Connolly Design – Page 14 – A blog by Mark Connolly

October 3, 2011October 31, 2020

The Jazz Room finds its groove

I’m a bit of a jazz fan, and I was excited at the news last winter that Waterloo Region would soon be home to a jazz club. Even better, the Grand River Jazz Society (GRJS) planned on presenting weekly live jazz events.

By September the society had opened The Jazz Room at the Huether Hotel in Waterloo, and had generated some real buzz around a musical art form that has been around for a century. They have performances planned for every Friday and Saturday for the next several months.

The venue has been open for a few weeks now, and I finally made it out this past Saturday night. I’ll note here that I’m no music critic, and I won’t try to review the music in any way, other than to say that it was terrific — having been to many jazz performances over the years, I do believe that jazz really is an art form that is at its best when experienced live.

My friend Michel and I arrived for our evening of jazz at around 6:30pm, getting supper and enjoying a set of solo piano by Glenn Buhr. Having arrived early we had great seats in front of the small stage, which made it easy to get immersed in listening to the music.

The headliner for the night was Kollage, represented in a quartet form — it’s usually a sextet — by its leader Archie Alleyne on drums along with pianist Stacie McGregor, bassist Artie Roth, and trumpeter Alexander Brown. Again, the music was terrific, and listening to Archie’s stories drawn from his decades-long career was a real delight. The three sets of great music from Kollage were enthusiastically received by the audience.

On a final note, the venue itself is warm and inviting, and has a great small club feel. Of course, that’s what The Jazz Room is, but getting the vibe right is still a tricky balance. GRJS has done a great job in preparing an intimate space for live jazz. There isn’t a bad seat in the house, and the experience is enjoyable all around.

Waterloo life has gotten better with the arrival of The Jazz Room, and I’m looking forward to returning there soon.

September 26, 2011October 31, 2020

Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute

Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute had a very public celebration of the opening of its new Stephen Hawking Centre on September 16, 17, and 18. I’m only getting around to marking that celebration now, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t floored by the experience of attending many of the events over those three days.

My family and I, in various combinations, enjoyed a tour of the new facility, the Physica Phantastica exhibit, three different pubic lectures (George Dyson, Hod Lipson, and Julie Payette), and a Science in the Pub session on creativity. Wow.

The highlight for me, though, was to be in the audience for the introduction of Xiao-Gang Wen as the first holder of PI’s Isaac Newton Chair. That was a moment that was striking for any number of reasons, not least being the presence of the Perimeter Institute’s founding benefactor Mike Lazeridis, who clearly has a real interest in its mission and success.

The variety of events was amazing, and the crowds that turned out to mark the occasion and celebrate science are a great indication of the pride and support in the community for PI. In turn, the visible and ongoing commitment by PI to its Public Outreach program makes for an thoroughly engaging community experience.

What an extraordinary institution to have in this community.

September 12, 2011November 1, 2020

Karos Health goes to a career fair

I’ve written several times here about working at Karos Health, most recently about our co-op recruiting event at the University of Waterloo. Only a week after that event, Karos Health will be present at the Partnerships for Employment Career Fair on Wednesday, September 28, from 10:00am until 3:30pm at RIM Park in Waterloo.

Partnerships for Employment provides an opportunity for students and alumni from the University of Guelph, University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Conestoga College to meet with employers and to learn more about the employment opportunities available. Karos Health happens to have several software-related positions open, and we’re looking forward to meeting with potential candidates at the fair.

If you’re planning on being at the event, and are interested in working at Karos Health, please drop by and see us at booth 77 and say hello. We’d love to meet you. For that matter, please feel free to talk to me any time about career opportunities at Karos Health.

This post originally appeared on the Karos Health blog in a slightly different form.

September 8, 2011November 1, 2020

Karos Health co-op recruiting event at UW

Some of you may know that I work at a Waterloo-based software company called Karos Health. As I’ve written about in the past, Karos Health recruits students from the University of Waterloo for co-op work terms. It’s only September, but we’re already looking ahead to the Winter 2012 term and we’re actively looking for software developers and software testers.

To that end, on September 21, from 11:30am to 1:00pm, Karos Health will hold a recruiting event at the Davis Centre on the University of Waterloo campus. We’ll be in The Fishbowl, happily chatting with anyone who wants to learn more about of working at Karos.

You can read more about our co-op jobs now, or just plan on coming out to the event and learning about us there.

We’re a small startup with a terrific team that already has products in the market and customers who are excited by what we’re doing. We’re collaborative, smart, and committed to creating great products while having fun doing it. At Karos you’ll have a chance to try different things, get your code into shipping products, test new product releases and make a meaningful difference to health care providers and patients. And, once a month, you’ll be fed the best waffles you’ve ever eaten.

If you’re at all curious about working at Karos, this will be an opportunity to talk to many of the people, including current and past co-op students, who are creating the software that powers our products. Want to know what tools we use? Or how we manage our source code? Or how we practice Scrum and other Agile techniques? This is the place to find out, and to hear about why your next great co-op job might well be here at Karos.

No RSVP required. Just come by the Davis Centre, enjoy some free food that we’ll provide, and learn about working at a terrific software startup right here in Waterloo.

This post originally appeared on the Karos Health blog in a slightly different form.

September 8, 2011October 31, 2020

Some Apple products are imperfect by design

I’ve been using an Apple iPad 2 for a few months now, and have enjoyed it tremendously. One aspect of it that stands out is the deliberate imperfection that Apple has introduced into the design of the Smart Cover accessory. I’d go as far as to say that Apple has embraced Wabi Sabi, the Japanese aesthetic which accepts, and even demands, imperfection and transience as an important aspect of beauty.

The Smart Cover that I have on my iPad is leather. Out of the box, it wasn’t quite pristine, but had a lovely texture. In the last several months, though, it has acquired an uneven patina through daily use, along with more noticeable scuffs and marks. It’s no longer perfect, if it ever was, and it now provides a striking contrast to the aluminum and glass ‘perfection’ of the iPad. It completes the iPad, providing a visual warmth and a organic feel that the cover-less iPad lacks.

The unique imperfections have marked the iPad as ‘mine’ — distinct from an iPad that someone else might own — as effectively as the combination of apps, books, music, games, and other bits of data that I’ve installed/assembled/created on it.

Apple is, of course, aware of the inevitability of these ‘imperfections’. The packaging for the smart cover includes a notice: “The leather Smart Cover is crafted from high-quality, naturally treated material that gets its color from a rich aniline dye. Some color may rub off during use.” (Emphasis mine.)

Beautifully done.

September 1, 2011November 1, 2020

A new post, written on an iPad

For some time now, Google has been in the midst of a major refresh and consolidation of the design (and implementation) of its products. As of Wednesday this week, that design work has now extended to Blogger, the platform that I happen to use for this blog. At first glance, the new Blogger looks and works great. One major benefit of the revamp is that I can now write and edit posts on my iPad. That wasn’t possible on the previous version — or, at least, I wasn’t able to do so. The update doesn’t appear to be optimized for mobile — in fact, it’s a little flakey — but it does work. Maybe there’s more to come?

This post is about about little more than creating a test post on my iPad, while also taking the opportunity to express my admiration for what they’ve been releasing these past months. Google+ has been getting the bulk of the attention, but there’s great work being done on their other products as well.

August 30, 2011November 3, 2020

It turns out that Apple is not perfect

I’ve been having trouble with my Apple TV, and decided to pay a visit to the Genius Bar in the recently opened Apple Store here in Waterloo to see if I could get some help. I had been unable to address the problem on my own, or via a bit of Web research, and I wanted to experience the Genius Bar in action.

My three boys and I went to the store on a weekday afternoon, and I was surprised at how busy it was. The place was packed with customers and employees. I made an appointment to consult someone at the Genius Bar, and my sons explored some of the products on display. They had a ball, and nobody tried to interfere with their fun.

Come appointment time, I explained the problem I was having to Darcy, the friendly and knowledgable genius who was helping me. After exploring some options and trying to reproduce the problem, Darcy eventually decided to replace my Apple TV (a solution that I discovered upon returning home turned out to have solved the problem). The latitude given to Apple Store employees appears to be about as wide-ranging as I had previously heard. It was a great experience.

So what makes Apple less than perfect?

After making my appointment, I received an email from Apple confirming the time. The email included a link to an Apple Store iPhone app. I decided to try installing it, and clicked the link in the email to do so. The App Store application launched on my iPhone, but instead of seeing the Apple Store app, I saw a message saying “Your request could not be completed.” I asked Darcy about it, and he told me that the Apple Store iPhone app isn’t available in Canada, and that he’s not sure why the link is included in emails for the Canadian stores.

It’s an extremely minor issue, of course, and it didn’t at all bother me that I couldn’t download the Apple Store app. It is, though, telling that such a minor thing stands out in a customer experience that is otherwise exemplary all around. It’s just not quite perfect.

July 25, 2011October 31, 2020

July uxWaterloo beer gathering

The last year has been a busy one for uxWaterloo. We’ve had some great speakers and workshops, and our meetings always feature great discussions around a range of UX topics.

For our July 19 event we decided to kick back with an evening of informal conversation and beer. We met at the Brick Brewery in their hospitality lounge, where the beers were a welcome antidote to the hot and humid weather, and the discussions as rich and varied as always.

We’ll be meeting there for August as well, and while there’s no guarantee that the weather will be as hot and beer-appropriate, there’s always the great company and chance to meet new people in Waterloo Region’s UX community.

July 20, 2011October 31, 2020

Square to Square

This past weekend was a busy one, with lots going on in Waterloo Region. The highlight for me was Sunday’s square2square event, during which much of King Street was closed to motor vehicles between Kitchener’s Civic Square (in front of City Hall) and Waterloo’s Public Square. My two youngest sons and I bicycled from one square to the other, and the boys enjoyed the thrill of the (mostly) open road.

There was a lot to do between, and at, the two end points. My favourite discovery, though, was the remote-controlled model boats cruising the water in Kitchener’s Civic Square, courtesy of Golden Triangle Marine Modellers (no website, alas). One of the modellers, Paul, was kind enough to let both my boys pilot his tugboat for a while, and both did so without crashing into other boats or the concrete sides of the pool.

The next square2square event is Sunday, August 14, and we’re all looking forward to it at our house. Thanks, and congratulations, to the cities of Waterloo and Kitchener for organizing these events this summer.

July 4, 2011November 3, 2020

Happy Canada Day (Independence Day Edition)

It’s been too long between posts, and may stay that way for a while. Here’s one that marks the recent Canada Day holiday with pictures of our fireworks from July 1 (and its aftermath), posted on the day that our neighbours to the south celebrate their Independence Day. Enjoy.