Angel Anduaga – PodTattoo Laser Labs
The last time I reported about DemoCampMontreal2, I poked some gentle fun to Angel Anduaga as he was struggling with the concept of being able to present his startup without having to speak to anyone in particular – by just editing the wiki for BarCampMontreal2. That’s the way of unconference. I did tell him though that if he absolutely wanted to talk to somebody then he could speak to Fred.
And so it was good to see that he had seized the opportunity. PodTattoo enables the high-quality engraving of your iPod, small device or laptop with a design of your choice. This is done through a high-quality fast laser and the etching can sport black, white and a few shades of gray. Angel mentioned that the dye technology for color engravings would be available as from 2008.
Tattooing your device this way prevents theft because the device is permanently marked. The service does not void your warranty and does not damage your device internals at all.
Angel is looking for investors/partners for his startup and he is looking to expand in other cities than Montreal too.
Simon Law – Say “Cheese” – taking photographs with cheap drugstore cameras
Now, the last time Simon set foot amidst the spotlights to present, we had some riotous fun about engineering omelettes. So with a title like this, I could barely suppress the thought that some kind of cooking would also be in order – cheese omelettes?
Not this time though. Simon went on to describe some very expensive cameras and some other fine and cheap ones. His point: if you want to learn about photography, then start with a cheap one.
Simon said that one should understand how the camera isn’t like an eye and therefore it doesn’t receive light as our eyes do. He mentioned that there were some privileged times of the day when the light is particular beautiful, namely near dusk.
“You see, although this yellow light is shining on me, you wouldn’t say I was yellow… Or else it would be a racial slur.” – Simon Law
In addition, Simon advised to use the Flash only during the day-time. However, not using the flash during night shots mean that you’d have to try and stabilize your camera as much as possible.
He made the point about diffused light or light coming from the side being better than our digital cameras’ straight on flash. The latter makes for very harsh lighting conditions.
Simon finished with a link to a tutorial resource but I haven’t noted it. If anybody did please let me know.
Avery Pennarun – Designing a company culture
Next up was Avery who talked about designing a company culture. His take on technology and business was interesting. Avery said that somehow Web 2.0 had made technology people who could produce related code and applications cool. And thus, on the other side were the people with lots of money but severely lacking in the coolness department.
That is how Avery came to work with investors and banks. He brings them his knowledge of Web 2.0 technology, which many of these financial institutions lack and in turn benefits from integrating such an industry.
Avery also emphasized how important it is to find a trustworthy partner in your commercial endeavors. He seems to have found just this.
Michelle-Anne Jenkins (MAJ) – WikiTravel Extra
You may have heard of WikiTravel – it’s probably the best crowd-sourced travel site on the internet. It has actually won the 2007 Webby award for best travel site. Well done to the co-founders, MAJ and Evan Prodromou, who are also husband and wife.
MAJ presented WikiTravel Extra, a type of addendum to WikiTravel where members can share their photos and also get to know each other better as each member has a personal profile page. Users can browse the location pictures by member too. Another interesting feature of WikiTravel Extra is that as a member you can tag some of your personal blog posts so that the WikiTravel Extra site recognizes it and gathers an abstract through the RSS feed. This allows a global page where updates from members can all be seen together.
After this presentation I’ve spent some time looking at the entry for my homeland (Mauritius) in WikiTravel and corrected the National Anthem. I think it’s one of the shortest and most beautiful anthems ever – and I’m not saying this because it’s my anthem, but rather from the perspective of a composer and songwriter. Lyrics, chords and melody meld in a coherent way.
more in part 3
