he worked his way to creating the Apple I and II computers, and all the while managed to keep it really interesting. A good speaker.

There is no doubt that this man is a genius. Who else would build chips for fun in High School? However, I’m quite glad he did.

It also made me think of how much success and “things working out” depend on chance. Would things be very different had Wozniak not grown up in California or not met extremely ambitious Jobs? The people in your life definitely help define you and your direction in life…

Another great thing about the Woz is his appreciation for simplicity. (Ok, maybe not so much anymore..) He truly learned to make great things out of very little, and I will always admire that sort of ingenuity.

I was also happy that he told us a few good prank stories, he’s quite amusing. Like how he manages to bring a “steak knife” with him on flights, in the form of metal business cards. He also got a bunch of “official-looking” stickers with messages such as “No flushing overseas” that he sticks in airplane bathrooms.. I can’t forget his “Segway Polo” tournaments!

The only downside was the audience and their rather daft questions. I’m sure most of them had no idea who Wozniak was… I hope he wasn’t too disappointed.

But! All in all, another great trip to Sackville!

In only 2 days, I get to pack my bags, load my car, fill it with a bunch of geeks (no offense, guys!), and drive all the way to Montreal for my favorite event of the year:

(ahem… drumroll please.)

CUSEC!

For those of you who don’t know CUSEC, it is the Canadian University Software Engineering Conference. This is year #3 for me, and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be great. One of my favorite authors, Dave Thomas, will be there!

Throughout this past summer and fall, I got a chance to observe the organizers in action, and they blew me away. The amount of hard work and dedication these people put into this project is astronomical. I’m just proud to have had the chance to work with this team. Kudos to the CUSEC 2007 team, you’re all awesome!
Visit the official website, and have a look for yourself.

I’ll be doing my best to blog as much as I can during my trip, so stay tuned for more!

Hi there, and welcome to my blog.

As with most projects I take on, I’m never really sure of their direction as they are works in progress. My website will be no exception. This is an official warning: Expect change. And lots of it.

You are probably asking yourself, or at least I am, “Why start this if you don’t know where you’re going?”. My only answer is that I may learn something. This is the most satisfying answer for the moment. Feel free to quote me on that later.

That said, I’m well aware of the mind-blowing number of blogs out there, detailing about anything and everything. For someone who doesn’t know where she is going with her blog, why read on? Personally, I prefer not to boast or sell you on something, especially something I am not sure of. All I can hope for is that you may learn something as well, and that my potentially “random musings” will perhaps amuse you. All I am asking is for a little bit of faith.

For now, I will thank you for reading *the* first blog post, and hope you may come by for more.

Cheers,

Julie