Accidentally in Code

Tag: the code factory

  • Ottawa, a Love Letter

    Ottawa, a Love Letter

    Alexandria Bridge Ottawa Panorama HDR
    Credit: flickr / Intiaz Rahim

    I received something in the mail last week, and it made me really happy. It was a copy of What Would Google Do? (Amazon) and a hilarious card from the wonderful Ian at the Code Factory.

    It really made me think about how I changed as a person during the two years I spent in Ottawa. I arrived, 23, clueless about what I wanted to do and and what I was capable of. And I left, 25, sure about what I want to do next at least (a start) and so much more confident.

    Maggie and I were talking the other day and she said she thought the biggest thing I’d learned in grad school is to make the best of a crappy situation. I went to grad school because I didn’t think I knew enough to join the real world. Fairly rapidly, I realized that grad school was not the place to learn it.

    I still feel woefully unprepared for the real world, but, a lot more than I was previously. If I didn’t learn that stuff at grad school, where did I?

    From the amazing tech community in Ottawa. Mostly at The Code Factory.

    There is this great network of tech people in Ottawa. There are so many people going and doing interesting things. It’s awesome. Yes, there are a lot of government types. Yes, bureaucracy has eaten a lot of souls. Ignore them. They are harmless zombies. The real people are there, making stuff happen, creating cool things, interested and interesting. I did not, for the most part, find them in the university.

    So to Ian, thanks for creating a space where people can gather to talk tech and all the other stuff that goes on there. Thanks for generously donating that space to Awesome Ottawa and for helping us get going.

    Some other people who’ve inspired me, in no particular order.

    Chris Schmitt, of Team Camp – balancing his entrepreneurial spirit with working for The Man. Andrew Ross, of FOSSLC – I really admire Andrew’s enthusiasm, energy, and commitment to Open Source. Kelly Rusk – Kelly is amazing – she knows everyone, is everywhere… doing stuff. ALL THE TIME. She’s also one of the women behind Girl Geek Dinners. Treena Grevatt – Treena is another person who knows everyone! And I so admire her drive and energy in pursuit of the start up thing. Everyone on the board of Awesome Ottawa – and everyone who took the time to put together a proposal. I read and enjoy them all.

    Ottawa, I miss you. I miss sushi at my favorite place. I miss my kickboxing club. I miss the pool in my old apartment building. But most of all, I miss that community. Thanks for all the things you taught me. I’ll be thinking of you.

  • Making Ottawa More Awesome

    Check out my guest post on the Code Factory blog the Road Less Travelled.

    The Awesome Foundation is a group of 10 people who every month award a grant of $1000 to someone to enable something AWESOME. Examples include: a giant laser, a cotton candy cannon, and a “happiness hat” (my personal favourite).
    .
    Ultimately, the time isn’t later, or tomorrow, or next week. If we want to make change happen, if we want to “be the change we want to see” as the expression goes, the time is now. There’s always going to be a reason not to. There’s always going to be other things to do with $100 a month.
    .
    The question is, do we want to make Ottawa more awesome, or not. Do we want to make a difference, or not.
    .
    I do. I hope I can find 9 other people who do too.

    We’ll be having a meeting for prospective members of the “Board of Awesome” next Thursday, April 8th, 1830h, at the Code Factory. Hope you can make it!

  • On The Spot

    Quotes - 10/60
    Credit: flickr / B.Romain

    Tonight I went to Students and Startups at The Code Factory. It was really good, although I was nervous at first because we were doing these building challenges, which I worry I suck at. In the end it was OK – we didn’t win, but I don’t think anyone else had much more of a clue than I did.

    First off, each student had 30 seconds to introduce themselves. We were supposed to say, who we were, what languages we liked, and what our ideal job would be.

    Most people went over time and rambled a little. It’s tough to stand on the spot and do that. People kept saying they liked Java and sometimes C, to which I just tend think “y’huh, Java’s probably the only language you know” – I know, in my head I’m mean. Mostly I don’t say this stuff.

    A side note on, “Java is my favorite” – in general I get the impression from so many CS students that Java is the hammer and every problem is a nail, you know? It’s too prevalent. Learn a bunch of languages, have a favorite, sure, but don’t have your favorite be your favorite because it’s the default. I like Java, it’s up there in my favorites but I’ve tried a bunch of other ones and also, I mostly love it because Eclipse is a phenomenal IDE and there are so many fantastic Java libraries and toolkits available. Ultimately, Java is just one tool in my toolbox, and I love it because it’s like one of those screwdrivers, you know? With all the different heads.

    And then someone mentioned Haskell. And I thought, “nooooo!” because he would be the first person in Canada I’ve encountered that even knows what Haskell is, let alone can code in it. So then I couldn’t mention Haskell. And I was adamant that I was not going to go over time.

    In the end, I said something like,

    My name is Cate Huston, I’m a masters student at uOttawa. I work on, basically data-mining and visualizing Twitter. I’ve coded in 10 plus languages and I liked them all, except for Tcl. You can find me at catehuston.com or on Twitter, I’m @kittenthebad.

    Like almost everyone else, I forgot to say what my ideal job was. And afterwards I kicked myself, because I knew exactly what I wanted to stay, but then on the spot I totally forgot.

    So here it is:

    I want to make stuff, that’s beautiful, functional (useful), and usable.

    How about you?