Unplugged #

I always watched TV in my free time, first as an entertainment, but mostly as a coping mechanism for ADHD. It helps turn my very active brain off, which is always welcome. My consumption got unfortunately worse when I was dealing with major depression, and I kept it going even after I was out of the darkness. Now, I watch an unhealthy amount of television.

Besides the negative effects studies have shown about watching too much of the rectangular box, it is really not good for me. I’m already not prone to an active lifestyle, so sitting on the couch hours per day doesn’t help. Especially since I’m in front of the computer all day long when not at conferences. Furthermore, I get bored even if I enjoy what I’m watching, which often translate in continuously snacking, and mindless eating.

The goal is not to unplug completely. It’s to limit my consumption of streaming services and social media also (outside of work), to a healthy amount. It’s all about balance! I want to replace some of the screen time with healthier habits like reading or a new hobby. I also have the desire to be more intentional about what I watch. I have hours of recorded Buddhist teaching to catch up on, which could replace some Netflix ingestion. It would be way more stimulating and will end up helping me continue to be happier and a better human.

Thrifty #

This year is all about starting to take back my financial freedom. To do so, frugality with money will be the way to go. I don’t want to feel the stress ever again that I had last year when I lost my job not long after buying a house. In this terrible economy and the state of the tech industry right now, it’s harder than ever to find a new job, no matter your experience and expertise. It means more time without incomes if you end up unemployed. By being thrifty, my goal is to go debt-free (minus the mortgage for now), minimize my living expenses, grow a healthier disaster fund and help me retire earlier. It doesn’t mean depriving myself, but to stop keeping up with the Joneses. To quote Dave Ramsey, “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”

Healthful #

I’m not old, but I’m not 20 anymore. At 43, I’m at the crossroads, health-wise. I’ve rarely taken care of my physical health, which, over the years, culminates to where I am today. I’m overweight with some health problems, I have a very much sedentary lifestyle and a bad relationship to food. Now that my psychological health is solid for years, it’s time for me to rectify the physical one. It won’t be easy as it’s a lifetime of bad habits mingling with ADHD symptoms that brought me here. Like everything, the goal is to slowly move toward the right direction by adding a bit more movement in my life, and fewer restaurants eating.

Happy New Year, folks!

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

The goal of this article is to help you, as much as possible, to understand me as a manager, and have better clarity on how I work with my team. If you want to learn more about working with me in general, read this article.

Before continuing #

Keep a couple of things in mind before reading further:

• In no way it’s replacing the professional relationship we will build along the way, nor override the understanding we’ll have while working together.
• I will never use this as an “I told you so”.
• I’ve never had myself as a manager, so take this with a grain of salt.
• I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but this is the first time I’m writing that down, so there is definitely improvements to be made on my manager README.

My role as a Developer Relations Manager #

I see my role as a three-part function:

1. I’m leading the developer relations department or team.
2. I’m managing people within the developer relations realm.
3. I’m also an individual contributor.

Leadership #

Leading the developer relations team or department means that I’m accountable for the decisions the team makes and our actions. I need to ensure the quality of what we do and that we are working toward helping the company’s mission and goals while staying true to the developer relations’ principles. I’m also representing developer relations, which means our victories and our missed opportunities. I’m responsible to show the real impact we are having within our targetted markets and audience as a whole, but also about all products within our grasp.

I want to build a world-class developer relations’ team, but it’s absolutely impossible for me to achieve that without you!

Management #

My job as a manager is to ensure that you, and our entire team is successful. It may not be a popular take, but I firmly believe that for us to be successful, we need to be happy. Let’s be honest; we all work because we need money for a living, but it does not mean that we cannot enjoy our time, or be passionate about what we do. If you are not happy or successful, our team is not happy or successful. If you or our team struggle, the quality of our work will also.

To achieve that, here are a non-exhaustive list, in no particular order, of what I will do to help you and the team during this journey together:

• We will clearly define your goals, and identify how we can measure them.
• I will always make sure you have everything you need from me, your teammates or other departments to be successful.
• I will ensure you are doing your best work, focusing on the right things to maximize your impact and the scalability of your efforts.
• I will try as much as possible to unblock you or shield you from politics.
• I will be your champion to the rest of the business.
• I will share constructive feedback when needed and as soon as possible. See the Feedback section for more information.

In the end, I also want you to continue to improve your hard & soft skills, while growing your career.

Individual Contributor #

No matter how many direct reports I have, I will always be a Developer Advocate. I’m passionate about winning the heart and minds of developers, and help them being successful. I’m excited to speak at conferences, record video tutorials, write some great documentation, and much more. I also firmly believe that to be a great leader, you need to contribute, and keep your hands dirty.

What I value the most #

There are four things, in no particular order, I value the most when it comes to the people I’m working with.

Communication #

Effective communication minimizes misunderstandings, help resolves conflicts more easily, and empower collaboration, leading to better relationships, which translate into greater success. It also helps me better understand how I can help you. Find the medium you prefer, and use it. In addition to that, most of us are remote so it lower down the possible feeling of isolation.

Transparency #

I value honesty, but I prefer transparency. Let’s share information in addition to our good or less successful moves without being asked. It relates a lot to the first point, communication.

Accountability #

Be responsible for your actions, always. We will take bad decisions. We will make mistakes. It’s fine, as long as we stay accountable for those. I’m a big fan of the lean startup principles. Try things, measure, but fail fast if needed, and most important, learn along the process.

Compassion #

Understanding and acknowledging that mistakes and challenges are inevitable allows us to be compassionate toward the developers community, our colleagues or even situations. We do not know what is happening in people’s personal life that can affect how they interact with us. It also means being compassionate toward our users and customers. Yes, sometimes it’s a code 18 (the problem is 18 inches away from their screen). More often than not, the issue will be on our side: a bug, a missing feature, an unclear resource or a missing one. Let’s always help be compassionate toward others.

It does not mean accepting any form of violence! If you find it difficult to work with someone, or find a developer to be a little “too passionate”, let me know so I can handle the situation myself.

Feedback #

About you #

I will give you feedback on how you are doing continuously. If things are going well, you will know. If I’m worried about your performance, you will know. My goal is for you to always have an understanding of what I’m thinking. To help me with that, I need to have a clear idea of what you are working on: not in detail, but at a high level.

When we do great things, whether we thrive with peer recognition or not, a warm feeling of positive feedback is always welcome. When there is uncertainty, it’s also important to know right away to give a chance to rectify the situation sooner than later. You shouldn’t have to ask to know if you are doing well. Nothing should be a surprise once we sit down during the performance review season.

About Me #

I expect the same from you in my regards. Never wait to tell me something you appreciate, you would like to improve or share some feedback on my work or management style. I wish that our collaboration will always be professional and amicable, but if something is bothering you with me on the personal level, I sincerely hope that we can discuss it as adults, and try to resolve the problem as soon as possible. If it’s not working, or you feel like you cannot talk to me at all, for any reasons, please feel empowered to talk to my manager.

Please know that I always welcome feedback, even the less positive ones. It is really hard to hurt my feelings, but please always approach those with a constructive mindset. I also value someone who brings solutions while raising problems when possible.

On the topic of feedback, feel free to share some about this manager README. Is it useful? Are there some important things missing? Was something clear in my head, but not as much once I wrote it down? Are there some part that are misguided now that you started working with me? My goal is to always improve this document.

1:1s #

One of ones are about you: they are your meeting. Take this opportunity to check in, and highlight how I can better support you. I usually schedule a 30-minute video meeting every week, but we can adjust the frequency or length based on your needs. If you have to reschedule at a better time or another day, please do: my calendar is always up-to-date.

Always be proactive, and let’s catch up in the format you prefer as soon as needed: never wait for our next 1:1 if it’s time-sensitive or bothering you. For uninterrupted productivity reason, I block my Fridays, but for impromptu meetings, it does not apply to you.

Work Schedule #

Unless I’m traveling, and with some exceptions, my usual working hours are more or less from 9AM to 6PM. I live in the east coast of Canada, so my time zone is ET (Eastern Time). Do not be afraid to message me even outside of that time on Slack: I’m snoozing the notifications when I’m not working.

Since our work schedule may be different, and because my team is usually distributed across multiple time zones, I expect you to also manage your own notifications properly. It’s important to me that I can message you at any moment, while knowing that I don’t disturb your personal time. It’s my way to ensure I don’t forget sharing something with you, but work-life balance is important, so I don’t want you to get back to me when you are off the clock. Unless we are on the road at an event together, nothing can’t wait for the next morning, or Monday.

Unless the company policies are stating otherwise, I don’t care when or where you are working. What is important for me is that we have at least a couple of overlapping hours each day so we can have synchronized discussion or video meetings if needed.

Need Something #

If you need anything, don’t wait or hesitate. Send me a message on Slack or add a meeting in my calendar. Yep, it’s that simple.

In the End #

I hope this document was useful to understand better who I am as a manager, how I work, and my expectations. Obviously, those are generalities, and we will discuss a lot more about all of these and much more once we start working together.

Yes, this should have been a README.md file in some repository since it’s a Manager README, but even if I spend much time on GitHub, I try to consolidate things as much as possible on my site.

Photo by Jiroe (Matia Rengel) on Unsplash

More often than not, when the company isn’t going as well as expected, the Developer Relations team is amongst the first to being let go, even if we bring a lot of values to the business with all our activities. Knowing that, and having been at the end of that tunnel more than once, doesn’t make it more comforting. Still, it’s with a positive vibe that I start this new journey to find my next challenge!

What I want #

• A developer relations role: open to discuss leadership or IC roles (I’m not sure about other roles, but happy to discuss with an open mind).
• Stability: you never know, but I still want a job I can keep for years.
• A real challenge: I don’t like easy or boring.
• Certain freedom: I can’t deal with micromanagement, let me prove to you what I can do if you let me.
• Trust: you hire me for a reason.
• Diversification of the role: a developer advocate has multiple areas of expertise, not just writing documentation.
• A remote job preferably: I’ve worked remotely for the last 14 years.

What I offer #

• Twenty-three years of experience in the industry: 10 of those as a developer.
• Thirteen years in developer advocates’ roles at companies like Microsoft, Mozilla, Fitbit, DigitalOcean and npm.
• Tremendous speaking experience: 190 talks in 23 countries.
• Experience leading and building developer relations and specific areas like conferences, meetups, documentation, communities, social media, blogs, videos, livestreams, influencers programs…

Who I am #

• Extrovert, passionate, outspoken, colorful, and bold: it’s part of the package deal (the article I send to new coworkers about working with me).
• Pragmatic, but I have a preference for anything open source.
• More than happy to work with products or technologies I don’t know: I actually love being a real customer zero.
• Really good at public speaking, making videos and creating real connections with developers.
• I run the devrelshow, a livestream where my guests and I discuss about developer relations and all things technical.
• I teach meditation and Buddhist philosophy on my free time.

What I won’t #

• Relocate in the North America, but I’m open to relocate in EMEA/APAC. I’m used to extensive traveling, so happy to go to the office as often as needed.
• Be able to work for you unless you have a Canadian entity or use a Professional Employer Organization (it’s easy & inexpensive, here’s why/how).
• Work for companies that aren’t ethical and do not value diversity.
• Work with people who do not like cats (I have two) 🤣

If you think there is a fit between who I am, my experience and your business needs, hit me up on LinkedIn or by email. Talk to you soon!

P.S.: if you are not hiring, you can still help a lot by sharing this article within your network or on social media (X post & LinkedIn post).

I need to warn you. Some of you may find the next paragraph of this article defeatist or even depressing, but I assure you that it’s imprinted on realism and that it was written with a big ole’s smile on my face. I decided to take on some parts of my life that I didn’t control until now with this year’s words.

Now that probably more than half my life is behind me, it’s more than time for me to be more serious about some aspects of my life. I’m 42. I’m still young! But am I, really? My body definitely says I’m not, but joke aside, the average life expectancy for men is 79.49 years in Canada, which means that, based on this number, I’ve lived 50 percent of this live right before I hit my 40s. Obviously, it’s based on a scenario where nothing else happens to me until my 70s, and I feel I may be in the low quadrant of the average if I take into consideration the lifestyle I have had so far (bad eating habits and nearly no exercise).

Budgeting #

I’ve never been good at managing my money. I always paid my bills, but always spent more than I made and never really thought about the future. I always had a budget, but never really took it seriously, which is something I intend to start now. This word is also more than simply budgeting; it’s also about understanding where my money goes, paying off my credit card, setting more money aside for rainy days, and finally, putting money aside so I can retire sooner than later. It’s a guiding word that, hopefully, will help me reach financial freedom at some point.

Cooking #

Part of why I’m overweight is mostly because I don’t cook: I eat restaurant food a lot (in or takeout). Obviously, exercising more would be a plus, not just for dropping pounds, but to be healthier overall (i.e., sleep apnea, high blood pressure…), but the first step for me is to learn to have a better relationship with food. I saw it during Covid. I wasn’t even eating well, but I didn’t eat any takeout whatsoever in nearly a year, and I lost 50 pounds while moving even less than before, as I was stuck at home. This guiding word isn’t even about becoming a chef, or working on complicated recipes; it’s mostly about eating at home more often, even if it means some frozen food, or grilled cheeses. I’ve never liked to cook much, and most of the time, I feel like I’m too tired, and that it’s more of a burden than anything else. So now, I need to realize that cooking is something that is necessary to have a healthier life, whether I like it or not. It also doesn’t mean that I won’t eat at restaurants anymore, or won’t get takeout. I always find that gradually improving myself was way better than going all-in for a month, and crashing down because it was unsustainable: been there, done that.

Reading #

Every day, I read comics or mangas before going to bed. It’s the perfect way I found to disconnect from the worries of the day, and prepare myself to sleep while doing something that doesn’t require much brain power. With that said (or written), I want to read more non-fiction books: in my case, Buddhist books. I went crazy last year, and built myself a pretty amazing Buddhist library, and I want to read those. Part of it is to deepen my comprehension of the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings) for myself, but also for others, as I’m now teaching meditation, and will teach Buddhist philosophy by the end of this year. Part of it is because I feel like I watch way too much television, and reading seems to be a great alternative. The goal isn’t to stop watching TV, but to minimize the number of hours in front of the screen.

When thinking about those, I always have a list of all the words I previously choose, trying not to use one more than once. Still, I can see a clear pattern since I started doing that or even when I was setting specific new year goals: they are often about food, exercising, finance and learning. Some years I improved myself, others I don’t (still do, just not on the things I may have wanted initially), and it’s totally fine! In the end, those words are just guides, and this article is a simple way for me to define them in a suitable manner, while making me a bit accountable for what I wanted for 2025.

Photo by Toni Cuenca

First, find the file defining the keg that is used for the formula or cask you want to downgrade:

brew info kubefirst

The output will look like this

You can find the keg file used to install it listed next to the From: label: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/k/kubefirst.rb

Open the file in your browser, check the Git history, and open the commit for the version you want to install, in my case, 2.7.7. Click on the View code at this point icon which brings you to https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/3547be4a29b9e2a5cf1ccb8d624d81f7a4403cf8/Formula/k/kubefirst.rb, and click the Raw button to get the absolute URL for the file itself. Now download a copy of the file locally:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/3547be4a29b9e2a5cf1ccb8d624d81f7a4403cf8/Formula/k/kubefirst.rb > kubefirst.rb

Before installing the desired version, uninstall the unwanted one:

brew uninstall kubefirst

Now you can proceed, and install the version you wanted directly from the file you downloaded:

# Use --cask if it's a Cask
brew install --formula kubefirst.rb

The --formula flag is optional, but if not used, Homebrew will complain, but it will still work. Once you ran the previous command, you successfully downgraded Kubefirst from 2.7.8 to 2.7.7.

There may be simpler ways to install specific versions of any Homebrew kegs, but this is the easiest I came up with.

Photo by Nextvoyage

After using WordPress as my main blogging and site platform for the last 19+ years, my site is now using Eleventy (11ty). The change is unrelated to the WordPress drama happening with Matt Mullenger, the WordPress creator and overlord, but it’s also the reason I finally took the time to make the jump to a static site generator (SSG). I’ve been thinking about moving to a SSG for a while to primarily, be less dependable technology-wise and being able to easily write articles in Markdown with a Git workflow. 11ty was my primary choice because JavaScript is still my programming language and enough interesting plugins are available to make my life easier.

With this change, I decided to go back to a minimalist and basic UI for the site. In the following days, I’ll continue to update it (need some UI tweaks and Markdown to fix), but what you see is mostly what you’ll get. I converted all posts, thanks to wordpress-export-to-markdown and also all the pages, which may not yet be exactly as they were (ex.: the speaking page is missing the map).

Moving to an SSG give me a couple of advantages:

• No database needed.
• No security concerns.
• No backup needed (the source of my site is on Git, and can be redeployed within three minutes with one click).
• No platform or plugins updates server side needed.
• Tremendous speed gain.
• Run on smaller cloud instance, so saving money & resources.
• Better writing flows for me.

And probably a lot more advantages, but in other words, simplicity is the key here. For my needs, there is no drawback I can think of right now. In the last years, I felt the pain of maintaining the site as I don’t blog as much as I used to. I have the desire to start to write a bit more again on this personal blog, and I hope that the new process in place will make it easier and more fun.

How to choose your topic #

One of the things to be a great speaker is that you need to choose a topic that you know enough about to share your knowledge legitimately on a stage, and one that you are passionate about. Knowing enough is not… enough. If it’s a topic that does not interest you, how can you make it interesting for the people in the room? Note that I didn’t write that you need to be the main expert, nor even an expert on the topic: you just need to know enough to be able to fill the time you are allowed to talk about your subject, and being able to answer related questions to what you demonstrate. You do not need to know everything, and “I don’t know, come see me after the talk, I’ll get your coordinates, I’ll do my homework, and will get back to you with an answer” is a perfect reply to a question you can’t answer. I’m one to believe that there is no topic that hasn’t been blogged about or spoke at a conference or a meetup before, so don’t prevent yourself to speak about a topic of your choice because it has been done before. You will definitely share a different angle, and bring your own sauce to it.

If it’s your first time speaking, I suggest you do a brain dump first. Write EVERYTHING you know technology-wise in a document. Once it’s done, take the time to review that list, and remove the one you don’t think you can talk enough about, not sure you can make them interesting, that you aren’t excited about, or which doesn’t fit the targeted audience for the conference you want to submit to. From that list, you may have a feeling about the topic(s) you want to share on stage, but if not, start working on their abstracts: it will be easier to choose after.

The abstract #

Once you select your topic, you need to write the abstract. You can also start with the title, but I always prefer to start with the abstract so it will give me a better idea of what my talk will be about, and based on what I wrote, I can decide what will be the best title.

As for the topic ideas themselves, I suggest you also do a brain dump: write down some bullet points about what could be in the talk. Everything from specific aspects of the technologies to how you want to show it. Like with any brain dump, don’t overthink it, just write things down. You’ll end up with an unordered list of potential talking points or demo which will be too long for the time you have. From that list, decide what you would like to have in your talk and as much as possible, try to evaluate if these will fit in the allocated time (it’s hard to do at first, hence why once you work on your talk, practicing it is the way to go).

Some people just write the abstract down right away, but with that high-level list, it will be easier to craft a proper abstract that will have specific information instead of a blurry sense of what people will learn in the 30 to 60 minutes you’ll have to shine on stage. A good abstract has three key components:

1. Who are the target audience, or what level of knowledge you need to enjoy this talk?
2. A high-level sense of what the talk is about, with some specific aspects.
3. What is it for them, the attendees? In other words, what will they concretely bring back home or why should they give you their most precious currency, time, and spend it in your conference room.

As an example, for a talk on Argo CD, I preferably want people with some basic Kubernetes knowledge as I don’t want to use my time to explain YAML syntax or what the kubectl command is. I will mention that I will introduce Argo CD and the benefits of using it with a GitOps patterns. The attendees will go back home or to their offices knowing how to get started, and some of the basic features they need to be successful.

So with that in mind, you can craft an abstract that is, as a reminder, basically your sales pitch. It needs to resonate with the conference organizers, but also with the attendees as this is what will be shown on the event agenda. I suggest you write something between 500 and 1000 characters, closer to the minimum suggested here. If you have more than two parapgrah, you are going int the wrong direction. If it’s too long, most people won’t read it all, and even some submission form will have lower character limits. When that happen, I start from my original abstract remove the less important part of it, or do the exercise of writing it better.

For some abstract ideas, go on your preferred conference and check last year’s agenda, or give a closer look to the ones I have.

The title #

The title is as important if not more than the abstract. I can tell you by experience that many attendees won’t even read your abstract, so the only thing that will help make them decide if they want to go into your room or the other one for conferences with multiple tracks, is the title. The reality is that it may also be the same for the people selecting the talks for the conference program as there is no way to read all submissions completely on the first filtering. Some will, but trust me, most will only read the full submission after you pick their interest with… the title.

It’s the time to highlight your conference subject in a catchy, educative and interesting way. It’s up to you to find a right balance between a none shitty clickbait title and still something that will catch people’s attention. I don’t have much tips about this than “do your best”, and keep it short. I would suggest that you share the title with your co-workers or friends working in your field and get their opinion while ensuring they still have an idea of what the talk is about.

For some title ideas, check my speaking page. Note that some were imposed on me by employers or conference organizers like the longer one or the corporate sounding ones.

The benefits or extra information section #

Some conferences have that additional field to give extra information just for the people selecting the talk. The abstract should do a good enough job that this shouldn’t be needed, but usually if it’s there, it can serve two purposes:

• Help the person decide if your talk is worthy of their conference even if they don’t know enough about the topic itself.
• Give them information you couldn’t fit in the abstract, or more right to the point opinion on why your talk would kick some asses and be beneficial for the event and the community.

So use that section to reiterate important points from your abstract they may have missed, but also talk directly to the organizer. If they don’t have a speaking experience field, use it for that too (see the next section for speaker experience). You previously wrote about the benefits for the attendees, but what are the ones for the organizers. Is this topic the latest things the cool kids talk about in the industry? Is it something that isn’t talked about much, but you believe it should be? Why is this topic would be better than the other ones? Take the extra characters provided by this field, if it’s there, to be more specific about your talk: the points you decided to keep before writing your abstract that you were not able to fit in a concise description of your talk, add them here. It’s your biggest sales pitch after the abstract.

Your speaker experience #

Most conferences will have a field to add information about past experience as a speaker. It does not need to be in a professional setting at a conference. It can be when you were at school or for a lunch bag session at work. It does not even need to be as a conference speaker. Add your participation in livestreams or podcasts. Anything that involves you talking to an audience, live or not, in-person or online is a plus. The best is to also be able to share previous slides you created, or even better, recording of previous talks. Some conferences will record and publish them online, but even you having a video tutorial on your YouTube channel will do the trick.

If you don’t have anything at all, take this opportunity to emphasis the fact that you are eager to give your first talk, and passionate about this topic. As a rule of thumb, most conferences give a chance to new speakers, but not all since it’s a bit of a gamble for people paying to listen to talks. It’s easier to start at meetups since they need new speakers every month.

If you have experience, you have two choices there:

1. Pick and choose the best of the best to add to this submission field. I suggest a maximum of two talks with the slides, so they can see the visual material you will use, and a recording if possible so they can see how you speak plus your vibe on the stage. They won’t read or watch everything, it’s just to give them an idea.
2. Play the numbers’ game. If you spoke to a couple of events already, list them all if possible. Even better, create a speaking page that you can share as a “one link to rule them all”. It gives a wow effect! See mine as an example. It doesn’t need to be that elaborate: it can be a simple GitHub repository like the one I’ve created for our CEO, John Dietz.

If you choose option two, here is what I usually submit to keep the wow factor in case they don’t click on the link:

I have extensive experience as a public speaker: I gave more than 190 talks in 23 countries. You can find my speaking history at https://fred.dev/speaking/, which also include slides, and recording for some of them.

The process #

Most conferences let you submit at least two talks (smaller conferences won’t have a limit), and I suggest you submit more than one if you had multiple topics ideas. The more submissions you get in, the better chances you have to be selected. If all of your talks are selected, first congratulations, but if you feel it’s too much to prepare more than one talk, you can always tell the organizers. Do not worry, they rejected many other talks, and not because they felt they were bad: they probably have to choose between multiple good talks, because of the limited opportunities of the schedule vs the number of submissions.

Some conferences will wait to the end of the CFP to start the selection process, but some don’t. Even when advertise as such, for being on the selection committee at a couple of conferences, most of us start the selection as soon as they come in, even if we don’t alert speakers until the decided date. It’s a lot of work to review all the submissions, even for smaller events, and usually this is done by volunteers that will do it when they have free time. So all this to sensitize you to the fact that, when it’s possible, submit as soon as possible. Best-case scenario, you’ll have more chances to be selected as the committee will be less overwhelmed, and won’t have seen already multiple talks with the same technology or approach. Worst-case scenario, it will change nothing, but you won’t be stressing out last minute to submit a talk.

Lastly, if you already have a talk you give somewhere else, please reuse it for other events unless you don’t want to give it again. I won’t say more about this because it can be a whole blog article in itself, but reuse them except if the conference is paying you to speak (as in giving you money for your time as a speaker, travel & expenses is a different thing and should be a given, even if it’s unfortunately not).

In the end, there is no guarantee, even if you spoke at prestigious events before, that you have a lot of speaking experience and that you work at a well-known organization. I wish you all the luck there is, especially if you are new to public speaking as we need new faces, and more diverse ones than the old white dude writing these lines. Once you get selected, feel free to check my article on public speaking tips. Good luck on your next CFP!

• 1Password: this is the 1Password application helper.
• Ad Blocker Notice Removal: remove ad blocker notices (source code).
• AdBlock: ad blocker.
• Antidote Connector: this is the Antidote application helped.
• Auto Copy: auto copy selected text (you can disable this for textareas).
• Default Account for Google products: let you set a default Google Account per Google services.
• Disable All Extensions: when I need to test a site real speed or I suspect the extensions to cause a site issues (source code).
• Eight Dollars: show you who paid for Twitter vs actual verified people, which help me filter fake accounts (source code).
• Empty New Tab Page: do what it says. The minimalist in me doesn’t like bloated new tabs all browsers have.
• File Icons for GitHub and GitLab: add proper icons to files on GitHub, and GitLab. Seriously make using the web interface nicer (source code).
• Google Docs Offline: useful when using Google Docs or Slides in the plane.
• GooglePanicImages: the name is weird, but it adds a view button on all images so you can directly view the image only, instead of the page containing it (source code).
• Hello, Goodbye: remove chat widgets (you can disable it for a specific site when needed). It’s also easy to report a site not working (source code).
• I still don’t care about cookies: getting rid of cookies banners. It’s a fork of “I don’t care about cookies” extension which was acquired by Avast (source code).
• Image Downloader - Save pictures: lazy me don’t always want to find images URL in the web page source or in the developer network tab.
• Improve YouTube: give you a lot more control over YouTube. I mainly use it to pause video on load.
• Lovely forks: show most popular GitHub fork for a specific repository (source code).
• npmhub: display Node.js dependencies on GitHub (source code).
• Pop up blocker for Chrome - Poper Blocker: block popup pretty well.
• Refined GitHub: add so many useful features to the GitHub interface (source code).
• Reload All Tabs: useful as sometimes the browser load when my wifi is not yet connected (source code).
• Save to Pocket (mini): same as the official Pocket extension, but requiring less permissions (source code).
• Session Buddy: a must-have to automatically, and manually save sessions (tabs & windows)! Sometimes when the browser crash, it doesn’t save the session. I also often need to close all tabs for livestreams or when recording my screen, but still need to reopen them after.
• Share on Twitter: sharing web pages easily on Twitter.
• Simplified Twitter: making the Twitter experience so much better as it removes all the Twitter garbage, keeping only the feed (source code).
• Sprucemarks: it does much more than that, but I use it mostly so my bookmarks are automatically sorted ASC.
• Stylus: overwrite CSS on desired websites with custom styles (source code).
• Tab Muter: mute the sound from a specific tab. Brave does it when you click on the speaker icon on the tab, but Chrome needs an extension (source code).
• TabsPlus: does more than that, but I mostly use it to define where a new tab opens, and which tab get the focus when one is closed.
• Torimodosu: change back the Twitter icon to Larry. I saw a lot of ugly redesigned and rebranding since the web exist, but this one is #1 in my list (source code).
• uBlacklist: prevent some URLs from being displayed in Google search results: useful to hide sites you know are shit (source code).
• ViolentMonkey: userscripts support for browsers (source code).

I try to keep the number on the low-ish side for performance, but feel free to suggest any extensions you think I should use.

I believe that the devil is in the details, which often translate in a lot of comments, suggestions or ideas in my feedback. Still, don’t be discouraged by the length of those: not all suggestions or comments are created equal. No matter what, I’m always happy to clarify or discuss more in depth any points I made.

Lastly, it’s important to understand that my feedback is severely opinionated. It’s based on my experience, and understanding of what I’m reviewing, which are both different than yours. I do not have the holy truth, so feel free to disagree or disregard anything that doesn’t resonate with you.

This year, it’s about taking the control of some aspects of my life, while continuing my journey to be happier. I’m quite proud of what I achieved in the last year about the latter, but it’s only the beginning. Without further ado, here are the 3 words that will guide the next 365 days…

Dharma #

Dharma is the Sanskrit word for the teachings of the Buddha. It’s no secret that I study the Tibetan Buddhist philosophy for two years now. I started with online teachings during the harsher part of the pandemic, and since this summer, I’ve done multiple retreats.At some point, I’ll write an article to explain Buddhism, what we learn, and my spiritual journey. What I can tell you right now is that I’m way happier since I practice what I’ve learned. I want to continue to learn, and more important, to integrate the Dharma even more in my everyday life.

Finance #

Due to my actions (or lack of), and external factors I couldn’t control, the last three years were difficult finance-wise. It’s time I took the ownership of my finance! I don’t want to be in the situation I’ve been in the last months again. It will start with a budget I’ll follow, and update which are the important parts. I’ll replenish my bad days fund alongside with paying off my debts completely. By doing so, I will set the foundation for next year: I’ll be able to focus on retirement, and maybe, buying a house again.

Food #

I’m fat, it’s no secret. It comes with health issues, which could be less important or even disappear if I were losing weight. I’m not even talking about the negative effect on my self-esteem, and on my dating reality. I don’t exercise or move enough, but for me, the food is my true issue. I eat too much restaurant, way too much. I also eat for dopamine boost, thanks to my ADHD brain, but that’s another topic. During the first year of the pandemic, I was so scared of ordering food that even if I wasn’t eating what’s best the grocery stores have to offer, I lost 55 pounds… by being a couch potato, who didn’t order once. Unfortunately, I took it back the minute I was less scared to get delivery. I didn’t use that time to make better and positive food habits. This year I want to relearn how to eat, explicitly by cooking instead of ordering food or eating frozen shit.

For the first time since a decade, I’m starting the new year with a smile, a heart full of compassion, and great hopes for the next 12 months. I think 2023 will be amazing, especially with those words guiding me!

I’m back in an IC role, and it’s what I wanted, even if I was open to leadership ones: I’ll be able to focus on making shit happens, while still helping others be successful. I’m also back in the cloud, and K8S ecosystem which is exciting to me: when I was at DigitalOcean, Kubernetes was one of my focus, and I enjoyed the good, the bad and the ugly of it. It’s part of the reasons I’m so excited about this new challenge: Kubefirst is taking care of some of the not so easy and time consuming parts of managing your infrastructure with this giant beast that is Kubernetes. Lastly, I’m back in the open source space, which cannot make me happier!

They were ready to wait for the right fit, as much as I was ready to wait for the right one also. It was a match made in heaven, for both sides since we moved fast. I’ll share more information about Kubefirst in the coming days, but while I’m settling in, please go check our GitHub repository, and show me some love by clicking that little star button 😉 .

• Announcement: 401 & scoped packages for npm
• Book: Success in Programming published at Apress
• Documentation: Mindee [efn_note]it was a team effort, but I was responsible for the vision, process & quality[/efn_note]
• Opinion: The paradigm of open source licensing for MeiliSearch
• Media: Why the Dev Community Will Rule 2022 on DEVOPSdigest
• Non-Technical: Cornucopia of public speaking tips

Media #

Complete list of media mention or contributions at https://fred.dev/press/

• Interview: The future of the Web for El Observador
• Quoted: Mindee Introduces docTR on Business Wire

Speaking #

Complete list of previous public speaking engagement at https://fred.dev/speaking/

• Keynote: Mozilla’s vision on the future at Telefonica MOVE Uruguay
• Technical: Building Web Apps That Don’t Suck at UX Burlington
• Non-Technical: Personal Branding for Developers at DevFest Nantes
• Webinar: Get Started with Containers and Kubernetes[efn_note]slides were provided, my style is different (see other talks for better slides examples)[/efn_note]

Videos #

More videos available at https://fred.dev/youtube

• Short Product Demo: Mindee API Builder
• Long Product Demo: DigitalOcean Database as a Service MySQL
• Series: How to Connect to Your Droplet While Having SSH Issues[efn_note]I upgraded my video equipment since for a better visual angle and video quality[/efn_note]
• Tutorial: Fitbit OS Command Line Interface[efn_note]I upgraded my audio equipment since for a better audio quality[/efn_note]

So, although this article’s primary goal is to help new conference public speakers, and is formulated as such, many of the tips below (listed in no particular order) will be useful to anyone who needs to communicate -meaning all of us! Here are the tips in a nutshell:

• Be approachable
• Be energetic
• Be yourself
• Biological break needed
• Bring water
• Don’t argue with smartasses
• Don’t ask about your audience knowledge level
• Don’t be afraid to disagree
• Don’t focus on the people who look bored
• It’s OK to say you don’t know something
• Never bullshit
• Bring all the adapters
• Invest in a good presentation remote
• No product pitches
• Repeat the questions
• Tell a story

Be approachable #

OK! So you’re part of a select few who are confident sharing their passions on stage, and yes, that takes a lot of guts - but it doesn’t mean you are better than everyone else. After your talk, don’t leave the event: stay to discuss with other participants, and answer questions about your talk. Some people won’t feel comfortable enough to ask during the Q&A session, or you may not have enough time to answer them all. Being a friendly speaker goes a long way.

Be energetic #

There is nothing more boring than a speaker with no energy and a monotone voice. No matter how complex your topic is, there is a reason why you are sharing it: you want other people to acquire new knowledge. Hopefully, you are also passionate about the subject, so act like it.

Be yourself #

Don’t try to imitate the style of colleagues or other speakers you may know or like. Don’t force jokes if it’s not natural. People came to see YOU, not someone else, or at least, they are looking to know more about your topic of interest, so scratch the impersonator show.

Biological break needed #

I know it sounds like it’s advice for a 5-year-old, but needing to go to the restroom during a talk is the worst. I’m getting bad memories just by writing this tip. So no matter what, do a preventive biological break before. You’ll thank me later!

Bring water #

You may think you won’t need it or won’t be thirsty, but bring some water. At some conferences, organizers will have water bottles ready for the speakers, but quite often, it’s not the case. You never know when your mouth will run dry from all this talking. Worst case, you won’t need it. But better be prepared than not. This tip is coming from a guy who talks a lot all the time - just ask my coworkers!

Don’t argue with smartasses #

[caption id=“attachment_26023” align=“alignnone” width=“2560”] https://www.pexels.com/@laarkstudio\[/caption\]

Quite often, you’ll run into people who know or think they know more than you. That person will disagree with you or may even try to trick you. I’ve personally never understood the tricking part, but trust me - trolls aren’t limited to the world wide web!

They may be right: in that situation, acknowledge it, and thank them for helping you rectify something you said that wasn’t correct. Nobody is perfect, and you can make mistakes. Actually, you have the utmost right to make mistakes: we are humans, after all.

As for the people that wish to derail the discussion in another direction, tell them you can discuss their specific concerns after the panel. After all, you want to be mindful of time, the topic, and others who may want to ask questions. For your reference, this should be the job of the panel MC or conference organizers (or track leads), but they don’t often intervene.

Don’t ask about your audience knowledge level #

As a speaker, sometimes you want to know if you need to explain a concept in detail, or if you should skip certain slides you think may be obvious for the people in the room. However, asking your audience if they are knowledgeable on specific topics should be avoided. Nobody wants to raise their hand in a group of 10, 100, 1000 people and say that they are lacking  the same knowledge as their peers. Either assume everybody knows the topic while setting the knowledge expectations in your abstract or assume nobody knows and prepare your content in consequences.

Don’t be afraid to disagree #

Especially in a panel setup, it would be boring if everybody agrees on everything. The same goes for the remark of someone in the audience not agreeing with what you just said. It’s fine! First, consider their point, and if it’s still not something you can agree with, disagree, but respectfully.

Don’t focus on the people who look bored #

You cannot please everyone, and sometimes, people who look bored in the audience, may not be at all, trust me. It can be due to other factors, or the fact that you are speaking right after the lunch break.

I once had the most bored looking attendee in one of my talks. Believe it or not, this exact person came to find me during the break to tell me he absolutely loved my talk and that, bare with me here, it was the best one he’d ever seen! I was mind blown as I wasn’t expecting it at all. All this to say, don’t focus on the bored attendees: focus on your talk!

It’s OK to say you don’t know something #

This one kind of relates to the “no bullshit” tip, but even more than lying or deforming and embellishing the truth, if you don’t know something, just say it. It’s fine. Seriously. Nobody knows everything!

If you don’t have an answer, here’s what you should do: say you’ll find the information and will report back to the person who asked. Doing this not only shows that you care about the topic but also the people attending your talk.

Never bullshit #

Always tell the truth: if you don’t, it will always come back to haunt you. If the truth is ugly, you don’t have to say it, but don’t lie either! Consider this tip a life tip rather than something that only applies to public speaking.

Bring all the adapters #

Even if the conference organizers said they will have everything needed, it may not be the reality once in your room. I always bring adapters for all types of projectors and monitors possible: VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, and USB-C. Hotels, and conference centers often have older projectors, so better be prepared than have a bad surprise. If you speak in a different country than yours, don’t forget the right power adapter.

Invest in a good presentation remote #

The freedom you get when you can walk on the stage and continue to give your talk without having to go back to the podium to advance the slides is priceless. Maybe it’s not your style, but when there isn’t a lot of demos in my talk, I’m a nightmare for the person recording my talk! Maybe the person responsible for the audio/video at the conference or in your room will have one for you to use, but they are usually clunky, not always work super well or you need to be super well aligned with the USB dongle for it to work. I highly suggest the Logitech Spotlight: it’s expensive, but you’ll thank me later!

No product pitches #

[caption id=“attachment_26022” align=“alignnone” width=“2560”] https://www.pexels.com/@karolina-grabowska\[/caption\]

Unless the panel is about your product or the technologies around your product - or the conferences explicitly asked you to share product information, don’t try to place your corporate messaging into your talk. Nobody likes product pitches, but developers are way more sensible about them!

You can, when introducing yourself, include a one-liner about what your company does. As an example, here’s what I do:

Hi, I’m Fred, Director of Developer Relations at Mindee. We offer document data extraction APIs for developers.

Short & sweet! You can also add a slide with your contact information at the end, listing the company website.

Repeat the questions #

If there is a question from someone in the audience without a microphone, repeat the question before answering: it ensures that everybody understands it. Do the same for comments from the audience. If the event is online, do the same for questions taken from the chat. Without anyone hearing or seeing the question, your answer will be out of context and may not be understandable.

Tell a story #

It’s not just kids who love stories: we all do, no matter how old we are. So when sharing about a specific topic, make it a narrative. And not in the sense of a magical Walt Disney way, but be clear about why you are sharing the subject and why people should care.

After all, you decided to learn about a specific technology because you found it interesting and may have uncovered a specific problem. Hopefully, the fact that you’re giving this talk means you’ve solved such an issue, which in the end, is all we want.

You’re doing a good job #

[caption id=“attachment_26021” align=“alignnone” width=“2560”] https://www.pexels.com/@olly\[/caption\]

It may be scary, and you may be stressed out. You may even think, why me? I’m no expert, or maybe you think someone else should be talking about this specific topic.

But you are an expert. You know more than many others, and we were all beginners once. Be proud that you are on stage, and other people in the room are not: it’s true, you are the one taking on this challenge of public speaking. Your first talk may not be the performance of your life, but like with everything else, you’ll get better over time!

Take time for yourself. Disconnect from the internet once in a while. Do things that make you happy and feel better. Avoid toxic people and situations. Find a job that is less stressful. Don’t underestimate the little actions or small life changes you can undertake. Everything toward a better mental health is a wonderful step. Make your mental health a priority: it is critical for your survival! I’m cheering for you…

No one ever said on their deathbed ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office’ — Harold Kushner

I love my job: most of the time, it doesn’t feel like work. Still, I work because I need money to live. Would you work 40 hours, or more, if you didn’t need a paycheck? Maybe you would, but as a pastime, not because you have no choice. So work is work, it’s not life. You need to have a good work-life balance so you can focus on yourself. What you like. What you want. Prioritize your health, and the people you love. Don’t sacrifice anything important in your life for work. Especially if those extra hours are not paid! As much as I wish you the best, you may lose your job tomorrow. Your startup may never be the next unicorn. You may not live long enough to finally slow down. It’s not being dramatic: it’s being realistic. To be clear, I’m speaking about privileged individuals, like me, who can make a living with normal work hours. In other words, your job is only a means to an end…

P.S.: hello boss 😂

In other words, stop caring about what other people think of you. Let’s be real here, most people don’t care about you. I’m not saying this is a mean way, they have their own lives to live. When people do care (positively or not), their opinion of you is really about them. It’s based on who they are, and their value system. That’s it! As long as you are true to yourself in what you do or say, you are in the best position you can be. The only exception to this rule is with people you care deeply about. You should listen carefully about what they have to say, and care about what they think of you. It may help you to grow or rectify something wrong in your life. But even there, it’s still a reflection of themselves, so thread carefully.

Oh, trust me, it is not easy! I’m not there yet, but it’s going in the right direction.

The product of the same name, is a mix of research, algorithm, model training and testing that culminate in easy to use but complete APIs. It can help any companies process and extract text-based data from documents. It’s true that processing receipts or invoices aren’t that exciting, but it’s why we make it easier for you to do so. I also see a lot more potential for developers with our technology. The machine learning and computer vision techniques our scientists and developers put together can do much much more! The technology behind is what motivated me to discuss with them when they approached me. I’m happy I did!

Since it’s my first day, I already have a lot on my plate, but in the meantime, give Mindee a closer look:

• try our free tier which is more than enough for many use cases (oh, and we don’t ask your credit card because we are not evil);
• read the documentation to understand a bit more what we do and how we can help you being successful;
• check our GitHub org and play with our SDKs (JavaScript [doesn’t exist anymore], Node.js, React & Python). Note that Python & Node will be updated soon with the latest release of Mindee. We even have an open source OCR (Optical Character Recognition) app available;
• add us on Twitter.

Soon, we’ll have a Slack/Discord community you’ll be able to join to ask questions and discuss with us and others. Until then, feel free to send me suggestions, comments or insults directly by email or on Twitter.

I am now actively looking for found my next challenge 🎉: a place I’ll be able to call home for many years to come. If you think you have a role for me, here is a cheat sheet for you to evaluate if I could be a great fit.

I want #

• a developer relations leadership role: open to discuss IC roles if the challenge is uber-awesome;
• a real challenge: I get bored easily so I cannot be just another resource to do more of the same;
• certain freedom: I can’t deal with micromanagement;
• trust: you hired me for a reason;
• diversification of the role: focus on writing content only is a technical writer job;
• enough people within -7 to -1 UTC (currently Daylight Savings, otherwise -8 to -2 UTC),  so I don’t feel alone most of the day;
• a work-life balance: I love my job, but I’m not a workaholic.

I am #

• extrovert, passionate, outspoken, colorful, bold and I tweet a lot: it’s part of the package deal;
• experienced: 20 years in tech with 10 in developer relations;
• pragmatic, but I have a preference for anything open source;
• not cheap: I am at a Bay Area director/principal level base salary-wise;
• working remotely for the last 10 years: this won’t change now;
• more than happy to work with a product or technologies I don’t know: I actually love that;
• really good at public speaking, making videos and creating real connections with developers.

I won’t #

• relocate anywhere in North America, but open to everywhere else with proper support;
• be able to work for you remotely unless you have a Canadian entity or use a Professional Employer Organization (it’s easy & cheaper than the former, here’s why);
• work at a startup which doesn’t have at least a Series A;
• have goals that are too close to a dollar sign: developer relations is not sales or presales;
• have a technical focus on native mobile development (or Ionic framework) or any low-level programming languages;
• work for companies that do not align with my values:
  • any Facebook-owned companies (you know why);
  • anything cryptocurrency related (why);
  • Amazon (why);
  • Basecamp (why);
  • Coinbase (why);
  • New Relic (why);
  • Replit (why);
  • Stripe (multiple instances of rescinded signed offers);
  • Uber (I’ll write about how they screwed me up one day).
• work with people who do not like cats 🤣

You can check my resume (PDF) or my LinkedIn profile. You can also find a lot of what I’ve done in this article, and also a list of past talks (169 talks in 22 countries). If you still think I would be a good fit for your team or company, ping me.

• 2020: self-love, intentional, meaningful
• 2019: I forgot to define them 🤦‍♂️
• 2018: energy, mindful, actions
• 2017: freedom, focus, now
• 2016: myself, why, truth
• 2015: health, less, experience
• 2014: quality, impact, minimalism
• 2013: kaizen, time, discovery

In my not so humble opinion, this year will look a lot like the last one. It means staying home, limited social interactions and not much traveling. It’s why I decided to focus even more on personal development. Thus, 2021 will be guided by the words Buddhism, ego and habits.

Buddhism #

It’s no secret that I started to take Buddhism courses last year. I have interest in this philosophy since I took a meditation introduction years ago. I read some books, but never went further. At the beginning of the pandemic I decided to look for Buddhist teaching in Montréal. I found a local Tibetan Buddhist organization. Happily enough, they were offering online courses because “making frantic gesture with my hands pointing everywhere”… Since March, I took nine courses, and I plan to continue at the rate of one course per quarter. The reason it is a word for this year is because I want to take it to the next step, and not simply taking courses. I want to read the books used for the courses and challenge the printed words. I want to take the time to learn and more importantly, understanding the meaning.

Don’t be afraid my friends, Buddhist isn’t a religion nor a sect; it’s a philosophy, a complex one for that matter! Some aspects seems close enough, but the big differences are

1. Our teachers challenges us to doubt everything from the Lamrim (Tibetan Buddhist writings). They don’t ask us to believe blindly.
2. There is no supreme entity that is there to help us: Buddha is an inspiration, an example, but he is not a God-alike.

Yes, I have an altar at home: it is simply an area auspicious to reflections and a meditative state of mind.

Ego #

My ego is larger than the average person, no discussions here, but I don’t think it’s out of proportion either. Let’s normalize a healthy dose of self-belief, and being proud of yourself. What I’m talking about here is the concept of the self. It is, in fact, coming from my learning of Buddhism. It unfortunately brings a lot of negative or unwanted emotions in our life. As my preferred teacher* often says, “We give ourselves too much importance. The result is that things happens to us instead of things happen.”. I paraphrase her, but you get the gist of it. I spare you the details, but it’s much more than that: it is causing us many mental afflictions. So don’t expect me to change too much; it will be internal work, hard work I should say.

Habits #

One way I cope with some of my ADHD symptoms is by having a routine. I’m never as good as I would like. This year, I’ll try to be more intentional about them, trying to add healthier habits to my routine. It seems like it’s a simple thing to do, but it’s not for me. By choosing habits as one of my words, it helps me focus on what is important, and better take care of myself.

I may be a dreamer, but I expect 2021 to be better than 2020, even if it means just living a bit more. I was so anxious during the first couple of months of the pandemic. I socially-distanced saw my friends only once before the harsh cold of the Montréal winter chimed in. I was not even going out for walks… By still being as careful as before, life should be a bit better for me. I definitely welcome a year guided by the words I choose!

* Not you Maya…

Search Is Sexy

What if I tell you that you are using search engines every day? Yes, every day. Of course, there are the web search ones like Google or DuckDuckGo, but it’s not all. When you search something on social media like Twitter, there is a search engine behind. When you check out for the closest coffee shop open on a map service, it’s a search engine. When you are looking for a picture of me in a mankini on my site, it’s… OK, you get the point! Search engines are everywhere. It’s probably the feature that is the most used in most websites and web applications. Let’s be honest, search is sexy…

The problem is, they are often ineffective, giving the users a bad experience. The content indexed is not relevant. They aren’t taking in consideration the human factor vs. searched terms. They are slow. Sometimes, websites or web apps don’t even have any search option… It is painful. It’s why the founders created this free and Open Source search engine.

I am so excited about this new challenge. I’m looking forward to building something meaningful for the developers community. So, give a closer look to our product, and let me know what you think!

I was minded blown when I realized it was true. This will change my life forever, for two specific reasons. If nothing is permanent, it means that my suffering is not either. Don’t get me wrong, suffering is inevitable (worth another blog post), but what I mean is that they will end at some point. Things like feeling sad because of someone’s death or being sick or not having a job. One day, that sadness caused by a loved one who passed way will fade and disappear. You still love and miss them, but you won’t be sad anymore. At some point, you’ll get a new job: if not this week, next month. When you are sick, most of the time it’s for a couple of days, unless you have something incurable. Even in that case, you have days when you don’t suffer. It may sound macabre, but think about that these types of sickness and suffering will go away when you die. The point is that you can find comfort in knowing that the negative experiences we have in life won’t last forever.

We could say the same for positive things happening to us. They won’t last! Once your vacations are done, you need to go back to reality. The amazing evening you have with your friends will end once people call it a night and go to bed. Obviously, they may happen again in the future, but even that is uncertain. Hopefully, some of them will last as long as it can, like a married couple who loved themselves until death teared them apart. In the end, it’s not about feeling defeated by that: it is a way to celebrate life as much as we can. Don’t take those joyful moment for granted. Live them at their fullest because they won’t last.

Nothing is permanent. It is a hard pill to swallow at first, but it’s a beautiful gift of life when you accept that it’s the reality, don’t you think?

What happened? I wasn’t visiting a new country or having drinks with friends. After all, I was only walking back home. This walk was embellished with little pleasures of mine: a podcast and a chilly but sunny day. I was also drinking a beverage I like while getting some green for my cozy home. Truth be told, I didn’t go much to physical stores since the pandemic started. The current situation is causing me a lot of anxiety. The last time I had a latte was in February: I avoided anything from the outside world as much as possible. Damn, I miss coffee shops, but it’s another topic. All that made me realize two things. First, I went beyond what I was capable of covid-wise without feeling too anxious. Trust me, this one is a huge win! Actually, I felt alive for the first time today since the beginning of this new world we live in. Secondly, happiness is in the small things. Quite intense for a trivial afternoon…

Maybe there is a third learning opportunity from today: we should stop chasing happiness, and be content with what we have and who we are… Don’t you think?

First, you can create a legal entity in Canada: it’s fast, inexpensive and easy. This solution only make sense if you plan to hire more people here. There is a misconception that you need to absolutely register your company in Québec to hire me: you can definitely hire me if your company is in another province like Ontario. I’ve done it before without any issues.

The easiest way to legally hire me without a local entity is to use a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), also named Employer of Record (EOR). They will be the middle person between your company and myself. On paper, I will work for them: in reality, I will talk to them only for tax purposes. You will pay them as a service provider including my compensation, cost of benefits, and a fee for their service. The benefit of using a POE is that you can also provide benefits like health insurances. There are plenty out there, like Deel that I’ve used more than once.

In the end, no matter the solution you choose, it will change absolutely nothing for the day-to-day work. So, there is no more reason for not hiring me where I live!

Disclaimer : I invested a lot of money in my physical setup. Keep in mind that online conferences and video recording, even if fun, are part of my job. I’m also working remotely for the last ten years. I’m privileged enough to be able to afford the tools I wanted to get a high-quality job done.

Every time I share a picture of my evolving setup, I get a myriad of questions about it. I’m a huge fan of saving keystrokes, so this article was long overdue.

Apps + Configurations #

The full list of applications I use and my computer configurations are in my Mac setup script, but here are the ones people always want to know about:

Shell: Zsh with Oh My Zsh & starship prompt

Terminal: iTerm2 with robbyrussell theme & seti as my color scheme.

IDEs #

• Vim with Vundle & following plugins:
  • vim-airline: status bar
  • vim-jfmt: JSON prettier
  • vim-plist: plist files editor
  • vim-superman: read man pages with vim
• Visual Studio Code

Browser #

I’m using Google Chrome at the moment, with these extensions.

Hardware #

Audio #

Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-M50x

Microphone: Elgato Wave:3

Microphone Arm: RODE Professional Studio Arm PS1

Microphone Pop Filter: Elgato Wave Pop Filter

Microphone Shock Mount: Elgato Wave Shock Mount

Speakers: Bose Companion 2 Series III

Video #

Webcam: Insta360 Link

Lights: 3 x Elgato Key Lights mounted on the top of Vivo Dual Monitor Desk Mounts & attached with VIVO VESA Adapter Bracket Kit

Green Screen: Elgato Green Screen XL

Desk Setup #

Computer: Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro 14-inch 2024 edition

Desk: standing desk from Ergonofis

Keyboard: Apple Magic Keyboard

Misc: Elgato Stream Deck (first generation)

Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3

Docking Station: CalDigit TS3 Plus

Chair: Herman Miller Embody

Monitors: 2 x Dell 32 Curved 4K UHD Monitor on the Vivo Dual Monitor Desk Mounts

Presenting #

Remote: Logitech Spotlight

Misc #

Smartphone: Apple iPhone 15 Pro

That’s it! I’ll try to keep that article up to date when I change my equipment. I’m always open to suggestions about my setup since it’s always a work-in-progress. Also, feel free to ask any questions I may not have answered here or let me know if I missed something.

P.S.: if you want to see what other people are using, check the Uses Tech website.

I’m primarily looking for a Developer Advocate role: this is where I am at my best. I’m open to an IC (Individual Contributor) or a manager job. I truly enjoy sharing my passion about technology and helping developers being successful.

I have a strong experience: eight years as a Software Developer and ten as a Developer Advocate. I’ve also worked at amazing companies like Microsoft, Mozilla, npm, Fitbit and DigitalOcean. Public speaking is my superpower and something I truly enjoy: I gave more than 160 talks in 22 countries. I also have a knack for creating video content like podcasts or tutorials. Noteworthy, my previous coworkers said that I’m living on Twitter!

To bring the most value to a company, I want to evolve in an environment where trust is a thing: you hire me for a reason! To be at my best, I need some level of freedom and stay away from micromanagement. I’m a fan of the lean startup approach: let’s plan, execute, gather data, evaluate and continue, stop or adjust our tactics. This is how I roll…

One would say that it’s a blessing to be Canadian, especially right now, but it’s my biggest issue. It means that you need to be able to legally hire me in Canada. Don’t worry, it’s easier than you thought and I’ve been remote, working for US-based companies for the last ten years. Important to note that I don’t want to relocate in the United States or anywhere else in Canada. I would love to relocate somewhere in Europe though.

If you are afraid of vocal people, don’t think about me. If you don’t value being bold, don’t think about me. If you are not open to fighting the status quo when it makes sense, don’t think about me. If you are a company that don’t value human life enough to be part of the social changes happening right now, don’t even think about me!

So, if you like cats (it’s how I judge if you are a great person) and you think I am a FUCK YES, drop me a line.

Self-love #

The last years have not been gentle on me. It may be hard to believe if you’ve seen me at work, but my self-esteem and my self-confidence were badly hurt. Focusing on self-love means that I will learn to love myself (again).

It means, taking care of myself, mentally, but even more, physically. It is the one thing that could positively and hugely impact all other areas of my life. It’s about listening to myself and prioritizing my well-being. It’s also, if not more, about self-compassion.

Intentional #

Intentional mean done on purpose. It’s exactly what I want to do: be more deliberate with my actions. Trying to be less impulsive and more thoughtful. Planning more, and setting clear, written and specific goals. It’s also living according to my values.

Meaningful #

Early in my life, I achieved most of the goals I had. Since I often feel like I’m a zombie, living day after day without a purpose. I don’t know what’s next for me, so I want to bring more meaning to my life. I want to have more meaningful relationships and fewer mindless activities. I want to live more. I want to be more.

Those words will guide me throughout the next year, helping me become my best self! In 2020, I will be more intentional, make my life more meaningful and focus on self-love… How about you? How do you envision and empower yourself for the next 365 days?

P.S.: my 2013 (first year, explaining where this concept comes from and why I decided to follow it), 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 words.

I spent more than one third of my life with her. She was 14 years old. It’s a good life for a cat you will tell me. I will answer you that I was expecting a lot more. She was healthy, until she was not. It went so fast. It went too fast. For many, it’s hard to understand, but she was like a kid to me. She was my little girl! How dare I compare an animal to a human? I dare. I loved her. But it’s fine. You don’t have to understand. I don’t need you to. That won’t heal my wounds. That won’t stop the suffering. She was my little girl. My girl. Java.

She is not there anymore, waiting for me to get out of the shower.

She is not lying next to my head anymore, waiting for me to fall asleep to run some errand.

She is not inspecting every new item entering my place anymore.

She is not sleeping between me and my keyboard with her little head on my wrist anymore.

She is not looking at me with her eyes clearly saying, I love you hooman.

She is not there anymore… my little girl!

Hopefully, she had a great life. I hope she did. She had everything she needed and more. She was loved, probably too much for her own good sometimes. She loved too. Hopefully, I have great memories of her. Hopefully, I have great memories with her. I still love her. I still miss her. Time will help, but time will never make me forget her. After all, she was my little girl…

DO Culture #

It’s one thing to have the company’s values written on the website, it’s another to live them and DigitalOcean do. It is critical for me that my employer has values that I respect. The company’s culture is the foundation of my decision to join or not a new adventure. Simplicity, trustworthy, speaking up, and love are part of my personal values. Listening, respect and the community-driven approach are part of my professional values too. Can the fit be better, I think not! I can see those throughout the work and the daily interactions of my colleagues. These resonate into the Developer Relations team, which has the same vision as me on how we can help developers being successful while contributing to the company growth. We spend so much time at work, loving what we do is important.

DO People #

The people you hire are a reflection of your values, and the foundation of your company. I cannot write about all the organization, but the people I’ve worked with or meet really are amazing. They are folks who care! They care about their work. They care about the community. They care about our customers and most important, they care about each other. My team (Developer Relations), my virtual team (Hatch program) and my department (Community) are composed of a bunch of lovely humans. Love and people first, seem to be our unofficial motto.

DO Care #

I’m a big believer that you should trust, empower, and invest in your people. After all, the company wouldn’t exist without them! There are different ways to do that. On the trust and empowerment level, the space my manager gives me to be creative and achieving my goals is a perfect example. He is there to support me when needed, but leave me the space I need to be successful and happy at work. DO invest in their employees in many ways. Of course, compensations and benefits are really good, but for me, it’s the attention to details. As an example, since I don’t have access to the offices’ perks, I receive coffee and snacks at home monthly. I can definitely afford those, but it’s one way to make remotes feel they are part of the company. Another example that I cherish a lot is the fact that, once a month, I can order an ebook that will help me with my work. They are small gestures, but with more than 600 employees, it adds up quickly finance-wise. Here, I’m not even talking about the fact we just had a company offsite at Disney Land…

Obviously, no place is perfect, and we have some glitches here and there, but overall, DO is one of the best workplaces I had. The best thing about all this is that they seem to appreciate me! I know it’s not always easy to work with a strong personality like mine, but they get along with the good, the bad, and the ugly… I’m also proud of what I’ve accomplished and the impact I had, which is important for me. So after 27 weeks at DigitalOcean, I sincerely hope that it’s only the beginning of my journey with Sammy the shark!

Food #

• Eat poutine at La Banquise. Some locals are saying that it’s overrated, but I still think it’s the best place to try this local, non-healthy specialty: take a regular one (French fries, curd cheese and gravy - that’s it).
• Eat a smoke-meat sandwich at Schwartz’s Deli. It is not that disgusting thing in the US called corned beef. You’ll have the full experience at the original restaurant - not the take-out next to it - and it’s cash only (they have an ATM inside). It’s a small restaurant, and there is often a long line-up.
• Eat bagels at St-Viateur Bagel or Fairmount Bagel. I know you already had bagels, but you never had a good one, trust me!
• Eat a beaver’s tail at Queues de Castor. It’s a dessert, and obviously, not from real beaver. They have multiple locations in the city.

Restaurants / Bars / Coffee Shops #

• Benelux Verdun - the service is slow, but it’s a nice terrace in the west of Montréal. Go there in the summer.
• Dieu du Ciel - A must for craft/microbrewery beer.
• Gibeau Orange Julep - a landmark in Montréal.
• L’Auberge du Dragon Rouge - Old French restaurant/bar. You go there for the “show”.
• L’île Noire Pub - Scotches & gin, best places to try the good stuff.
• La Distillerie (3 locations) - Cocktails served in Mason jars.
• Le Sainte-Élisabeth - four-walled terrace, accessible during Spring and Autumn.
• Les Foufounes électriques - bar with multiple concert spaces, and dance floors focussing on alternative music.
• Terrasse Nelligan - overpriced, but one of the best terrace views in town.

Museums #

• Montréal Museum of Fine Arts - fine arts museum.
• Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal - contemporary arts museum.
• Pointe-à-Callière - Montréal archeological and history museum.

Activities #

• L’International des Feux Loto-Québec - Summer weekly fireworks. You don’t need to buy a ticket - they are blocking the Notre-Dame street so people can watch them from there.
• Orchestre symphonique de Montréal: if you like classical music, our orchestra is world-renowned.
• Piknic Électronik - electronic music every Sunday (summer only).
• Tam-Tams - every Sunday during summer time, people go there to play tam tam together. If you don’t smoke weed or don’t like the smell (like me!), be warned…
• Wiggle Room - Burlesque show. I never went there, it’s on my list since forever, but I heard great things about it.
• We also have a lively gay village with many bars, restaurants, and karaoke.

Points of interest #

• Atwater Market - If you want to shop locally food and drinks-wise, it’s the best market we have.
• Clock Tower - Located in the old port, it’s a great spot to take a break of walking in the city, and enjoy sangria during summer time. If you have kids, there’s a lot of activities in the Old Port (check the kids’ section).
• Jean-Talon Market - Not as hyped as the Atwater market, but some would say it’s less overrated.
• La Fontaine Park - Great park, go there with friends for a BBQ or just relaxing while reading a book.
• Mount Royal mountain - Perfect for some time in nature and some easy hiking.
• Old Port - Nice area with old buildings, tourist restaurants (read expensive) and many activities during summer time.
• Saint Joseph’s Oratory - If you are religious or just like church architecture.

Festivals #

• Just for laughs - Wanna laugh, you find the festival for it. They also have many free shows outside.
• Heavy Montréal - Heavy-Metal music festival, not my type of music, but it’s quite popular.
• Francos de Montréal - A music festival dedicated to music in French. Like any big festivals here, they have many free shows outside.
• Montréal International Jazz Festival - Don’t get fooled by the name, it’s not just about Jazz. They have many free shows outside.
• Mondial de la bière - For the beer lover out there, our annual beer festival.
• Osheaga - I have never been there, but it’s a popular music festival.
• And many more, just search for what to do in Montréal and you’ll find hundreds of activities daily, seriously!

Kids’ Friendly Activities #

Some of those activities are good for kids only, but most are fun for all ages.

• Biodome - I’m not huge on anything caging animals, but it’s a must to learn more about some of them.
• Botanical Garden - maybe less interesting for kids, but each year between September and October, there is the lights and lanterns festival which kids, and adults will love for sure.
• IMAX Telus Theater - 3D movies.
• Insectarium - if you are into insects.
• La Grande Roue de Montréal - a Ferris wheel in the Old Port (summer only).
• La Ronde - Attractions park.
• Planetarium - to learn more about the planets.
• Science Center - I heard a lot of great things about it.
• SOS Labyrinthe - this is a classic (summer only)
• Space Immersion - not sure what the experience is, but it was suggested by a friend.
• Voiles en Voiles - aerial courses, inflatable games, archery tag arena and more. Super popular with kids.
• Ziplining - you know what this is (summer only). Sorry, the website seems to be French only.

Public transit is quite easy to use, but Uber is available here. Montréal is a safe city, so you don’t have to worry, but as with anywhere in the world, don’t let your things unsupervised, and lock the doors. I’ll try to update this list as often as possible and fellow Montréalers, feel free to suggest additions to my list. Lastly, please let me know when you are in town so we can meet.

In the last three to four years, I’ve been working a lot of my mental health. I see clear results from those efforts, but it’s time for me to add my physical health in this journey. I reached a point where the consequences of my inaction outgrown the pain of taking care of myself. I’ve never been active and I have the worst eating habits once can have. Today, it is changing, and I’m asking all of you to be my accountability buddies!

I am overweight, and I’m lucky, or should I say, unlucky that I look slimmer than I am. Truth is, based on my BMI, I’m severely obese. Writing those words are like a punch in the face. It hurt. It hurt a lot, but it’s the truth. That weight combines with my extreme sedentary life brought a bunch of problems in the last years. I have a very high blood pressure (controlled with medications) for my age. I also have sleep apnea, which could disappear if I was losing weight. It’s been years that I’m sleeping with a CPAP and it’s a pain in the ass. I also have ADHD, general anxiety and I am a good candidate for depressions, since I made one in 2015. I’m also constantly lacking energy, which isn’t surprising seeing how I (don’t) nourish my body. Last week, my blood tests came back with another bad news: I’m pre-diabetic. I guess it’s what I needed to start taking my physical health seriously. Moving more, eating better and losing weight will fix some issues and help in other areas of my life. I need to take actions before it’s too late.

So, I started yesterday, planning the beginning of a new healthier life. For me, it means moving a little more, and way less restaurants. WWAHPD is an acronym I’m using to help me make better choices: What Would A Healthy Person Do? I know you will all have great advice and I thank you for that. I know it’s coming from a place of compassion, but it’s not what I need right now. What I’m looking for is trust, trust that I can do it. I also need people to cheers me up for the time I make better choices. Putting in my face, even as a (not funny) joke, that where I am or what I’m eating doesn’t fit my new journey won’t help. It will have the opposite effect. Keep in mind that it won’t be perfect. I won’t be perfect. It’s a process. It’s 37 years of bad habits I need to change. Slow and constant small improvements are the key to my success! In the end, I’m not just trying to lose weight: I am building lifetime healthy habits.

Every week, I’ll update this article with a small review on how the last seven days went. Every day, I will record a small video sharing about the day, my insights, issues and victories. It will be a way for me to be accountable, find what is working for me and hopefully, to inspire others.

I. Will. Fucking. Do. This!

It helped me with my overall mindfulness, and lowering down my anxiety. It supported me in my journey to live a more meaningful life by enhancing my self-awareness which also helped me better manage my emotions. It was also a way to prove myself that I can and should take better care of my physical and mental health. Often forgotten as a plus, it is giving me a moment of quietness and a way to slow down in a world where everything goes fast!

Even if the principle is simple, it can be intimidating at the beginning. I started with guided meditations using the Calm app (available on iOS and Android). Having a guided voice was helping me understand what I was doing. I even went to a local Buddhist temple for an introduction course on the topic. Meditation is often associated with Buddhism, but there is no need for you to follow this philosophy. Today, I use no app and no music, as I found it was easier for me after a couple of months, to do it in silence. I now meditate 30 minutes per day, but it is not a competition. You can start with as little as five minutes, which is enough to have a positive impact.

There are many ways to meditate, but in its simplest form, the process is not complicated, but can be frustrating at first. No need for special decorum. The only thing you need to do is to focus on the airflow that goes in and out of your nostrils when you breathe normally. The idea isn’t to stop thinking. It’s about bringing back the focus on your breath when you realize your mind is wandering elsewhere. It’s important to acknowledge the thoughts you have without judgment. It was the part I struggled the most when I started. It frustrated me that I wasn’t able to "stop thinking”. When I understood it wasn’t the goal, it became a lot more enjoyable. Now, I am able to focus a lot more on my breath before another thought arises.

This article is a quick glimpse of my meditation journey. I hope it is helping you understand how it can be beneficial for you also. Now that you have an idea how, start today and take five minutes during your lunch break. Sit at your desk, close your eyes and focus on your breath… Who knows, you may become addicted to meditation!

Working with a new coworker is like taking a walk in an unknown city. You aren’t sure what to expect. You don’t know if you will like it. You’re not even sure if the local culture will align with yours. To make it easier and more enjoyable for my new colleagues, I thought I could write a bit about who I am.

I’m an intense and passionate person, and I love what I do for a living. Because of that, I may come up as impatient, but I’m a firm believer that nothing is truly urgent in life. If the answer is no to “is someone dying”, then it’s not urgent! I’m quite laid back, so no stress, seriously! I’m someone assertive, transparent and an extrovert. It definitely translates in the way I’m interacting with others. I’m colorful and I like to politely tease people, but my goal is never to offend anyone, so please let me know if I do. I have no tolerance for sexism, racism, transphobia, ageism, ableism or anything around those lines. French is my first language, but I consider myself bilingual.

I have ADHD. While it does present challenges, I’ve developed strategies over time to manage it effectively, so it doesn’t affect my work. In fact, it’s part of why I thrive in environments that are stimulating. In other words, I’m at my best when I’m challenged.

I learned to be good with work life balance, and I’m working in the ET/EDT time zone when I’m not traveling. I’m not checking my emails or Slack during the evenings or weekends when I’m not at an event. I also use the pomodoro technique, which means that I focus on tasks 25 minutes at the time and don’t constantly check Slack. I avoid notifications as much as possible, but don’t worry, I always get back to everyone in a timely manner. Text communication-wise, I overuse emojis and Slack reactions.

I will fight the status quo if I believe we can have a bigger impact or be more efficient. With that said, I’m a big fan of the “disagree and commit” approach. I value feedback a lot and I don’t take them personally, so please, don’t be shy: anything is up for discussion. I manage developer relations (or my work as an IC) as a lean startup. Try things, measure, fail fast if needed, and learn along the process. Since it’s a recurrent question, you can write my name in two ways: Fred or when writing it with my last name, Frédéric Harper. As for how to call me, I prefer when people just call me Fred. My pronouns are "he” and "him”.

Lastly, I’m a crazy cat man, a huge “The Office US” fan, and I teach meditation & Buddhist philosophy on my free time. I could write a lot more about myself, but the goal is to give somewhat of a quick high-level introduction on who I am and how I work. I felt that those points were more important as they can have a positive (or negative) impact on our new work relationship. In the end, I get shit done and I hope we’ll have fun together!

Keep two things in mind before reading those:

1. Those articles are based on my vision of developer relations, which differ a lot from one company to another in the industry;
2. Some articles are old, but still relevant. When you read “technical evangelist”, it applies to “developer advocate”. When I started, the latter didn’t exist, and I always considered them as the same.

I may add more articles in the future, and even some external resources to give you some nuance and other points of view.

What is a developer advocate? #

My vision of the role itself and the day to day

How to look for a technical evangelist job #

So you figured out that it would be a good fit for you? Now it’s time to look for your next challenge.

How I became a technical evangelist #

People often ask me how I moved from a full-time developer to developer relations, so here is my story

Technical Evangelist – where soft skills become hard skills #

My take on the skills that are crucial to be successful in that role

The 50 questions you want to ask when applying for a technical evangelist role #

I should make a new list as this one is old, but still relevant for the most parts

Personal branding, the recording of my presentation #

Personal branding is an important piece of this role. As I like to say, you are the friendly technical approachable social face of the company

Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions. I would be more than happy to share my experience with you!

Yes, even if I don’t know how to swim (I had severe otitis until 18 years old), I’m not afraid of the water! The fit of this challenge is astonishing: they believe in the importance of developer relations and they understand my role.  Our values are quite similar and they were interested in me as a whole (which come with the good, the bad, and the ugly). Also, the people I’ve talked to were amazing. Oh, and I love the mascot, Sammy, the friendly shark. The cloud was inevitable for me, as most of my discussions were with companies offering some space on their servers. Anyhow, it’s not new to me: Microsoft Azure (Windows Azure at that time) was one of my focus when I was a blue badge. As someone who loves to learn and play with many technologies, the cloud is the place to be! We all need it, no matter the scale of our products, the programming languages we use or where we live!

My focus will be on startups and it’s a blessing for me. I love the passion and creativity coming out from the young (and older) minds. It’s a privilege to be able to help developers being successful, even more at an early stage. It doesn’t mean that I won’t speak to other audience of developers, but my focus will be on startups related to our offering for them, Hatch.

My first day is the 21st of May, but I wasn’t able to wait to share my new journey with you! If you are using DO, I would love for you to share your experience with me, and if you don’t, we need to talk!

Don’t worry, the content type or my style won’t change. I keep the technical article for my blog’s employer (when I have one), so this one is all about high-level topics like developer relations, and most importantly, any other personal ideas or point of view I want to share with the rest of the world. Keep in mind that it’s my site, my way of expressing myself whether people love it or not, I do it for me first! I still believe in the power of blogging, and even more, especially these days, about the fact that we don’t own most of the content we create online, and that owning my own shit is the way to go!

So, as always, welcome home my friends…

I’ve been doing that job for more than five years and I still love being an evangelist (the title I prefer, but in the end, it’s the same role for me). For me, it’s the fine mix between two of my passions: technology and people! With a focus on the CLI tools, my day-to-day job will be about creating awareness around our technology and helping developers being successful. Even more important, I’ll be the voice of our fantastic community to represent them, us, internally. What does that mean? I’ll write blog articles, help on our forums, push some code in our GitHub repositories, speak at conferences, give some love to our YouTube channel and much more.

On that note, I have to ramp up on this new challenge, so I’m leaving you with my “Fred is happy” dance (recorded two weeks ago at an Oktoberfest in Sri Lanka) that summarize my current state well… Sorry, it cannot be unseen (insert evil laugh)!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqJRKR0HRLr/

Uber #

I’ve been a customer since they launched in San Francisco a couple of years ago and happily using the service anywhere in the world. I firmly believe in the sharing economy and what people may not know is that technology is at the core of Uber. What I did not know is that Uber is into Open Source and wants to strengthen and expand OSS culture inside and outside of the organization. Can you see my name written on the job description, because I do.

San Francisco #

I’ve had opportunities to move in the past, but the timing wasn’t there, so today is the day. San Francisco is the city I’ve traveled the most outside of Canada and I’ve always been charmed by it. I like the culture, the weather (so tired of Canadian’s winter), the people and more. I made local friends over the years and as someone working in tech, it’s the place to be.

I see this as a possibility to move toward multiple aspects of my personal and professional goals. Friends from Montréal, things will go fast and will be crazy as I’m moving in about a month (yes, you read well). Be assured that I’ll organize a gathering to celebrate this new adventure with you and that I’ll be back from time to time to annoy you!

No need to say that I’m super excited about this new journey!

Define what is evangelism for you #

As I mentioned in my article what is a developer advocate, this job title does not always have the same meaning from one place to another. So it’s important that you define what is exactly the role you are looking for.

What is the high-level mission you should take on? What day-to-day actions should you do to reach your potential goals? What is the kind of impact this new hire will have on the business? What do you need and how other parts of the company can support you? There are many questions you can ask during the interview process, but be prepared to know what kinds of answers you are looking for.

No matter what, be ready to toss away some interesting potential opportunities when you realize you don’t have the same vision about that job. Don’t be afraid to also let it go when the hiring process is shitty: quite often, HR is a great representation of everything that goes wrong inside a company…

Define the scope of the role vs the life you want #

In addition to the role itself, relocation and travelling are important points you don’t want to underestimate.

Depending on the company and where you live, there are a lot of chances that they want you where they are. At that point, it’s your choice, but they should deal with the relocation logistic and everything cost-wise. Still, it’s a big life change! Be ready as it will probably be one of the first questions they’ll ask you to help them filter candidates.

As for travelling, depending on the company’s vision, it will be between 20 and 80% of your time. There are many reasons for that. Your team is distributed and you will meet every quarter. Maybe you are remote and need to go to the mothership once in a while. You mentor hackathons, attend meetups or speak at conferences. No matter what, travel will be involved. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun, but it’s also demanding on different levels.

Showcase your personal brand #

Life is all about perception, whether you like it or not, so take the ownership of your personal brand, because even if you didn’t know, you have one.

Even if I firmly believe that soft skills are more important than hard skills in that type of role, your future manager wants someone with the right fit. Research what is needed for the job you want and show the people in the hiring process that you get what they need.

My last piece of advice is to use LinkedIn as much as you can. Traditional resume is dead: I don’t have one since more than 8 years, so my LinkedIn profile is my weapon of choice. Be sure it’s updated! I also used LinkedIn for search and alerts to be sure I didn’t miss any opportunities. It’s the only tool I’ve used in addition to my network in my last searches. Quite often, time is the key.

Be the candidate they have no choice to hire #

Be decisive, be clear and put your limits. You don’t have to be as bold as me, but, be sure that you are making the right choice when accepting that offer.

The hiring process is usually long. No matter the size of the company, it will take a minimum of two months. Including often more than height interviews (I had eleven at Fitbit)! So the better you are prepared and the more you know what you want, and don’t want, the sooner you’ll land your dream job.

By coming prepared like that and being proactive on many fronts when I started to look for a new job, it saved me a lot of time and I can definitely say that after being at Fitbit for 5 months now that I’ve made the right choice… Since it’s all about passion and that we are spending so much time at work, you don’t want to end up somewhere where you won’t be happy, do you?

Energy #

Last year, I attended Tony Robbins’s event in New York City, Unleash the Power Within. I want to write an article about my experience, but to sum it up, it wasn’t a breakthrough for me as it was for most people. Don’t get me wrong, I got a lot from these three and a half days. I even walked on fire. Yes, I fucking walked on fire, it’s crazy!

One of the things that resonate with me is that energy is the foundation of everything. Without energy, you cannot accomplish your goals. It also makes it harder to stay in emotional state that benefits you. For different reasons, it’s been a couple of months that I’m lacking energy. I know that fixing this issue in my life is the key to my success. To achieve this, I’ll need a complete lifestyle change which I started last year. Exercising more, eating healthier and prioritizing sleep are part of this change.

Mindful #

Mindfulness is a trend and I understand why. In today’s life, we often don’t take the time to live or we live through social media instead. I want to be more in phase with myself and the wonderful world that we are living in. It’s far from perfect! Still, there are so many great things that we take for granted, or don’t appreciate to their fullest. Being mindful for me means to slow down, take the time to appreciate the moment. It’s also about being more grateful, take control of my emotions and even working on my spiritual side.

Actions #

The previous two words will mean nothing if they just stay thoughts. They need to be transformed into actions. It applies to every goal in life: these won’t magically happen and taking actions is the key. Taking massive actions, I should say. Keeping my goals in mind, making plans, writing them, working on them every day and making them habits.

We should not wait for January 1st to do the right thing, but in the end, it doesn’t matter as long as we move forward. We need to create the joyful and happy life that we want, the one that we deserve. After a couple of shitty years, I can feel it: 2018 will be phenomenal for me. I hope it will be the same for you, my friends… Happy New Year!

I like to define myself as the friendly social technical approachable face of the company. The foundation of my work is people: connecting with them, connecting with my audience, developers. Why? It’s about helping developers being successful and bringing feedback to the product team. Of course, I would prefer that you achieve your goals, no matter what they are, by using the product or service of my employer. In the end, we, advocates and evangelists, are one of the contact points that make a company more human and accessible.

To achieve this, a massive chunk of my time is dedicated to create trust relationships and outreach opportunities. It’s also a matter of finding the right balance between offline and online, which means:

• speaking at conferences and user groups;
• building relationship with developers and tech influencers;
• writing articles and updating documentation;
• be a spokesperson of the enterprise in the media and everywhere you go;
• helping developers at hackathons and online forums;
• networking at meetups and at conferences’ after-parties;
• preparing talks and writing code demos;
• connecting with people on different social media channels;
• learning new technology and knowing the right people inside as outside of the company;
• creating interesting video content like video tutorials, interviews or podcasts;
• working with, what I call, virtual evangelists to help us grow together (Microsoft MVP and the Mozilla ReMo are great examples);
• discussing technology and brainstorm ideas with people;
• collaborate with partners, customers and event organizers;
• bringing feedback to influence, when needed, the product roadmap.
• and more…

To achieve this, you need a high level of transparency, integrity and honesty with your peers. Credibility is the secret sauce here. You also need a trust relationship with your employer. You work closely with so many people from marketing, legal, engineering, support and many other entities inside the business. Trust remains the mandatory ingredient here as you both want to achieve your goals. You need to understand their priorities to find great collaboration opportunities. You need to be passionate about technology and have the facility to share that passion. Being social with an extrovert tendency doesn’t hurt. Even more important, being empathic to developers’ day to day and struggles is the key.

I’m glad I’m back in that role I missed so much. The line has always been fuzzy between working and having fun while I’m doing what I like for a living. Actually, I think it should always be like this! People, technology, innovation and helping others make me a happy camper…

My perfect fit #

I’ve changed job quite often in the last years, so I was looking for some stability. A company mature and big enough to stay in business for a while and where I’ll be able to continue to grow my career. On the other side, I wanted a business small enough so I wouldn’t be just a number and where I’ll be able to have an impact. The product and the company needed to be something I like, be comfortable to talk about, and something I would be passionate about. Passion is critical in this role! I needed a challenge and being able to build something: I could not have it easy or being just another performer. Lastly, but not least, the vision of the role should be the same as mine (job description is quite different from one place to another with this title) and the people would need to be awesome, as awesome you can judge someone in a 30 minutes discussion…

Fitbit & me #

I’ve been a Fitbit user for years and always loved their products. I started with the Ultra and bought too many Fitbit One (I lost at least 4 of those). I also use the Aria scale (v1) since a couple of years and I’m now the proud owner of the Ionic, the latest product from Fitbit. I’m sporting this watch for three weeks now and loving it. On top of that, you can find on their about page this text which resonates with me:

We’re a passionate team dedicated to health and fitness who are building products that help transform people’s lives. While health can be serious business, we feel it doesn’t have to be. We believe you’re more likely to reach your goals if you’re encouraged to have fun, smile, and feel empowered along the way.

Of course, it can be some corporate bullshit, but I had the feeling all along that it was at the core of who they are. Some of you may know, but I’m in a journey to be healthier, physically and emotionally. On the former, I already lost 31 pounds and I feel better overall. I go to the gym three times a week, meditate daily, and try to cook more, drink less and make better choices. In other words, Fitbit’s mission is a great fit with where I am in my life today.

The job #

I’m so excited about this new challenge and the trust that they are putting in me as their new Senior Developer Advocate. I’ll have the pleasure to work with passionate people like Jon Barlow who is the only Developer Advocate right now. The release of the Ionic and a SDK that let developers use web technologies to build applications. It open up new opportunities for them to publish their masterpiece on this new platform. There is an interesting similitude with what I was doing at Mozilla with Firefox OS. My role is all about helping developers being successful while bringing feedback to the product team. Going back in that role, that I was missing so much, also means that I’m back on the conferences’ circuit. Feel free to ping me if you want me to speak at your event or meetup.

Feel free to drop me an email, connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn and add me as a Fitbit friend… I’m so excited about this new journey and do some epic shit!

P.S.: I’ll be at our first NorCal Fitbit Developers meetup this Thursday.

Many years ago, after more than one miscarriage and a doctor advising against trying again because of her advanced age, my mother gave birth to me at the age of forty-two. I was a premature baby, weighing only two pounds (yes, you read well): I stayed in an incubator for months. Fortunately enough, after that, I was a perfectly healthy baby. No need to say that I was my parents little miracle as anyone who knows them can tell. I was also a lucky baby: you don’t choose your biological parents and mine were exceptional. They were always there for me and they loved me unconditionally. My father is still an important part of my life and I love him very much, but you know, I’ve always been my mother’s son.

She was always happy and one of the most generous women I’ve known. She brought me a lot and I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it wasn’t about her. Most of my core values came from my education, from my parents’ values. Honesty, generosity, love and being happy in life are some of those. She always did whatever she can to help me be happy and live a great life. I’ve always been her first priority, even pushing her own needs after mine. She was a loving and proud mother. My biggest regret is that she saw me in a terrible state when I was not well: her son was in a lot of pain, I know she was too. She was that kind of woman…

On June 25 last year, the woman I loved and still love so much left this world. Deep down, you know: there are way more chances you survive your parents than the opposite. Still, I don’t think you are ever ready. I was not! She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer and that asshole was quite aggressive. It was imminent, but I was still not ready, at all. That day, my entire world felt apart. She was not there anymore. I knew it was better for her: she didn’t suffer and honestly, she wasn’t living anymore, thanks to her illness. Still, I was selfish: I didn’t want her to go. I didn’t want her to leave me. That day, I became a man.

They say that all the first time after a loved one is gone are the hardest: first birthday, first Christmas celebrations, first mother’s day, first family dinner… For me, simply talking about her is hard: it brings me tears every time. I guess it will become easier with time, but for me, it will never be easy. I still think about her every day and I miss her so much. She was a religious woman going to church every week: God had an important part in her life. Knowing that, I firmly believe that she is up there, watching me…

Maman, je t’aime!

• the vision of the job didn’t fit mine: quite often they are Technical Writer, Technical Support or Sales Engineer roles with a different title;
• the company or product was not as interesting (for me) as I thought: you need to be passionate about the products, services and the company to be successful in this job;
• I was not comfortable with the hiring process: more on that later, it’s basically the main point of this post;
• or simply because the hiring manager didn’t think I was a good fit for the role or the company, which is totally fine for me. It needs to be a great fit on both sides!

So what about the uncomfortable hiring process? I mentioned some unpleasant experiences, but rarely things that would prevent me from moving forward. Still, there is one thing that doesn’t make sense for me: when you ask candidates, during the interview process, to spend personal time building an application or code demo, write an article, create or give a new talk or even, build a plan about one’s vision for the next fiscal year… For me, this is wrong on more than one level:

1. I don’t want to sound like Scrooge, but I’m already volunteering: twice per months, I’m mentoring new volunteers at Suicide Action Montréal. What you are asking me to do, if done well, takes time and is not free: people are paying me big bucks as a freelancer to do these and it’s why you will give a paycheque to the candidate you’ll hire. I hope it’s not like this most of the time, but when I discussed this topic in my network, many people told me they got screwed by potential employers who only wanted some free brain juice: some of them even used the work of the candidate they didn’t hire…
2. Interview processes already takes a lot of time without this special request: quite often it’s a minimum of 5 interviews (I know, it’s crazy) going from 30 to 60 minutes in addition to flying for a full day at the headquarters (so usually 2-3 days in total including flying time). Let’s not fool ourselves here: even if I carefully choose where I’m applying, since I’m actively looking for a job, I’m in this process with more than one company at the time. On top of that, knowing that those processes usually range from three to six weeks from the first discussion to the offer, if any; in the meantime, I still need to take contracts: you know, paying bills!
3. Unless you are looking for someone with no experience, which is not the case here, there is already plenty of my work out there. Maybe it’s not exactly about the technology you work with or not even related to your product, but it will give you a great idea on my coding skills or even more important here, my writing style or my public speaking experience.
4. In my humble opinion, it’s also the least effective way to validate the expertise or knowledge of someone. It’s easier for a self-learner to search the web, read some documentation or listen to some talks and come up with a plausible blog post. It’s the same for public speaking: if you don’t get too many questions, you can be the expert on the stage by knowing just enough. You can do it with coding too: as a freelancer I was mostly doing project rescue and I had successfully deliver projects with technologies I’ve never used before. Don’t get me wrong, I never lied to anyone about my knowledge, but I often had to fake it till I made it, until I became good enough. This specific role brings you in positions where you often need to learn new technology or take on new products. It happened to me in all jobs I had and as far as I’m concerned, you should be looking for someone that has the soft skills as the technical parts of the role (your product, technology, framework…) can be learned: which is why I’m applying on Technical Evangelist opportunities where the focus is a technology or product I don’t know… but it’s a different story.

To be honest, it didn’t happen to me often: only twice since I moved to developer relations, as people usually don’t go that way with this kind of role, but I’ve seen the coding thing quite often for Software Engineer jobs (don’t get me started about the live coding test). Last time it happened to me, I suggested that the hiring manager have a discussion instead. I think it’s way harder to fake knowledge like this and it’s a far better way to acknowledge someone’s skills. Unfortunately, she didn’t go that way, so I withdraw from the process as I’m definitely not a good fit for the company. The thing is, I know the technology and I could have been able to write the article quite easily, but I wanted to stay true to myself (living by the no bullshit policy, whether you like it or not).

I know, it’s an important role to fill, with a lot of exposure, so you don’t want to invest in someone who won’t fit the bill, but by asking candidates requests like these during the interview process, even if the intentions are good, I firmly believe that you may not help yourself…

If I vulgarize, soft skills are personal traits that help someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with others. Those skills can be social, communication specifics or people related: basically anything that can help you work wells with others and be successful by complementing your hard skills. As far as I know, this is what mostly all employers are looking for, no matter if you have a customer facing type of job or you’ll work alone and talk to no one. Even if it’s not written in the job description, employer will often prefer someone with good soft skills when the technical experience is on par. On the other side, hard skills are usually related to your expertise and experience. They are quantifiable. As an example, for a software developer, it could be about being able to write code with a specific technology to create web applications or the ability to apply those to learn concepts to new programming languages quickly. If you are in the technology industry, you know that many developers lack when it comes to social and communications skills, still, many are terrific coders, way better than me. It’s true, and I’m not saying that to be negative, it’s a stereotype that holds up, but please, bear with me, there’s a point to that…

Where the line becomes blurry is with jobs like developer advocates or, even outside of the tech industry, retail vendors: jobs where usual soft skills are in fact, hard skills or should be treated like hard ones. You can’t have a developer advocate not being social, having issues to communicate clearly, or not being driven by people: people, as a focus, is 90% of the job, if not more. Either that person won’t be happy in the role, they won’t achieve their goals or they won’t help your company being successful: you can fake it for a while, but like anything in life, it’s not sustainable. What if, as a developer advocates, my articles wouldn’t resonate with anybody? What if, at conferences, I wouldn’t mingle and create connections with the attendees? What if, once on stage, I wouldn’t be able to explain my points clearly? What if, I wouldn’t be able to build trusted relationships with my co-workers, my target audience or influencers in my domain of expertise? I bet you wouldn’t hire me or would kick me out of the building even before I had the time to show my cats’ picture to all my co-workers! On the other side, at a certain extend, you can perfectly have, as my example below, a software engineer who doesn’t have any people skills, who isn’t social and who isn’t the best at communicating with other living humans. You probably want someone who has those soft skills, but if you have a manager who can handle this type of person, as much as I hate that term, you may have a rock star within your team.

In situations where people diminish the value and importance of those skills, I personally find it reducing and let’s say it, quite insulting. Not just for me, but for all my friends being in roles, in the tech industry or not, where what is usually considered soft skills, are basically hard ones: without those, you couldn’t be successful, at all. Hard skills are usually easier to learn and get better at than soft one, even if doable. Still, most of the time, it’s highly tied to one’s personality, which comes naturally. For each job I had, I didn’t know the technology or the core of the business, but I was successful. Why? Because I had, and still have a developer and developer relations mindset and personalty; I always learned the technologies and will continue to do so. I think most developers are good learner since if we stop educating ourselves, we will be out of our league in no time. So, if I had to hire a developer advocate today, I would bet on someone with the skills that are harder to acquire, read here, the “soft skills”, than looking for a person who has plenty of experience with your specific technology and will “learn” the “soft skills”…

Is it the type of small talk that ring a bell? For too long, I was either the one answering that stupidity or the one adding to that nonsense. Firstly, most people don’t care about how you feel: if you answer something in the line of “not good”, and discomfort will ensue. Trust me, been there done that! Secondly, how “being busy” could be a good answer? It may make you unhappy. It may give you the impression your life is perfect. Still, you don’t even answer the question, but I know why we do this. We want to be part of the cool kids and they are freaking busy these days…

Let’s be clear, being busy isn’t a status sign, a badge of honor nor a resultant of being successful. The only thing it shows is that: A) you are not able to say no; B) you don’t know how to manage a schedule; C) you can’t prioritize or focus on what’s important for you; D) all of the above.

It’s been a while that I’m talking about minimalism. Guess what? It does not apply only to the materialistic aspect of life. What about giving some space in your calendar, opening yourself to possible opportunities? How about focusing on yourself, your health and taking some “me time”? Could it be a good idea to stop running and be more present in the moment, enjoying what’s happening right now? All these are hard to do when you are always on the go. Usually, it also comes with stress, anxiety, and the best of it, quite often, sleep deprivation. You’ll sleep when you are dead, no?

I don’t want to patronize anyone here, but I’m quite sure you can’t be happy like this. I was not! It’s not easy, but I’m still learning and you can too. Does that mean I’m now a couch potato with no projects? Of course not, but I’m more selective, focus more and more important, I’m enjoying a lot more my life.

Many organizations are now focussing their developer relations efforts online only. I get it, it’s less expensive and depending on your goals, it may make more sense. Still, if you want to build stronger links with your community, you’ll need more than that. Don’t get me wrong, I built great bonds with people I’ve never met in-person, but nothing beats face to face. Less misunderstanding and easier connections will occur. Better opportunities to truly know someone and share life moments are also priceless. To make it happen, you need to thrive not only for short-term return on investment. You need to foresee the long-term impacts of this rewarding investment. In the end, it’s all about the people.

I also see this dilemma as one of quality over quantity. I know. The more people connect with you, the bigger the chances are that your company will be successful. Still, by trying not to please everyone and focussing on your main audience, you will have a bigger impact. You will also create what I call “virtual evangelists”: they aren’t on the payroll and still share the love. They like you, your company, your product or your service. They created in a way or in another, a true connection with you. You created a true connection with them! They may even be influencers in your domain. As far as I like the web, that type of connection is harder to make it happen in the virtual world…

Like everything in life, you need to find the right balance. Start your journey of reaching out to your tribe online, but build the foundation of it in real life! You’ll see a tremendous difference that will have a positive impact on your business… and yourself.

Social Media #

LinkedIn, which is basically my resume. No I don’t have a Word document…

Twitter, my preferred social media.

Instagram, because you may want to know more about my life, admit it, you are curious! Yes, there are many cats pictures…

Pocket, where I share articles I’ve read and found worth sharing.

Public Speaking #

An exhaustive list of my previous talks (160+ talks in more than 20 countries) containing direct links to recording, slides and articles. I’ve given online presentations, but also spoke at many offline events like conferences, workshops, panels and user groups in countries like Canada, Greece, USA, Hungary, France, Uruguay, Mexico, India, UK, Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Ireland, Romania, Japan, Singapore, Australia…

SlideShare, all my presentations slides (slowly moving to notist).

Tutorials & other video content #

I created mostly video tutorial.

Product demos like this MySQL DBaaS offering at DigitalOcean.

Tutorial for the Fitbit Simulator.

Technical podcasts like F.A.Q. (Fred Answers Questions).

Webinars like this one on Kubernetes (most popular one at DigitalOcean - we maxed out the license we had, 1000)

YouTube, mostly some video interviews with influencers and many recordings of my talks.

Some articles & book #

I’ve published a book about personal branding for developers at Apress.

Blog posts I wrote for Make Web Not War, a brand I owned at Microsoft Canada: my focus was everything Open…

Articles I wrote while at Microsoft (I didn’t find a way to list the posts only), articles I wrote or co-authored while at Mozilla & on my short-tenure at npm.

Conseil du patronat (Prospérité Québec) - Partir à son compte, la réalité & L’intrapreneuriat, une forme d’entrepreneuriat

Some media interviews or mentions #

The full list of my interactions or media writing about me, here are some highlights:

Cromo (Uruguay) - Una segunda oportunidad para Mozilla Firefox

​CNET - More change for Mozilla as top Firefox exec departs

Techvibes - Montreal Hosts Social Good Hackathon, Tackles Issues Like Water Scarcity, and Gender Bias

FullPC.gr (Greece) - Athens App Days 2013 και Firefox OS στην Ελλάδα

More technical profile & code #

Latest thing I built is a WordPress Gutenberg Block Plugin using PHP & React.

StackOverflow, where I was mostly active during my time with Firefox OS.

Fitbit, where I answered developers questions about the Fitbit SDK.

GitHub: note that, ironically, most of my projects as a full time software engineer were not open…

Events, meetups and conferences #

Note that I don’t own nor organized those events anymore: I decided to focus on other parts of my life. I still love and want to continue to speak at conferences and meetups.

YulDev, which I created to give an opportunity for developers to network: no presentation and not specific to one technology.

HTML5mtl, a front-end meetup I co-founded and co-organized for years.

FailCamp Montréal (website no longer available): the concept isn’t from me, but I brought the first edition in my hometown.

Geekfestmtl (Festival Geek de Montréal), an event I imagined (in French) years ago and co-organized the first two editions.

Some technical projects (my years as Software Developer) #

I’m pragmatic, but I’ve always been more on the open side of things. Funny enough, most of my projects are coming with a lovely NDA and some are not even public.

Arc+ Welding Simulator as a Software Developer and project lead at 123Certification.

MobileTech (in French) as a Software Developer and team lead at IBI Solutions.

Miss on the go for Mss VV’s Mystery & the Laurentian Bank’s EIP with my customer Analystik as a freelancer.

Note that in Québec, there is a strict law (!) about the title Engineer, so consider Software Developer as the same a Software Engineer everywhere else…

Misc. #

Portrait de blogueurs (in French), a video podcast I created  (in French) to promote bloggers.

We are Geek (in French), an audio podcast I invented  (in French) and hosted with two co-hosts about anything Geek.

Feel free to ask me more information about any of those items.

In other words: how you handle the hiring process says a lot about you, and the company. Let me gives you some examples…

The job description does not represent the job opportunity #

It happened to me quite often that the online description didn’t fit at all the vision of the hiring manager. Looking for a Technical Evangelist? Once on the phone, it’s clearly a Technical Writer role. Wants someone with public speaking skills that can travel 30% and more of his time? Finally, nothing will happen offline: the focus is about scaling online, only. Searching for a great Developer Advocate? Oh sorry, for us it’s the same job as a Sales Engineer. Communications and seriousness of the hiring process may be huge issues here, and it’s no fun.

Interview or feedback process is taking forever #

I know, processes! Still, it doesn’t make sense to me that it can take up to 4-6 weeks between the first contact and a job offer, if any. In my case, I’m in no hurry: I want to make sure I find the right fit for me as I’m aiming at long-term. Quite often, people need a job sooner than later. People are busy, I get it, but you should take the hiring process seriously. It often takes a week between a LinkedIn message (or email) and a simple reply: we are in 2017, for real?

No preparation before the interview #

Wait a minute? By not taking the time to do some basic preparations, you are saying out loud, “I don’t value your time, and neither mine. You are not important or this role is not!”. It’s that simple. I usually end the process right after that as I find it a total lack of respect and it’s an important value for me.

Vision of the role is totally different from one person to another #

I can’t pretend to know what it is to handle many interviews for different roles within a company. I’ve hired people in the past, but not at scale. Still, I guess that discussing with the person hiring for that role is the least you can do. Too often, I had a good talk with HR about the perfect role for me, but once I move to the next level, it was not even close to reality. It makes me think about the job description I was talking before: how can such a gap is possible?

Salary? It’s not important… #

Let’s be honest, I know nobody, I said, nobody, that would work if they didn’t need money. We all need a job to live, so I kind of guess that salary is important. Why is it so hard to have at least a ballpark on the role you are looking to fill? If you gave a number too low, there is always an opportunity for discussion. If it’s too high, fine, you won’t save on your budget, but you’ll have an even more happy camper working for you. In any cases, tricking or relaying this part to a second-class citizen isn’t good at all. Don’t get me wrong! I will never take a job I don’t like even if the compensation is amazing. On the other side, I’ve worked hard to reach that lifestyle and I want to keep it. No need to go though all the processes to finally end up with an offer on the table too far away: we both lost our time.

Let’s discuss about what you are looking for #

Here, I’m talking about people who want to have a talk with you even if they have no open positions that would make sense. They want to know you better. Who knows about the future? I can understand the value of this, trust me, but the problem is that I’m looking for a job right now and since I’m quite transparent, you have a pretty good idea of my background and where I would be a good fit… or not. It’s also rare that a company will create a role for someone right away. What I need now is to focus on the possibility at reach. In other words, going out for a coffee with everybody is unfortunately, non-realistic.

I know, it seems like I’m complaining a lot here (I’m good at it!), but I also got many good experiences in the past. I hope my message is clear: I care about my next challenge and I’m sure I’m not the only one who does… I also want you to care about your next employee and I’m sure you do…

Is the company caring about the values I live by? Are the people valuing my time as much as I value their? Would the team will be a good fit for me? Are they honest and transparent in the hiring process as much as I would like them to be once I’ll work there? There are so many questions I can ask myself to try to know the company better. Truth is, most of them are answered without any words: it’s all about the way you are acting. You cannot treat all potential candidates as rock stars, but at the same time, you should…

Going back as a freelancer was not that hard for me. My expertise, my network, my experience (being a former Technical Evangelist at Microsoft and Mozilla doesn’t harm), my personal brand (even published a book on the topic), the continuous growing needs of technical people in this world are all factors that helped me make the transition as flawlessly as it can get. I make good money and have the enormous privilege to choose the projects I’m working on. I love what I’m doing, but still, it does not make me as happy as it should…

I guess entrepreneurship may not be for me after all. My main pain point? I want to make shit happens. I’m a doer! This post isn’t for arguing about this, but there are too many things standing between me and doing epic shit right now. It’s why I decided to take long vacations for now (update from September: vacations are done, time to confirm my next challenge) and after, to go back on the market, looking for a full-time job (read, not being a co-founder). Not sure yet what will be the best opportunity for me (probably something in the line of Developer Advocate or Technical Evangelist roles), but here are, in no particular order, some food for thoughts:

• I’m technical and I like to learn new stuff;
• Remote is the way to go: life is short, going to an office every day is such a waste of time, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not open to relocation;
• I like blogging, public speaking, recording videos, networking and sharing my passion about technology online as offline. I prefer roles that mainly have a 1:many approach;
• I want big goals, but I need the freedom to create the path to success;
• I’m looking for a long-term relationship with my next employer: a place where I can take on my next challenge, but also have the opportunity to grow in my career;
• Achievements speak for themselves: time sheets or defined weekly hours are useful where confidence is lacking;
• In addition to French and English, I speak two more languages: developer and human. Hence, making the bridge between both worlds is one of my strengths;
• I’m as effective and efficient at what I do when wearing jeans and t-shirts;
• I’ve worked hard to reach the lifestyle I have now, so no need to say that I want to keep it. In other words, I have the privilege to do what I love and being greatly compensated;
• I’m totally fine with travels. In fact, I used to travel a lot and I’m missing it: it’s not a requirement, but I think it’s a good perk (even if not always easy) to discover the world while doing what you like. I would have a preference about larger territories than North America;
• No matter what my next challenge will be, it needs to be people centric: having a positive impact on people and helping them being successful is what’s energizing me;
• Let’s be honest, even if the line between work and fun is always fuzzy for me, it’s still working and I value my personal life too: if you talk about work life balance, it’s because there is already a balance issue within your organization;
• I live in Montréal (Canada) and may be open to relocation with help from the company (visa & relocation package), depending on where obviously;
• I’m looking for a “fuck yes” and you should too (the article is about relationships, but I think it applies to anything is life, like a hiring someone and accepting a new job);
• I’m bold. I’m an extravert. I’m creative. I’m colorful. I’m passionate. I’m living by the no bullshit policy and won’t change it for anything or anyone, ever;

Here are some jobs I won’t consider, even if you disguised them under the title of Developer Advocate:

• Engineer or developer team lead: I love coding, but I don’t want to go back as a full-time developer;
• Sales Engineer: I’m totally aware that advocacy or evangelism comes with a certain part of sales, but it’s not as direct;
• Technical Writer: I like to write, and I enjoy creating content on different media, but again, it’s about finding the right mix between all the things I love;

Feel free to [ping me](mailto: fharper@oocz.net) if you see a fit. Oh, and don’t bother to contact me if you don’t like cats, you are not human!

P.S.: Here is a “cheat sheet” on where to find stuff on me like social media profiles, articles, videos, talks…

The last two years were specially hard for me mostly due to the loss of the woman of my life, my mom, and the end of my relationship with a woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Anyhow, I’m proud of where I am now and I’m truly excited about next year and even more about my three words.

Freedom #

Obviously, being a North American middle-class white male, I’m free in the broad sense of the word. There is no question there and I know I’m lucky! Anyhow, I feel there are improvements to be made in my life when it comes to freedom. One big question I tried to answer in the last two years was “what is happiness for me”. It’s a simple but complex question, but my answers were always coming back to freedom. Freedom can mean a lot of things depending on your background, your aspiration and who you are. For me, it’s about choosing what’s more important in my life and let the rest go. It’s about having more time for me and the people that I care about. It’s about knowing how to say no and understand that there are a limited number of hours per day. It’s about flexibility with my professional life and with my schedule. It’s about being less dependent to others, to money, to physical things and even location. There are many ways I can continue to go toward that goal, but at the end, more freedom means being happier for me…

Focus #

Intense and passionate are two words that describe me well. Being ADHD means having issues to focus, but it also means that when I enjoy or love something, I literally over focus and jump two hundred percent in whatever it is, being a contract, a hobby or even a person. I tend to like many things, wants to try new activities and tend to say yes to help people more often than I should. Being totally conscious that I have limited time in life, I need to focus on a bit more. Focus on the people I love. Focus on contracts within my expertise and things I love to do. Focus on things that matter to me. At the end, it means focusing on myself also. Furthermore, I need to learn that no is a complete answer. That also means I won’t please everyone and it’s OK. Last but not least, it means I will take more seriously the decision about how to manage my time and how to use it. In a certain way, it’s tightly related to freedom…

Now #

I’m the king of procrastination, but since I’m also professional and respect people when I give my words, you may not know about it: I always do what I said I’ll do and I always deliver quality, no matter what. Still, it created situations in my life and add stress not needed. I’m not looking to be perfect here, far from it, but again, always attached to the freedom I’m looking for, being a bit more proactive may not hurt. It’s also not just about achieving stuff: I see this third word as a way to focus (see what I did there) on the present, let the past go and don’t worry too much about the future. Again, it’s about finding the balance in my life. Now is the time to achieve my dream. Now is the time to work on my goal. Now is the time to live my life…

I’m really looking forward to 2017: I know, the new year imaginary line is psychological, but still, I know next year will be awesome. Not because of what will or won’t happen. Not because of what others will do or not. Next year will be amazing because I’ll take back my life in my own hands… Time for me to go back to my life manifesto: let’s do epic shit my friends!

Talking about branding, I love my company’s brand, and with the help of the talented Sylvain Grand’Maison, I’ve ordered some stickers to show how proud I am to the rest of the world. Since it’s more than just a company’s name, I would like to offer you some of those stickers so you can show others that you are a lion, a fighter, that you worked hard to become the king of your jungle. If you want some (size is 2X2 inches), please [send me an email](mailto:hi@fred.dev?subject=NLIBK stickers) with your complete postal address and I’ll send you some for free. The only thing I’m asking in exchange is that you send me pictures of where you put them!

I can’t wait to see with which other stickers my lion will hang with…

A little more than a year ago (2015), my life was perfect. At least, from my own point of view. I was engaged to the most formidable woman I ever knew and we were living in our beautiful spacious condo with our kids, our three cats. People were paying me very well to share my passion about technology, and travel all over the world to help developers succeed with their projects. My friends and family were an important part of my life and even if I wasn’t the healthiest man on earth, I had no real health issues. I was happy and I couldn’t ask for more… Until my world collapsed.

I was 4500 kilometres away from home when I learned that the woman of my life, the one I spent one fourth of my young existence with, was leaving me. That was, the end of my world! Like if it wasn’t enough to lose the person you share your life with, some people I considered friends ran away from me: sad Fred is no fun, and obviously, when there is a separation, people feel the needs to “take a side”. Right before, I realized that the company I was working for, wasn’t the right one for me, so I decided to resign: I wasn’t able to deliver as I should take this in the equation with everything else. Of course, I had no savings and it’s at that exact moment that we had water damage in our building and that I had to pay out a couple of thousands for the renovation. During that period, I sank deeply and very quickly: someone calls depression knocked at my door.

For months, I was going deeper in the rabbit hole. Everything was hard to achieve, and uninteresting: even taking my shower was a real feat. I was staying home, doing nothing except eating shitty food, getting weight and watching Netflix. I’ve always considered myself a social beast, but even just seeing my best friend was painful and unpleasant. I didn’t want to talk to people at all. I didn’t want to see people. I didn’t need help even if I felt I was a failure. My life was a failure. During that period, my “happiest” moments were when I was at a bar, drinking: alcohol was making me numb, making me forget that I was swimming in the dark all day long. Obviously, that tasty nectar called beer wasn’t helping me at all: it was taking me deeper than I was and as any stupid human, I was trying to get back my love, in the most ineffective way ever, to stay polite with myself. On top of that, even with good will, everyone was giving me shitty advice (side note: in that situation, the only thing you should do is being there for the other - you don’t know what the person is going thru and please, don’t give advice, just be there). That piece of shit that I was seeing in the mirror couldn’t have been me: I was strong. I’ve always done everything in my life to be happy: why I was not able to make the necessary changes to get back on my feet? Something was pulling me to the bottom and was putting weight on my shoulder. I wasn’t happy anymore, my life wasn’t valuable anymore. Maybe the solution was to kill myself?

Seriously, why live in a world where the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life, the woman who wanted to spend the rest of her life with my own person, was running away from me? Why live in a world where people were spitting on me, not literally, in the lovely world that is social media? Why live in a world where the job I thought I was born for was maybe not made for me? You know that thing call the impostor syndrome? I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I had no more strength left. I didn’t have a proper night of sleep for weeks and no healthy meal since, forever. I don’t even talk about exercise… I was practically dead already, so one night, I drank like never before, and had the marvellous idea to nearly harass my former fiancé: I wanted her back. She closed her phone, it was the end: I decided it was the end. I was an asshole. I had enough. I wasn’t able to take more of that shit that is life. Fortunately, I blacked out, being truly intoxicated, before doing anything irreparable… until the cops knocked at my door. They were there to check if I was still alive. Two cops, at my door, wanted to see if I was alive. Can you imagine? I’m pretty sure you can’t. I was shaking and nearly crying: they were ready to smash my door if I wasn’t answering them in the second after I did. I reached a point where people who still cared about me were worried enough to call the police. Can you imagine again? Worrying the people you love so much that they need to take drastic actions like this? I was terrified. I. Was. Terrified. Not about the cops, but about me… I was at a breaking point! Fuck…

At that exact moment, I decided I needed to try to take care of myself. I started to see a psychologist twice a week. My doctor prescribed me antidepressants and pills to help me sleep a bit. Until now, I didn’t take any medicine for my severe deficit attention disorder (ADD - ADHD, with hyperactivity, in my case) that was diagnosed years ago, but I asked my doctor to add this to the cocktails of pills she was giving me. I also forced myself to see my close friends and I stopped taking anything containing alcohol. It was a complete turn over: anything that was helping me to see some light out of that terrible time of my life was part of my plan. Actually, I didn’t have any plan, I just wanted to run away from that scariest part of me. I even started to write a personal diary every time I had a difficult thought in my mind, which was more than once daily. It wasn’t easy. I wasn’t happy, but I was scared. I was scared to get back to that moment when the only plausible idea was to end my life. The frightening was bigger than the sadness, trust me. Baby steps were made to go forward. It was, and still is the biggest challenge I ever had in my life.

One evening, I was with my best friend at a Jean Leloup show: for a small moment, first time for months, I was having fun. I was smiling! And I started to cry… I realized that if I had killed myself, I wouldn’t be able to be there, with a man who is loving me as a friend for eighteen years and supported me like no one during that difficult time. I wouldn’t have been able to be there, singing and dancing on the music I love so much… At that exact moment, I knew I was starting to slowly get back on my feet. I knew that it wasn’t only the right thing to do, it was the thing to do. Thanks to my parents, my friends and the health professionals, I was finally feeling like my life was improving. It was a work in progress, but I was going in the right direction.

Still today, life isn’t easy. Life is continuing to throw rocks at me, like my mother getting a diagnostic of Alzheimer and this week, a cancer. I’m still trying to fix parts of my life, trying to find myself, but I can smile now, most of the time. It’s a constant battle, but I now know it’s worth it. Anyhow, I have mental illness and I’m not ashamed anymore of it: I’m not ashamed anymore of what happened! I’m putting all efforts I can to make my life better. Again, it’s not easy, but small steps at a time, I’m getting better. Since, there is a semicolon tattoo on my wrist (picture above) to remember me that life is precious. That my life is precious. I could’ve ended my life, like an author ending a sentence with a period, but I chose not to: my story isn’t over…

P.S.: If you have suicidal ideas or feels like you are going thru what I’ve lived, please call a friend. If you don’t want or can’t, call Suicide Action Montreal at 514-723-4000 or check the hotline number in your country. You deserve better. You deserve to live!

Minimalism isn’t a new idea for me: it was one of my three words two years ago. Still, I never explored to its fullest potential this philosophy. Now, I see it as one way to get back to the essential in my life, me. I see the minimalist as a step toward freedom and happiness:

• Owning less material by keeping what’s really important for me;
• Keeping a small, but close circle of important people that matter in my life;
• Getting rid of dependencies and constraints that prevent me from doing what I want;
• Reducing the factors of stress in my life, no matter what or who they are.

For me, it’s not about living a monk-like life! Those steps will help me get rid of the excess in my life, and redefine what’s important for me. I’m pretty sure it’s a lifelong process, but every little step forward is a step thru the real me, the happy me. It’s the beginning of my journey, an odyssey that many of you won’t understand, and I’m fine with it: I’m doing it for me…

P.S.: this is the first article from a series where I’ll share my journey about minimalism.

Taking in consideration my experience, and my passion, my offering is divided in three focus:

1. Helping companies of all size defining, and implementing an impactful business development strategy;
2. Providing startups with a clear plan to improve their internal development processes and technology choices including coaching;
3. Mentoring individuals to help define and enforce a tailored personal brand and public speaking skills to reach the next level in their career.

In the coming days, I’ll add detail on what that means for you and why we should work together. I also need to spare some time to work on my business site (website no longer available). Yes, no lion is born king is the name, because in the end, I want to help you be the king of your jungle…

Looking forward to working with you!

Over the last six months, I had the pleasure of working with the talented folks at IMMUNIO. However, the company is prioritizing other marketing activities than evangelism (the CEO can give you more information). It became apparent that this new direction won’t give me the possibility to use my passion and expertise to produce the impact I would like and the results they need, so my position was put on hold.

What’s next #

Of course, I’ve been a Technical/Developer Evangelist/Advisor/Relations (whatever you call it) for five years now. I’ve built my experience (my LinkedIn profile - I don’t have a traditional resume) at companies like Microsoft and Mozilla, but I’m open to discussing any other type of role, technical or not, where my experience can help the business to achieve their goals. My only criteria? A role that will get me excited and where I’ll make things happen: without creativity, passion, and any ways to challenge myself, it won’t be a good fit, for both of us. On the compensation side, let’s be honest, I also have a lifestyle I would like to keep.

I’m fine with travelling extensively and remote working as it’s what I’ve done extensively for the last couple of years, but because of health issues in my family, I cannot move from Montreal (Canada). Note that I don’t want to go back as a full-time developer.

Some of my experience includes:

• International public speaking (list of my talks including slides and recording);
• Spokesperson (ex.: media interviews in Greece, Mexico, Uruguay - they are translation, I only speak French and English);
• Book (Personal Branding for Developers published by Apress), and blog posts writing (ex.: Mozilla, Microsoft);
• Events and user groups (co)creation/lead (ex.: HTML5mtl, YulDev, GeekFestMtl - now owned by others);
• Helping developers being successful (ex.: GitHub, StackOverflow);
• Creating and managing brand/marketing campaign (ex.: Make Web Not War).

Feel free to read other articles on this blog and give a closer look to my primary social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn). You’ll find a passionate, honest and bold person.

Contact me #

I have the firm intention to find a company where I’ll be able to grow in the next couple of years. If you think we can work together, please send me an email with some information about the role.

Myself #

My first word is a follow-up of the last couple of months of my life as I’m clearly not done: thinking about myself. It may sound selfish, but my top priority this year will be me, myself, and I. Every aspect of who I am: I need to rediscover myself. I need to take care of myself, be happy and do the things I like, alone, but also with the people I love.

Why #

This year my second word will make me act like a three-year-old with myself: why will be a word I’ll use all the time. I realized last year that life is too valuable and time is a scarce resource. I don’t want to dedicate a fraction of my life, even minimal, to something that isn’t important to me or didn’t align with my priorities. Before anything, I’ll ask myself, why I should do this!

Truth #

I want this year to be a no bullshit policy in my life: the truth most prevail, even if it’s not pleasant. It’s not that I was lying or that people weren’t honest with me. I think that within me, a stronger voice was telling me another truth or that I didn’t want to see the reality. I guess this word goes to pair with the first one.

I’m looking forward to this new year, as I know it can’t be worse than the last one, at least for me, and I have this overwhelming impression that it will be one of the most incredible one of my entire life, who knows? I can’t finish this article without wishing you a Happy New Year: I hope 2016 will be a reflection of your dreams. By putting myself first, asking me why I’m doing something and always being honest with myself, I know mine will be awesome…

Do you have any generic tips and tricks about presenting? #

Let’s start with the material, the slides. You may not need them, but it’s nearly a defacto. If you do, slides are a visual support for your attendees, not for yourself! You can use the speaker note if you need support, like in PowerPoint, and display them on your computer only, while the attendees see the slides. You don’t have to create something amazing as people are coming for what you will say or demo, but boring slides are never quite exciting, right? Last, but not least, if I can read your slides, why would I need you reading them? In other words, don’t put too much text… There are a lot of great examples on the web: you can also check my past presentations, they are Creative Commons.

I think it goes without saying, but once you are on stage, you are the expert: it means you need to know what you are talking about! What happens if the projector doesn’t work? It happens to me once, and I had to give my talk without anything to show: it’s an extreme example, but you get the point. If you don’t know what you are talking about, people will notice it, and it won’t be good in any ways. It doesn’t mean you need to have the answer for everything: it’s perfectly okay to say, I don’t know. Take their contact information, and tell them you’ll check it later, and will get back to them: it’s way better than guessing an answer that may not be right.

It’s normal to be stressed out, but you see the people in the room? Right now, they are not speaking, you are, which mean you are doing something they are not and it’s amazing. So be confident, no matter what will happen, you did it, you were in front of those attendees! Some people won’t like your talk, and it’s perfectly fine: you can’t please everyone. Also, some people may seem bored during your talk, but you may be surprised: quite often they are the one who were the most excited about your presentation and asked a ton of good questions.

If you are doing code demo, please don’t code for an eternity in front of the attendees. First, it’s boring to watch someone code. Secondly, there are a lot of chances you made mistakes, your code won’t work, and you will stress even more. If you do, do a short one, and always have a fully working copy of your code somewhere in case something isn’t working.

How can I grab the attention of the public? #

As I wrote before, not everybody will be as excited as you about your talk, and it’s ok. Some people didn’t read well the title or abstract. Some people just won’t like you, your voice, your tone, your accent, your slides or will have a doubt about your expertise. Again, it’s ok. Some people will even sleep during your talk, true story. It may be after lunch, they may have had a long day or maybe they just find you boring (sorry, it’s true), but who cares? If it’s everybody, now you have an issue, but trust me, it won’t. So once you understand this, you are good to go.

The most attention grabber you can have is without any doubt, knowing your subject and be excited about it. Of course, the new technology that all the cool kids are using may be nice, but won’t be as good if you don’t have both requirements I just wrote! I got some people telling me they didn’t care at all about the technology or product I was presenting after all, but they liked my talk as I was sweating passion. Once you got both, you can also use other tricks. Make variations on your slides. Use quotes from famous people. Be funny, but don’t overdo it: if it’s not your style, don’t go there. Ask questions. Do small surveys during your talk. If you show a video, take a small one as people didn’t attend to watch videos, they wanted to see you.

It will be my first time, what should I do so it won’t be the last one? #

Firstly, do it because you want to do it. It’s not because public speaking can get you some notoriety, help your personal branding, get you contracts or anything else that you should do it. Make it happen if you like to help other to know more about a topic you like. Passion is the key. Be sure to be prepared, practice as many times it takes to be comfortable with your talk. The better prepare you are, the better results you’ll have: the attendees will find it useful and like it.

It’s also ok if people don’t ask questions, it’s always hard to get the first one. If people like your talk, they’ll come to tell you after, and even if they don’t it doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy or learn something. Even if you have the impression it didn’t go well, don’t stop there: it’s like anything, it take practice to be better. Do it again, again, and again. Seeing the face of people loving your talk, knowing you made a difference and helped others achieve their goals is the real gift you’ll get from it. Trust me, you’ll get addicted.

I would be able to give a lot more advice, and I will do but in a blog post series as this post is already too long for my taste. I hope it will help you, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

There is no secret there: the love, support, and help of the global tech community is one of the reasons I consider myself successful today. Recognizing it, I try to give back as much as I can. One of my pleasures is to use trust, reputation, and relationships to be a trust agent. Part of it is about helping others to find a job or a new employee. Since I get a lot of requests, here is how you can help me… helping you.

Looking for a job? #

There are three things I can do for you if you are looking for your next role.

Firstly, if you wrote a post on LinkedIn or a status on Twitter about your job search, share the link with me. I’ll comment on it to give it more exposure within my own network. If you didn’t and can be vocal about your job search, I highly suggest you do so.

Secondly, I can put you in relation with someone I know who is working at a company where there is an open position interesting to you. I accept any LinkedIn connection requests from people working in the tech industry even if I don’t know them, so I may not be able to make a solid introduction with everyone. Unfortunately, I rarely know when someone is hiring since I don’t pay attention to open positions when not looking for a new role myself, so I cannot tell you what’s out there.

Thirdly, feel free to schedule a coffee chat with me. I do not have the holy truth, but I had to search for a new role a couple of times in my career and I’m happy to share some of my tips with you.

Looking for an employee? #

Sometimes I know the perfect candidate and I’ll introduce you to them. More often than not, I don’t, but I can share your open position on social media for more visibility. For that, I either need a URL to the job description or a social media status you have done mentioning you are recruiting.

Hopefully, it will be helpful. In both cases, good luck!

I’m a huge music fan. There is not a day where I’m not listening to something. Music has a big influence in my life, and it’s not going to change. I started to share some songs on this blog that are either important for me or give me strong feelings, and I would like to continue to do it. On that note, feel the power of only one song with this video of Learn to fly from the Foo Fighters created by 1000 musicians in Italy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JozAmXo2bDE

How can you not like music after this…

I’m a positive guy, but I tend to complain a lot. So I did an experiment for a couple of days: every time I was going to share a complaint on the web, I refrain myself. I’m not talking here about useful complaints, like a tweet to a company when I have an issue with their software. I’m talking about what I would call empty complaints: those that exist for the sake of complaining. What I realized is that I was complaining a lot more than I thought. I also realized that I didn’t lose anything by stopping to do so: those following me saw that some slipped out once in a while, but overall, I stopped to complain. As Zig Ziglar said, the more you complain about your problems, the more problems you will have to complain about, and it’s true! Even more, I started to think less in term of complaints, and more about what I can do to fix the issues. In the end, the best way to complain is to make things happens. If I go a little further, I will even say that it helped to make social medias a better place to be, at least, for my friends and followers.

I’ll continue to complain less, and I highly suggest you to make that test too. You’ll see how small things like this can change your relationship online, your way of thinking, and your overall well-being.

Do you think personal branding is not for you? Why should you care about your brand? After all, it’s not like you are an actor or the lead singer for a rock band. In fact, it’s never been more important for you to think about yourself as a brand. Doing so will provide rocket fuel for your career. You’ll find better jobs or become the “go-to guy” in certain situations. You’ll become known for your expertise and leadership; people will seek your advice and point of view. You’ll get paid better to speak, write, or consult. As a developer, there are many tools you can use to scale, and this presentation will help you understand how to get visibility, make a real impact, and achieve your goal. No need to be a marketing expert or a personal branding guru: be yourself and get your dream job or get to the next level of your career.

I’m all about loving what you do, and it’s how I decided to care about my personal brand. If you want to learn more about why, and how it could make a difference in your career, join us on July 29 at Peter Cashin Studios. Be sure to register on the meetup page of the group! See you soon!

Firstly, why would you want to use our private beta? IMMUNIO (website no longer available) is a real-time protection you can add to your application in literality two minutes. Trust me, I thought it was, with all respect to my marketing friends, some kind of selling bullshit, but it’s not. You just need to add our gem to your web application, and you instantly get our piece of software to protect your application from attacks like brute forcing, SQL injection, shell command execution and more. I know you are a good developer, but between you and me, did you took as much time as needed to secure your masterpiece!? I know I didn’t…

I have a limited number of access to give, so send me an email at [fharper@immun.io](mailto:fharper@immun.io?Subject=Private RoR access) if you want one. Even if it’s stable, you need to understand it’s a beta version. I will also prioritize developers who have time to use it in a real application, even if it’s only in staging. I would also love to get your feedback on the experience.

P.S.: For my Python friends using Django, you can still drop me a line as we’ll have the private beta available soon.

As their first evangelist, my main role will be to help developers secure their applications, and be successful with IMMUNIO. Part of my day-to-day will continue to be what I’m doing for the last couple of years: speaking at conferences, writing blog posts, helping one-on-one developers, being a spokesperson, and more. The product is now in private beta, but soon, I’ll share with you more information about how we can help you protect your application, and get important data in real-time.

This new position aligns perfectly with my career path: doing what I like by going back in the startup ecosystem with brilliant people who are disrupting their space. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us at my last gig, hence this announcement, but I’m looking forward to a successful new journey with the amazing people at IMMUNIO. Let this great adventure begin!

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/responsive-web-design-get-the-best-out-of-your-designs-javascript-open-day-20150625

Even if Ethan Marcotte wrote about this technique five years ago, we still need to share the responsive love: our users deserves better experience!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/y1lFbV-VPtA

So as promised the slides and the recording of my presentation are now available. Now, it’s time for me to go eat at my preferred sushi restaurant of all time, Miku! Happy JavaScript Open Day…

My mantra used to be “do epic shit”. I always strive to do the best, make it art. I think it will always be true, but today, as I’m changing, my mantra needs to change. “No bullshit policy” seems to be more than appropriate. It means to stop lying to myself, about anything, about everything. It means being honest in every situation as I used to do, as I used to be. It means, not letting anyone bring me in their own bullshit reality. It means, being myself, again…

I usually tell my friends that I don’t want gifts: as cheezy it sound, having them as friends are the greatest gift I can have. This year, I have a special request: there is one gift you can easily give me. As you may know, Apress published my first book recently on personal branding for developers: Success in Programming - How to Gain Recognition, Power, and Influence Through Personal Branding. For my birthday, I want you to buy a copy (digital or physical version are available) for you, a friend or a co-worker. If you are not in the tech world, already got a copy or don’t want to buy it, share the link into your network.

Amazon.ca or Amazon.com have the best deal - Apress has more digital formats.

Trust me, I won’t get rich at all with this book! I’m not even sure it will pay off the time it took me to write it, and it’s a quick read, less than two hundred pages. There is no denying that it’s a great achievement to publish a book, but my goal is to truly spread the idea of personal branding to as many people as I can. This is where you are ins-tru-men-tal! This concept of thinking about yourself as a brand helped be where I am today: waking up on Mondays and being happy it’s Monday! One could think it’s rude to ask for a gift for his birthday, but I guess I’m that kind of guy…

I’m a big believer in the fact that we all manage our life. When we blame others for what happened to us, we just find excuses to feel better. We don’t face reality, and the unpleasant feeling that it was our fault. If you think about it and be honest, really honest with yourself, there aren’t many situations where it was really out of your control. Quite often it’s because we don’t want to deal with the consequences of our choices, and face the reality: it’s easier to blame others. You didn’t want to help your friend to move to a new apartment, but you didn’t had the choice? You mean, you didn’t want to help your friend move to a new apartment, and you didn’t want to deal with the consequences if you didn’t help her or him? Nobody put a gun on your head to force you to do it. You were the master of your decision, no?

I’m not sure where this habit comes from, but it’s a bad one we need to get rid off. We need to take the ownership of our life, stop blaming others and be accountable for the decision we make… or don’t make…

Vous pensez peut-être que le personal branding n’est pas pour vous? Pourquoi devriez-vous vous souciez de votre propre branding, vous n’êtes pas un acteur et encore moins le chanteur d’un groupe rock international, non? En ces jours où tout le monde a le pouvoir de sortir du lot plus facilement, de partager plus rapidement et de faire grandir son réseau comme jamais, il est plus important que jamais de penser à vous, en tant que marque. Bien sûr, le but n’est pas d’aller aussi loin que votre marque de boisson gazeuse préférée, mais nous explorerons ensemble le quoi, pourquoi, qui et comment (what, why, who & how) du personal branding pour les développeurs.

C’est une bonne occasion d’en apprendre plus sur le personal branding et son importance dans le monde des développeurs. Il est crucial de voir si cela peut être clé pour votre succès. C’est bien sûr un avant-goût de toutes les possibilités qui s’offrent à vous, mais vous pourrez toujours vous rabattre sur mon livre pour en savoir plus (shameless plug): Success in Programming - How to Gain Recognition, Power, and Influence Through Personal Branding. Je vous donne donc rendez-vous le jeudi 5 mars au Centre cloud.ca dès 18h30. Prenez note que vous devez absolument réserver votre place sur la page meetup du groupe: faites vite, les places sont limitées…

P.S.: L’organisateur, Eric Hogue, est à la recherche de présentateurs pour les prochaines rencontres.

So what is the answers? This question is more complex than it seems. It depends! If your event is a paid one, there a lot more chances than mostly everybody will show up, even if you charge as less as five bucks. In any cases, if they don’t show up, that will help you cover the cost of food, venues, and all. It’s getting more interesting when it’s a free event: you can expect an average between 20 to 40% of no-show, quite often closer to the higher bracket. Even if you removed the legit no-show, like stuck at work, health issue or reasons like those, most of them are for other purposes. There are many factors that come into play! It can be the weather: there is nothing from a cold, snowy day in Canada to prevent people, used to this weather, to stay at home instead of going to your event. Who said that geeks don’t like sports? I always try to not schedule an event during a hockey game evening (replace hockey with your local sport). You get the point: there are plenty of reasons people have… I’m not even talking about the people who have FOMO issues, and RSVP to all events, but tend to go to mostly none.

In any cases, it’s annoying for organizers! It’s a pet peeve of mine: I’m thinking about different solutions like charging a minimum fees, having a no-show past list and more that I’ll use soon with my user groups.

Take your RSVP seriously #

It may not be the case for all meetups, but some of them have limited seats available, quite often, because of the event space limitation. It’s why there is a possibility to add a waitlist. When you learn about a new meetup, take your respond seriously: don’t be this RSVP ninja who clicks YES quicker than his shadow. Be sure you can assist first, as you may take the spot from someone else who want and can go. Same if you aren’t available anymore, change your RSVP. There is nothing more annoying that having a full event with people in the waitlist, but with empty chairs when it start: maybe other would have been able to take your spot. Unfortunately, we see this often with free events: many people don’t care because they don’t pay…

Public conversations are public #

Before you press ENTER to publish your message on the event page, ask yourself if it’s relevant to everyone else? Keep in mind that everybody (depending on their notification settings) will receive an email notification. Maybe it’s better to send a private message to the organizer. Maybe it’s better to have that personal discussion directly with you friend, in private. Most of the time, just changing your RSVP to no is enough, no need to send also a message to all the group. In a world where we are bombarded by notifications, we can help spare some non-useful ones.

Take the time to read the information provided to you #

Once in a while, I got people pissed off because they attended a meetup that wasn’t interesting to them. Of course, it may be about the presenter itself, but more often than not, it’s because they didn’t take the time to read all the information they had. What is this event? What is the topic? Who is the speaker? What can I expect from this evening? Usually, organizers do a great job for events’ description, so don’t make your idea only on the title. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you aren’t sure if it’s for you.

Answers the organizer’s questions #

It’s not like this for all meetups, but some of them have questions when you join the group. Yes, there is an option for the organizer to make them obligatory, but many don’t as they care much about you being there than having the answers they are looking for. They may not always be important, but they may be. Some of them are critical information I need when I’m having a discussion with potential sponsors or they may just be interesting data to help me plan better my events. It usually don’t take too much time, and your organizers will love you.

Provide feedbacks #

After an event, you (probably also depending on the notification settings) receive a “how was the meetup” type of email. I’m pretty sure that if you use two minutes of your time, it’s worth it for the organizers. How was that meetup? Give some constructive feedback, it will help the organizer to do an even better job next time. Even if it’s just the stars rating, it’s a lot more than doing nothing. By doing so, you also give an idea to new members of how amazing (or not) those events from this user group are.

Those rules are simple, obvious at first sight, and you probably observe them, but trust me, many people don’t… I’m certainly not saying those are the only way to use this site, but those small tips may help all of us, attendees and organizers, to enjoy a bit more our time on meetup.com.

When conference organizers offer speaking slot in exchange for sponsorship, it’s a lack of respect for the attendees. You should aim for great content and great presenters to give the best show possible to your customers, the people who paid to have the privilege to assist your event.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve organized many events in my life from small to big ones of different types like conferences, and I’m totally aware you need money to run these. Depending on the experience you want to give around the presentations, it may mean big bucks! In my humble opinion, there are other ways to pay the bills, and continue to give a great experience. If they are the speakers you are looking for, accept their talks and discuss sponsorship after, so things don’t get mixed up. In most cases, if a speaker is accepted, there is a big chance that the company sponsors the event: after all, they want to maximize their exposure. It’s what we were doing when I was at Mozilla…

Similar to not paying non-professional speakers (not paid by their company to share their passion), I firmly believe it’s a practice our industry should stop doing. After all, content is the key to the success of your event…

Il y a quelques semaines, j’ai été invité à titre de blogueur à joindre la nouvelle campagne du Conseil du patronat du Québec, Prospérité Québec. J’ai tout de suite accepté l’offre tout en aidant à trouver des gens clés qui ont le bagage et l’expérience pour partager leurs opinions et aider les Québécois à libérer leur plein potentiel. La prospérité est un sujet large qui peut englober plusieurs aspects, de là, la variété des collaborateurs. Pour mon premier billet, j’ai décidé de parler de l’intrapreneuriat, une forme d’entrepreneuriat souvent sous-estimée. C’est ce que je fais depuis quelques années et en plus de me permettre de m’épanouir dans mon travail, cela me permet de participer à la prospérité du Québec. Cela fait tout de même quelques années que je ramène de l’argent des États-Unis, mes employeurs étant Américains, pour l’investir et le dépenser ici. Sous peu, mon deuxième billet sur le démarrage à son compte, sera mis en ligne. Je vous invite donc à aller consulter le site de cette audacieuse campagne et d’aider, à votre façon, le Québec à prospérer.

I didn’t have one. Let’s be honest, I have people who fit the bill very well. Jobs was a complete jerk, but he may have been right about this: I need a bozo list. Don’t get me wrong, I like people, but there are people that gets on your nerve, no matter what. Some people you don’t like or those who don’t like you. People you didn’t trust. People who changed too much and moved from the friendly bucket to the bozo one. Those people don’t deserve your time and energy. Those people, don’t deserve my time and energy. They are not the toxics one which you need to avoid at any cost, but they clearly don’t bring anything positive to your life.

In the end, unless someone invents a way to live forever, we only have a finite number of days in this world. We don’t want to spend it with bozos…

As developers, we often feel like we’re immune to the necessity of marketing ourselves. But wouldn’t it be nice to be sought after for lucrative speaking, writing, or consulting opportunities? Well, you can be…if you create a great personal brand.

Doing so will provide rocket fuel for your career as a developer. You’ll find better jobs or become the “go-to guy” in certain situations; you’ll become known for your expertise and leadership; people will seek your advice and point of view; you’ll get paid better to speak, write, or consult. As a developer, there are many tools you can use to scale, and this office hours will help you understand how to get visibility, make a real impact, and achieve your goal with a lot of time for Q&A. No need to be a marketing expert or a personal branding guru: be yourself and get your dream job or get to the next level of your career.

We’re going to be speaking with Frédéric Harper, Apress author, Head of Developer Relations at Mashape and former Evangelist of Mozilla on how to become a first-call developer in whatever your speciality is. Whether it’s booking a better job or picking up new opportunities on the side, building a personal brand alongside your work will yield huge returns.

Using about thirty minutes of the full hour I’ll have, I’ll share with you tips and tricks, and the high-level ideas of personal branding for us, developers. I’ll take the other half of my time to answers questions you may have about it, or specific to your path. It is a free online event, but you need to RSVP to attend. The available spots will be limited, so take yours as soon as possible. I cannot wait for my first 2015 talk on this topic I like so much!

Let’s be honest, a computer without access to the web is not that useful to work or even for personal usage! Before I had this stick, I was targetting places with free wifi wherever I needed or wanted to work elsewhere. Since I have this little magic piece of hardware, I just go wherever I want, and have a connection to work. Of course, there is more, and more places with free hotspot. It’s nearly impossible to think of opening a coffee shop without one in today’s world, but still, I was sometimes struggling to find a good place with a good Internet connection. It made my life a lot easier, but there’s more than that. Sometimes, I do a heavy use of the connection, like watching videos, listening to streaming music, running my backup or even downloading big files. Since you want want to be a good public wifi citizen (just invented this), you don’t want to use all the bandwidth for you. In that case, I was preventing myself to do some action like the one I listed above. In the end, it’s not like I was at my home: I was sharing the connection, which is not mine, with anyone else in the public area. Having my very own connection gave me the freedom I needed. Also, the connection speed was quite interesting. Most of the time, I was doubling the speed of the place I was (see the two figures below), if they had any wifi available. Trust me, it’s even more a blessing when you are at a conference… The only thing you have to keep in mind is that the strength of the signal will be as good as the one from your smartphone. It means that in buildings where the signal doesn’t catch very well, you’ll be stuck with no connection or a slower speed than usual. Overall, I’ve never had issues about that as Rogers is pretty good in Canada. I mostly tested it in Montréal, but I’m with Rogers for more than 16 years for my phone: there is probably a reason for that!

Yes, I didn’t pay for it, but my Rogers stick proved itself to be super useful. At that time, they are not selling those anymore, but they have those sweet mobile hotspot, which I’ll try to get my hands on for sure!

* Note that I received, for free, the Rogers USB Internet stick. They also gave me a free data plan to goes with it. Even with that, this blog post is entirely based on my opinion, and I had no pressure from Rogers to write something positive.

Working on one of my words of 2015, health, I was at the gym doing my training. My personal trainer, who became a friend, challenged me to join the course he was going to give right away. I know I need to go back in shape, but I never had that little something you need to push forward, and make it happen. So trust me, I didn’t want to do it, but in a moment of unconsciousness, I said yes, and followed him to the classroom. It was an intense one hour of cardio craziness. I’m not in shape, at all, so we both known that I wouldn’t be able to do everything all the time during that one hour of hell. I was alternating between doing the exercise, and trying to catch up my breath, most of the time, not even doing the full exercise as I was missing flexibility, endurance or strength. It was painful! Mid-class, it stroked me: mostly everybody in the room was able to follow-up, except me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the only one who need to get back in shape, and the gym is the place I needed to be. But something was unusual: I was Fred, the guy who didn’t give a shit about his health since he was born, and I’ve been hit by a massive punch in the face. The result of all these years was slapping me hard. I’m not stupid: I know I’m far from being healthy (even if I made progress), but yesterday, it was different. I got the little something I was missing to go from “I need to do this”, to “I need, and I will do it”! For the first time in my life, I was ashamed, and trust me, it will not happen again…

You see what I’m doing? I’m creating opportunities that will help me attain my goal. Replace getting back in shape with anything you want to achieve, but struggle to be successful. Find what’s wrong, what’s preventing you from being a doer. What are those bottlenecks? Try to avoid them and create opportunities where they won’t stop you from being who you want to be or what you want to do. Yes, sometimes you’ll need willpower to make it happen, but help yourself, and start to create opportunities to help you succeed…

Health #

This year, I’ll turn thirty-three: I’m not old, but I’m not that young anymore. Still, I feel like living in the body of someone twice my age. I made some progress last year, but it’s far from being enough. I like my life and I want to live a lot longer and to do so, I need to treat myself better. In the last year, and a half, I learned a lot when it comes to health, and it’s not just about going to the gym. It’s about a lifestyle change for me. Yes, going to the gym is part of it, but finding, and doing more sport is important. More home cooking, more quality meals and better choices at the restaurant makes food on top of my list too. It’s also about work-life balance: evangelist jobs are dangerous as the line between having fun, and working is thin, really thin, so you work all the time, and travels a lot. I saw some friends getting sick, near depression because of this role. It also involves a lot of things as it’s another powerful word. Health is an important word for me this year, probably the most important one, but as anything critical, not easy at all to focus on…

Less #

Ever hear the idiom, less is more. Last year, one of my words was minimalism: it was perfect for my mindset, and life plan at that time, but I have the feeling that now, it’s too strong. So what’s new with this word? It’s more than about the material. I’m a materialist, and for me, it’s more, and more important to feel great when I’m at home. On the other side, I don’t want my life to turn around just physical stuff, so I need to find the right balance. It means less time on unimportant things too. It means fewer projects. It means being more effective, having more impact, and always delivering quality. Funny enough, it also means more: more of what is really worth it in my life. In fact, there is a bottomless pit of meaning for this word and can be applied to many things in my life!

Experience #

I like to discover new things, but I’m also a man of habits. I often go to the same restaurants. I also tend to stay a lot at home when I’m not traveling: I think it makes sense at some point, but there are so many things to do in Montréal, and everywhere else. I want to try new activities, learn about new cultures, discover new restaurants: I want to make new experiences. I want to live these moments with honey and my friends.

By looking at those words, I feel good. I feel like a tiger, the king of the jungle, my jungle! I hope 2015 will be as good for you that it will be for me…

Actually, I wish you more than that… Too often, a new year is synonym of a new beginning: after all, it make sense, you can’t have a better anchor in time as a start line. Even if we should not wait to do something new, change our habits or do whatever we promised ourselves to do in this new year, it’s still a good time to do so. Think of 2015 as the chapter one of the rest of your life. Forget the past, and start a new life. The life you want. The life you deserve…

On the other side, even if I’m pretty close to my, and Émilie’s family, it’s a time where we celebrate, together. It’s usually the moment of the year, even if it’s packed with dinners, lunches, and parties, where I disconnect. Disconnect from the crazy life I live. It’s also usually a moment of the year where I spend more time with my family and my friends. It’s the real meaning of holidays for me.

On that note, I wish you a merry Christmas and happy holidays, no matter how you feel about that holiday, and time of the year. Take this time to reflect on 2014, and see what will happen next for you in 2015. More important, make time in your busy schedule to share a drink or a meal with your friends and family.

It’s been a while that I’m thinking about moving from Wordpress to Jekyll, a static site generator. With the facts in mind that I wanted to optimize my site, make my writing process flawless, and focus my time on writing, I finally made the move. I have a blog post which I’ll publish in the coming days about how to move from Wordpress to Jekyll for the one out there who were asking me about the process I used. Right now, the site feels like 1990, as I didn’t start yet to move my actual custom theme from Wordpress to Jekyll, but the most important is there: the content. For people reading my blog on RSS, nothing is changed for you. For the one reading this site on your browser, bare with me, focus on the content (after all, it’s why you come here)! I’ll use some free time during holidays to integrate my theme bit by bit. No matter the design, you already have the benefit of my move: it’s blazing fast, and not even comparable to my previous one…

P.S.: The comment section isn’t back yet, and it may not be: more information on this on a future post. Feel free to comment on my different social media presences.

Starting now, you can buy a printed version or a digital one on different sites like Apress, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca (printed version in Canada will be available soon - you can pre-order now), Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Springer and more. Unfortunately, I have no way to know where the book is physically available, so you best bet is to order it online: the best deal I found was on Amazon. I’ll try to make a small event in Montréal for those of you who would like to celebrate with me, and have their book signed.

I would like to thank everyone who helped me in that project, with a special thanks to my parents and Émilie. I also would like to thanks my friends who were amazing, as usual, and let me share their thoughts about personal branding directly in the book. It’s because of people like you that I’m where I am today: Christian Heilmann, Jonathan LeBlanc from PayPal, David Walsh from Mozilla, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Rey Bango from Microsoft.

I don’t ask this often, but feel free to share the link to my book within your network, and leave a review on Amazon: it will be much appreciated! I won’t get rich with this, trust me, but the more developers (and anyone) will know about personal branding, the more people will be happy on Mondays… I can’t wait to get your comments on my first book! Now stop reading this post, and get your copy :)

Mashape #

Mashape is a marketplace for public, and private APIs. It means that, as a developer, it’s easier for you to find, consume, and monitor the API that will fuel your application. It also means that it’s easier for the providers to distribute, and monetize their APIs. It’s more complex and complete than just being a marketplace, so it’s why I was quite amazed by their offer for developers. I was also excited by the fact that, even if not the entire product is open, they firmly believe in Open Source, and release as much as it makes sense for the business. There are also two other part of the role that is critical for me: the culture of the company and the people. I was served when it come to the culture: they are serious when it come to deliver quality software, but they like to have fun! You should have seen the office in an old bank in San Francisco: trust me, I’ll blog about it when I’ll be back there. We have a Mashape bar, poker room, big enough to run user groups, star wars items everywhere, and an amazing vibe. It was the kind of place I would like to work if I had to go to the office every day. I spent a day there, so I got to meet most of the team: they are a passionate bunch of people who believe in what they do, and for me, it’s wonderful. I’ll be the first one in Montréal, but they already have people in Toronto, so who knows, we may have an office there sooner than later!

Head of Developer Relations #

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still use the word Evangelist I like so much. After all, it’s a fantastic ice breaker: what, do you go to church every Sunday? There is already a Technical Evangelist at Mashape, so the team won’t start empty. It would be a fantasy to think I’ll start hiring new Evangelists right at the beginning, but it will come. My first task will be to build that evangelism framework: how, day to day, we get in touch with developers, and help them being successful with Mashape technology. I will also continue to be a man of action: I need it to be effective. We need to get more visibility, and go out there to share the ape love! I’m staying in Montreal, but will continue to travel a lot: my new territory will be mainly North America with a huge focus on the United States. I’ll miss travelling all around the world, but trust me, it will be less tiring: smaller flights, smaller time difference if any, and no cultural shock. I can’t be more exciting about that role!

The career path decision process #

The next challenge I had to choose was a critical move for my career. I’ve been in the technology industry for more than a decade, and I wanted to continue in that industry I love so much. Being a Technical Evangelist since the last four years, that would have been my third role like this: I couldn’t just be another Evangelist on a team. I had to find a place where I was able to create that evangelist framework, and grow the team. I had discussions, and got offers from big companies you know, but I wanted to go back to the startup world, go back to my roots. I wanted to have an impact! Since I also wanted to keep my lifestyle, I had to find a place where the challenges would be amazing with enough growth to get the best of both worlds. I need to believe in the products or services to be able to stay honest, and myself as an Evangelist: in all cases, that does not mean I’m the target audience. As an example, a lot of people didn’t understand that I was not using full time my Firefox OS phone. I loved the OS, and I believe it is an important project, but I was not the target audience: I was happy with my iPhone, iPhone that I was able to buy. Keeping this experience in mind, I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t generate a bad perception about my honesty by choosing a place where it would not be possible to get that kind of trouble. I also wanted to find a company where there is not too many projects, as for me it’s important to have the expertise, and not just that high-level overview. Last, but not least, let’s be honest, jobs where you travel all around the world cannot be find easily. Usually, when you are big enough to cover many countries, you are big enough to have local teams. We also decided to stay in Montréal. I was fine with this, as I wanted to scale down my approach. The US was the perfect target: it will be easier to reach developers in one country, and continue to grow my brand with a smaller, but so powerful geography when it come to tech. Overall, you understand that Mashape was the perfect choice for my career. Don’t get me wrong, I would not have chosen a job just for my career: first, it had to be amazingly nice!

Starting Friday, I’ll take some vacations: one full month of vacations! No worries, I won’t be disconnected from the web as I have many things I’ll finally have the time to do, but I won’t work. Even if working, and having fun is part of the same bucket for me, I still need some time off. The evangelist role, being awesome, is quite exhausting: it’s a way of life more than a job. Next year will be amazing! I’m looking forward to disrupting the API economy with you…

P.S.: Seriously, who could not love the mascot!? This classy ape is amazing!

HTML for the Mobile Web, Firefox OS - All Things Open - 2014-10-22 from Frédéric Harper

Since I was in the main room, my talk was recorded. Also, because of that, and that five tracks were available at the same time, my room looks a bit empty (I had about 100 people). In any cases, I got interesting feedbacks about Firefox OS and my talk.

As a habit, I started my recording process, so you have access to another version. The sound is not as good as a professional recording, but you have a better view on the screen (I should mix the two to make the ultimate recording).

Looking forward to speaking at the 2016 edition of ATO!

You know what you want, but do you know what I want? #

I don’t count anymore the number of people contacting me for a role that does not make sense for me, or something I clearly specify as I job I didn’t want. Yes, I’m talking to you headhunters, and recruiters: a candidate search shouldn’t be based only on some keywords. As an example, I’ve been contacted for developers’ role a couple of time, even if I clearly stated on my departure post, and on my LinkedIn profile that it’s not what I was looking for. At that point, I don’t even want to continue the discussion. It prove I have no value for you as you did not took five to ten minutes to properly look at my LinkedIn profile or my blog which says a lot about me, and what to expect.

No time to post a proper offer? No time to do a proper interview! #

I was curious to see what offers were available online, so I search on different sites like LinkedIn and AngelList. You would be surprised, or not, to know how many offers were incomplete: someone, somewhere, copied, and pasted the offer without looking at the final result. English is not my mother tongue, and even I, was able to find enormous errors in the jobs listing. Does this job opportunity is so not important that it does not deserve a couple more minute to be sure the potential candidate will have a great overview of the role? When it comes to information about the job itself, the more, the better. A webpage will never replace a discussion with someone when it comes to getting data about a specific role, but knowing a bit more in advance will both help us save some time.

It’s not a priority for you; it’s not for me anymore. #

It may be true: hiring for this role may not be a priority for you, but getting a job is probably one for anyone applying. Except if the candidate is looking for something better while being employed, there is a huge chance that the applicant may not be able to wait weeks or months for you to come back with an offer. Speed up the process, show us that we are important for you. Developers are rock stars today, and you may not be the only company trying to recruit us.

Do you know me? #

When I have an interview, I come prepared: I search on the company, the offer, the competitors, and the person who will interview me. I prepare a set of questions, and even play with your piece of software if it’s possible. Both our time is precious, and I want to concentrate on getting the maximum out of this one hour we will have together. Maybe you should do the same for your candidate: if I’m on a call or an in-person discussion with you, it may mean I deserve a bit more attention?

Work hard, work harder. #

When you need to specify in the offer that you are looking for someone who are not afraid to work hard, it’s frighten me. Don’t get me wrong: you will pay me to do the work, so I’ll always deliver art, and go the extra mile. On the other side, even if the line between working and having fun is fuzzy for me, it’s still work. It means I have no issue to work hard when needed, but I still need a life outside of the office. Always having to do overtime is clearly a management issue.

Join us, we have a ping-pong table #

Don’t get me wrong, I like ping-pong, and playing babyfoot once in a while, but those are not benefits. It’s not also part of the company culture. It can help having a good time during breaks, lunchtime, or after work, but it won’t change how it’s working during office hours. I can also tell you it will never, but never, help me take a decision on an offer. I prefer that you have a shorter list of benefits, but removed those air filling one. When I ask for benefits, I’m expecting things like 401k, gym reimbursement, vacations time, bonus…

Money, who cares about it? #

I’m not choosing a job because of the salary, but let’s be honest, I have a lifestyle I want to keep. If you don’t want to tell me a salary range for the role we are talking about, there is a red flag right there. If we go threw a long, and intensive interview process, and you don’t reach my expectations, we will all lose our time. If you have no idea on how much you can give me or if what I’m asking fit the bill, I have some doubt about how serious this role is inside of your company. I know, sometimes it’s true you don’t know about it, but let me talk to HR first! Oh, and, by the way, by experience I can say without feeling ashamed that “competitive salary” means nothing…

Four is a beautiful number #

I’ve had interviews process that went from one interview to more than six. The first one may not be enough: how can you be sure you have the right candidate after only one person talk to me? At the same time, I can’t be sure this is a good role or company for me if I don’t get much information from different sources. On the other spectrum, six interviews, and sometimes more, seems the norm! Personally, I think it’s a bit excessive, but I understand you want to be sure you find the right person for this important position. I would say that four interviews is the sweet spot. The recruiter in the HR department can do the first filter, one person already doing the same role or in the same team, the hiring manager, and someone from another team with who you may cooperate seems good.

Do you really want me? #

I said it before, and I’ll say it again: developers are rock stars in today’s world. We are in an era where developers can choose what will be their next challenge: they have plenty of choices. Having this in mind, the interview process is not just about me trying to “sell” myself: you should also “sell” this role and your company to me. Why should I work for you? It’s not about being pretentious; it’s a reality!

Of course, this post is quite opinionated as any of my posts I guess, but the foundation is simple: you reveal a lot more than you think when you are in the process of hiring someone. If you are looking for a job right now, I agree that you may not be in the same situation than me. I consider myself at a point of my career where I should expect more from employers, but also, where they should expect more from me… Saying that, I had many wonderful experiences too, and I’m looking forward to confirming my next challenge really soon…

1. Which product(s) or service(s) will I evangelize?
2. If there is many programming languages involve, do I need to focus on one or all of them?
3. What is the enterprise’s culture?
4. Is the career path about meritocracy or seniority?
5. What is the team’s culture?
6. Is it a junior, senior, principal, lead or manager role?
7. What is the career path for that role (possibilities to grow inside the company)?
8. Is it a remote job or do I need to move to a specific location? If so, is there a moving package?
9. If I need to move to a specific location, do I need to go to the office?
10. How the rest of the company sees the work of the evangelist team? Do they understand, and welcome such work?
11. If it’s a remote role, how many people on the team are remote versus people working at the office?
12. If it’s a remote role, is there any issue if I move elsewhere by myself? Where would I still be able to work for you if I move elsewhere?
13. If all the members of the team are not in the same city, how often do they meet in person?
14. How are you defining the role of a Technical Evangelist?
15. What are the goals the team had for this fiscal year?
16. What would be the perfect starting date for the new employee?
17. Would you be able to wait a bit longer after the perfect starting date? If so, how long?
18. Are you expecting an evangelist to work on other tasks while at conferences or to focus on the conference itself (presenting, attending presentations, networking…)?
19. How much travel time compared to other tasks?
20. Are you looking for a developer who will evangelize or an evangelist who has technical skills?
21. What is the target market for the product or service I will evangelize?
22. What is the territory I will cover?
23. What is the salary range?
24. If it’s a startup, is there any equity? If so, how much percentage?
25. What is the salary revision process and within which percentage range?
26. In addition to the salary, what are the benefits (health insurances, 401k, gym membership, cell phone & internet payments…)?
27. How many weeks of vacations per year?
28. If there is a bonus, what is the structure of the bonus (percentage range, and decision criteria)?
29. What hardware will I get?
30. Do I need to work from 8 to 5, or is it up to me to create my schedule?
31. What is the management style of the actual manager?
32. What is the latitude I have to achieve my assigned goals?
33. How will you attest my progress toward my goals (1:1 meetings, formal reports every week or so…)?
34. What are the politics on travelling (food expense limits, flying economy or premium economy…)?
35. While travelling, is there any issue if I extend my stay if I pay for my travel & expense for those extra days (ex.: time off to visit new cities)?
36. What is the average time an employee stay on the team or how long the actual team is working together?
37. Who are the actual members on the team?
38. What kinds of skills or personality would complete the actual team well?
39. Is there any specific project or program I’ll be responsible off?
40. Is there any latitude to bring new ideas on how to achieve the team goals or is everything set in stone?
41. Is the evangelist team part of the marketing or engineering department?
42. Is there a good relationship between the product team and the evangelist one?
43. Is the role involving being a spokesperson with (technical) media?
44. How the product or service is doing right now?
45. How is the relationship with the developer community?
46. Why did you approach me or accepted to make an interview with me?
47. How do I stand compared to the other potential new employee?
48. Is there any reorganization or management’s change in the air?
49. What are you expecting from me in the first three months? In one year? In other words, how do you define success for this role?
50. Are you OK with my personal style and brand (example: jeans & t-shirts)?

Yes, it seems a lot, but there is a way to get answers to those questions in a non-annoying way! If you are a Technical Evangelist or looking for that type of role, let me know if I’m missing crucial questions or if that list was helpful to you!

I want to thank my rock star team for everything: Havi Hoffman, Jason Weathersby, Robert Nyman, and Christian Heilmann. I also want to thank Mark Coggins for his strong leadership as my manager. It was a real pleasure to work with you all! Last, but not least, thanks to all Mozillians, and continue the good work: let’s keep in touch!

What’s next #

I’m now reflecting on what will be next for me, and open to discussing all opportunities. Having ten years as a software developer, and four years as a technical evangelist in my backpack, it will probably be a Principal Technical Evangelist role about a product/service/technology I believe in. Of course, as I wrote, I’m open to discussing any other type of job that would fit me.

I have no issue to travel extensively: I was on the road one-third of last year - speaking in more than twelves countries. I may not have an issue to move depending on the offer, and country. I like to share my passion on stage - more than 100 talks in the last three years. Also, my book on personal branding for developers will be published at Apress before the end of the year.

I like technology, but I’m not a developer anymore, and not looking to go back in a developer role. I may also be open to a non-technical role, but it need to target other of my passions like startups. For the last five years, I’ve been working at home, with no schedule, just end goals to reach. I can’t deal with micro-management, so I need some freedom to be effective. No matter what will be next, it need to be an interesting challenge as I have a serial entrepreneur profile: I like to take ideas, and make them a reality.

You can find more about my experience on my LinkedIn profile. If you want to grab a coffee or discuss any opportunities, send me an email.

P.S.: I see no values in highlighting the reasons of my departure, but I’m sad to leave, and keep in mind I’m not the only one in my team who resigned. If you have concerns, please send me an email.

1. What choices have made you… you?
2. The toughest challenges facing all leaders in leading other into the future [of work]?
3. How can we help those leaders make those tough choices?
4. Your biggest lessons learned?

I’m having a blast for the last couple of years: working at home, no schedule, doing something I like. I’ve never been so productive, and I hope this small interview will help employers to understand the benefits of being more open. I also hope that it will help you, find the thing you like to do for a living, and be happy when you wake up on Monday morning…

If you are local, feel free to join us by requesting a free accreditation as the space is limited. All the event will also be streamed online if you can’t make it onsite. I’m looking forward to sharing some Firefox OS love in Montevideo, and to visit the city on my first trip to Uruguay: if you have any suggestions of what to do, to see, or to eat, let me know.

It makes me cringe when people told me they don’t really have a title structure in their company. It worried me when there is no career path for an employee. Some people are comfortable in what they do, but some other need to know “what’s next” to challenge themselves, and thrive to reach the next level. I can care less about my title on an efficiency level! I always give my best, and try to make an art of what I’m doing, but at the same time, it’s how people perceived you. As an example, being recognized as a Senior Technical Evangelist by Mozilla open the door to something like a principal role. If I were still called a (junior) Technical Evangelist, even if I had the experience of a senior one, it could be a lot harder to land a principal role. In the end, you don’t give a senior role to someone without the appropriate experience. As I wrote, I do not care about your title (or mine) as I care a lot more about what you can achieve, but it’s not like this for everyone…

In the end, too often, it’s about how people see you, so it’s why I consider the titles I had, and will have an important part of my professional side!

Don’t be fooled! They have a lot of charisma. They often have a lot of power and influence. They are friendly, very friendly. Unfortunately, they are good manipulator, and like any good one, it will be too late when you find they were wearing a mask. They will drown you, no matter how strong you are. It’s not easy to recognize them: if it were, they wouldn’t be as successful to make other’s lives miserable. So look around you. They may be in your family, in your circle of friends, and more often than not, they may be a work colleague. Watch them. See how they behave. Find if their entourage is negatively affected by them, and run. Run while you can, and get away. Get away from those toxic people!

HTML5 est un pas de géant dans la bonne direction: il apporte plusieurs fonctionnalités dont les développeurs avaient besoin pour créer plus facilement de meilleures expériences web. Il a aussi fait naitre un débat sans fin: applications natives ou applications web! Lors de cette présentation, Frédéric Harper vous montrera comment le web ouvert peut vous aider à créer des applications mobiles de qualités. Vous en apprendrez plus sur des technologies telles que les WebAPIs, ainsi que les outils qui vous permettront de viser un nouveau marché avec Firefox OS et le web d’aujourd’hui.

J’aime bien aller présenter en France, car même si notre accent diffère, cela me permet de partager ma passion des technologies dans ma langue natale, même si je m’aperçois que j’ai de plus en plus de misère à trouver mes mots, présentant toujours dans ma langue seconde, l’anglais. Ça s’annonce une belle journée avec quatre sessions consécutives et les billets sont toujours en vente, donc faite vite. Au plaisir de discuter web avec les développeurs nantais.

Firefox OS, une plateforme à découvrir - IO Saglac - 2014-09-09 from Frédéric Harper

Même si mon focus est surtout au sein des pays où nous avons lancé, avec nos partenaires, des appareils Firefox OS, il me fait toujours plaisir d’en parler au Canada, car selon moi, les APIs ajoutés à Firefox OS sont pour moi l’avenir d’HTML5. En plus, nous pouvons acheté certain appareils en ligne tel que le Firefox OS Flame.

Malheureusement, mon horaire ne m’a pas permis de visiter autant que je l’aurais souhaité, mais ce n’est que partie remise!

Building Web Mobile App that don’t suck - FITC Web Unleashed - 2014-09-18 from Frédéric Harper

So during my presentation, I introduced the concept of mobile first, and responsive web design. I also shared a couple of tips, and tricks on how to optimize your application by thinking about speeding up the loading time, saving on the data transfer, getting better performance, and more.

I’m quite happy with the result as I even got congratulations from the organizers from being in the top rated speakers at the event: it’s always nice to get praise for your work. Despite the good feedbacks, I still feel it’s only the beginning! There is a lot more that we, developers, can do to optimize our mobile web applications, and give a better experience to our users…

L’état de l’Open Source en 2014 - Salon du Logiciel Libre et des technologies ouvertes du Québec (S2QL) - 2014-09-17 from Frédéric Harper

Encore une fois, Christian Aubry étant présent avec Savoir Faire Linux, j’ai eu droit à un enregistrement de qualité de ma présentation.

Au bout du compte, mon but étant bien sûr de sensibiliser les gens à l’Open Source, mais aussi de montrer une approche moins oppressante pour rallier les gens à la cause. Malgré mon court séjour à Québec, j’ai bien aimé ma journée à cet événement et fortement apprécié le keynote du colonel Guimard sur la migration vers l’Open Source à la gendarmerie française: un modèle utile et pragmatique que le gouvernement d’ici devrait envier et copier!

Let’s take a developer job as an example. Yes, you will work behind your computer most of the time, but more often than not, you will work within a team of developers on a specific project or even with people with a different expertise. Even if you were going to work on your very own project, you would have to deal with your manager or designers to make this application a success. It’s even more important if you decide to create a startup or go as a freelancer: you will have to deal with potential customers, or employees. If you think that working behind a computer will cut you off from the rest of the world, you can’t be more wrong. Maybe face-to-face human interaction is not your superpower, but again, even on the web, when you write on Facebook or publish a tweet, it’s communication. By improving this skill, it will open the door to new opportunities. Create a blog to show your expertise and share your passion, applying for a manager or project lead role, writing a book for a well-known publisher and more. I’m not saying that you should at any price be social or attracted to social events, but if you are not afraid of the crowd, combined with your communication skill, it can be super powerful. Networking is a key piece of a successful career, and you can’t do that without being able to communicate correctly. For some, it’s innate: for other, far from it, but no worries, like anything else in life, you can learn and improve this skill too.

You may think it will be harder to sell this skill in an interview, but trust me, the interviewer will be able to notice it right away. In the end, being interviewed is all about communication! Oh, and for me, communication is not just about speaking or writing well: being a good listener is as, if not more important…

HTML, not just for desktops: Firefox OS - Congreso Universitario Móvil - 2014-09-04 from Frédéric Harper

You can also watch the recording of my session. The sound is not that good: the room was echoing a lot, but I promised to the attendees that no matter what, I’ll publish it online.

The attendees had so much interest in the Open Web that instead of taking a couple of minutes for the questions, I did a full one hours Q&A right after the keynote. They were supposed to have a one-hour break before the next session, but they used that time to learn more about Firefox OS, which is great. I think we would have been good to continue on the questions, but I had to stop them as it was time to start the three hours hackathons. I started the hackathon with explanations about the next hours we spent together, but also on how to build, and debug your application.

Firefox OS, getting started in 15 mins - Congreso Universitario Móvil - 2014-09-04 from Frédéric Harper

I also recorded that presentation, which took more than fifteen minutes as it include explanation about the hackathon itself. Again, we were in the same room, so the sound is not optinal.

Attendees worked hard to port their actual web application using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to make them work on our platform. After the hacking part of the day, I did three interviews with local medias, and one is already online on Excélsior (in Spanish - English version translated by Google). The one with Reforma, and Financiero Bloomberg TV will follow soon. Overall, I had an amazing time again in Mexico, and I was amazed by the interest about HTML, the Open Web, and Firefox OS. Keep the great apps coming Mexico!

Si tu avais des connaissances que tu aurais aimé savoir dès le début, quelle aurait-elle été? #

J’étais un développeur qui partait à son compte pour offrir des services de développement. Même si ce qu’on dépeint de la vie d’entrepreneur est souvent “glamour”, je savais à quoi m’attendre en terme de haut et de bas. Par contre, ce que j’avais sous-estimé c’est la partie que je pourrais réellement consacrer au développement d’applications, contrairement aux autres tâches d’être à son compte. Lorsqu’on est le seul employé d’une petite entreprise, on occupe tous les rôles: secrétaire, financier, président, marketing, développeur, testeur, designer… J’ai donc réalisé très rapidement que je ne pouvais consacrer tout mon temps à offrir mes services, mais qu’il y avait une grande partie qui entrait dans la section autre. Pendant que tu travailles sur un projet, tu dois en même temps courtiser de nouveaux clients, réseauter pour agrandir ton réseau, travailler sur ton offre pour toujours la rendre compétitive, t’informer sur le marché ainsi que sur tes compétiteurs, t’éduquer sur les nouvelles technologies, faire des soumissions qui n’aboutiront peut-être à rien, agrandir ton réseau de professionnel fiable pour sous-traiter des aspects que tu ne peux faire… Il sera trop tard pour faire tout cela lorsque le contrat que tu fais en ce moment sera fini. Une fois que c’est compris, il suffit de t’organiser et aussi d’évaluer tes dates de livraisons en conséquence.

Malgré que j’ai passé une bonne partie de ma carrière à traiter avec des clients, j’ai tout de même été surpris de la dévalorisation, ainsi que du manque d’éducation des gens à propos des technologies et du développement d’applications. C’était toujours trop cher pour le budget, une tactique que plusieurs prennent probablement dans plusieurs industries, mais j’ai trouvé cela plus flagrant et semblait plus honnête comme réaction: on ne connait pas la complexité de créer un logiciel de qualité. Il faut donc être bon vendeur pour ne pas travailler pour rien. Offrir un service est aussi une boucle sans fin: il faut toujours trouver un nouveau projet si on veut avoir de l’argent pour vivre. De ce fait, je serais tenté de me diriger vers la création d’un produit dans le future: il y a d’autres défis, mais différents.

Quels sont les meilleurs moyens d’atteindre une clientèle lorsque l’on travaille dans le domaine IT? #

La présence web, ainsi que le réseautage sont la clé. Être présent en ligne est très important: créer un blogue et avoir des comptes que l’ont va maintenir sur les médias sociaux. C’est une façon par laquelle les gens vont trouver vos services, mais aussi une manière que les gens vont utiliser pour vous recommander à de potentiels clients. Une grande majorité de mes prospects venaient de gens en ligne, que je ne connaissais pas, mais qui avait entendu parler de mes services et qui me référait à leurs contacts. Le réseautage est aussi important, voir critique. Il peut porter des fruits à court terme, mais souvent ce sera un travail de longue haleine. Une personne que vous avez rencontrée il y a un an, peut soudainement avoir besoin de vos services et pourtant, elle jurait ne jamais avoir recours à quelqu’un comme vous dans le futur. Vous ne savez jamais lorsque quelqu’un a qui vous parlé, peu importe l’occasion, soirée de réseautage ou non, pourra avoir besoin ou connaitra quelqu’un qui aura besoin de votre expertise. Il faut donc varier: aller dans des soirées pour développeurs tels YulDev à Montréal, car ce n’est pas tout le monde qui a votre passion pour ce que vous offrez, mais aller aussi dans d’autres types d’événements où vous rencontrerez des gens qui ne sont pas du milieu.

Quelles sont les méthodes que tu as employées pour t’autodiscipliner, travaillant à la maison? #

J’ai aménagé une pièce qui me sert de bureau et juste de bureau: c’est plus facile d’aller travailler. J’utilise aussi différentes techniques telles que celle du Pomodoro pour me concentrer sur la tâche actuelle. Il faut dire qu’il est facile de faire autre chose lorsqu’on est à la maison, mais il en est tout aussi facile de ne pas travailler lorsqu’on est au bureau. C’est une tout autre optique: vous êtes maintenant le patron de votre entreprise! Aimeriez-vous qu’un employé soit payé à ne rien faire? Probablement pas, donc soyez cet employé modèle qui travaille bien. De plus, l’avantage de travailler à son compte est que vous pouvez travailler lorsque bon vous semble: si ça ne fonctionne pas, aller faire autre chose et revenez en soirée ou durant la fin de semaine. Pas besoin de faire du 8 à 5.

En espérant que cela répondre aux questions qui m’ont été posées et pourra aider d’autres entrepreneurs. Si vous avez d’autres interrogations, faite moi signe dans la section des commentaires.

Firefox OS is a new operating system for mobile phones to bring web connectivity to those who can not get top-of-the-line smartphones. By harvesting the principles of what made the web great and giving developers access to the hardware directly through web standards it will be the step we need to make a real open and affordable mobile web a reality. In this talk, Frédéric Harper from Mozilla will show how Firefox OS works, how to build apps for it and how end users will benefit from this open alternative to other platforms.

It’s not too late to register for this event on October 22-23: they still have early birds tickets. See you there to share, and discuss with you about open source, open tech and the open web!

De ce fait, j’ai déjà entrepris quelques modifications, qui de par mon expérience avec différents groupes d’utilisateurs, événements et mon travail s’avèreront, je l’espère, profitable pour la santé du groupe. La première action est un retour à la base: soit une rencontre par mois alentour des technologies web (HTML, CSS et JavaScript) sans nécessairement visé que les nouveautés de HTML5. Il n’y a aucun manque de sujets que nous pouvons aborder et la demande des développeurs de la région de Montréal est présente (presque 1000 membres): la première rencontre de la saison 2014-2015 a généré plus de 180 réservations pour la présentation que Pierre-Paul Lefebvre nous a offerte sur AngularJS lors d’une soirée en salle comble. Je n’en attends pas moins pour la prochaine soirée sur Nodejs avec Rami Sayar qui vient juste d’être annoncé. Ensuite, une identité visuelle a été créée pour se démarquer du logo générique d’HTML5 que nous utilisions: un merci tout spécial à Matthew Potter qui a créé ce dernier, que vous pouvez voir en haut de ce billet. Deux petites modifications ont aussi été apportées au fonctionnement de la soirée: elle débute et finit plus tôt. Cela donnera plus de temps pour rentrer chez vous voir vos enfants ou relaxer avant la prochaine journée et vous avez tout de même le temps de finir votre journée de travail ainsi que d’aller manger une bouchée avant de vous présenter au groupe. En plus de cela, vous remarquerez maintenant que l’audience visée sera mentionnée dès octobre et pour toute présentation qui suivront: plus de surprise avec du contenu trop avancé pour vous ou de somnolence pour une présentation de base qui ne vous intéresse pas. Une des dernières actions que j’ai entreprise est de rendre le groupe bilingue: je crois que ç’a toujours été le cas, car nous avons eu des présentations en anglais par le passé, mais ça n’avait jamais été mis de l’avant. Nous sommes à Montréal, partageons sur le web en étant tout aussi ouvert: vivre le “Montréal style” et bienvenue aux anglophones (il me reste encore des traductions à faire sur la page meetup).

Pour la suite, il me reste à trouver une solution pour éviter que les gens qui réservent ne se présentent pas: en moyenne de 20 à 40% des gens qui disent qu’ils seront présents ne le seront pas. De ce fait, les gens en liste d’attente, qui auraient pu et voulu assisté à l’événement manque une belle soirée. Les gens doivent se responsabiliser, mais je tenterais, par essai et erreur, de minimiser l’impact de ce fléau bien connu des événements gratuits. Je vais bien sûr reprendre contact avec les commanditaires que j’avais recrutés dans le passé et de ce fait, ouvre la porte à quiconque souhaite supporter le groupe tout en obtenant une visibilité hors du commun. N’hésitez pas à m’envoyer un courriel (lien contact ci-haut) et je vous ferais parvenir le document des commandites. Je suis aussi toujours à la recherche de nouvelle présentatrice et nouveau présentateur, donc que vous soyez novice en la matière (je peux vous aider) ou passé maître dans l’art de parler en public, veuillez aussi m’envoyer un courriel si vous désirez faire profiter les membres de votre savoir!

Je suis bien heureux d’être de retour à ce magnifique groupe qu’est HTML5mtl.

The mobile web got a bad reputation. In reality, it’s the platform to bet on if you care about reach and sustainability of your product. In this talk, Frédéric Harper will show you how you can use HTML and JavaScript to build amazing mobile applications as to brush up what you previously published. Learn about the open web technologies, including WebAPIs and tools designed to get you started developing HTML apps for Firefox OS and the web. In the end, HTML is not just for desktops…

After the talk, developers who wants to port their actual HTML or PhoneGap application will join me for a short workshop:

This workshop is open to individual developers and teams of up to four people. To participate for this short free hands-on, technical workshop, you must have an HTML5 or PhoneGap application that you want to port to Firefox OS or a working Firefox OS app in progress. The workshop will begins with a technical introduction; the rest of the time is for coding and testing your app using the App Manager or WebIDE that’s built in Firefox Developer Tools. We will also have ten devices that you will be able to use to test the platform, but also test your applications on real hardware. Bring your laptops and Firefox devices if you have one. At the end of the workshop, there will be demos of all the port in progress, and some of you will go back home with a Firefox OS Flame device! After the workshop, we will stay in touch while you complete your apps and submit them to Firefox Marketplace. Keep in mind that this workshop is really short in time, so you need to come prepared: install Firefox, install the Firefox OS 1.3 Simulator, and start read about porting your actual HTML or PhoneGap application to this new amazing web platform!

It’s my second time in Mexico and my first time in Mexico City. Unfortunately, I won’t have time to visit, but I can’t wait to meet all those amazing developers tomorrow. If you are at the conference or near Mexico City, join us at UNAM!

L’autre c’est peut-être toi, va savoir…

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/le-web-ouvert-avec-firefox-os-et-firefox-linux-meetup-montreal-20140805

Ce fut une belle opportunité de présenter Firefox OS vu que bien des participants avait à peine entendu parlé du système d’exploitation. Je voulais tenter une approche différente pour la troisième partie, soit celle sur Firefox, mais celle-ci aura été vaine: presque la totalité des pros logiciels libres présents hier soir utilisait déjà Firefox comme navigateur par défaut. Ce fut donc une belle soirée pour ma première fois au Linux Meetup Montréal. De ce fait, je vous invite à vous joindre au groupe si vous avez un intérêt avec Linux: pas besoin d’être un pro avec cet OS, tous sont invités!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f14e5iQDAYY

Thanks again to the friend Christian Aubry, who, like always, did an amazing job with the recording. Thanks also to Python Montréal for having me and Google Montréal for sponsoring the event.

What is the first impression you are giving? Think about it…

Firefox OS, mais qu’est-ce que Mozilla avait en tête pour lancer une Xième plateforme mobile sur le marché! Quel en est le but? Quels en sont les avantages pour les utilisateurs, mais aussi pour les développeurs? Qu’en est-il de Firefox et du web ouvert? Frédéric Harper de Mozilla viendra vous parler de ces deux plateformes, de l’Open Source et de l’Open Web au sein de cette organisation hors du commun.

C’est donc un rendez-vous à 18:30 mardi prochain. Vous pouvez confirmer votre présence sur différents réseaux, soit Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn et Meetup.

We would have been able to do a full day or more about developer outreach, but we only had three hours in which we shown the attendees how they can contribute, did a fun speaker idol and worked on their project plan. The contribution can be done at many levels, like public speaking, helping developers to build Firefox OS application, answering questions on StackOverflow, and more.

Since we had parallel tracks during our session, we gave it twice to give them the chance to assist to more than one track. For those who were there in the Saturday session, the following slides are the one we used:

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/developer-outreach-for-firefox-os-mozcamp-india-20140621

I also recorded the session for those of you that would like to refresh your memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN80RcsUPdk

For the session on Sunday, we fixed some slides, and adapted our session to give us more time for the speaker idol as the project plan. Here are the slides:

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/developer-outreach-for-firefox-os-mozcamp-india-20140622

If you were not there, I would suggest you to follow the slides as the video of the second day, as it’s an improve version of the first one (not that the first one was not good, but it was the first time we gave this session);

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1A76q4OFgQ

From the feedback we got, it was a pretty good session, and we were happy so see the excitement of the Indian community about this community evangelist role. I can’t wait to see what the Mozilla community in India will do! If you too, Mozillian or not, have any interest about evangelizing the open web, you should join the Mozilla Evangelism mailing list (does not exist anymore).

One year later #

One year later, I’m still there. It means I like what I’m doing, my team, my manager, and the company. It has been an interesting, but amazing year. I always say that my job is to give love to developers, and it’s true. I’m fortunate enough to have a job where I can share my passion with other, and being paid to help them. During the last year, I spoke at 26 events (conferences, user groups…) sharing about technology and educating developer about open web app like Firefox OS. I’ve helped many developers to fix their bugs, create their applications, provide a better experience to their users, solve the issue they had, and even more important, be successful on the platform.

I’ve always been energized by the fact that the line between working, and having fun for me is really thin, but the volunteers I meet stoked me. The passion, the energy, the time they give to Mozilla, or should I say, to get a better Web, an open one, and help people to take ownership of that web, is astonishing. I will always remember the events I’ve done with them! There is no way you can’t be pumped up for your work, when you see those people giving their time and being dedicated 100% to the mission like that. To all Mozillians, I salute you, thanks for being part of my life!

I can’t write a post about my first year at Mozilla without talking about the travels: I’ve been on the road for 104 days in 15 cities (Toronto, Krakow, San Jose, Brussels, Guadalajara, Budapest, Athens, San Francisco, Moutain View, Barcelona, Paris, Prague, London, Bangalore, and Mumbai) from 12 countries (Canada, Poland, USA, Belgium, Mexico, Hungary, Greece, Spain, France, Czech Republic, UK, and India). For someone who like to discover new cities, cultures, foods, and more, travelling for work is an amazing bonus.

I’ve been a Technical Evangelist for three years, and a half now. I’ve not been in this role for a decade, but it’s not something new for me, I have some experience. Still, I learn a lot in the last year, and it’s perfect as I’m one of the kinds who think we should never stop learning, and improving ourselves. For now, I would not like to be in another position…

Mozilla is a strange beast #

The biggest learning curve for me was about the organization, or should I say, the company. Mozilla is a particular beast, a strange one. As far as I know, no other company can be compared to Mozilla: it’s unique. No one can be against the mission of Mozilla, and all the Mozillians move forward to make the web even more open. We are working on amazing projects that changed, and will continue to change the world. We are a bunch of passionate people who believe in what we do, and for any enterprise, it’s a definite asset. We can go, and do what other are afraid to do as we are not there to make money (even if we need money to survive). It’s crazy what all Mozilla together can accomplish.

On the other side, Mozilla is cannibalizing itself. We are getting bigger, and bigger, but we are not always well organized. Because of the nature of Mozilla, everybody has, and wants to give their opinion, and some people tend to forget that it’s their job. The industry has higher expectations for us. We are pro open source, and open web, but we are not always pragmatic. We need volunteers to be successful, but we tend to accept everybody, when we should aim for quality instead of quantity. At the same time, we have so many projects we are working on: it’s not just about Firefox or Firefox OS my friends. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining as I love Mozilla. I guess that it’s part of my reflexion on the last year of my professional life. We are getting better at organizing ourselves, and I hope it will continue that way as I want Mozilla to be the protector of the web for many more years to come!

Today is the first day of my next year at Mozilla, and I’m looking forward to many more!

So why Microsoft gave me recognition for Internet Explorer? In the end, I’m working at Mozilla. Well, I see this as a good news for everything I was doing while I was there (like Make Web Not War), and everything I’m doing right now: it’s another proof that Microsoft is more, and more open. As I’ve always said, it’s not perfect, but it’s going in the right direction (MS Open Tech is a great example). In my case, this award is less about Internet Explorer itself, than about the Web, and it’s lovely technology that is HTML5. They recognize the work I’m doing in that sense, either with Open Source, with communities in Montreal or with talks I’m doing about the Web. At first, it may seem weird for you, but I think it makes a lot of sense that Microsoft recognize someone like me, even if I’m working in a company making a competing product. Microsoft is doing a better job since Internet Explorer 9, and the browser is getting better, and better. No matter if you don’t use it, but other people do, and by making a better browser, which respect more the standards, they are helping the web to move forward. It’s also a good thing for us, developers, as we can more easily build great experiences for any users, no matter the browser they use. On that note, I was happy to see a bit more transparency about IE with the platform status website.

So, I salute the openness of Microsoft to nominate someone like me (they even hired me in the past). By being part of that MVP program, I’m looking forward to seeing how I can continue to work on the Mozilla mission while helping Microsoft to be more open with web technologies.

EOM.

The amazing folks behind the event were recording all the talks, so in the meantime I got the final video, here are my slides.

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/responsive-web-design-devoxx-uk-20140613

I’ll post the video once they upload it online. It was a real pleasure to share some web awesomeness with the folks in London, and I hope to be back soon. If you have any questions, please let me know.

P.S.: I still have the weekend here, and I plan to visit a lot, so ping me if something is missing on my list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giRKb73PraQ

Une petite vidéo bien amicale, comme seul Monsieur Aubry sait les faire…

I already got my sim card, and guess what, Vodafone UK gave me unlimited data for ten pounds: very good deal! I also bought the usual city mug at a local Starbuck, right at the train station, as I took the EuroStar from Paris, where I was previously, directly to London. So except from doing some geocaches, that I’ll probably do during some evenings in the next coming days, I still have a huge list of things I want to do during my weekend (in no particular order):

• Abey Road: Beatles fan, there is no way I can come to London, and not go to that street;
• Baker Street: as a fan of Sherlock Holmes, I need to visit that street;
• Banksy Tour: it’s not an organized tour, but I bought an application to find some of the Bansky’s artwork in London (I’m a fan!);
• Big Ben: you cannot go in London, and not take the obligatory picture of the clock tower name Big Ben (even if clocks are a bit too often one of the main attraction in different cities I went);
• Churchill War Rooms: it’s part of the history, and I include this in the museum category;
• London Cable Car: not so good for someone like me who have the vertigo, but I hear the view of London is fabulous;
• Royal Observatory Greenwich: if I have time, just for being able to say I was at GMT;
• Taking the tube: just for the sake of taking the subway with his emblematic logo.
• Thames house: there is nothing to do there, but as I huge fan of series about the MI5, I need to say I saw the Thames house (even if it’s not the building used in most of the tv series);
• The London Eye: not something I really want to do, but if I have time, again, it seems that the view is really nice, and it still a iconic London attraction;
• Tower bridge: I don’t think I’ll do the official tour, but I want to be sure I’ll walk on it, and take some picture of this famous bridge;
• Westminster Abbey: because I like those kind of architecture, and it’s one of the most iconic abbey;
• Last, but not the easiest one, finding Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and as a request from honey, Benedict Cumberbatch.

What is missing on that list is things related to food or drinks: I don’t know if there is any restaurants I should not miss, or any special kind of drink, like specific beer I should taste. I have some friends here, so they will give me good pointers in that direction, but as usual, if you have any ideas let me know. I’m always looking to find some new stuff to do that were not on my list or thing that only locals know. At the same time, maybe there are stuff in my list I should avoid as they are tourists’ trap. First time in London, and quite excited to be here… Thanks for your suggestions, and comments.

Think about it. If you are not, what are you waiting for? The only person responsible for you being happy or not is, unfortunately, you! So act now, and make it happen. Trust me, if you remove what you don’t like from your day to day life, you will have plenty of space for the amazing stuff. If you do this, you too will have those random thought popping into your head: “life is good”…

P.S.: I just had this “life is good” moment, writing a chapter of my personal branding book, drinking beer from Belgium on a patio in Paris with an amazing sun outside. Your moment can differ (and does not have to be in a foreign country)!

Pour ma part, comme la plupart du temps, j’ai présenté sur les technologies Web à travers les lunettes de Firefox OS. J’avais une heure et demie pour ma session, ce qui je dois dire, même pour quelqu’un comme moi, est assez long. Aucun problème au niveau du contenu, car je pourrais en parler pendant des jours, mais une petite pause s’imposait après ces quatre-vingt-dix minutes de présentation. Bien que les étudiants, de tous les spécialités, étaient obligés d’être présents pour ma présentation (quel honneur de la part d’EPITA - ce n’était pas ainsi pour chacune des sessions), j’ai senti un intérêt marqué pour le web et Firefox OS. Pour ceux qui étaient présents, voici mes diapositives:

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/firefox-os-le-web-de-demain-epita-20140606

Comme à l’habitude, j’ai enregistré ma présentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhzqj6SsATI

Je ne sais pas pourquoi il y a une bordure noir, mais au temps que cela m’a pris pour le mettre sur YouTube (connexion wifi lente), ça va faire l’affaire pour l’instant :)

Ce fut un plaisir pour moi de venir présenter en France et j’espère en avoir la chance à nouveau: c’est plaisant de présenter dans un autre pays, en français! Merci à tous les étudiants qui ont assisté à ma session (même ceux en retard) et à EPITA pour l’invitation.

HTML5 est un pas de géant dans la bonne direction: il apporte plusieurs fonctionnalités dont les développeurs avaient besoin pour créer plus facilement de meilleures expériences web. Il a aussi fait naitre un débat sans fin: applications natives ou applications web! Lors de cette présentation, Frédéric Harper vous montrera comment le web ouvert peut vous aider à créer des applications mobiles de qualités. Vous en apprendrez plus sur des technologies telles que les WebAPIs, ainsi que les outils qui vous permettront de viser un nouveau marché avec Firefox OS et le web d’aujourd’hui.

L’idée étant de présenter HTML comme la technologie de choix pour les applications que les pirates vont créer durant l’événement, mais aussi, à la demande des organisateurs, montrer la puissance d’HTML5 à travers Firefox OS. Avec le prix de ces téléphones, aucun doute que ces appareils aident différentes villes à répondent à ces fameux défis sociaux, alors pourquoi pas à Montréal! On se voit lors du hackathon: n’oubliez pas de réserver votre place et de créer un projet tout en joignant une équipe existante au besoin. Bon hacking…

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/firefox-os-html5-to-the-next-level-python-montreal-20140512-34618948

As usual when talking about Firefox OS, my goal is to educate people about this platform. I want developers to know it is there, that they can port their applications to reach a new audience. Even more important, to know that there are API that exist to give them the power they need to create amazing mobile applications. I did not record my talk this time as the Montreal Video Man himself, Christian Aubry, was there to do the recording with his expert setup. I’ll let you know once the video will be available. Python developer, hope you enjoyed some Firefox OS awesomesauce!

There is no mobile Web, there is no desktop Web, and there is no tablet Web. We view the same Web just in different ways. So how do we do it? By getting rid of our fixed-width, device-specific approaches and use Responsive Web Design techniques. This session will focus on what is Responsive Web Design and how you can use his 3-pronged approach on your current apps today which will also adapt to new devices in the future.

It will be quite interesting to talk about responsive web design again: I’ve always been a big believer in making sure you give a good experience to your users, no matter their screen size or platform, and I think it’s even more important in today’s world. For developers, using such a technique not only give them the opportunity to reach more people, and give a great experience to their users, but also make it so much easier to port to different web platforms like Firefox OS. If you want to join us, buy your ticket now, and use my promotion code SPK10E4 to save some bucks… See you in June London!

If you are like me, your spectrum of interest is large when it comes to technology. You may be a Python developer, but that does not mean you have not any interest in HTML, and it’s a good coincidence as it’s the foundation of my presentation. In this talk, Frédéric Harper will show you how you can use HTML5 with the power of JavaScript to build amazing mobile applications as to brush up what you previously published. Learn about the open web technologies, including WebAPIs, and tools designed to get you started developing HTML apps for Firefox OS, and the web.

The idea is to introduce those developers to the new operating system, and see where HTML5 is going with stuff like WebAPIs. I hope they’ll have as much fun to learn about Firefox OS than they have to create websites with Python! So if you want to learn more about Firefox OS, register now as we have a limited number of places.

Qualifying yourself for this offer is simple:

1. You need to publish your application to the Firefox OS Marketplace within one month from your participation acceptance;
2. You agree that if you can’t publish the application within the delay, I’ll ask you to ship back the phone to our US office at your own cost;
3. It need to be a quality application (example: no calculator, converter or plain website adapted to run on a mobile…);

You’ll agree with me that one month, even if you are doing this on your free time, is more than enough to publish something you already have. If your application or game can adapt itself on different screen size, and it’s working in Firefox, it should be easy to port your application to Firefox OS. You do not even need a phone to start as you have everything you need within Firefox with the App Manager, the simulator, and the Firefox Developer Tools. I’ll ask you to ship back the device if you cannot respect our agreement as I have a limited number of phones. If it’s the case, I’ll be able to send the phone to another developer who didn’t get a device, make sense? If you respect our deal, the phone is yours!

How can you participate?

1. Send an email to [fharper@mozilla.com](mailto:fharper@mozilla.com?subject=Out of Comfort Zone Free Firefox OS phone) with the subject “Out of Comfort Zone Free Firefox OS phone”;
2. Give me a link to the application or game you want to port to Firefox OS (either a URL for the web application or a link to the published application in one of the app stores for a PhoneGap one).

Once I’ll received your email, I’ll review the submission for the quality criteria: only the accepted developers will be contacted. This offer is available for any developers in the world, and as supply last. If your offer is accepted, I’ll ask you for your full name, address, and phone number: it will be used only for shipping and won’t be used after this program. The phone will be either a Geeksphone Keon, a Geekphone Peak, and an Alcaltel One Touch Fire: you cannot choose, it will depend on the phones I’ll get.

It’s so easy to get a free phone, but apply now as those will go fast! Feel free to share on your own network (after you apply as it’s first come, first serve)…

2014-07-31 - This offer is not valid anymore, but you can try with the Apps on a Flame program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utMeNxYLYsw

Je suis bien content de cette opportunité, car je n’ai pas souvent la chance de parler de Firefox OS en français. Merci à Christian Aubry, l’homme derrière la caméra, Jonathan Le Lous et Savoir Faire Linux pour cette entrevue.

Firefox OS, fixing the mobile web - FITC Toronto - 2014-04-28 from Frédéric Harper

I also had another goal with this talk. I wanted people to think about the web first the next time they’ll think about building something for mobile. If you were not in Toronto or you did not come to my talk (I do not blame you, so many good talks at the same time), you can watch it online.

I’m quite happy with the turn out as I got a full room (120+ people), great feedbacks, and many people excited about the platform. As I said during my presentation, let me know if you have any questions or build anything for Firefox OS. I’m here to help, and wants to know the amazing things you are doing! On that note, have a good conference FITC folks…

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/get-out-of-the-crowd-herzing-college-20140424

As you can see, my goal was simple: help them to find insights on how to differentiate themselves from others. In the end, they’ll all graduate with the same diploma, same education, same experience, and same homework assignments. How, as an employer, receiving many resumes for one job, can I put their name on top of the list? In other words, it was a quick introduction to the concept of personal branding as it’s the perfect time for them to start thinking about it.

HTML5 est un pas de géant dans la bonne direction: il apporte plusieurs fonctionnalités dont les développeurs avaient besoin pour créer plus facilement de meilleures expériences web. Il a aussi fait naitre un débat sans fin: applications natives ou applications web! Lors de cette présentation, Frédéric Harper vous montrera comment le web ouvert peut vous aider à créer des applications mobiles de qualités. Vous en apprendrez plus sur des technologies telles que les WebAPIs, ainsi que les outils qui vous permettront de viser un nouveau marché avec Firefox OS et le web d’aujourd’hui.

Comme d’habitude, pour ceux qui étaient présents, voici les diapositives qui ont accompagné mes propos:

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/firefox-os-html5-sur-les-strodes-html5mtl-20140422

J’ai aussi enregistré cette dernière pour ceux qui voudraient revoir une partie ou bien pour ces fans de hockey qui ont fait le choix de ne pas venir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMvUxr758Ag

Tel que mentionné durant la soirée, si vous avez d’autres questions sur la plateforme ou si vous planifier soumettre une application Firefox OS dans le Firefox Marketplace, faite-moi signe!

We are lucky in Montreal: there are many user groups for developers! Most of them have one point in common: they often focus on one technology or a group of related ones, and the primary goal is to learn from a speaker. Like you, I have much interest when it comes to technology, but I also have limited time in a week. Therefore, I cannot attends all the user groups or events I would like too, and I feel I’m missing opportunity to meet new amazing developers. With this in mind, I created YulDev, a Montreal style (French & English) user group or I should say, networking group as there will be no presentation (maybe greetings from your host in the beginning, but nothing else). In a 6@8 formula, the goal of this monthly event is to mingle, talk with people you know, and of course, meet new one. You never know what will happen next: new job, new friend, possible customer, a startup idea, interest in a new language, discovering a new user group you did not know about, and of course, an amazing evening with great developers.

So don’t wait, join the group, share about it with your co-workers, and RSVP for our first meetup in May. Don’t underestimate the power of networking in our industry!

P.S.: If you are the lead of a group for developers in Montreal or a media, and would like to promote YulDev, please let me know. If you are a company, and would like to sponsor the group, let’s talk about it (more information soon about our needs).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KhNfxFA8OQ

The voice level was lower during the event to keep attendees from running away, so I guess they recorded directly from my mic output.</em It was a fantastic experience! I discovered an amazing foundation, for a cause that shouldn’t exist in a better world. I had the pleasure to sing a song with a live band, and they were amazing. Not that I did not have respect for group signers, but now, my respect level for them reach a new level. The song I choose, Get Lucky from Daft Punk, was energetic, and people were dancing. It sure has a special place in the epic shit list of things I did in my life!

I’m in favor of gay marriage. I also have lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender friends. I would have the same opinion without them in my life. I firmly believe in freedom, and I respect people who don’t have the same opinion or vision as me. I did not know Brendan Eich enough as I only meet him once. I did not have strong opinions about his nomination as the CEO of Mozilla. I trusted the people who made the decision, and I thought that it could not hurt to have one of the founders as the new leader. CEO question apart, I’m grateful to Brendan for his contribution to the Open Web, and the creation of Mozilla. Let’s not forget the invention of JavaScript.

Why I’m sad #

I’m sad because I had to start this post with justification about my personal belief, and social life. I saw so many other posts or thread gone in the wrong direction. I’m sad because the web shown his ugly face: on both sides of the story or beliefs. More important, even if I was disappointed by Brendan donation, I’m sad because he resigned. It’s not exactly about him, but more about the consequences. Last, I’m sad because Mozilla, that was probably one of the most open organization I know, changed during the last days…

Don’t hurt Mozilla #

The person who did the donation was Brendan Eich. The people who nominated him were the board members. Even if they are making high level decisions as nominating a CEO, they are not Mozilla. Mozilla is thousands of people, some paid staff, and many volunteers. Mozilla is the people who fight, and work for the web: we want the web to be more open, and we want more people to have access to it. Mozilla is you! The shit storm of the last days did not only hurt Brendan: it hurt Mozilla a lot. It hurt the people who worked for days, months, years to make the web a better place to be!

Please, don’t hurt Mozilla.

P.S.: I’m not sure this post pay honor to my thoughts or if it makes sense to add to the cacophony…

HTML5 est un pas de géant dans la bonne direction: il apporte plusieurs fonctionnalités dont les développeurs avaient besoin pour créer plus facilement de meilleures expériences web. Il a aussi fait naitre un débat sans fin: applications natives ou applications web! Lors de cette présentation, Frédéric Harper vous montrera comment le web ouvert peut vous aider à créer des applications mobiles de qualités. Vous en apprendrez plus sur des technologies telles que les WebAPIs, ainsi que les outils qui vous permettront de viser un nouveau marché avec Firefox OS et le web d’aujourd’hui.

C’est d’autant plus un plaisir pour moi que de me joindre au groupe ce mois-ci, car j’affectionne particulièrement ma ville où je ne présente plus assez. Pas que je me plaigne des pays où je partage ma passion avec d’autres développeurs, mais c’est plaisant de pouvoir le faire en français et d’avoir l’opportunité de réseauter avec des gens de chez nous. C’est donc un rendez-vous, le 22 avril prochain à 18:30 (ouverture des portes à 18:00 - si vous arrivez en retard, je vais vous faire chanter!) au bureau de Microsoft Montréal, que je remercie, situé au 2000 McGill College suite 450. Réservez votre place rapidement! Au plaisir de vous voir au HTML5mtl.

That was the abstract of the presentation I did on Thursday at PragueJS. My goal was to show JavaScript developers that the eternal question between native versus mobile web application can be answered differently. We, Mozilla, created Firefox OS to open the web to more people, and give a real web platform to users as to developers. By doing so, we created what we call the WebAPIs: those APIs give you the control over the hardware with HTML5. Here are the slides from my presentation. The recording of my presentation has been made by Node5 and will be available soon.

[smartslider3 slider=4]

With that in mind, I cannot see anything else than a bright future for the web…

Last year, I simplified my life manifesto to focus on fewer points, but also to give it a positive approach. After a lot of thought on the topic, I decided to simplify a lot more my life manifesto so it could become nearly a mantra. Why? It’s easier to walk on a straight line if you only have one end goal. This one rule also include everything else, and is the foundation of the previous version of my manifesto. Those of you that know me won’t be surprise of the end result:

do epic shit

That’s it; my life manifesto is now a sentence (more a mantra now), a call to action created with three small words. Sorry if you were tired of these three impactful words, but it’s only the beginning… Let me clarify why it’s based on the previous versions. Personally, I think that you need to be authentic to do epic shit. You can’t do epic shit if you live day to day with regrets. You’ll definitely need to go out of your comfort zone to create good things, and live amazing experiences. It’s also a crystal clear call to action: do something, do something you love, and do it now.

Doing epic shit is still a large statement. It means a lot of things depending on how you think about it. Combined with my three words each year, those will be a powerful combination that will help me be happy in every part of my life! In the end, when I’ll be on my deathbed, I want to be able to say that my life was full of epic shit!

So for now, from what I found on the web, my list will include:

• The Prague Castle;
• St. Nicholas’ Church because I like to visit one church in every new city: their architecture are amazing;
• The Lennon Wall because I like the Beatles;
• Old Town (Stare Mesto) will be a nice place to walk, and discover the city, and his treasures;
• Astronomical clock because it seems to be one of the main attraction of Prague with the castle.

On the food side of the experience, I got a lot of good suggestions:

• Brewbar is a coffee stand at the Naplavka farmer’s market. The owner is an amazing barista we hired for the Firefox OS booth at the Mobile World Congress. It was the best coffee I ever had, so I’ll repeat the experience there;
• Strahov Monastic Brewery for a good local beer;
• Čestr Ambiente for a good meal;
• Lokál Dlouhá seems to be a nice little restaurant for something fast, but fresh, and tasteful;
• Café Imperial for another great meal.

For the prepaid sim card, I think I’ll go with Vodafone except if you told me not. I’ve been served well in many European countries: the network is usually good, and the price is cheap. They even have a stand at the airport, which I like as it will be easier for me.

As usual, I’ll find a Starbucks to see if they have local coffee mugs, and I’ll do one or more geocaches, but is there anything I’m missing? Anything in my list I should skip? Any attraction I need to see or activities I should do? I know I need to taste one of the Czech Republic speciality alcohol called Slivovitz, but is there any typical food I should try too? Help me make this trip even better than it will be!

P.S.: Since you always discover new things once on site, and that some stuff I listed may not be as good as it seems, I’m planning to share my insight, in a blog post form, about the cities I’ve visited to help others have an even better experience.

I wrote a post on how to be a good attendee, now it’s about being a good organizer… Keep in mind that this post focuses on conferences, but everything applies to user groups or any other events with speakers.

Don’t extend your call for speakers #

I planned my schedule to be sure I was able to submit my talks proposal before the deadline for your call for speakers. I don’t think it’s fair to extend that time because you didn’t get as many proposals as you wanted. I may have been able to do other important work if I had known that the deadline would be extended.

If you ask me to submit a talk, be consequent #

If you took the time to ask me to submit a talk to your conference, it’s because you want me to speak at your event, no? First, be clear on what you are looking for exactly. If you don’t like the abstracts I submitted, let me know so we can work together to make it happens.

Select your speakers as soon as possible #

Your call for speakers is done, it’s now time to select them. Even if we are super excited to go to your event, we can’t block our calendars ad vitam aeternam just for you! We have meetings, work to get done, other conferences, and a personal life. The sooner we know if we are accepted (or not), the better. Also, if I’m not selected, I may find other stuff or conferences to go to.

Don’t be afraid of local speakers #

I see this too often now: conferences favour international speakers over local ones. As the conference become more popular or bigger, it’s seems more prestigious to do so. Don’t forget the people that were there since the beginning, if they are good speakers, of course. You also have some local superstars, why not add them to the schedule?

Promote your event in advance #

I saw this too often with user groups: last minute organization, and promotion. Make the time, and effort from the speaker worth it, by making effort on your side to maximize their presence. You have a much higher chance to get a full room of attendees, if you start promoting the event at least one month before, than within the week before. There is nothing more annoying than speaking to an empty room.

Pay for travel, and expense #

I won’t add more meat to this point as it speaks for itself, and Remy Sharp did a great blog post on the topic. My friend Christian Heilmann too did a great post about speaking is sponsoring your event. Even better, why not pay the speaker for their time? In the end, would you work for free?

Don’t offer sponsored speaking slot #

I know, you need to find sources of revenue, but giving a speaking slot to someone who pay for it, means you don’t value your audience. Isn’t it your role to be sure your attendees will have the best speakers with the more interesting topics out there? Select the speakers because of their talent, and/or the topics they will talk about, not the money they are willing to pay. With a policy like that you are more likely to get better speakers as potential sponsors need to pick them by talent, not just because they are available.

I won’t do an in, and out #

When I’m going to your conference, it’s to speak, but also to learn from others, and most important of all, to network. You should expect every speaker to be present before and after their talk. If you pay for my travel, and expense, don’t do it only for the day I’m speaking: I’ll be there for the whole conference. I would also appreciate that you get me in one day before so I can catch up with jet lag if it’s in a different timezone.

Give time between presentations to test my material, and computer setup #

You may have a testing session the day before or in the morning, but there is nothing like testing right before your talk. I need time to plug my computer, test my remote, do an audio test, check my slides from the back of the room… A lot of things may have changed between the testing session, and the time of my talk. If there is any problem, we’ll have time to fix it.

Respect my time on stage #

If you gave me one hour for my presentation, don’t tell, for any reason, that I only have thirty minutes now. As a professional speaker, I built my materials just for your audience, and to get the most out of the time I’ll have. It’s not easy to change my content like that. Also, be sure that the previous speaker finishes on time and don’t cut me off before I finished my talk.

Follow-up with your speakers #

The conference is done; you are all tired, I know it’s a lot of work, I organized many events, user groups, and conferences. I still think it’s not done yet: take the time to follow up with your speakers. Thank them for their work, share the feedback you got, and let them know if you want them to be there next edition.

Again, all these points came back to one simple rule: respect your speakers.

HTML5 is a giant step in the right direction: it gives a lot more tools that developers need to create better experiences for users. The problem? It’s not there yet when it comes to web development for mobile devices. In this talk, Frédéric Harper will show you how you can use HTML, and JavaScript to build amazing mobile applications, and brush up what you published before. You’ll learn about the open web technologies, including WebAPIs, and tools designed to get you started developing HTML apps for Firefox OS, and the web.

So if you are in Prague, and have an interest in web development, please join me for PragueJS (the event start at 19:00) on March 27th at Node5.

It wasn’t intentional as I had no shortage of post ideas: I still have more than one hundred fifty drafts waiting for me. It was a time constraint: I didn’t prioritize blogging while I was at my team Paris work week. I’m not writing this to justify myself, as, after all, it’s my blog.

That little break taught me two things. First thing: none of my readers complains about my lack of posts for the last couple of days. At some level, I’m fine with it as I’m blogging for myself first, but it makes me think that my quality level, maybe, wasn’t there as people were not missing them. Since one of my three words for the year is quality, that make me rethink my blogging cadence, and strategy.

Second thing is more personal. I realized that, when I was writing a series of posts to schedule them on days I know I wouldn’t be able to write, it was more of a task than a pleasure. Don’t get me wrong, I like to write a lot, but I prefer to take my time, and go with my ideas’ flow. In the end, my goal for life is to enjoy every moment of it!

What does that mean for you? Expect fewer posts, but I hope, more quality ones.

Last year, I visited the zoo of Budapest. At one point, I entered one room with free animals, and surprise, many bats were free to fly everywhere while I was there, and I had no protection. At that time, my first thought was something like “what the fuck I’m doing here”, but I decided to continue my journey. I was terrify in the beginning, but I stayed in the room, and walked to see other animals. Once in a while, one those bats were flying over my head, and some, a bit too near. After a while, I realized that I didn’t know why I was afraid of them. Imagination, in addition to the misconception, and with the unknown are the foundation of mostly all fears: it was my case too. This experience makes me understand that it was nothing. The result? I won’t care anymore if I’m in the same room as a bat.

Why am I telling you that story? Simply because something that was a huge fear for me, isn’t anymore. I went out of my comfort zone, in that case, with some unsolicited help from the zoo, and fought my fear. It’s something I don’t have to worry anymore. It’s another situation where I was able to push myself. It’s something that I won’t be afraid anymore. Even if I don’t have to deal with bats often, you get the point…

I like people and I love to talk. Maybe too much, so I wanted to see if I was able to live with myself at least for a full weekend. Last summer, I found an abbey, rent a room, and participate in a silent retreat (I also went totally offline). Of course, people who know me never thought it was possible, but I did it. It was a good opportunity to relax. The experience was special, but I discover one thing: I’m way more stress than I thought!

I started the evening of Friday trying to empty my head: I listed everything I had in mind from blog post ideas to broken stuff I had to repair when back at home. I continued this process until I wasn’t able to write anything: I think I wrote more than 250 items! After this, I went for a walk as it was in a beautiful part of Québec, with forest all over the place: it helped me to disconnect. At one point, I sat down in the gazebo with the goal to read a little, and think about how I can start my new job on a strong note (it was the weekend before my first day at Mozilla). I had a huge surprise: I wasn’t able to do anything, and my mind was totally empty. I stayed in that chair, for many hours, just relaxing, and admiring the nature. For the first time of my life, I was doing nothing, and it was good.

The day after, just after lunch, I realized it was time to get back home: I got invade by a sentiment of anxiety and stress. At that exact moment, I realized I was more stress than I thought. The process of going from a relaxing state to the reality opened the door to this realization: for me, it was an eye-opener revelation.

In the end, it was a good experience to do that retreat, and I’ll do it again this summer: it’s good from time to time to reconnect with your inner you. Next step for me: assisting to a session of some Buddhism-like meditation session.

I told you; I like to go out of my comfort zone (hence this blog name)! The thing is that you need to make a difference from being out of your comfort zone, and doing something you don’t like. Most of the time, it’s a good idea to do stuff you are afraid of doing. Stuff you think you may not be able to do. The magic happens outside of your comfort zone. It help you surpass yourself, have a better life, and add materials to your life backpack. On the other side, there are thing we just shouldn’t do: not because we can’t, but because we don’t like them. In this story, I took the challenge about my new assignments. Since I didn’t like them, it made no sense to continue to be out of my comfort zone as the end goal wasn’t something I was looking for: doing something I don’t want to do.

Once you made the difference between something you don’t want to do, because you don’t like it, with something you don’t want to do, because you are afraid of or don’t believe in your capacity, it will be a totally different story…

I remember, when I started to do public speaking, I was afraid of those evaluation forms: they scared the shit out of me. What if someone don’t like me? What if someone though that I’m a bad speaker. I still think that many people don’t know how to fill those forms, but it’s another discussion. Today, I’m seeking those feedbacks: not that I’m a better speaker, and don’t need to worry about negative comments. I know I can’t please everyone, but when the feedbacks is well done, when it’s constructive, it’s very helpful. It helps me to find my flaws, and to improve myself. It helped me to see my work, my art, with a different view, a new perspective. It’s not always easy, as sometimes you took those a bit too personal, but still, it’s important to take those, and work with them when it make sense.

Let’s be honest, we all use our social media channels to promote ourselves, and our projects. Many people feel ashamed to do so. I don’t. I think we shouldn’t…

There are a lot of things we can promote: our expertise, our friends, our ideas, our tastes, our knowledge, our projects, our company… Like everything in life, it’s a question of dosage. Even if you would self-promote to the extreme, you still have the right to do so: it’s your Twitter account, your Facebook page, your blog. If people don’t like what you share or write, they also have the freedom to stop reading you: there is no shortage of content on the web. Of course, there are expectations about how people should do a fair usage of those, but still, you have the right.

I personally use my channels to promote my ideas, share with you my next talks, even do shameless promotion about the personal branding book I’m writing with Apress (see what I just did!), and I will continue to do so. In my situation, I balance everything with a give/get attitude: some posts on this blog are pure self-promotion, other are a gift to you. I do this only because I’m who I am, and I think people appreciate this right balance.

Everywhere I go I like to take pictures of beautiful street art, but there is another form of street art that I like: street music. All those musicians, sometimes very good, other time, not that much, are part of discovering a new city. It’s not just about travelling as we have a lot of those musicians in Montreal playing in downtown streets during the summer, or even in the subway.

I found this video that I took in Montréal four years ago. The cheesecake ninja (this band name is awesome) is playing since forever in the streets of Montréal, and I always have a great time when I pass near them, so I even bought their albums. I like their beat, it put a smile on your face, and give you the will to do anything!

If you enjoyed as much as I do, share the love, and buy their albums online.

Many years ago, I was one of the shiest persons ever. I was stressing out just to talk with someone I didn’t know, or even someone I known but had authority, as my teachers. I had stomach butterflies, and it was a stressful experience every time I had to do a lecture in high school, or facing something new. No need to say that it was the end of the world when it came to women… With that personality trait, I was losing many opportunities on many aspects of my life. After another missed opportunity, I decided to change. I decided to go out of my comfort zone, and speak up. Be that man I was sure I was inside, be more confident of myself, and my capacities. It wasn’t an easy journey, but it helped me to go from one side of the equation to the other.

Some will say that I may be too much on the other side as I’m totally an extrovert now, but the story end well: I’m way more happy, and totally empower to take all the new opportunity in front of me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that drastic change in my life, and I regret nothing!

I evangelised mobile first, and responsive web design for years now. Not that I’ll stop, but I’ll switch my primary focus on something even more important, something I’m calling web first!

I’m a big fan of giving a great experience to the users, and I know you are too. Unfortunately, that means native applications for many developers, startups, and companies. I agree that when it comes to mobile, HTML5 isn’t quite there yet, and it’s why we are developing Firefox OS at Mozilla, but still, the web is a strong platform, and you can give a decent to a very good experience to your customers.

Because native applications seems to give a better integrated experience for the users on their smartphones, why should you start with the browser experience first or web first as I wrote earlier? There are many reasons, but the most important one is that you will give access to your application to everybody with an internet connection! No discrimination about the OS or the device: everybody that have access to a web browser we’ll be able to use your application.

Reaching more people, and building the foundation for native applications are also important advantages. If you really want to build a native application, do it after. If your web architecture was well done, you’ll already have mostly everything you need to communicate between your server, and your native application if necessary (login, saving, processing…).

I feel that web first is so important, that I want to promote this a lot more: I even brought webfirst.org to create a small site with a manifesto about this (I’ll need designers help)! So next time you want to build an application, think web first!

As a teenager, I was working in a bowling. One evening, my boss looked at me, and asked me if everything was fine: she saw that I had red eyes. I knew what she had in mind: is Fred smoked weed before his shift? I didn’t know why my eyes were like this, but the truth is, I never consumed any drugs, so it wasn’t about what she was loudly thinking.

At that time, my boss perceived me as someone who was doing drug. She judged me on some facts, on what she saw, from her experience, and her belief. She could have been right, but she wasn’t. What does that experience teach me? That it’s about how people perceive you!

I can’t care less about what people think about me: don’t get me wrong, I like it when someone appreciates me, and give me good feedbacks (feel free to do it, haha). On the other side, if you don’t like me because I’m who I am, I don’t care: again, that doesn’t mean I don’t like constructive feedbacks on what I do. It’s a bit frustrating, when you think about it, that sometimes it’s less about what you do, then how people see you.

When people look at you, and think about you, it’s based on what they know, what they see, and their ideas. It may be false or true, and you can influence this by managing your brand, and being proactive, but in the end, you’ll be that person they want you to be…

I’m a big fan of the FITC conferences in Toronto: there always a lot of good talks, amazing people, and a creative flow all over the place. As far as I know, it’s also the biggest tech conference we have in Canada. Once a Flash conference (Flash In The Can), it’s now open for everything related to developers, designers, creativity, and technology (Future Innovation Technology Creativity). I’m happy to be part of the next FITC event that will happen in Toronto.

It will be my fourth participation at one of the FITC event: I spoke at FITC Toronto, FITC SCREENS, and did a keynote at the FITC HTML5 Spotlight. It’s always a pleasure to meet the attendees, and other speakers. This year, as you can imagine, I’ll share the love of Firefox OS to anyone who is interested in the web. My presentation, Firefox OS fixing the mobile web, will be about using the technology you know, HTML5, to open the door to new markets, and fix the mobile web ecosystem:

The mobile web got a bad reputation. In reality, it’s the platform to bet on if you care about reach, and sustainability of your product. In this talk, Frédéric Harper will show you how you can use HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to build amazing mobile applications as to brush up what you previously published. Learn about the open web technologies, including WebAPIs, and tools designed to get you started developing HTML apps for Firefox OS, and the web.

If you plan to attend, now is a good time to buy your tickets as they are at the early bird price: I don’t know how much you save, but who doesn’t like to save some money, and assist to an amazing conference?  With your ticket, you’ll have access to more than 70 talks (you’ll need to do heartbreak decision here) on three days, and you will have a huge opportunity to network with the 1200 attendees they usually have. I don’t come to Toronto as often as before so it will be a good way for me to hang with my fellow Torontonians…

I’m not a businessman who lives by the saying that time is money, but whether we like or not, it’s true.

Every other week, a cleaner is doing my housecleaning. It’s not a question of being able to afford this or not; it’s cheaper than you think. It’s about freeing this time so I can do something else. Of course, I hate cleaning the house, but while I’m paying someone to do it for me, the time I’m saving is time that I can use to do other stuff more important or which I appreciate a lot more. I compare this as paying ticket for a concert or a movie: I’m paying to have a good time.

When I’m going to the airport, I usually take a taxi. Firstly, the experience is usually better, and it’s important for someone travelling often. More important, it’s cheaper. What? A thirty dollars trip is less expensive than a three bucks transit ticket? If you think about it, yes, because time is money.

As an example, let’s use the minimum salary to break even. Let’s say that taking the taxi took me thirty minutes with no traffic, and the public transit one hour with no traffic too. That means I’ll save thirty minutes with a taxi. If I have an hourly salary of twenty-five dollars, I’ll save a rounded amount of thirteen. During the couple of minutes I save, I will be able to get work done, and not just being transported from point a to point b so I would double the amount save to twenty-six. Add the three dollars you spent on the ticket, and you get nearly to the same amount of money, but you get work done, and the experience was, I hope, more pleasant. Now considers any higher salary as it’s the case for any person I know who is travelling a lot for work. It seems that I overthink for this one, but, in fact, it’s not that complex.

Those are two small examples that time is money: there aren’t always valid, but there are many more examples about this. Sometimes, it makes more sense to pay for something instead of doing it yourself, and think twice about what seems the most logical decision: it may not be the best one.

Yesterday, someone told me that I should start looking for a new job as Mozilla is working to diversify is source of revenue by showing ads on new tab tiles. His point? If Mozilla is looking for new revenue, it’s maybe because they are expecting something to go wrong with the biggest contributor to our revenue, Google.

Personally, I’m happy that we are doing this as whether it may or may not go wrong in the future, you never want to bet on only one horse: it’s not the case, but it’s true that the biggest part of our income is from search engine revenue from the big G. No matter why we are doing this, my answer was that no job is secure. No matter if you are your own boss, working on a startup, have a role you enjoy in a small company or even a comfortable one in a huge empire, no, job, is, secure.

A little more than four years ago, I was working in a startup, building an amazing product. I was the first employee, and I was happy. The founder and I already had some discussion about being partner in this journey, instead of a simple employee. One month after, at the moment I was supposed to sit down with him to go a little more in details about my future new role, I got a surprise: I got fired! It was the case for all employees; the adventure was ending there. It was a bit crazy as I was seeing myself being there for many years, and achieving big things!

You never know. Even in big companies, I have friends of mine who lost their job as their department was restructured. From that time on, I always keep in mind that no job is secure, and forever. It’s also why I never take anything for granted, always try to do my best, continue to network even with head hunters, and always keep my LinkedIn profile as updated as I can. You should too…

I know; many people don’t like this rock star or ninja terms to qualify an exceptional developer, but it’s still a good way to share the information. Actually, I don’t know why people don’t like it, but it’s not the topic of this post. Whether they are local people, worldwide famous, or maybe the hero only known by you, who are your rock star developers? You know the person that have a good expertise on a particular technology? The developer who releases amazing project on GitHub? The people with an amazing resume on LinkedIn? Maybe it’s a speaker you saw at the last conference you attended? One of your co-workers that helped you last time you had a terrific bug you weren’t able to solve? I want to hear your, and know these people as their story: whether they like it or not, if you quality them as the person they are, you may not be the only one, and that means they probably have a strong brand.

Personally, I can think about many personality in the IT industry that either I know personally or that I follow what they are doing. They are people I respect for their work, and whom I think have a strong branding when it comes to the developer world. You probably even know some or most of them. Think about Christian Heilmann, who is now a Technical Evangelist, but for me, we, Evangelists,  are still developers: web is the keyword I attached to his name.  What about Paul Irish from Google? Everything standard or frameworks like Modernizr. Lea Verou who is always see as a designer, but in fact, is a developer and is a reference when it comes to CSS. Did you say Jeffrey Zeldman, the godfather of the web standard? I have many more, as Brendan Eich, Ethan Marcotte, Jonathan Leblanc, Rey Bango, Paul Rouget…

Do you know some? Who are they? What did they do? What impress you about them? Tell me their story…

I appreciate all the feedbacks you gave me for previous travel destinations, so I’ll continue to do those posts in the future. It’s not just a way for me to get advices from people living there or who previously travelled at the same destination: it gives me the opportunity to let people know that I’ll be there, and as usual, I’m always happy to meet new friends. Of course, when it comes to popular city like Paris, I would probably be able to stay there a couple of weeks without being able to see everything I would like to see, but, unfortunately, I’ll also take only two days off to visit after my work week.

As usual, first thing I’ll do is to buy a local sim card, so which telecommunication company should I choose? I’m always looking for buying the sim, with no contract obviously, and mostly for data for a couple of days. It’s also nice to have a local phone number so people can easily reach you. Part of my week, I’ll try to find two to three geocaches as it’s always a good way to visit the city, and find new spots: plus, it’s an activity I enjoy. Last, but not least, at every new city, I need to buy a Starbucks mug for honey so it will be part of my itinerary, but no worries, I’ll be in Paris, so I’ll go to local coffee shops. On top of those usual three things I must do everywhere I go, I have a short list for Paris, as I want to take a little more time to wander around. As you can imagine, this is the starting point for probably mostly everybody who go in Paris for the first time:

• Eiffel Tower: I read that the lineups are incredibly long as it’s very popular, but I can’t go to Paris, and not see the Eiffel Tower;
• Arc de Triomphe: the second monument I want to see;
• Louvre Museum: I always try to do at least one museum in every new city. I don’t plan to visit for many hours, but I guess I have to see the small Mona Lisa;
• Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral: in addition to museum, I always try to visit a church, cathedral or something like this as they have all great architecture, and this one is the famous Notre Dame Cathedral;
• Moulin Rouge: If I have time, I may try to go for a show, even if it’s probably more expensive than anywhere else, but again, it’s the Moulin Rouge;
• Galeries Lafayette (French): this one was not on my list originally, but that may be a good place to find some souvenir to buy for my dad who wants something related for every place I visit.

Funny enough, I’ll be able to speak French, but we may not understand each other! One thing missing from my list right now is some nice coffee shops, but also good restaurants. Any suggestion? Anything else I should add to my list? Any tourist places or venues that are not well known, but worth a visit? On top of that, I’ll celebrate my thirty-second anniversary there, as this work week is right during my birthday. I guess there are worst things in life than getting older in France…

One thing I like to do when someone ask me to speak at their event, is to let them know that they can count on an experienced, professional, and authentic speaker. I always had a speaking page on this blog, but the information wasn’t well presented. I decided to do a good cleanup, and finalize the page to give more information to conferences, and user groups organizers, but also to my readers.

Thanks to Lea Verou, and his talks projects on GitHub, it will be easier than ever to list all the talks I’ll do. I listed all the keynotes, presentations, and panels I did since I started to do public speaker about three years ago: it’s interesting to see that I’ll reach one hundred talks in height countries soon! The new speaking experience section make it easier to find the video recordings, slides, post-mortem blog posts of my talk. It also gives you an idea of the countries where I spoke, the talks I’ll do, and more information on those events with a direct link to their sites. You also have access to some testimonial (ahum, bragging) of previous attendees, and access to what I call my speaker kit: a zip file with three different pictures of me, and three versions of my biography in French, and in English (from very small to usual size for conferences).

I still need to play a little more with the CSS on that page as some stuff aren’t aligned as I would like to, but still, I’m very happy with this new page. Since speaking is a big part of what I do for a living (technical talks on topics like Firefox OS), but also what I do on my own time for pleasure (non-technical talks on topics like Personal Branding), I wanted my site to showcase my experience, and of course, get more exposure out of it. If you want to check what to expect from me as a speaker, and how you can book me for a talk, check this post. In the end, it’s all about sharing my passion with others!

Le 25 mars prochain aura lieu la soirée Marvin on the Rock au théâtre L’Olympia à Montréal. Animé par Gregory Charles, cet évènement pour la communauté technologique de Montréal se veut une soirée-bénéfice pour la fondation Marie-Vincent. En effet, cette soirée au concept unique (plus d’informations dans la brochure), mettra en vedette une dizaine de leaders du milieu technologique, qui livreront une performance musicale inoubliable (ou qu’on voudra oublié) accompagnée d’un groupe de musicien professionnel.

La fondation Marie-Vincent à pour mission d’aider et de soutenir les enfants de moins de 12 ans de partout au Québec ayant été victime d’agression sexuelle. Juste écrire cette phrase me bouleverse, car je ne peux croire à de telles atrocités, mais malheureusement ça existe et c’est pourquoi j’ai accepté d’être un des divertissements de la soirée, question de soutenir cette fondation. En effet, suite à la demande de l’ami Sebastien Provencher qui donne un coup de main aux organisateurs, j’ai accepté avec plaisir de me prêter au jeu et de chanter pour le plaisir (ahum) des gens qui participeront à la soirée-bénéfice. Je n’ai pas d’enfant, mais c’est tout de même un sujet qui me touche à coeur ayant fait du bénévolat pendant plusieurs années avec les jeunes et surtout, ayant plusieurs enfants dans mon entourage qui me sont cher.

Comme le ridicule ne tue pas, sinon je serais mort depuis longtemps, je vous invite à venir rire de moi, ainsi que des neuf autres acteurs du milieu (qui ne sont pas annoncé encore), pour une bonne cause. Les billets sont présentement en vente sur EventBrite et vous donneront accès à une soirée divertissante, une opportunité de réseautage et un bon repas tout en appuyant une cause fort importante. Si pour quelques raisons que ce soit, vous ne pouvez assister à la soirée, vous pouvez aider en faisant un don directement sur le site de la fondation ou tout simplement, en partageant l’information sur celle-ci ainsi que sur la soirée qui aura lieu bientôt. Après tout, nous avons tous été enfants un jour…

Vu le succès de la première édition du FailCampMtl, mais surtout les interrogations, rires et réflexions que cet événement nous a apportés, j’ai été ravi lorsque Rami Sayar a voulu prendre le relais. Il a tenu parole ce Rami (en anglais), car avec l’aide de Gabrielle Madé et Françis Gosselin, la deuxième édition de l’événement aura lieu le 22 février prochain. Vous aurez droit, comme la dernière fois, à des présentations, qui je l’espère, vous feront réfléchir tout autant.

L’événement est gratuit et les places sont limitées, mais les billets ne sont disponibles qu’à partir du 10 février à 11:00. Même si c’est toujours difficile de laisser des projets s’envoler sous de nouvelles ailes, je suis bien content de ce que Rami et son équipe ont fait! Dommage que je ne sois pas à Montréal pour y assister (en anglais), mais ce n’est que partie remise pour l’an prochain!

I think it’s so important that I’ve done presentations on the subject, and now I’m writing a book for developers with Apress: How to Be a Rock Star Developer (the title isn’t final). Thinking about you as a brand will provide rocket fuel for your career. You’ll find better jobs or become the “go-to guy” in certain situations; you’ll become known for your expertise and leadership; people will seek your advice and point of view; you’ll get paid better to speak, write, or consult. As a developer, there are many tools you can use to scale, and this book will help you understand how to get visibility, make a real impact, and achieve your goal. No need to be a marketing expert or a personal branding guru: be yourself, and get your dream job or get to the next level of your career.

In the book, you will learn what personal branding is, and why you should care about it. You’ll also learn what the key themes of a good brand are, and how you can find the ingredients to build your own, unique brand. Most importantly, you’ll understand how to work your magic to make it happen, and capitalize on what’s making you unique. You’ll also learn:

• How to use sites like StackOverflow and Github to build your expertise and your reputation.
• How to promote your brand unobtrusively in a way that attracts better-paying jobs, consulting gigs, industry invitations, or contract work.
• How to become visible to the movers and shakers in your specific category of development.
• How to exert power and influence to help yourself and others.

I’m writing this post today for two reasons:

1. You can register now to get notified when the book (no obligation to buy the book if you changed your mind), and the e-book will be available (You’ll receive one, and only one email - two with the confirmation);
2. I’m offering you to speak about this topic at your conference or user group.

The primary audience for this book will be developers, or any technical person, but anyone, even if you aren’t working in IT, will be able to benefit from it: you’ll need to make abstraction of the developers’s specifics examples or tricks. This topic is a passion for me as thinking about myself as a brand helped me be where I am today. My goals with these presentations and the book are to help you understand that, in today’s world, it’s critical to get visibility, have an impact, and of course, do epic shit!

P.S.: Thanks in advance for all of you that will share the love!

I remember when I started as a Technical Evangelist: I wanted to know everything, and I was feeling bad when I didn’t know something. I had this imposter syndrome as I thought that, as a mentor for many developers, my role was to be that go to person for all in all. Over time, I learned that it doesn’t make sense and that it’s OK not to know everything.

In my work, like in many others, there is tremendous knowledge to acquire. Just today, I would have to know the inside out of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, most popular libraries, new ones, browsers’ features, developer tools, Firefox OS API, Firefox OS devices’ specifications, and more. Even with my primary focus, Firefox OS, it’s not easy: the OS is changing so quickly, and even if learning technology is part of my role, I don’t have as much time as I would like. So I figured out in my previous role, always as a Technical Evangelist, that my work, and any jobs I’ll have in the future, Evangelist or not, is about knowing enough to be able to make an amazing job. The second part of my work is about knowing when to say I don’t know, but also where to find the information. I have access to online documentation, forums, co-workers, and many more resources. Don’t get me wrong! I’m eager to learn more, and I will continue to gain knowledge, and master new subjects, but in the end, I learned that it’s ok to say that I don’t know. In that situation, I’ll do everything to find the answer, but I don’t expect myself to have an answer at first sight to anything related to my work.

You should think about this too: no matter what is your day to day work, it’s ok not to know everything. You’ll keep your credibility by saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll check for the answer”, than trying to answers with information you aren’t sure. You don’t know everything, and it’s OK…

I’ve never been a very active person, but it wasn’t a problem, until a couple of years ago. Getting older, not being active with bad eating habits, and working at home started to hit me a bit harder: I have begun to get fatter, and got some health problems. I never really care about my health… until then.

Since my non healthy behavior caught me, I started to think a little more about it. For me, it’s one of the hardest things to do as I need to change two deep anchored habits in my life: going from sedentary to active, and changing my eating pattern. I’m not quite where I would like to be in terms of life changing routine, but it’s far better than it was before. Last year, I lost about 22 pounds, that I’ll never get back again: they are gone forever! Furthermore, I went from three pills to lower my high blood pressure (yes… three) to one. I’m still way too fat, not eating as well as I should, still having one high blood pressure pill, not going to the gym as often as I should, and still having to use a CPAP for my sleep apnea. Unfortunately, I may do sleep apnea for the rest of my life as it may not be related to my weight, but the rest can all be change based on my will…

My body is sending me signals, and I need to listen to them. I don’t think I’m that bad, but still: if I want to live a longer life, and have some good old days in shape, I need to start now to live healthier! I would be able to compare myself to others as I’m not that fat, and way more in shape than many people I know, but still, it’s not about the others: it’s about me! I will have a long journey for getting on my feet, but I’ve never felt so in shape since a couple of years. I need to kick my ass, be more reasonable when it comes to food, and pushes myself to do more exercises (I hate the gym so much, but with the badminton, it’s the only thing that makes me move).

Are you living an healthy life? If it’s the case, what motivates you? If not, what are you waiting? You should do like me, and unleash the beast inside of you, because at the end, we have no excuses!

Wearing a suite was part of my day to day life a couple of years ago. Everyday, before going to work, I was ironing my pants, and shirt. I wasn’t wearing a tie or a jacket, but I had the businessman look. One day, I decided to see if the proverb “you can’t judge a book by its cover” (in French, the literal translation of our proverb is “the clothing doesn’t make the monk”) was true (my initial interrogations, and constatations on the subject, in French). I decided to wear jeans, and t-shirts for work, and this is how my story begun…

My boss at that time was open to the idea, so I totally changed my look, and went from suit to jeans, and t-shirts. At the end, most of the time I was behind a computer, and I was mostly working with one customer that already known me. I wasn’t going to become a bad developer because of my clothes, so I decided to make the test about how people will now perceive me. I wasn’t stupid: I had a pretty good idea of the answer, but I wanted to make that test. The result wasn’t a surprise. It changed absolutely nothing with the people that already known me: they were surprised I wasn’t wearing suit, but their opinion of me didn’t change at all. On the other side, every new person in my network, didn’t share the same thought about me than the others: their expectations were low, very low. This guy can’t be serious or a good developer, look at him…

From that time on, it happened to me everywhere: people are judging me on my outfit, not on my knowledge, expertises, and personality. It happened to me in restaurants, in conferences, at customers’ offices, in my own company office (not really at Mozilla as there is a culture of t-shirts), at the store… Everybody needs to prove itself when meeting a new person, but in my case, I have to work harder just to get to the same level of someone, let’s say, wearing “better” clothes. Since I realized that it was really the case, and I thought it was totally stupid, I decided to continue with the hard path: if you have to judge me, you’ll do it on facts, not because I’m fitting in your convention. Actually, it wasn’t just about clothes, but about being myself in every situation. From this day forwards, I decided that if you don’t like me, like I am, I won’t care, because I know I can’t please everyone…

It also gave me another view of the world, as to be honest, I was doing the same thing: judging people not about who they are, but on what they wear or what they own. It made me change my thinking, and make me appreciate a lot more new people I meet. At the end, no matter which clothes you like to wear, which music you listen to, or whoever you are, stay yourself, and forget people who judge you because you aren’t following the convention: be who you are! If you are on the other side, don’t judge someone by his look: take the time to know that person a little more before making an idea of it…

How is it going to be? #

Firstly, I highly suggest you to take the public transit or the taxi to go to the airport: it’s more expensive, but less complicated. Once you’ll be on site, you need to find the place for you. International airports usually have two sections: one for local flights, and one for international one. Find the right one for you as you can’t check-in with your airlines for a local flight, if it’s not. Once you found the right section, find your airline counter: you usually can take your ticket with an electronic born or with an agent (the first is usually way faster). You’ll only need an ID (or passport for international flight), and your reservation number (most of the time, not even the last one, but just to be sure). Once you have your ticket, you may want to check your baggage: if you were at the counter for your ticket, they will do it, if not, most airlines usually have a line just for this.

Once you have your ticket, and checked your baggage, you need to go to the security lane. Check on your ticket as the airport may have more than one entry. At the security, it’s time to remove everything from your pocket, remove your jacket, and your shoes (depending on the airport-flight). You’ll also need to remove any liquids from your bags, and your laptop (iPad too I think - not sure, I don’t have one). They are usually not so friendly, but get over it, be respectful, and you’ll be good. If you are taking an international flight, you may have another step depending on your airport (if not, you’ll have this step at your destination): custom. Depending where you go, those guards may seem to be rude, but again, no stress, be honest, and everything will be good: you need to give them your passport, tell them where you go, for how long, which purpose, and usually you are good to go.

You are now on the secure side of the airport. At that point, I suggest you to find your departure gate on screens for this purpose (they all have those), as your gate may have changed. I also suggest you to go through the gate before doing anything else, as in a big airport, that gate could be at 30 minutes of walk. Once you find it, you’ll have plenty of time to buy a snack, or send the last email before boarding.

Review the airports, and airlines’ rules #

The rules from one airport to the other as from one airline to the other are kind of the same, but it’s always good to read those rules: I would say that once you read it once, you’ll be ok for most of your travels. You’ll be able to know what is the recommended time you should be at the airport, what you can bring in your personal baggages as in the one you will have check in, and a lot more information. As an example, my next trip will be with Air Canada, departing from Montréal, and arriving at Barcelona: as you can see with all the links, I can read the rules of my airlines, but also from the two airports I’ll depart from.

Prepare your baggages #

Since you read the rules from the airport, and the airline, you now know what you can or can’t bring with you. If you can avoid to check-in some baggage, and bring it with you in the plane, I highly suggest you to do so: you will save some time when you’ll need to retrieve your baggage at your destination. Be sure you have everything you need, but don’t over pack: whenever you are in the world, there will always be a way to buy the stuff you are missing. The only thing I constantly get with me is medicines, in case I’m sick (cold, flu…) in a city I don’t know: I learn the hard way that most drugstores are closed on Sunday in Brussels, and when you don’t feel right, it’s no time to find the nearest one. No matter of the duration of your flight, once the excitement of being in the air is gone, it will be boring: be sure you bring in your personal baggage (the one you’ll bring with you in the cabin) some books, music, computer, or whatever that you can help you kill some time.

Better be early, then late #

The usual rule is three hours before your flight if it’s international, and two hours if it’s local. Most of the time it will take you less than that, but worst case, you’ll have some time to read your preferred book if you are too early. It seems a lot, but you’ll have to wait to get your ticket (most airports have electronic born now so it’s faster), wait to check your baggage (if you used the electronic born), wait to the security, and if it’s an international flight, wait for the custom. Most flight starts to board between 30 to 60 minutes before the departure time, depending of the size of the flight. If you plan to flight more often, depending on your country, you can find some frequent-flyer program. As an example, I’m a member of Nexus, and the Global Entry: in most Canadians, and US airports, I have vip lines for customs, and security (it saved me a lot of time).

Be ready for your flight #

Is your flight during meal time? Buy something at the airport! You can bring with you in the plane everything you bought after the security line: it’s usually cheaper than in the plane, and far better. Since it’s your first flight, bring some gum with you: take one at the take off, and at the landing as your ears will hurt a little because of the air pressure changes. You’ll get used to it, and won’t need gum after a couple of flights (or you may never have any problem), but better be safe, than sorry. Keep in mind that, except if you fly in first class, most airplanes don’t have much space for legs, so feel free to get up, and take a small walk in the aisle (if you are in the middle or a window seat, please don’t do this too often).

Those are simple tricks for people traveling a lot, but can be very helpful if it’s your first flight: there are so many things to think about. One last tip: don’t stress, everything will be ok! As you’ll hear quite often: sit back, and enjoy your flight…</p

For the first course, since it’s an introduction, we had two simple things to do for our homework: they were all about taking the right picture with not a lot of control yet on the camera. Firstly, we had an interdiction of using the green mode (automatic) on our DSLR: as you can guess, it’s what I was using since I bought this camera. As a first step, we had to use the mode P, play with the zoom, our position, the focus, and the ISO. The first exercise was about using the zoom to make a better picture of our subject: initial picture, wide angle with too many details, and second one, a better picture at the same position but with a focus on the subject. Because there aren’t enough cat pictures on the Internet, here are the two pictures for the first exercise.

In the first picture, I wanted to highlight the “I’m a princess” look of Morgane. The second exercise was all about taking the right position to have a better picture, but again, also to put our subject as the main element of our picture: in that one, no zooming, just me moving to find the right angle, and approach for this picture.

In this picture, I wanted to capture the relationship (or in this case, absence of) of Java with this (disgusting) mouse. Those exercises were quite simple, but they made me understand one thing: I was doing informational pictures. What does that mean? Maybe it’s a term that doesn’t exist, but if I look at the pictures I took in the past, they were about informing people: look what I was seeing, see what I visited, check what this kid got for Christmas… They weren’t beautiful picture, and I rarely took the time to choose what to focus on, like in my last picture, or how to place myself. In the future, I’ll take more time to look at the subject, analyze it, and see how I can do a better picture. I can’t wait for the next courses as I have a lot more to learn since I’m such a newbie at photography…

P.S.: Thanks to Morgane, and Java for being my models. Maybe next time, Émilie will let me take pictures of her.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a huge fan of quality over quantity. On the other side, quantity helped me get quality, and people often ask me how do I blog so often (an average of one post every other day).

Depending on your blog, and the subjects you want to cover, it may be harder. It will also depend how you manage your online life (not sure we can talk about online, offline separation anymore, but it’s another topic). Personally, I choose the blog as my primary home on the web so it’s the media I’m prioritizing, and putting more time on. There are many reasons why, but one of them is that I own it totally: no fear of not using what the cool kids use, neither of change in the platform, nor closing of the service I use. It also served me well, as this blog brings me a lot of opportunities, and continues to do so. How can I blog this often? Firstly, the spectrum of topics of this blog is infinite: I decided that this blog will be about everything I want to share from personal topics, to technical ones. It opens the flow to creativity a lot more!

No matter what your blog is all about, there are some tricks that will help you to share your expertise or passion with others more often.

Everyday life situations are inspiration #

Something happened at work yesterday? Maybe you can inspire yourself from that event, and write a story about it. As an example, I was assisting to some courses last week, and even if the teachers were able to share their passion, their slides weren’t as good: I decided to write a post about creating better slides as it’s related to my day to day job. Someone commented about the fact that he would like to be able to blog as often as me. Guess what? I wrote this blog post.

Write shorter posts #

Even if it’s subjective I’ll be bold: nobody likes to read long posts. We live in an era where we are bombarded by information, and our attention span is shorter. Except some special cases, personally, if your blog post is too long, I won’t read it. On the author side, write smaller blog post will take less time (actually, it’s false, as it’s harder to write efficient posts with fewer words at the beginning, but at one point, it will take you less time).

Dedicate time in your schedule to write #

Like everything in life, if you don’t dedicate time to do it, you’ll always have something else to do. Instead of watching two hours of television after work, why not just watch one, and take the other one to write a post?

Save your keystroke #

If I send you an email with a question, and that your answer is more than a couple of lines, if it’s something that can be public, why not answer in a blog post? Instead of having an impact on one person, you’ll still have the impact with this person as you’ll send him a link, but you’ll be able to reach more people (and have one more post online). I’m using this philosophy so often now that most of my post could have been emails. At the end, we have a finite number of keystrokes in our life…

Write more #

This is the best, and weirdness advice I’ll tell you: write more, to write more. If you write more, you’ll become better to put words on your thoughts. You’ll also be faster to type on the keyboard, and write a post. You’ll as well write better posts, and improve your grammar. It’s a bit like going to the gym: the more often you go, the less you will hate it, the better you’ll become, and more often you’ll go.

Again, those tips may help you to post more often, but always target quality over quantity. If you post more often, but shitty one, it won’t serve anybody.

Since two weeks, I’m back on the school bench: I’m taking a wine course from the SAQ, and a photography one from Collège Marsan (in French). One is helping me properly use my DSLR to make better picture, and the other one to take my wine love to the next level. Since I’m on the other side of the mic, I noticed some pattern in their visual help that made me cringe. I thought it could be a good opportunity to share my personal slides creation guidelines.

• Slides are visual help for attendees: this one is not about the creation of your slide, but still related. Please don’t read your slides: why would I need you to present on this topic if I can just read your content? If you need some reminders, most software has a speaker notes section to help you remember specific points of your presentation.
• Too much text is too much: this one is kind of related to the first one, but even if you don’t read your slides, please don’t go crazy with the text. There is nothing wrong to add some quotes, some bullet point lists, but when your presentation is mostly made of text, it’s not interesting for the audience. I don’t have a specific rule as I use the common sense, but let’s say one text slide every seven (ish) slides is a big maximum.
• Leave some space of the four sides of the slide: you never know how the projector will react to your content, so I would say leave at least 10% of the space empty at the top, bottom, right, and left corner of your slides. If the projector is cutting the content, or the projection surface is not good enough, you’ll be safe.
• Everything should be big enough: get into the skin of the attendee at the back of the room, will it see your content? Be sure that your content, all of it, is large enough for everyone in the room.
• Make your content breathe: you have enough space in your slide to make your content breathe. If it isn’t the case, maybe it’s because you have too much content, and you should remove some, or split it in more slides. It may be easy for you to follow the slide as you created it, but think about the attendee who is new to the topic you are talking about.
• Use quality images/photos: forget small, blurry or low quality images as pictures. If you can’t find something better, just don’t use it: those crappy images won’t help attendees get your point.
• You don’t need an Internet connection: this tip is for all your presentations. Don’t trust any conference Internet connection. Even if the organizers tell you that you’ll have a good connection, prepare yourself for a second plan. If you want to show a small video, better download it to your hard disk. You want to show a website? Create a screenshot of it in case the web isn’t with you that day.
• Slow down on animations: most presentation software has plenty of animations, and they can help you make your presentation feel a bit more alive. On the other side, too much will annoy people listening to you, and worst, may distract them from the valuable content you are sharing with them.
• Contrast, and colors are important: I’m a bit colorblind (no, I don’t see everything in white, and black, but there are similar colors I’m mixing), and I’m not be the only one. Please use color that fit well together, and that will be easy to read once sit in the room.

So at the end, it’s not about the software you used, but how you created your presentation. Of course, there are tips about how to present that content, but do you have any other tricks about the creation of the slides you would like to share?

Il y a de cela quelques mois, j’étais présentateur pour la première édition à Montréal du Kongossa Web Séries, un forum sur la technologie, le développement social et économique. Le sujet de ma présentation, en anglais, était le personal branding. Mon but était de faire comprendre aux gens l’importance de penser en terme de marque lorsqu’on pense à nous. Suite à la conférence, les organisateurs ont interviewé les conférenciers sur différents aspects de leurs présentations, mais aussi de la technologie. Le résultat est fort intéressant.

Voir la vidéo sur YouTube

Cette vidéo vous donne un bref aperçu de la conférence, ce qui vous donnera peut-être le goût de vous joindre aux participants à la prochaine édition. Vous pouvez voir la majeure partie de mon intervention à partir de 6 minutes et 11 secondes. Pour ceux qui seraient intéressés, l’enregistrement de ma présentation est disponible, ainsi que les diapositives que j’ai utilisées. Sous peu je l’espère, les organisateurs vont aussi mettre en ligne une vidéo de ma performance (la vidéo mentionnée ci-haut est un enregistrement de mon écran, ainsi que de ma voix à l’aide du microphone de mon ordinateur, tandis que leur enregistrement est pris du microphone que je portais, ainsi que filmé à l’aide d’une caméra vidéo). Comme vous le savez, le sujet du personal branding est une de mes passions et je compte bien continuer de présenter sur le sujet dans diverses conférences, dont celles spécifiquement pour les développeurs.

Thursday, I was out for dinner with some friends, and Mathieu was wearing this appropriate t-shirt for this decade. He told me that the guy who designed the tee had to change the logo for a fake one as he got a lovely letter from them…

Yesterday, I was part of a panel on communication, and connection. At one point, we discussed about connecting with the right person, and we talk about influential people. The first thought of mostly everybody in the room was about those people who are well connected, who are kind-of famous, and get a lot of traction on mostly everything they do. On my side, I was talking about everybody…

Yes, you are an influencer. I’m not talking about people with a lot of Twitter followers, many Facebook friends, plentiful of LinkedIn connection, countless YouTube subscribers or public ones. I’m talking about you, with your connections, and with the people who trust you: you are a trust agent. You may not have the same reach as those huge influencers, but you are still one. Think about the last movie you recommend to your friend: he probably went to the movie theater to see it. Maybe it’s about the restaurant you liked so much, that your brother in law wanted to try it too. The common point with those two situations: you influence those people. For them, you are, an influencer.

We forget too often that influence isn’t just about the reach. So every time you speak to someone, write a blog post, send an email… think about the fact that you too, are an influencer.

I just check-in at my hotel in San Francisco, and I have a couple of hours to do whatever I want: tomorrow it will be full day of interviews at Mozilla. I have no local sim card, and the data from my Canadian provider while roaming is not cheap at all. I want to go to a local T Mobile store, but I don’t know where it is. I use the wifi connection with the hotel, get the map, and take a screenshot of it: it’s not a complex walk, but I have no orientation sense at all. I’m finally able to reach the store, but it’s not my day; it’s close. I take my phone, and… oh no, I have no internet connection… I can’t check where is another store. I’m now back at the hotel, after business hours: It’s OK, I’ll  buy a sim card next time!

This simple scenario, going to a local store in a city you don’t know, is no trouble when you have an internet connection. It’s so convenient, that I can’t live without it now. I want to go somewhere specific: it’s ok, I  have a gps, and a map application on my phone. I want to be able to walk in the streets of a city I don’t know to discover new places: it’s ok, I  can find my way back to the hotel no matter where I am now. I’m doing the lineup at the store or waiting for public transit: it’s ok, I  can read my rss feeds on my phone while I’m waiting. I’m in an event for work, and don’t have time to call honey: it’s ok, I  can send her an email to tell her I won’t be back at the hotel at time. I see something I don’t know, or I can’t remember that restaurant: it’s ok, I  can search on the web. All these situations are everyday  ones, but require an Internet connection!

I’m addicted to the technology, but even more to the Internet. I feel the need to disconnect sometimes, but it’s less about the Internet itself, and more about no communications or no continuous flow of data. For me, having an Internet connection now is as important as having electricity, and I can say without a doubt that it’s part of my own MASLOW pyramid. It’s why I’m buying a sim card in every new country I go: I just can’t live without an Internet connection…

Don’t get me wrong, I have a really, really, really high preference on everything that is Open, but when it gets to get the work done, I’ll use the software that fills my needs. I’m pragmatic; no matter if it’s free or not, Open source or not, if it solves my problem, and do it well, I’ll use it.

As an example, I used Linux for years: Suse, Slackware, Gentoo, Ubuntu, name it. I liked the fact it was Open Source, and really liked that I could build, and configure everything. At some points, I wasn’t pleased anymore for different reasons: I didn’t have much time to fix things or compile stuff each time I wanted to change an option, and wasn’t happy that my last printer didn’t have any drivers available. Since I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to create the driver myself (I know it changed a lot), and that I now wanted to have an operating system that works with no complication (nothing more than what I had on Linux or what I have on OS X right now), I moved to Windows XP. No matter if you like Windows or not, with Windows 7, XP was the most stable of them, and personally never had any big trouble. I didn’t stay with Linux because it was the cool thing to do, or because it was Open source: I moved to something else, something that was filling my need at that time. Today, I switched to OS X, for other reasons, again: it’s the best tool right now for what I’m doing. Tomorrow, it may be something else…

It’s why I worked at Microsoft: they have crappy softwares, but they also have really good one. On top of that, my job was all about Open Source, and not just for developers: I also had to educate people inside the death star. It’s also why I’m working at Mozilla right now: I believe in Open Source, in Web Standard, and over everything, in the Web! Nevertheless, I’ll use whatever tools I need to get the shit done!

In the last three months, I got two specific occasions where someone lacked of respect towards me. Those two situations where from people I would never expect that, at all. They were also a consequence, in my own opinion, of a selfish attitude, I see more, and more in today’s world: my opinion is the only that make sense. Let me tell you about those two examples.

Three months ago, we realized that Hydro-Québec (our electric company) was doing, what I call, a deforestation of the small number of trees we have in our street. They were cutting mostly all trees, not just the branch: most of them seem to have a couple of dozens years behind their neck. The only reason my neighbors, and I found is because they are about one to two meters near electric cables. I’m no expert, but I thought that just trim those would have been enough: one or two meters aren’t too close I guess. A bit frustrated about this, I wanted to get more information, and do an official complaint. After all, it’s not a good move against mother Nature, it gives now a full view of our condo to people using the cycle track, and those trees were helping cutting the sound from the highway near our house. I’ve been told by Éco-Quartier to call 311 for our neibourhood, Verdun. It’s what I did. When I told the woman about what Hydro-Québec were doing, and I told her I wanted to make an official complaint, she laught at me, and ask me why I wanted to do this… Like if I was a total idiot! Wheter you think I’m right or wrong, whether Hydro-Québec did a good job or not, this is my right to make this complaint, and should respect my right, but also me, as a person, as a citizen you have to serve: it’s even your job!

Just this morning, I came back from the store, and got stop by the SPVM. The cop came to my car, and announce me that I didn’t make my stop. It was surprise as I did my stop: it wasn’t the longest one, but my car was immobilized. Actually, whether I merit this statement of offence or not is not my point. After he told me why they arrested me, I answer that I did my stop, as always. At this exact moment, this young man lost my respect as guess what, he laughed at me. I think the role of a policeman was to serve the citizen, and for me, it means being respectful to them. Again, like if I was an young idiot trying to save some money: I have no problem to pay for the error I do, but it wasn’t the case. Worst case, even if I was trying to trick him, he had no right to be disrespectful.

I don’t know if it’s me, but I have the feeling that the respect is less, and less a real concept in our society. Those are only two small examples of what I saw recently, and it amazed me…

I don’t read science fiction, but I’m a big fan of books about being more efficient, marketing stuff, having a better life… The way I’m shaping my days, I don’t take too much time to read, but it’s a shame, as I would like to read more books or ebooks. I read content on the web quite often. I also read some comic books before going to bed as I want to relax, and turn my brain off. So what about those books that I like to read, but don’t take too much time to do so? Always trying to maximize my time, I started to read, hum, to listen to audio book using Audible. The idea is simple: someone is reading the book for you, and you just have to listen. Since the format change, and open new possibilities, I can now listen to a book while taking a walk, doing my workout at the gym, or while using the public transit. Just in the last three months, I listened to:

1. Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson;
2. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin;
3. Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried, and David Heinemeier Hansson;
4. The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin;
5. Ctrl Alt Delete: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends on It. by Mitch Joel;
6. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin.

Except the fact that you can see that I like Seth Godin, those six books represent more books consumed than an entire year, where I usually read one to three maximum. This new way of consuming information for me is wonderful, and I think I’ll even have to upgrade my Audible account to be able to get more book. Not all the books are there, but since I tend to look for books people suggest me, they seems to be quite popular, and fortunately, has been created as audiobooks too. Are you reading a lot of books? Do you prefer ebooks? Or maybe you already a fan of audio books? Where do you find good content? Any book suggestions?

Creative Commons: https://j.mp/KyiqUp

No matter what you think, for me, Michael Jackson is still the king of pop. It’s why I was happy when I saw this graffiti in Athens. Actually, there are many stores that close their doors with a metal garage kind of door, and most of them have graffiti: since most are design, and not tags, it seems that they have been done by the owner requests. I’ll post other soon.

Most of the conferences have one rule for their speakers: no product pitch. I think they are wrong.

There are two kinds of talks: good, and bad. Good presentations are the one you enjoy, the one you learned from, the one you laugh at, the one you’ll remember. Bad talks are the one you wish you never went to, the one that makes you lose your time. It’s really subjective as it could be because the speaker isn’t good to share his passion, don’t know the subject, or maybe it’s because you didn’t sleep well last night, or didn’t read the abstract correctly. It has no relation with what people call product pitch, as guess what? All, and every talk are product pitch…

It may be the usual stuff that people qualify as a product pitch presentation: “My goal is that you buy my paid product after the presentation”. It could also be about selling something that is free and/or Open Source: “I hope you’ll use this technology because it’s the best one out there”. It can also be about hoping to get more contracts: “Even if it’s not my technology, because you saw that I have the expertise, I hope you’ll be my customer”. Surprisingly enough (or not), it may not be about the usual definition of product we have, but about marketing himself: “After this presentation, people will know that I’m a rock star”.

At the end, no matter the reason the speaker goes on stage, there is always something he’ll sell, and it may not be a paid software, but it’s definitely a product pitch.

I was watching Rick Restorations show on the television the other day: it’s a kind of reality show about a restorer, who obviously restore old objects to their initial state, and make them a piece of art. Not being too manual, I’m always amazed to see the work they are doing: it’s quite amazing…

In most episodes, the customers are surprised by the high cost of the restoration. I was too, but there is a lot of work, even for a small object: they disassemble the object, fix holes, shine metal, bumping them, put new paint, add missing lettering, and put back all the pieces together, just by following some pictures they took during the process! There is a lot of work done, and the result is always beautiful. That remember me when I was building software: prospects were constantly asking me for what they were calling easy thing to do. Firstly, if it was that easy, why wouldn’t do it themselves? They were also always surprised when I was giving the estimation: this amount of money for a small mobile application or website? Yes, because there are many things to think about when building an application, like Rick is doing with his restoration. You are not just paying for my skills, but you are also paying for my expertise: it wasn’t my first application, I  know the pitfall, I’m  conscious of all the steps we have to think about, and you’ll be happy with the result.  So in everything in life, whether you are looking for a service, or you are selling your expertise, think about this.

The expertise has a cost! On the consumer side, there is always a way to pay less, but you’ll get what you pay for…

P.S: I know this can feel contradictory with my previous post on my logo, but I really wanted to test 99designs.

Saturday morning, I was waiting at the airport for my flight to San Francisco. As with many flights for the last week or so, it got delayed. I lost another three hours of my life at the airport, thanks to my computer, it wasn’t really lost. I also missed my connection flight as I finally took off on my first flight, when my second one… was taking off too! Once I arrive at the Washington airport (my connection), I was lucky to get another flight right after I landed, but my seat was a window seat: I hate those so much. I finally arrive in San Franciso four hours after my schedule, and I have to eat an unhealthy meat between my two flights, instead of the good meal I had planned at a local restaurant.

It could have been worst, but you get the point: it wasn’t a pleasant experience. What would I have been able to do? Complaining like other travelers? Yelling, and criticizing the poor airline employees who had no control over the delay? That would haven’t changed my situation. I wasn’t please, but shit happens! There is not really something I was able to do to change that situation, so I decided to live with it. I saved myself some stress, anxiety, frustrations, and more.

So next time shit happens, ask yourself "Can I do something to change the unwanted situation? " . If the answer is no or not that much, cool down, and smile: life continues!

On the evening of the 23rd of January, I’ll be a speaker on a panel about communication, and connection with amazing people like Rami Sayar (more to be announce soon). This event, organized by ThoughtBasin, and happening at Concordia is primarily targeting students, and young professional, but is open to everyone. Here is the abstract of the panel:

In the continuation of ThoughtBasin’s tradition of doing great events to inspire thinking, and innovation on campus comes a panel of Montreal leaders in communication and connection at Concordia. The speakers are all working on great projects that require multiple stakeholders to connect, and emphasize with their goals, and they are all experts at creating and communicating narratives about what they do. Consider it a group discussion on how to create, communicate, and make people connect over ideas, and concepts.

The panel members will also interact with the crowd in a novel way, by brainstorming with them at the end of the event to come up with great ideas on how to communicate new concepts! Think of it like a living workshop on how to constantly create and communicate new ideas, and retain the interest and engagement of a multitude of people.

So signal your interest by buying a ticket now (free for students), and keep up to date with the latest information about the event by joining the Facebook event page.

Why a logo? As I said, it was mostly for fun: I saw some friends of mine, and people I admire have one, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt. It’s also a next step in my personal brand, a way to identify my work more easily. I was thinking about adding watermark to my videos, images, and presentations. It will also be a way to differentiate myself from others, and easily be identified (or my work).

A gnome, seriously? A couple of months ago, I was looking for a funny title for a presentation, and I ended up with a gnome, and an unicorn in the title. I thought those two were representing my funny, extravert, not always serious, and magical (what?) side, so I added them to my actual biography. I thought that if I was going to have a logo, it should be something more less gray, something that would represent me: the gnome was the first that come to mind!

The hardest part with 99designs was to give feedbacks as I know they are not getting paid right now, and won’t if they don’t win the contest. When I was a freelancer, I didn’t accept anything like this, but they decided to participate knowing the rules… As you can see, this logo fits me, and respects the criteria I had:

• Using the two colors on this blog (even if the logo isn’t for the blog);
• A gnome (I was open to anything else that fits my personality/job/passions, but all designers were excited about the gnome idea);
• Simplicity was the keyword (I didn’t want something complex - I’m a simple guy, and I like clean design);
• Looking good in black/white (you never know when you’ll need it);
• Look nice from a small size to really big one (I asked for a vector, but sometimes even if the quality is there, if it’s too small, you lose the design).

So from now on, you’ll see that cute little gnome a bit everywhere. I hope you like it as much as I do, but in any cases, for sure, you’ll associate it with me…

Let’s start by a picture I took about four years ago in the Ville-Marie neighbourhood of Montreal. There is nothing impressive there except the message: be happy. Live. Love. Laugh. Smile like its your last time. I totally rely on that as being happy is the foundation of my life for many years now, and I hope it’s yours too…

As usual, I did a small list of what I had in mind for my visit: I only have two days off, so it’s not like I can do many things, so I want to maximize my time to focus on what is really worth. Every place I go, I have three things to do:

• Buying a local sim card so I can have data (not quite an activity, but sometimes a journey because of languages barrier);
• Buy a collector mug at Starbucks (Émilie like to get one from every place I go, and they usually have a mug for the city, or at least the country);
• Doing at least one geocache (it helps me discover stuff near my hotel).

This time, it will be special as Émilie is coming with me: she will do her stuff while I’ll work, but we’ll have the last two days together). For now, here is what I have on my list:

• Visit to the Park Güell (a suggestion from honey);
• Basilica of the Sagrada Familia (I like to visit basilicas; their architecture is amazing);
• La Barceloneta (I want to bathe in the sea);
• A drink on the rooftop of the hotel 1898 (I read we have an incredible view over the city);

So this is it for now, but I’ll look for more stuff. On the other side, I don’t want a packed schedule as I want to be able to stop somewhere if we find something we want to do. So anything I’m missing? Any restaurants or coffee shop we should know about? Anything else we should absolutely visit?

Creative Commons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13133026@N00/8464046864/

Yesterday, I was in Toronto to share some Firefox OS love with my Canadian friends. I was invited to speak at a joint meetup with Mobile Startups Toronto, and HTML Toronto. The demo god wasn’t with me as mostly everything went wrong at the beginning, but fortunately, the rest of the presentation has been great, and I was surprised but the number, and the quality of the questions.

As usual, here are my slides:

Firefox OS, a startup opportunity - Mobile Startups Toronto & HTML Toronto meetup - 2014-01-08 from Frédéric Harper

Thanks to Matthew Potter, my presentation has been recorded.

Watch this video on YouTube

It’s always a pleasure to come in Toronto, and even more to talk about this amazing OS. Remember, if you build a Firefox OS application or plan to port an actual web application to this platform, please let me know.

People often tell me that I share a lot of things on the Web: it’s true. As weird as it seems to some people, I traced a line between my private life, and what I’m sharing online.

It’s important in today’s world to trace a line between your personal life, and the web itself. With services like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, and more, it has never been so easy to share every little moment of your life with friends, family, but also with strangers. I won’t talk about the privacy rights (or not) on these websites as I’m not an expert on this topic, but the truth is that mostly everything you put on the web, will probably live there forever (kind of), and someone, somewhere, will have access to it. Don’t get me wrong, I like the web, but I used to tell people that if you want something to stay private, just don’t put it on the web (even if you carefully set the privacy settings, and targeted who will see what you want to share).

My rule is quite simple as there are few things I don’t want to share online: I don’t want people to know where I’m living (neighborhood is ok), and I don’t want people to have my phone number (I hate this way of communicating, too intrusive for me). This is my line between privacy, and the web… what is yours?

I like to travel. False, I like to discover new cultures, visit cities I’ve never been before, eating tasty food, meeting unknown people, and the amazing feeling of walking in a street where everything is brand new. This passion has grown since I’m traveling for work, and even more since I’m going in countries where I don’t even speak their languages. I’m juggling with the idea of traveling, and freedom a lot more since a couple of weeks: I’m thinking about being a nomad.

Since we are young, the society forges our minds about the ultimate goal: have a car, buy a house, and live a happy life with your spouse or husband without forgetting all your material possessions. The end goal: working while waiting for vacations, and retire after several years of hard work. When you’ll be old, and tired, it will be the time to live your life, travel, and realize your dream! That sounds wrong to me: why should I wait until I have 65+?

I have the pleasure to have a job that I enjoy, and don’t require me to stay in Montreal or even in Canada: as long as I’m not far from an airport, and I have an Internet connection, I’m good. I also have the chance to share my life with an extraordinary woman who would be up for this new life. Now, I’m only at the idea stage, seeing if it’s really something that I want to do, if it’s something, we want to do. We also need to explore the consequences, and what we should do to make it happens. What kind of nomads do we wants to be: traveling with a bag (will be impossible for now with the cats - we have three, and they are like our kids), or living one to a couple of years per countries? What are the implications for our citizenship, my work (legal issue - paycheck), Émilie’s work? What habits should we change to make it easier? How can we deal with all our possessions, our furniture, our condo, my car, and everything else we own? What about our families, and friends? Which countries would be our new hometowns? As you can see, there are a lot of things to think about, and almost certainly a lot more, just to analyze if it’s something we can, and foremost, wants to do. It was no surprise that one of my words for this year was minimalism: it’s probably one of the most important concepts if you want to be a nomad.

I’ll write a lot about this topic on my blog: it will help me think about all the different aspects, and summarize my ideas. As I’ll share my experience, I hope it will motivate other people to take the ownership of their live. Even if I never change my lifestyle, I’m sure we’ll get a lot out of this exercise because we’ll evaluate many aspects of our lives… After all, we wouldn’t like to be free, and really live his life while he can!

Since, HTML5 Toronto as join to co-host the event with the nice folks at Mobile Startups Toronto. They’ll also stream the event live for people who can’t assist in person. So if you are free, and in Toronto, come join us this Wednesday at 18:45 at the Mozilla Community Space (366 Adelaide St. W, Suite 500), and don’t forget to register first, either at the Mobile Startups Toronto meetup page or on the HTML5 Toronto one. Whether I’m presenting or wants to watch a presentation, I always prefer to go in-person: the experience is never the same, and the networking part is a huge plus, so I highly encourage you to do the same. For those of you that aren’t in Toronto, or even in Canada, but are still available at that time, you’ll be able to watch the session by joining the live event on the YouTube channel of HTML5 Toronto. Keep in mind that the video will also be available on their channel soon after the event.

Yesterday, Matthew Potter, the mastermind behind the HTML5 Toronto user group, did an #StreamingSunday live interview with me.

Watch this video on YouTube

I hope to see you in Toronto Wednesday evening, but if you can’t join, but would like to meet, let me know.

I don’t know why, but I want a logo: maybe it’s the next step to my personal brand. For sure, it will be nice to have one. I saw a couple of people I respect with one, and I thought it could be a good idea to identify my work out there: slides, videos, photos… So as I did for the theme of my blog, I would like to do a call out for ideas, and designers who think they could do the work (I can pay, of course, I just don’t want to invest tone shit of money in something that is mostly for fun - so probably not for companies).

I have some guidelines on the technical side:

• Simplicity is the key (no complex design, simple lines);
• One or two colors maximum: preferably, the one from this blog;
• It need to be as beautiful if in black, and white;
• It need to be as visible when small as when it’s big;
• The final file needs to be a vector (preferably, a svg file).

The main idea is that this logo will be used on many assets, so I need to be able to make it small, or huge even in black, and white without losing quality. On the design side, it’s kind of clear, and not that much at the same time: it’s a case of “I’ll know it’s what I wanted when I’ll see it”. I may have three suggestions:

• Gnome;
• Unicorn;
• Gnome on a unicorn.

I’m open to anything else (maybe no text, or just something to identify me or how to reach me), but I’m looking for something original, that may or may not be tight with my profession (developer, evangelist - technical stuff), so I can use it for anything. I think I used gnomes, and unicorns for a presentation a couple of months ago, and it stayed (it’s even in my biography now), don’t ask!. As an example, I really like Lea Verou’s logo. Keep in mind that this logo isn’t a logo for this blog, even if I may use it here too.

So any ideas? Any designer would like to make a logo? Share to the artists you know.

2013-01-04 update #

I decided to use 99Designs as suggested in the comment section. Everybody can apply at https://99designs.ca/logo-design/contests/spark-creativity-logo-containing-gnome-unicorn-even-both-276733 .

Quality #

I’ve always been finical: I like when things are well done. I had the feeling that for the sake of doing more, and constantly going faster, I lost a bit this side of me. The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this word is the Web: I have always wanted to create more, publish more, and reach more people whom I sometimes forget about quality, and strike for quantity. So in the next year, on every aspect of my life, I want to stop chasing the time, and focus upon the quality of my work (work equal everything I’m doing, not just stuff related to my job), even if that means doing less. I probably overused that term here, but for me, it’s about doing epic shit, and you can’t do amazing stuff if the quality isn’t there.

Impact #

Who doesn’t want his work to matter? We are artists; we create stuff, and no matter what you are saying, everybody wants to have an impact. Since I’ll focus upon the quality of what I’m doing, instead of the quantity, I want to maximize the impact I’ll have with my work. That means getting more visibility, but it’s mostly about the result at the end. Will this thing will move things, fight the status quo, help others, help me? Or is the effort I’m putting there will be another rain drop in the ocean? It returns to focusing on what matters, and it will be a close partnership with my first word, quality.

Minimalism #

I’m not free: I’m chained up to all the things I have. What happens if my condo got burned down? Will it be the end of my life? What happens if I want to live like a nomad, and live in different countries? For now, it would be impossible or really hard to do: I have too many things, and I’m probably living beyond my means. I don’t know if it’s realist for someone who is a materialist like me, but I would like to be able to pack one bag, and have all my possessions. In the digital age, my computer can contain my music, my photos, my documents, my books… I don’t think I need all those things to be happy in life, so minimalism (no matter what this will mean to me during the year) is my third word.

With these three words in mind, and my life manifesto always in my backpack, I feel strong, full of energy, and really excited for 2014. I hope this year will be as amazing for you that I think it will be for me!

PS: If you want to learn more about this idea, and would like to do the same (I highly encourage you to do so), I suggest you read the 2014 words from the initiator of this idea, Chris Brogan.

You, my friends, I wish you a Happy New Year! May this new year be like you want it to be. It’s a new beginning, and only you can set the limits of this journey, and the awesomeness level it will reach. Take this 1st of January as the beginning of a new milestone in your life, and make it the best you ever had…

In 2014, let’s make epic shit!

On the 7th days of 2013, I did a blog post to share with you what would be my three words for 2013. The principle was simple: I choose three words that will help me drive my years in the direction that I want. I see those like a moving part of my life manifesto. Since we are in the last day of the year, I think it’s a good time to review those.

It was the first time I did this exercise, and I have the intention to do it again for the next year (they are almost already chosen). For my first attempt, my three words were: kaizen, time, and discovery.

Kaizen #

Kaizen is a Japanese word that roughly says: continuos improvement. This is a word that I would be able to take every year without reaching an end. I think I managed pretty well my life in 2013 with this principle in mind, but mostly on one aspect: my career. I’m not one of those crazy people who likes to work 80 hours a week, even if I enjoy a lot my job, but it’s still something super important for me: I need to wake up in the morning, and like what I’m doing for a living. At the end, we give an enormous part of our life to exchange duties against money: it’s kind of crazy when you think about it. At the beginning of 2013, I wasn’t totally happy anymore with my job, so I made the switch, and I’m really happy about it. I also think that I’m a better evangelist today. As the perfectionism that I am, I see many more aspects in my personal, and professional life that I would like to improve, but I’m satisfied about the journey I had until now.

Time #

This one was probably the hardest for me: I was tired of constantly running, having a full agenda, and always have stuff that I need to do. I end up all my projects, refuse many, and concentrate on three important aspect of my life: my job, my blog, and my friends/family. It was a difficult step for me, but even if I didn’t really learn how to stop, and relax, I had way more time to try it. I also didn’t have the stress of working on many things at once, or running many projects. I now like to do my personal stuff, so I can do it on my own pace.

Discovery #

This one was really about learning, and discovering. I managed to go less to the same restaurant or coffee shop this year. I took time to try activities I never did before, and even visit places where I never went before, even in my hometown. Traveling was an integral part of my role at Mozilla, and in every city, I took some days off to visit. Just in the last four months, I visited San Jose in US, Krakow in Poland, Brussels in Belgium, Guadalajara in Mexico, Budapest in Hungary, and Athens in Greece. It’s six new cities, and five countries I never travel to before! Even if this word won’t be in my list for next year, it will always be omnipresent…

In retrospective, even if this year went blazingly fast, I’m quite happy with it, and I’m looking forward to another amazing one…

I read this kind of posts on many blogs: a recapitulation of the last year of blogging. It’s not something I was doing, but as I was looking at the posts I did during the last year, and I thought it could be a good idea to create a small review of 2013. Last year, I wrote 202 (203 including the one that will go out tomorrow) posts: they aren’t all good, and some of them are what I’m calling quick post (like a tweet - a quote, an image…), but it’s still a lot of posts!

My five most popular (number of views) #

1. I’m leaving Microsoft, looking for a new opportunity
2. I’m joining Mozilla
3. So you want to be an Evangelist?
4. The startup bullshit
5. Do you want to become the next Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Canada?

So it seems that in 2013, my most popular posts were about my career: at first, I was sad, as I wrote many posts I’m proud of that didn’t reach these many people, but on second thought, it’s awesome. It’s awesome because it’s what gave me a lot of great offers when I was ready to take my next challenge: I had the luxury to choose what was going to be next, and I’m very happy now at Mozilla.

My five preferred ones (unordered) #

• The magic happens out of your comfort zone
• You have no excuses: just do it!
• You can’t please everyone, get over it
• Tomorrow
• Don’t accept the status quo

It wasn’t easy for me to make this list, but there is no surprise as those are the kind of posts I like the most to write: it’s all about trying to be better, challenging people and have an amazing life. Funny enough, they all have been written during December, and end of November: my style has changed, my writing English has improved, and for me, those are shorter, but more impactful. To end this small list, I’ll add to this my life manifesto v2 as it’s a mantra that drives me day to day, and I was happy to share it with others. I’ll also add another one: how to be a good attendee. As a public speaker, it’s a post I wanted to write for a long time, and certainly one I’ll link to quite often in the future.

Most of the time, the most popular ones aren’t the one you are the more proud of. Blogging for me is a critical part of who I am, my professional career, my role as an Evangelist, and my personal branding. It’s a way to share my opinions, my knowledge, my crazy side, my technical skills, my life coach side, and more. I’m looking forward to blog even more in 2014.

P.S.: If you enjoyed my posts (with no ads), consider a small gift on my Amazon wishlist or an Amazon eGift card (as an example: you cannot give a Kindle book - I have many in my list)

I’ll start to eat healthier tomorrow. I’ll search for a new job tomorrow. I’ll start to go to the gym tomorrow. I’ll do my homework tomorrow. I’ll clean up the house tomorrow. I’ll write the book I always wanted to write tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our ennemy. Now is the friend you want to have. Tomorrow is a future that will never happen as after tomorrow, there is tomorrow. Now is the right moment to make it happen. Tomorrow is an excuse, not a point in time. Now is a synonym of action. Tomorrow is a lie to ourselves. Now is your chance to go out of your comfort zone, and do epic shit.

Yesterday evening, I was watching the movie Jobs, about Steve Jobs. No matter if you are a fan of this man or Apple, we can agree on two things: he was a jerk, but he never accepted the status quo as a show stopper. I really enjoyed the movie as I recognized myself in it: don’t get me wrong, I’m no way near to be the man he was, but I caught myself nod a couple of times like when Kutcher was reading this amazing quote:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently…they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

I often see myself as a crazy one, someone who doesn’t accept the status quo, a person who doesn’t want to be average, a man who wants to make things happen, and to do epic shit… The status quo is a prison for your creativity: it’s the limit that we collectively set to feel safe, but it’s probably the less safe place to be. Starting now, be part of the crazy ones who push the human race forward…

No matter the meaning of Christmas for you, celebrating at that time of the year is for most of us, a time to slow down, relax, and take some time with friends, and family. When it comes to holidays’ greetings, I’m probably one of the worst people in the world, so I’ll simply wish you a good time with the ones your love, and as the materialist I am, some amazing gifts!

Last week, I was talking with someone about my role as a Technical Evangelist: the person was quite surprised that I went from Microsoft to Mozilla. Of course, the company structure, and culture are really different, but I never quit the Open Source world. Part of my role for my previous employer was to help the company become more Open, educate people inside of the company, change the perception of developers about Microsoft, and help Open Source developers to be successful on the Microsoft platform. Of course, we can have a longer discussion about the role, the goal of Microsoft, and how all these things were approached, but for me, I was there to make a difference, to continue to open the Web as I always did as a developer.

The same person was quite impressed that the evil empire was paying me to talk about them, like I just did with these pejoratives terms, as to show the stuff that we did with Open Source, and apologize for errors of the past. That make me think I had a recording I never published online from a presentation I did two years ago at the Make Web Not War DevCamp in Vancouver: it’s annoying to see old presentations you did, but for the sake of this post, let’s do it!

The big picture changed (and my English as presentation skills too), but you get the point: my goal was to help people understand that it’s not perfect, far from it, but it’s going in the right direction. Do you still use Micro$oft with a dollar sign? I hope not…

P.S.: Thanks to Matthew Potter who enhance the quality of the video as the recording size was so bad.

I participated to many barcamp/camp/unconference (more information on the

The camp will be as successful as the participation of the attendees #

The foundation of camp is the attendees: we aren’t talking about a conference where you sit, and listen to one speaker. It’s a group conversation, and everyone is invited, or should I say, highly encouraged to participate, and share his opinion on the topic.

There are no stupid topics, questions or comments #

Don’t be afraid: nobody is there to judge you. People may disagree with you, but nobody is there to ridicule you. So add any topic you want to discuss on the post-it, or share any opinions you have, whether you are an expert or not on the subject.

The moderator is there to facilitate the discussions, not to overtake it #

This one is one of my pet-peeve: the moderator is there to… moderate the discussion. Usually, organizers tend to give this role to someone who is well-known, and quite often, well-knowledgeable on the overall topic of the camp event: some mc tend to take too much of the floor space. If you want to do this, step down, and let someone else facilitate the discussion.

This is not the place to have a discussion between two people #

I have an argument. You have an argument. We disagree. We do back, and forth on our different statements, and guess what? The rest of the room gets bored! We aren’t alone in the room, so we shouldn’t make a discussion between the two of us. A good moderator should manage this properly.

Be respectful in all circumstances #

Like in everything else in life: if you want to be respected, respect others. As I said before, you may disagree with someone, but it will never be a reason to act like an asshole.

If a topic runs out of steam, the facilitator should start a discussion on the next one #

This is also a rule for the moderator: if a topic becomes boring, nobody has something to add, it’s just a discussion between two people, or all the opinions come to the same conclusion… move on! Most of the time, there are too many topics for the time we have, so it won’t be a problem to cut this one before you wanted to.

Having a side discussion is disturbing for others #

I think this rule is a duplication of the respectful one, but for whatever reason, people  don’t seem to think it’s a lack of respect. While someone is speaking, don’t start a side discussion or continue to argue with the last person who shares with the audience, it’s really annoying.

To facilitate the discussion, raise your hand if you want to talk #

I would also be able to add this one in the respect bucket, but this behavior of certain people really annoys me. I totally agree; we aren’t at school, but it’s an easy way to have a healthy discussion with all the attendees, and facilitate the job of the moderator. It’s his job to manage who will speak next: of course,  he may have not seen you right away, but you turn will come! There is nothing more frustration while it’s your turn to speak, that someone just interrupt you. Everybody is equal: your opinion isn’t more important than the one from the other attendee.

Those are the rules I came up with from my own experiences, but overall I felt those helped different camps to work well. Anything that I’m missing or doesn’t make sense?

This year I got two book writing offers, but the technology/topic didn’t interest me enough to make the deal with the editor: those opportunities make me think that I would like to write a book. Why not? I like to write. I like to share. I would like to develop more about a topic that I’m passionate about, so I’ve decided that with or without any editor support, I’ll write one at some point in my career.

The problem is that since I made that statement to myself, I’m always thinking about it, and the first topic that came to mind wasn’t about a technical book… It was about personal branding! It makes total sense, as I like to share my opinions, and experience about this subject. Without going crazy about it, I would like more people to understand that it’s important in today’s world, so the unavoidable conclusion was to write one about this topic. There are many books about the topic out there, but as all the other authors, I have my own perspective, and vision to share. Since I’m a Technical Evangelist, I thought it was natural for me to take the approach about personal branding for developers.

Let’s face it: developers are rock stars today. It’s also a question of being a linchpin, doing epic shit, and helping our careers to get to the next level. I won’t go too deep into the details for now as I’m still working on the outline, but I’m very excited about it. You can learn more about part of my vision on the topic (not specific to developer) by watching one the presentation at did on the topic. I also encourage you to let me know if you have any specific elements you would like to see in this kind of book or if you think it’s a good idea (or not).

I may end up working with an editor (ping me if it interests you) or releasing it online by myself, but at the end, I want to share about personal branding with my fellow developers, and help them to be  the artist they are.

2013-12-20 - Update #

I’m now working with an editor who is enthusiastic about the book: nothing is signed yet, but so far so good. Since it’s not confirmed yet, let me know if you have an interest too.

2014-01-14 - Update #

I have good news this morning; the  editor replied to me, and they confirmed their interest. They are very enthusiastic about the book, and I’m extremely excited to share one of my passions with future readers. I’ll keep you up to date when the book will be  available, but it won’t be before a couple of months (remember, I have a full-time job).

With everything is life, if you want people to do something, make the process frictionless as much as possible. It’s good for selling a product, getting people to use your platform, having your friends helping you moving to a new apartment, even to get people to read your blog. If it’s not easy, if there are problems on the road, or the level of entry is too high, you will lose people in the run.

Are you building a software, working on a JavaScript library, creating a user group, writing a book, organizing an event, opening a store, selling your product? Whatever you are trying to do, if you need participation, if you need users, if you need to build a tribe, try to remove all the frictions from the process. In today’s world, the attention span is very low: if it takes too much time, sorry, you lose. There are also many alternatives to services, applications, stores or restaurants: if it’s not working or too complicated, there is certainly another way or places to go to achieve the same goal. There are only two exceptions: if your product (replace product with anything else) is unique, or if the person is really loyal to you or your brand. Even in those cases, the basement is fragile! Your product may not be as unique as you think or won’t be unique for a long time. Even the loyalty has his limits. At the end, it’s a story about giving a good experience, and lower the barrier to entry.

Whatever you are trying to achieve, if you want to make it  a success, one crucial ingredient is to make the process frictionless. You won’t build a tribe if there are too many obstacles from the beginning to the expected result…

It’s eight pm, and I got an eureka moment while watching the tv: I had a very annoying bug for an application I’m working on for work, and I thought I found the solution. I decided to work a little on my code, and see if my idea was right. Five hours later, my bug was fixed, I added one feature to my application, and contributed to an Open Source library.

At first sight, it seems that I worked too much, and didn’t manage well my work-life balance, but the day after, I woke up later than usual, and went to the gym before starting my day of work. It was an advantage for me as I was able to get a good night of sleep, and do some exercise during normal working hours (less people at the gym). It was not just a good thing for me as I’m sure if I count the number of hours I worked during that week, I almost certainly worked more than a 37-40 hours workweek. The definition of working is probably more about real work getting done than being at the office (totally different). I said it before, and I’ll say it again: in a creative job, you cannot be productive from eight to five every day (French post). In that situation, I worked when I felt it was worth it!

It happens quite often: I’ll leave my computer to do some personal stuff or go for an appointment during the day. If it’s not working right now, why should my employer pay me to stay in front of my computer because it’s the time when people should work? I prefer to give the company productive hours, sometimes less, sometimes more, than presence hours. Of course, I’m always available by email if there is anything urgent, but I’m not working on a typical schedule.

I recently finished reading Remote Office not required, a book from the people at 37Signals. It wasn’t interesting for me since I’m already a remote worker, but I definitely suggest this book to anyone who wants to learn more about working remotely or any companies that want to embrace this opportunity.

I’ve been working remotely since three years now, and I can say I’ll never want to work every day at an office again (it was one of my criteria when I was looking for a new job). While there are many more advantages for an employer, I can clearly say that just about the productive hours, it is worth it for any companies!

Nothing more to add…

I like to share: it’s why I’m doing public speaking, and blogging. I want to share my opinion, but more important, I want to share my way of thinking, and help other to understand what I understood. It may be good for you, or not, but at least I’m trying.

Yesterday evening I was at the Open Data Holiday dinner, and someone thanks me for the post I did during the day. This person had a shitty day, missed his flight, and getting some bad feedbacks about an event he did. My post was about the fact that you can’t please everybody, and that it’s OK if people disagree with you, or don’t like what you did/said. It makes me happy as I always say that if my post or my presentations changed only one person’s mind in a positive way; I  did a good job!

In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to not just think about yourself, but also think about others, and not just your friends, and family. Seeing what is happening day to day in the world, maybe I’m foolish, but I think each of us can change this world to make it a better place to live, and sharing your good thoughts, your tricks, or everything that helps people to have a better life is something we all should do.

As Baden Powell was saying: leave this world a little better than you found it.

Some people won’t like you. Some people will disagree with your opinion. Some people will find your latest blog post stupid. Some people will laugh about you because you like this type of music. What will you do about it? Change your taste, who you are, what you do, and how you think? Bullshit, it’s OK not to please everyone! Just get over it, as the worst person in this situation, is the person who is not please with you. You shouldn’t care as long as you stay true to yourself! Find the most loved artist, personality, musician, politician, actor or anyone else, and you’ll find people that don’t like them, or don’t like their art. It’s a fact, and you can’t change it, so stop worrying about things you shouldn’t worry about: you don’t need others’ approbation to be yourself.

Once you understand it’s your life, and there is no way to pleased everyone, be yourself, and I promise that your life will be much better…

The year is not yet done that I’m starting to pack my speaking agenda for the next one. In January, I’ll be in Toronto to talk about Firefox OS at the Mobile Startups TO user group.

On January 8, join me, and the most dynamic folks in the startups’ ecosystem of Toronto to learn more about Firefox OS, and the opportunity for startups at the Mozilla office. It’s nearly free as the 5$ you’ll pay will go into food, and drinks, so you won’t have to worry about grabbing something quick from the office to the event. Here is the description of my presentation

As a startup, looking forward to growing the reach, and to improve the sustainability of your product is one key to success. What’s better as a platform than the web itself?  In this talk, Frédéric Harper, Senior Technical Evangelist at Mozilla, will show you how you can use HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to build amazing mobile applications as to brush up what you previously published. Learn about the open web technologies, including WebAPIs, and Web Activities, which enhance the developers’ toolbox. Let’s not forget the tools designed to get you started developing HTML apps for Firefox OS, and the web.

As usual, I’m counting on you to make this more of a discussion, than a presentation. So friends of Toronto who likes HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and the open web (or just wants to learn more about those), reserve your spot right away as we have a limited number of seats! See you in 2014 Toronto friends!

I don’t trust my memory anymore! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not that old, but since I’ve read Getting Things Done, I included some of David Allen principles into my life: one of those is to write everything you have to do on a paper to free up your mind. Everything, even the smallest things like buying milk.

If I have a task or an idea about something I cannot do right now, I write it down for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t want to forget it: if I thought about it, it’s probably because it’s important enough. It’s something I have to do, or I want to create, so I write it down as I don’t have the time right now,  and I know that later, I’ll have many other things in my mind. The second reason is to empty my mind, and focus on the task I can do now.  How many times did you think about a task or something you had to buy at the grocery, many times a day? It happens quite often, as you don’t want to forget to buy milk after your day of work (replace milk with any other task). The collateral damage is that you are stressing about something you shouldn’t, and you won’t be able to focus on the task you have to do right now. Maybe I’ll forget to check my todo list for the day (kind of ironic), but it won’t be lost: it will be there, waiting for me, so maybe tomorrow, I’ll  check my list, and remember I have to buy some milk.

Since a couple of years now, I’m using Remember the Milk to list everything going from buying a gift for my mother’s birthday, to sending an email about an important project to one of my colleage. I even bought AquaNotes (notepad for the shower) to write down idea I have in the shower (funny enough, I have many projects, and blog posts ideas while showering - like this post). I’m trying to empty my mind as much as I can, so I can be more productive, and less anxious about other stuff.

Try it for a couple of days: the tool you used don’t matter, just take a notepad. Every time you think of a task, whether it’s personal or for work, if you can’t do it right now, write it down. You should be more productive, and more concentrate on the actual moment. You may even be surprised a couple of days later to find on your list stuff you totally forgot about…

While I was at Microsoft, I had the pleasure to work with talented Windows 8, and Windows Phone developers. Some of them became friends, like Sebastien Lachance.

When Sebastien told me he was taking on over his dream, and started as a freelancer, I was so excited, and I wanted to help. I know Sebastien for a couple of years now so I know I can endorse him without any problem: he is an amazing developer! It’s not just about what I saw while I was working with him, it’s also about the things he did. Just recently, two of his apps were in the spotlights list (featured/most popular apps) of Windows Phone: DualShot, and App Spotlights. He is also a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional - a recognition for the best professional related to Microsoft’s technology), and also a Nokia Developer Champion. Sebastien just started his own company, and he can already count as his customers, Microsoft Canada, and RedBit Development (an amazing Toronto company I had the pleasure to work with). No needs to say that Sebastien is also well connected to people at Microsoft as to product teams behind the two technologies he is an expert of: Windows 8, and Windows Phone. He is also well involved within the Montreal community, and started the Microsoft Metro Montréal user group: we can’t say he isn’t a passionate man!

So if you are looking for a freelancer (who speak French too) with an expertise about Windows 8, and Windows Phone, someone who will deliver quality projects, and someone who already has countless of apps behind the tie, I highly suggest you to contact Sebastien, and have a look at his LinkedIn profile. You won’t be disappointed!

I want more people to do public speaking. I want more people to share their passion about technology. I want more people to show the awesomeness of the Open Web, and help others be more open. So when someone asks me if he can take one of my presentations, my reaction is: of course!  Of course you can: share it, use it, improve it, change it…

I uploaded all my presentations under a Creative Commons license Attribution 2.5 Generic on my SlideShare account. It’s easy to download the original format, but if you have any trouble, feel free to let me know. To be even clearer about what you can do with my material, I’ll add a Creative Commons logo on all my new presentations. Of course, all the content inside of those presentations, like images, are also under Creative Commons license. I as well encourage you to check on this site as there is probably a recording of the presentation related to the slides you want to use: I started to do this a couple of weeks ago, so you won’t find it for older presentations. It can be a guide to help you understand the slides, the content, and how I delivered it: in no situation, you have to share the information in the same way! Make it yours.

As I said in my presentation about public speaking: if you are starting to be on the stage, and wants some feedbacks on your presentation, materials, and ways of delivering your own story, please let me know, I’ll be more than happy to help. So start now, and share your passion with others…

Last Thursday, I went to bed a bit upset: I was not able to find the two caches I wanted to do while in Athens. The first one was in an area that was closed for the evening, and the second one was unreachable without someone noticing me at that time. On Friday, I woke up one hour before, to be sure I would have the time to find another one not far from my hotel before going to the airport to take my flight back at home. After looking for 15 minutes, it was time to go back to the hotel if I didn’t want to miss my flight, but I wasn’t able to go back in Canada without at least, having one geocache behind my belly. I gave myself five more minutes, and surprise; I found that very tiny cache. I found it; it makes my day, I was now able to get back at home…

What this story is all about? It’s something call geocaching: it’s basically a treasure hunter game for the 21st century. Some people hide containers from really tiny, to big one all around the world: those could be hiding under a park bench, with a fence, under a rock… They can be right in front of you without you noticing it. People hide those in the city, in the forest, everywhere. Others, have the pleasure to try to find them, but also, find them without having others noticing it: if it was the case, some malicious people could move, remove, or destroy them. It’s a good way to have fun as there is this accomplishment feeling you get when you find one, like when I was desperate in Athens, and finally found it. There is also this “spy feeling” of achieving a mission without people noticing what you are really doing. It’s really something interesting, and all you need to play is a good GPS (you can use a phone to find the caches, but it will be harder), a pen, and some time to find those caches: once you get the geolocation, they can be everywhere, and everything! The treasure? The opportunity to sign your name with the date you find the cache on a small paper call log file. You can also, after, on your geocaching.com profile, brag about the caches you found. As you can see in the images below, I did caches in many places, but I’m also a beginner as I didn’t find a lot yet. There is a lot more about geocaching than signing the log file, but I’ll let you learn more about it yourself.

If you are a geocacher, add me on geocaching.com, and if you aren’t, try it! With geocaching, I have the pleasure to visit cities (even discovering my own), and feel like a spy that is looking for a real treasure. Who doesn’t need a bit on fantasy in his life?

One day, I was at the gym, and my inner voice was all about “I hate that shit. It’s hard to get in shape. I don’t have enough time to come here. It’s not easy to lose weight. I didn’t eat very well for years: it’s a difficult habit to leave behind.”. It was like this for the entire time I was doing one of my exercise, but I saw an old man: this man was probably around 70, and he was doing the same exercise as me without complaining. He understood that it was the thing to do to live longer, and with a good health. At that exact moment, I told myself how stupid I was, and just shut up: I had NO excuses!

Most of the time, our reasons not to do something we should do aren’t real one: we are our own gate to success. Of course, it’s not easy to find a new job. It’s not easy to lose some weight. It’s not easy to go talk to that girl you like in the office. It’s not easy to do your homework instead of playing some video games. Name all situations you want, if you take a moment, and be really honest with yourself, you’ll see that most of the time, the only thing or person preventing you for making it happen… is you! Nobody said that life should be easy, but you have the power to make it yours, and go out of your comfort zone to do what you have to do. When you aren’t doing something like going to the gym (I hate the gym so much), the only thing you do, is lying to yourself. It’s so true that it hurt when you think about it!

So next time you are finding excuses for not doing something that you should do, ask yourself (I’ll do too): are those real reasons, or am I trying to justify my lack of strength, and will?

P.S.: I think this image can shame all of us…

I’ve been the Microsoft guy in Montreal (Quebec) for almost three years, so I still get requests about Microsoft technology or events. Since I’ve moved to a new gig, I thought it would be great to give some visibility to my replacement, Rami Sayar! It’s not that I don’t want to help people, but I may not be the best person to help now, since I’m not at the Empire anymore.

I’m really glad that Microsoft Canada chose Rami as the new guy for many reasons: he speaks French, he  is all about Open Source, he is involved in the Montreal tech scene, and he is more brilliant than me. So brilliant that he manages to get the role, even if we were looking for someone with more years of experience! So if you want to touch base with Ramy for anything Microsoft, mostly related to technical stuff, of course, feel free to contact him on LinkedIn or on Twitter. Congratulations to the new Technical Evangelist, and welcome, a bit late, to Microsoft!

P.S.: Two different style on the picture, Rami is classier than me, but hey, it’s Bill Murray!

A couple of years ago, my boss told me “Fred, you should focus more, and stop doing a million things”. At that time, I was working for him, blogging, having an excessive usage of social media, volunteering in the scout with two important positions managing people, organizing a festival as managing the volunteers, doing a video podcast, and more! My inner Fred thought he was wrong: what’s the problem with doing multiple things I’m enjoying… As I’m a bit older now, and probably less stupid, I totally get what he told me.

What he really told me at that time is that I wasn’t able to be truly good at something if I was focusing on many things at once: I was just average, in everything, because I didn’t have time to perfect my art. He was right!  It was something really hard for me to be understood at that time, and still hard to acknowledge even today: I’m a man of passion, and trust me, I  have a lot of those. I also have many project’s ideas, and I like to discover new things. On top of that, too often, people approach me to help or to participate in nice projects. At one point in my life, I was trying to make a reality every project I had in mind, or to dedicate time to every new passion I was discovering. At that end: I was average or doing an average job on everything.

Today, I decided to focus on three things: my family/friends, my job, and my blog. I tried to avoid other projects, as I want to succeed, and dedicate time on these three spheres on my life. Does that mean I’m not doing anything else? Of course not! I like to watch movies, read books, go to the gym (ok I don’t like it, but I need to do it!), and I’ll take a photography course in January to finally be able to take nice pictures. I’m just learning to say to no to people, but also to myself about new projects. That as well mean that I need to prioritize: what make more sense for me, or what is the more exciting. It’s more complex than it seems, but at the end, you’ll see the benefit: I’m already seeing it!

For me, my life now is all about focusing, and I think you should too… At the end, we only have a finite number of time during our life: is all the candies really worth eating?

Someone asked me recently why I named my blog “Out of Comfort Zone”, and that make me realize that I never wrote a post to explain it: I wanted this post to be one of the first of this blog, but after nearly two years, it may be time to explain it.

Of course, everybody understands what the name of this blog means, but the question is mostly about the why. At the end, it’s not a blog about a personal life guru helping you to go out of your comfort zone: of course, this is one of the things I like to do, but it’s not the main goal of this blog. Actually, to be totally clear, this blog is all about me: not like a fan site of course, but this is a forum I have, to talk, and share about ANYTHING I want to. Sometimes technical topics, sometimes promotion for events where I’ll speak, sometimes more personal stories about my life, sometimes a way to share my presentations, sometimes humoristic images… So, why out of comfort zone? It’s simply a tribute to what I realized a couple of years ago: nothing will happen if you don’t go out of your comfort zone.

If you want things to change, if you want to be happier…  you need to go out of your comfort zone, this is where the magic happens! I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t about going out of my comfort zone: writing this blog post at a coffee shop in Athens, being so happy about my personal, and professional life. You may be afraid. You may fail, but you’ll always recover, learn from it, and continue your journey. So at the end, this blog is a tribute to this lifestyle, to my lifestyle: constantly pushing the boundaries…

Yesterday I was invited to help support the Athens App Days. I did the first technical talk of the day, and my goal was to excited developers about the platform, and to show them all the possibilities they have for building their application. I was quite impressed by the dedication of developers during all the hackathon: they were hard at work to get a chance to win one of the amazing prizes we had!

Firefox OS - The platform you deserve - Athens App Days - 2013-11-27 from Frédéric Harper

As usual, there is also a recording of my presentation.

Firefox OS - the platform you deserve on YouTube

I hope you enjoyed the presentation, and let me know if you still need help with the development of your Firefox OS app: I can’t wait to see them in the marketplace! It was a real pleasure to be part of this event, and of course, to visit Athens for the first time.

I think I’ll start a series of post on stuff I see in my neighborhood, Verdun. For those of you that aren’t from Montreal, Verdun is one of the boroughs of the city. From what I know, it used to be one of the poorest, and not so good places to live, but it changed a lot. We are living there for three years now, and this place doesn’t stop to evolve, and improve. Of course, there are still restaurants where you don’t want to eat, or store you won’t buy anything there… We have plenty of little coffee shops, tea places, five stars restaurants… but Verdun still has a strange side, with many, many, weird people too. I wanted to start strong with the picture above.

I’m probably one of the people that doesn’t really judge others as I firmly believe that everybody can be who he wants, and live like he wants (always by respecting the law - I’m no anarchist). On the other side, I give myself the permission to find some people weird, and laugh a little. Don’t get me wrong, we are all weird for someone else, and I may not give my place: I probably have a never-ending list of people who find me weird! As for this guy, I have no problem with furry, but do or do not: this guy just wore the tail of some animal. Moreover, it was in a Canadian Tire… Yeah, only in Verdun!

I like photos more than anything else: they give me the opportunity to freeze in time a special moment. For me, they are even better than videos in many cases as they let you associate a special moment, that you define, to a specific picture: even if it’s not what exactly happen at this time as unlike a video, it’s still your memory, and it’s fascinating to see how people interpreted differently the same event.

Everywhere I go, I’m  bringing either my DSLR, or a compact camera to immortalize those moments: dinner with friends, visiting a new city, birthday party, walking in the forest… Every situation is worth taking the time to take pictures, but I have a real problem with this: being the person who took the photos means that you won’t be on any photos. I remedy to this situation by doing what I call, the open camera philosophy. No it’s not about using a camera with Open Source software, but more about crowd sourcing my photos.

Let’s say that we are at a dinner together with many other friends. Instead of being the only one who will take pictures, I put my camera in the middle of the table, and tell people that I would like them to use it to take any pictures they want. Of course, I’ll take a lot of them too, but I’m offering my camera to whoever would like to be on the other side of it. It served me well as when people understand the principle, they are taking pictures, and that give me the opportunity to finally be on them too. It’s also totally worth it as it’s not just about me being on some pictures: having someone else taking picture is opening the door to a new perspective of the event, and to different creativity aspects. As I said, we may not see the same thing, may not immortalize the same moment, may think differently, and may not have the identicle way of taking a picture. At the end, I’m getting way more photos, and that mean, a lot more souvenirs!

I highly encourage to do like me, and adopt the Open Camera philosophy: I’m sure you won’t regret it…

Yesterday, we were doing a Firefox OS workshop in Budapest, Hungary. It was, like always, a real pleasure to help all those hackers to create, or port their app to run on the amazing platform that is Firefox OS. As usual, here are the slides, and the recording of my presentation.

Firefox OS - The platform you deserve - Firefox OS Budapest workshop - 2013-11-23 from Frédéric Harper

I beought a bluetooth headset to record my presentations, but the quality was lower than using the laptop mic (!!), so for this one, the sound is still ok, not more. If you have any wireless mic suggestion, mostly something I can attach to my t-shirt, please let me know. I also have projector issues, so it’s why you’ll see me restarting the presentation so many times.

Firefox OS, the platform you deserve on YouTube

This presentation was basically to excited developers about the platform, and all the opportunities of building Firefox OS app: I talked about the OS, why Mozilla is doing this, what are the APIs you can use, and most important, how you can start. It was well received, and followed up by Jason’s talk about the tools people can use to develop, and debug with as without a real device. I’m really impressed by the quality of apps we got out of the event: I can’t wait to see them in the Firefox OS Marketplace!

I’ll approach those posts differently, as some people don’t get them. I’m not asking people to do my homework. I can easily search on the web for stuff I can do in the cities I’m going, and it’s what I do. What I am asking is basically two things:

1. Is there anything, that isn’t common for a tourist (like secret unknown spot), that I should do, eat or go?
2. Is there something that tourist usually does that I shouldn’t as it sucks, or not as good as I thought?

I’ll also write those post after I found what I may do while I’ll be there: it will give you an idea on what I have in mind, what I like, but most important, that at least, I did my homework! So for San Francisco (and/or Mountain View), it won’t be my first time there, but the last time it was for my interviews at Mozilla, and I didn’t have time to really visit   the city. I don’t think I’ll have the time to do everything as I’ll only have two days off, but for now, I have on my list:

• Find at least one geocache - this is a standard item for everywhere I go;
• Find a Starbucks, and buy a local mug - this is a must do while I’m traveling, as Émilie wants a collector mug of each city where I’m traveling;
• Visit Alcatraz - I already bought my ticket, I’m so excited;
• Visit Twitter - Everybody knows that I’m a huge fan of Twitter, and I have a friend who is working there: hope he’ll be available for a visit;
• Visit Google - You can like or not Google, the campus seems to be amazing: I just watch the intern movie, so I thought I could try to visit their offices. I’ll check with my friends at the Montreal office to see if it’s possible.

Since it’s not the first time I go in the US, I don’t have to worry about buying a sim card. I may not have the time to do everything, but I’ll have other opportunities  for sure as one of Mozilla big office is there, and the head office is in Moutain View. Is there any restaurant or coffee shop I should go? Anything else I must visit? Share your experience as a tourist or as a local.

Ceux qui suivent mon blogue, savez que j’ai participé au programme “ma carrière techno” de TECHNOCompétences. Il s’agissait d’aller parler à des élèves du secondaire de son expérience, démystifier certains mythes (tel que ce n’est pas que pour les nerds), mais surtout des opportunités de travailler dans le milieu des TI. J’avais eu un problème d’enregistrement, mais heureusement, comme avec mon vidéo sur le personal branding (billet & vidéo en anglais), j’ai pu régler le problème et éditer celle-ci. Comme toujours l’audio est correct, sans plus (je suis à la recherche d’un micro pour augmenter la qualité de ceux-ci).

Bien sûr, cette vidéo s’adresse principalement aux jeunes qui aimeraient en savoir plus sur le milieu, mais peut tout de même servir aux adultes qui se posent aussi des questions sur un possible changement de carrière. Je compte bien participer à nouveau l’an prochain et je vous invite, professionnel des TI à le faire aussi: partager son savoir et son expérience avec les jeunes est quelque chose de formidable.

I usually do a blog post after my presentations, and I totally forgot about the presentation I did in Guadalajara, our Firefox OS workshop in Mexico.

Firefox OS, work your magic - Firefox OS Guadalajara (Mexico) workshop - 2013-10-26 from Frédéric Harper

Unfortunately, I had some problem with my computer at that time, so I had to use my colleague’s computer, and wasn’t capable of recording my session. Since we were in a workshop, my primary goal was to help developers be able to build their applications without any problem: my talk was mostly about the Firefox OS Simulator, and the Web developer tools inside of Firefox. I really like to show off those tools to developers, as many people just don’t know about them: there isn’t only FireBug! It is helping me every time I’m creating a Web application, website or helping other developers. If you didn’t have the chance to use them, open Firefox, go to the tools menu, open them, and have fun!

P.S.: Wonder what is the relation between the picture, and this post? It was taken during the dinner with attendees after the workshop. It’s a pitiable, but funny, reproduction of the Evolution, and I thought it would make sense for Firefox OS as for me, it’s the evolution of the mobile web (if there is such a thing like a mobile web).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/FgiyRAahIqQ

I do not do non-technical talks too often, but this is one of my pet peeves, and one I would like to give more, and more as I really think it’s an important topic in today’s world! Thinking about yourself as a brand can be useful on many levels… Watch this presentation to know more about it…

J’ai souvent la chance de croiser les membres de Geeks and Com’ dans divers événements à Montréal: ils sont très actifs dans le milieu des communications, des TI, des médias sociaux et tout ce qui touche aux derniers gadgets. Ça devient presque une habitude, mais à chaque fois que je croise Benoît Chamontin, un des fondateurs du site, il fait une entrevue vidéo avec moi: cette fois-ci, j’ai eu le plaisir de parler de Firefox OS, qui est encore peu connu à Montréal.

J’ai débuté la vidéo en expliquant qu’est-ce que Firefox OS, mais aussi quel est le but de Mozilla de créer une Nième système d’exploitation mobile. On a abordé les différents marchés tout en mentionnant l’Amérique du Nord, car c’est une des questions qu’on me pose souvent, étant Montréalais. En tout dernier, j’ai parlé des avatanges pour les développeurs, mais aussi pour les consommateurs. Prenez note qu’une version de cette entrevue, faite en anglais, sera mise en ligne sous peu: je suis tellement rendu habitué de présenter en anglais, que je trouve meilleure la version qui viendra dans la langue de Shakespeare.

I’ve got asked quite often about the startup industry in Montreal: people have ideas, but don’t have the technical skills to make it happen or just don’t know where to start. I have a good network of technical resources, but when it comes to find a co-founder, we are talking about a totally different need. I thought I could help my connections, by trying to make a list of where they can start their research to find their next business partner.

User groups/meetups #

I usually joke about the fact that I could have one to three meetups per evening when I’m talking about the technical scene in Montreal: it’s also a good city for startups. Here is a list of some meetups that happen, mostly on a monthly basis, in our lovely city:

• Montréal NEWTECH is probably one of the bigger meetup I know in Montreal, and it’s all about technology, and startups;
• Startup Grind will have their first event in Montreal in a couple of days. As the name let you know, it’s also all about startups, and the lead is one of my friends, Rami Sayar;
• Startup Breakfast Club Montreal is a nice way to start your day: they usually have one presentation, followed by a networking session. They would certainly give you time to pitch your startup idea;
• Montreal Entrepreneurs is a newly group to give the opportunity to entrepreneurs to network, and share their experience;
• MTL Startup Talent, from what I know, is more of an organization than a user group, but they organized meetups, as hackathons too.

Events #

We are lucky in Montreal as we have many meetups, but we also have great events where entrepreneurs can go, share their ideas, learn more about the startup ecosystem, and find a partner.

• International Startup Festival is probably the biggest event we have related to startup in Montreal, and I can tell you it’s awesome as I was there on the first edition, one year ago;
• Startup Weekends are held all over the world, and we are lucky to have one in Montreal too;
• Lean Startup Machine Montreal is a workshop where attendees learn more about lean principles, and validate their ideas.

Venues #

I would say that if you have to know one place related to startups in Montreal, it’s Notman House. In the café, you’ll find freelancers, entrepreneurs, people looking for ideas, people building on ideas, people who would like to find a co-founder… There are also many events as user groups happening there. It’s as well the home of FounderFuel, a startup accelerator, so it could be a good way to connect to startups that are participating in this program, or have a discussion with the lead of this program as they have a lot more contacts in the startup world than me.

I would also say that coop spaces in Montreal are good places to find interesting people: Station C, ECTO… Actually, people ask me quite often after co-working spaces in Montreal, so I’m trying to find them all to create a list here.

Go where they go #

At the end, the idea is to go where they go, and not restrain yourself to startups events or groups: you never know when, and where you’ll find someone who will have the same enthusiast then you for your idea. Your project is about creating a website, why not go to HTML5mtl or JS Montreal? You plan to have a mobile product, and would need someone able to create mobile application: think about CocoaHeads Montréal for iOS, GDG Montreal Android or Microsoft Métro Montréal (French site) for Windows Phone/8. We have many user groups in Montreal like those: Ruby (French site) or Python Montreal, Communauté .NET Montréal (French site)… This is a good place to find technical people: who knows, you may find the person who is looking for a new opportunity!

I know this list isn’t complete, so I invite you to let me know in the comment section if I’m missing any meetups, events, or anything that would be useful for someone looking for their next partner… I hope this list will be handy, and please, let me know if you are building a new product: I’m always eager to know what the great minds in Montreal are working on!

I like to travel, and I’m lucky enough to have a job that gives me this opportunity. After my next trip to Budapest in Hungary (by the way, I had no reply for this post, so feel free to give me some advices if you live or have been to Budapest), I won’t come back at home: I need to make a stop to Athens in Greece to support a Firefox OS event there (more information on this as soon as I will have more). As usual, I’m asking my tribe to help me discover the world through the experience you had there.

I started to search for things I want to do in Athens, but I would like to know your thoughts about it! If you live there, you sure know what a tourist should do if he only has one or two days. If you’ve been there, you may get stuck in some tourist trap, and would like other, like me, to avoid those. I usually have four questions when I’m going somewhere new:

1. What is the best wireless cellphone provider in the country?
2. What are the typical dishes I want to eat?
3. What are the best coffee shops, and restaurants in the city?
4. What are the attractions I don’t want to miss?

What is the best wireless cellphone provider in the country? #

I can’t live without data, so usually the first thing I do in a new country is to buy a prepaid sim card with a data plan for the duration of my stay. It’s less about my email, than the fact that I’m using GPS/Yelp a lot to find places, and navigate in unknowns streets. Of course, I like to do check-ins, and check my emails while on the road, but it’s less important when I’m off.

What are the typical dishes I want to eat? #

Funny enough, I was quite difficult with food and today, I  eat mostly everything. I like to taste special dishes or beverages as it’s all tight with the culture. Even if I don’t like it, I can at least say that I tried.

What are the best coffee shops, and restaurants in the city? #

One of the bad parts of traveling is that all your meals are at restaurants: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To make the stay more pleasant, going to good restaurants is a must. It’s why I always try to get suggestions as using services like Yelp. As for the coffee shops, they are my second office, after my home one. I always have my computer with me, and I just need an Internet connection, and I’m ready to go.

What are the attractions I don’t want to miss? #

Of course, you don’t travel only for coffee shops, and food! Is there anything special a tourist shouldn’t miss? Do you know any special events that may happen when I’ll be there? Is there any other places, maybe less known for foreign people, but worth a visit? I’m not difficult, but I prefer to visit or do stuff I wouldn’t be able to do in my hometown. It could be a festival, a special part of the town, museum, a unusual shop, pyramids, zoo… Name it, everything that would give me the opportunity to have a great time, and come back at home with good memories as with a ton of pictures!

Don’t get me wrong, those posts aren’t a lazy move from me: I’ll do my homework, and search for what I can do once I’ll be in Athens, but getting feedbacks from other is much more interesting than a result on Google. I can’t wait to see the amazing suggestions you’ll tell me.

Before I start, be sure to understand what the job is all about: it’s not just about doing conferences, and traveling. So, four years ago, I decided that my next step in my professional career would be to become an Evangelist (French post). I saw some of them, read about the job, and thought that it was a perfect fit for me: I’m technical, I like to help others, and I have a special skill many developers don’t have… I’m social. So like for any jobs you want, you need to understand what are the requirements or the skills for this particular job, and fill the gaps. If I have to summarize what I understood about the role a couple of years ago, it would fit into these five words (in no particular order): technical, speaking, communities, experience, and leadership.

Technical #

You need to be technical, to be a Technical Evangelist. It sounds stupid, but many people don’t understand it. Of course, you won’t develop software all day long, but since you are talking about technology, you need to be able to have a discussion with developers, build demos, and be credible in front of a crowd. On my side, it was easy as I was a Software Developer for about 10 years. I would say that it’s usually the profile of people who become Evangelist: I’ll write more about this in the experience point.

Speaking #

Even if the role isn’t just about public speaking, it’s still an important part. Furthermore, your role is to create connection with developers, so you’ll have to talk with them, discuss, and help them. On my case, I had no problem discussing with people about technology, but I had no public speaking experience. I started to check where someone like me, with no experience, would be able to do a presentation in front of a crowd: I submit a talk to Podcamp Montréal (French post), and got accepted. It was the beginning of my public speaking career, as after that, I got some speaking offers. Even if it wasn’t about technical topics as I did a presentation on how to use social media to organize events, I was still sharing my passion in front of attendees. It helped me build some experience with public speaking, and build my case for the job I wanted.

Communities #

You cannot succeed as an Evangelist if you don’t work with communities. People that believe in your mission, love your product, use your technology will be there to support you, and be what I call, virtual evangelists! When a company hires you, it’s not just about your skills: having a good network will help you. It’s also one of the reasons why those jobs are well paid, as you are building an amazing network while you work for a company in that role, and it’s something enterprise wants to keep with them. I was already going to different technical user groups, but also social media events. I connected with other developers, user groups lead, conference organizers… I like people so it wasn’t hard for me, but networking was a big part of it.

Experience #

I was writing about having technical skills, but you need experience. If you are going to talk to developers, you need to be a developer too. There is no way you’ll be able to succeed if you don’t have experience as a developer. You need to have credibility, know the day to day of building software, the pain of working with customers… For me, it was also an easy part as I was developing software for about 10 years. I worked with different technologies like Java, PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, C#, Objective C… I played with many operating systems like Windows, OS X, and Linux. I developed different types of software: web, mobile… It’s one thing to have experience, but when you talk about your product or the technology you promote, you need to be able to tell the truth, and compare with the other choices on the market.

Leadership #

I like to believe that all Evangelist jobs aren’t tight with a manager who likes to micromanage: from my experience, it’s a job with a lot of freedom. In my own definition of leadership, you can find the word responsible too. So to land this kind of job, you need to show that you are responsible, and that you have the makings of a leader. You’ll have to manage your schedule, maybe work at home, decide how you’ll achieve your goals, even defining your own goals. It’s easy to ask your previous manager to speak for you on those points, but does it have a lot of impact? Who is giving references about someone who will say bad things about you? Fortunately, I started, and lead the Festival Geek de Montréal (French site) for two editions: I was able to show companies that I can lead a huge project, build a team of awesome volunteers, create something big, and make things happen without having a manager over my shoulder telling me what to do.

At the end, I listed what skills I thought I needed, and work on those to get more experiences, and be sure I would be able to sell myself as a good candidate for being a Technical Evangelist. I think it makes sense for all jobs: find what you need, and make it happen. All those points together helped me a lot as when Microsoft was looking for a new Evangelist in Montréal (French post), they heard about me from people in the communities. They were also able to see tangible things I did, and even if I didn’t officially have Evangelist experience (no job, not paid for doing it), I already started to evangelize…  So this is my own story, and I hope it’ll help you land your dream job as a Technical Evangelist too!

Honor us with your presence #

This one is not only for the speaker, but also for the organizers: if you bought a ticket, come to the event. Even more if the ticket was free as in those cases, most of the time, the event will be full: by not coming, you prevent someone who was able, and really wanted to be there to get an entree. It’s even more annoying for the speaker to have an empty room, because so many people didn’t come. We all have our reason, and last minute’s fire to extinguish, but if it’s the case, release your ticket or give it to someone else.

Arrive on time #

Arrive even before the beginning of the presentation, and give yourself some time for the possible traffic (or public transport), and to register yourself once you are at the venue. Every conference with more than one speaker are on tight schedule: the speaker won’t wait for you. That can be disturbing to see people coming into the room, looking for a seat while you are in front telling your story. You’ll also miss something important that may help you to understand the rest of the presentation.

Read the abstract #

Most conferences, if it’s not all, put the abstract of the speaker’s presentation on their website, on the agenda, or even give you a paper schedule with the information on: read it. That seems to be stupid, but too often people just read the title, and are disappointed: the talk wasn’t what they had in mind. Of course, that could happen even if you read the description of the presentation, but I’m sure you’ll save yourself some surprises.

Listen #

In all my presentations, I ask people to tweet about cool stuff they hear, if they disagree on something, share something they learn or just quote me. Except for taking note, and sharing on your preferred social media (about the conference), listen to the speaker. The person in front of you is giving his time to share his passion with you: you should at least listen. There are some speakers who would also consider tweeting about their presentations as a lack of respect, and not listening: keep this in mind. It’s even worst when you are talking with someone else, even if you are whispering. In that situation, you are not just disturbing the presenter, but also people around you who enjoy the presentation, and are missing bites of it because of you. Lastly, put your cellphone on silence mode, and you won’t disturb anyone.

Adhere to the law of the two feet #

I’ve done plenty of camp style events, and I really like the informal spirit of those. One thing is the law of two feet: if you feel you are not learning, it’s not a topic you have any interest in, or you fall asleep, either because the speaker is boring or not… leave the room! Some speakers would be annoyed by people living the room as you can think it’s because of you, but personally, I would prefer that you go learn something elsewhere, then losing your time with me in front of you.

If there are technical problems, let the speaker know #

If the speaker isn’t talking quite loud, let him know. If the text size for a code demo isn’t big enough for the last row, let the speaker know. If you don’t understand something, ask for clarification to the person on the stage. In short, don’t get frustrated by a situation that can be solved, and let the speaker know. Sometimes the speaker is too much in “presentation mode” that he won’t notice it, and hey, guess what, you are the attendee, so you know what is good or not for you.

Ask short questions #

Please, please, please, and please: stop asking multiple questions in one sentence or telling your story for 5 minutes by ending it with the question you really want to ask. There is limited time for questions in conferences, and you may not be the only person who has questions. Asking short precise question is the key. If you are too shy to ask your question with all the crowd, please go see the speaker after his talk: every good speaker will stick around after his talk (most of the time outside of the room not to take time from the next speaker) to meet attendees, and answer further questions.

Fill the feedbacks’ form/sheet with useful information #

I didn’t like your presentation mean nothing to me as a speaker. Why you didn’t like it? Is it because it wasn’t what you expected? Is it because you don’t like me or my style as a speaker? Is it because I said something wrong? Nobody is perfect, and feedbacks’ form are not useful if you don’t give any details. Be precise when you are giving comments. What did you like? What you didn’t like, and why? What can be improved? What was wrong? Most of the time, if it’s too complex for the feedbacks’ sheet, go talk directly to the speaker. Personally, I’m more than welcome to have feedback, if the feedback is constructive.

Say thanks to the speaker #

How much time will it take you to go see the speaker, shake his hand, and say “thanks, I liked your presentation”? Maybe, 30 seconds? If you liked the talk, just take 30 seconds to say thanks. As a speaker, even if my company is paying me to speak, I still took my time to share my knowledge, and passion with you. It’s always amazing when people tell you they liked what you just did. Do the same with conference organizers!

Respect the one on the stage #

I would have been able to summarize my rules in one simple step: respect the one on the stage. If you disagree, be respectful. If you don’t like the talk or the speaker, be respectful too. Put yourself in the shoes of the one with the mic, and ask yourself “how would I like the attendees to be during my talk”, and act like it.

Even if I think most of those rules should always be respected, of course, they are mine, and cannot apply to all speakers. On that note, I’m usually a laid back speaker, and most of them don’t really disturb me, but as I said, at the end, it’s a question of respect. Have a good conference!</p

Il y a quelques jours, la galerie DHC/ART m’a invité à venir visiter l’exposition Power Points de Cory Arcangel. N’étant pas un connaisseur du milieu des arts, mais sachant toutefois grandement appréciée cette forme d’expression, j’ai tout de suite accepté l’offre: j’essaie toujours de visiter un musée à chacune des villes où je voyage.

L’exposition, qui se veut gratuite, est en place jusqu’au 24 novembre prochain, à la fondation de l’art contemporain DHC/ART situé au 451 rue Saint-Jean dans le Vieux-Montréal. Prenez note que la suite du billet révèle plusieurs créations dont vous aurez la chance de voir à l’exposition, donc si vous voulez garder quelques surprises, je vous suggère de simplement aller visiter l’exposition et d’arrêter la lecture de ce billet. Avec cette exhibition, ne vous attendez pas à des toiles impressionnistes ou des sculptures monotones: Cory Arcangel s’amuse avec des objets du quotidien mélangeant informatique, jeu vidéo, cinéma, électronique et surtout la musique. Une suite d’installation vivante, des fois même perturbante, agrémente votre parcours dans la tête de l’artiste: du chaos ordonné! Bien sûr offert à tout le monde, Power Points, qui a priori me faisait penser au logiciel de présentation de Microsoft, se veut, selon moi, plus adapté pour les gens de ma génération, ainsi que les personnes gravitant dans le milieu informatique.

Suite à la modification de nos jeux d’enfance sur Nintendo, telle que Hogan’s Alley, Arcangel nous fait éliminer Andy Warhol avec le merveilleux NES Zapper (pour les plus jeunes qui ne savent pas de quoi je parle), au lieu de criminels. Il a aussi, tout simplement, recréé Drei Klavierstücke op 11 avec rien de moins qu’un élément fort présent de la pop culture d’aujourd’hui: un assemblage de vidéos de chats sur YouTube, jouant du piano! Les amateurs d’informatique ne sont pas en reste dans cette première exposition canadienne d’importance de Cory, car vous pourrez voir deux ordinateurs discutant ensemble (pour l’infini  - je vous laisse un peu de suspense) tout en voyant une vidéo fort intéressante avec une version piégée de QuickTime qui affiche une représentation visuelle de la mémoire de l’ordinateur: plusieurs toiles fort jolies auraient pu être créées à partir des images colorées projetées sur le mur. Une des installations qui a su m’irriter est une création musicale (et visuelle) qui combine, en boucle, un déphasage de Sweet Child O’ Mine de Guns N’ Roses: étant un admirateur de cette chanson, tout en sachant que cela n’arriverait pas, je suis resté piégé dans la salle, espérant, boucle après boucle, que Axel allait enfin chanter! Cette agression envers le passionné de musique que je suis, a fait en sorte qu’une fois revenue à ma voiture, j’ai tout de suite mis ce succès musical, au grand bonheur de ma santé mentale. Bien sûr, il y a plus que ces quelques installations mentionnées ci-haut, mais pourquoi tout vous révéler!

Comme vous pouvez le constater, j’ai passé un très bon moment lors de ma visite au DHC/ART et j’espère que vous aimerez aussi: après tout, l’art est totalement subjectif. Avez-vous d’autres expositions ou centre d’art à me proposer à Montréal? Avez-vous visité l’exposition d’Arcangel? Sinon, faites vite, il ne vous reste que quelques jours…

For years, music is part of my life: music is my life! I told you before, no pirating for me, so I’m buying my music… on physical discs. We may have more than 700 albums, and as far as I like the artwork of those: I don’t use them. It’s been a while that I’m not using CD anymore: I bought them, rip them in mp3, and never used the physical element again. I would like to move completely to digital music, but I’m kind of stuck, and it’s where I need your help.

Firstly, I don’t want to lose all the music I bought thought the years: I still listen to them. On the other side, I would like to get rid of the physical disk, by keeping the music, of course. I need to find a way not to lose the investment I made in music, and go totally digital. It’s something I want to change about my life: reducing the physical possessions I have. In that situation, except being pretty on shelves, they serve no purposes. Here are my guidelines to find a solution for my problem:

1. I want to still be the owner of all the music I bought over the last decade, but get rid of the physical discs;
2. It needs to be legit;
3. I need to be able to share it with my fiancé: we live in the same condo (I think it’s just fair use);
4. I want to be the owner of my songs: if I stop to pay for a service, as an example, I still want to be able to listen to the songs I bought;
5. I would prefer not to be stuck with one platform/service/tool, but if it’s the case, I can live with something that I’m pretty sure won’t disappears, like iTunes.

I know the physical disc part will be tough, maybe impossible, and that the solution will be to buy again, the digital version of those. Even if it’s the case, I’m still looking toward a solution that would fit my needs for future acquisitions. I started to look at different solutions like going only with the iTunes store (I already bought many unique songs when I didn’t feel like buying a full disc), spotify… I’m in Canada, so many services may not be available here. Is there anything that would make sense? Do you have any solution that would help me go from my actual discs collection to digital one? Do you have a preferred music provider for the digital music you buy? Are my criteria crazy, and I should stop to think about being the owner of media, and just enjoy unlimited music services (having access, as long as I pay)? Share your thoughts!

Update 2013-11-09 #

Thanks to the people who are helping me to solve my problem. One thing I wasn’t maybe not clear as I thought: I’m already putting my CD in mp3, and add them on a server so Émile, and I can access the song. I also have a copy on my computer for offline listening. This system is working well, but I would like to get rid of the physical disc, as we don’t use them at all once I ripped those in digital format. There is also one other criteria really important I forgot: possibility to listen to my music offline as I listen to my songs quite often with no Internet connection (flight, subway…).

There are many things I realized in my life, and I spread those ideas to as many people as I can! I want folk to think about their personal brand. I introduce people to the opportunities that come with public speaking! I’m also praising the benefits of starting a blog to whoever wants to hear about it. Someone recently asked me if I have any tips from someone who would like to start blogging, so let’s write a post.

Do it now #

As with anything is life, don’t wait: do it right now. You don’t have the time? Bullshit! You don’t have an expertise or topics to share: you can’t be more wrong. You don’t know how to start? Google is your best friend (kind of!). Now is the right time to start blogging. I’m blogging since 2005: I had different blogs, and styles. Blogging helped me a lot in my personal, but also professional life:

1. I improved a lot my writing skills in French, and in English;
2. It gave me visibility, and help me grow my network;
3. When I was a freelancer, it helped me to get leads, and contracts;
4. It helped me land my dream job as a Technical Evangelist;
5. I received some books writing offers (that I declined as the topics were interesting, but not something I wanted to write about);
6. I had tremendous discussions with people commenting my posts;
7. It helped me to synthesize my thoughts about some topics;
8. …

Find a platform #

The first step is to find where to blog. No need to buy a server, or even do self-hosting if you aren’t technical (even if you are). There are many platforms, but my preferred one is Wordpress. I tried many blogging or cms one, but I’m now using Wordpress since 2005. They have a free offer on https://wordpress.com/ where you can start your blog for free. Of course, if you want full customization, you may have to pay or do like I do, and put your blog on a hosting service. There are many more cms or blogging platform you can use: you have to find the one that fit your needs. If you are not technical, and wants something easy, I suggest you start with Wordpress.

Define your blog #

You now have the platform, but what will you blog about? This is a very subjective topic: some people will tell you that you need to find a niche, and others like me will tell you, talk about anything that makes sense for you. It depends on your goals. In my case, even if I’m a technical person, I’m blogging about anything else. Does that mean that I’m not recognized as a Technical Evangelist? Of course no! As with anything in life, I’ll tell you, stay yourself.

Work your magic #

Now it’s time to write your first post. Don’t be anxious, you are much smarter than many people on the Internet. Don’t be nervous about your topic, or the fact that you may not be the most expert on the subject. Write for yourself, and share with others. You cannot please everyone, get over it. You may do some mistakes, but it’s ok: nobody will die. Don’t be afraid to adapt your style of writing: as a person you evolve, and you’ll see what make more sense for you. Review, review, and review: remove non useful words, sentences, paragraphs…

Spread the love #

Personally, I’m using other social media like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, to spread the love about my blog. Don’t spam people, but there is nothing wrong to promote your post on other channels. It’s a way for people to find your blog, and read your interesting content: it’s not just about organic growth. Without being a business card ninja, I’m sure there are ways you can help your blog to grow, but remember one thing: it’s not about the numbers of people who read you, but about the quality of conversation you’ll have. For me, a blog is all about communication, and conversation…

Let’s be clear, blogging isn’t dead: it’s more powerful, and important than ever… So, don’t wait, and start your blog right now. Oh, don’t forget to let me know, I’m always happy to find new great content.

2016-09-29 - Update: the friends at First Site Guide seem to have some great free articles about starting to blog and how to promote and monetize it.

I had an incredible time as a tourist in my last trips, and it’s because of you: people who live or traveled to the places I’ve been. You, that gave me amazing touristic places, great venues, astonishing restaurants… So you’ll be stuck with me for every new trip I’ll do as I think crowd sourcing my trip is far better than trying to find the touristic places. It’s not because I’m lazy, but I prefer to see what is really interesting based upon your experience than being stuck in tourist traps.

So my next trip is in Budapest, Hungary for another amazing Firefox OS workshop in about two weeks. I always have a great time at those workshops as it give me the opportunity to help developers understand, and build for the platform, but also meet amazing people as making brand new friends! Like if my job wasn’t good enough like this, I have the opportunity to take some days off when I’m going somewhere new: I like to visit those cities, and learn the culture. It’s also a way for me to have a quick preview of one or two days to know if I want to come back for a longer time during my vacations. So people from Hungary, or people that traveled to Budapest, what are the attractions I want to see? What are the coffee shops or restaurants I need to go to? What are some typical dishes I really have to taste? Any specific events I may add to my calendar (as an example, in Mexico, I went to see luchadores - Mexican wrestling)? Please share your insights, and help me have a good time in Budapest!

Il y a quelques jours j’ai participé au Visual Studio Talk Show, un podcast en français sur l’architecture et le développement logiciel. Malgré le nom, cette émission mensuelle animée par les amis Mario Cardinal et Guy Barrette n’est pas axée que sur les technologies Microsoft: la preuve, c’est ma deuxième fois en tant qu’invité et la première fois nous avions discuté d’HTML5.

Comme le titre de mon billet le mentionne, j’ai été invité pour discuter de Firefox OS. Nous avons abordé divers sujets tels que Mozilla, qu’est-ce que Firefox OS, quel sont les avantages pour les développeurs, mais aussi pour les utilisateurs, qu’est-ce que cela veut dire pour les gens en Amérique du Nord, comment développer des applications et bien sûr, du web ouvert. Je salue comme toujours l’ouverture d’esprit de Guy et Mario qui malgré qu’ils soient MVP (Most Valuable Professional - des experts enthousiastes sur stéroïde) Microsoft, un peu l’équivalent des Mozilla Rep, ces derniers sont toujours ouverts à ce qui se fait ailleurs. Ce fut, comme toujours, un vrai plaisir que de discuter avec eux!

Je vous invite à écouter cette émission si vous voulez en savoir un peu plus sur la plateforme, que ce soit en tant qu’utilisateur, mais aussi pour les développeurs. Du même coup, abonnez-vous à leur podcast sur iTunes, par RSS ou directement dans Feedly: c’est un bon podcast, vous ne le regretterez pas.

P.-S.: Si vous développer une application sous Firefox OS, faite moi signe!

This morning, I had the pleasure to speak at Social Media Breakfast Montréal about… public speaking. I did a thirty minutes talk about my own story, why people should start to do public speaking, how they can start, and obviously, where they can do their first public appearance. As you can see in this short video interview I did with Jeff Taylor last week to introduce the topic, my goal was to share my passion about presenting, but also helping people to understand all the great opportunity that come with public speaking.

As usual, here are the slides for the attendees as it won’t really help you to understand my presentation if you were not there: they are visual support for the pleasure of the attendees.

Public Speaking? No thanks. - Social Media Breakfast Montreal - 2013-10-23 from Frédéric Harper

I tried a new recording tool that time, so I was more lucky with the recording of my session (with a stupid cursor in the video - don’t know why, probably the recording software as I have none on the screen!). I didn’t have a mike connected to my laptop, so the audio is ok: good enough to listen to it without a headache, or maybe to find something you forgot if you attended the event. I promised I’ll take the time soon to find a decent wireless mike I can use in conferences (something small as sometimes I also have to use the mike of the conference). Here is the recorded video.

I hope that people get out of this session as excited as I am about public speaking. Try it yourself, and you’ll see if it’s something for you. Go out of your comfort zone: the hardest part is the first one you’ll give! Let me know if you want any advices: I’m there to help, with respect to my agenda, as I want more of us on stage…

PHP in the cloud #

This is the issue I did, back in February, when I was at Microsoft. It’s still relevant, and it’s mostly an informative post on how to take your PHP application to the next level by using the power of cloud computing. Of course, I focus on Windows Azure, and the different ways you can deploy your websites. Note that it’s the only issue they printed, and I got many good feedbacks about it as I distributed it at Confoo last year.

Responsibe Web Design #

You know me; I like to talk about responsive web design, so there is no doubt I like to write about it also. Since the friend Thomas Lewis introduced me to the concept, I like to share this philosophy, and technique to make the web even better. This article is all about understanding what it is, but also the big picture on how you can implement this when you build your website or web application.

Mobile First #

Another less technical topic, but totally related to the web is mobile first. In 2013, you cannot put away the fact that so many people have, and use their smartphone to browse to your site or use your web application. Starting by thinking about mobile or the smallest screen is primordial, and this article will help you understand why.

HTMl5 canvas element #

The goal of those articles was to create a series call HTML5 now which I would start with responsive web design, and mobile fist, but would continue with one article about each element on the standards. The idea was to help developers to understand what they can do today, with HTML5. That could have been a very long series of articles as there are many interesting elements in the specification, but I only did the first one on the canvas element, and realize I should use my time to prioritize other projects. I’ve also been a bit disappointed by this one as they double-booked an article on canvas, and were not able to publish mine in the magazine. They actually published it in another magazine they have, JAXmagazine. I may have done about five years of Java’s programming, I’m not into Java anymore, so I don’t think it was the best fit for me, but at least they published it, so I didn’t work for nothing.

I know they are always looking for new contributors, so if you have any interest, please let them know. There is also a “HTML5 now” series that you can probably take the ownership, and continue to show the awesomeness of the web!

Il y a deux ou trois ans de cela, j’ai rencontré des gens de TECHNOCompétences dans une conférence: ils avaient une table pour présenter différent de leurs programmes, tel que Ma Carrière Techno. L’idée est simple, mais géniale: apprendre aux jeunes les différentes facettes des emplois en TIC, en démystifiant ces derniers, tout en présentant les avantages de travailler dans le milieu. On le sait, il manque de plus en plus de main d’oeuvres et souvent le milieu n’est pas bien vu par les jeunes: seulement pour les nerds, aucun travail d’équipe… Une partie du programme se veut une visite dans les écoles par des professionnels des TIC pour présenter leurs entreprises, leurs emplois, leurs cheminements et répond aux questions des adolescents.

J’ai participé pour la première fois cette année en présentant dans deux écoles secondaires de la ville de Montréal. Ce fut une expérience fort intéressante et enrichissante pour moi, mais pour les élèves aussi je l’espère. J’en ai profité pour parler un peu de moi, mon parcours, mais surtout pour discuter des opportunités dans le milieu des TIC au Québec, mais aussi à travers le monde: les TIC une passion, les études, les qualités recherchées… Je présente très souvent et ce fut mon public le plus dur: content de manquer une période de cours normal, les jeunes devaient écouter un vieux qui allait discuter de quelque chose dont il n’avait peut-être aucun intérêt. Ces 45 minutes passées en classes en ont valu bien la peine, car même si j’ai pu aider un seul jeune à penser à une carrière en TI comme une alternative aussi intéressante que de devenir joueur de hockey professionnel, j’en suis heureux.

Ma carrière techno - École secondaire Dalbé-Viau - 2013-10-16 from Frédéric Harper

Avec ce billet, j’invite chaque professionnel des TIC à Montréal et ses environs, qui ont la capacité de s’éclipser du travail pour deux heures, à participer à ce programme. Bien sûr, cela ne paie pas monétairement, mais de savoir qu’on peut changer la vie des jeunes… Pas besoin d’être un présentateur professionnel, mais juste aimer son travail et croire que c’est une bonne perspective d’emploi pour les jeunes, les futurs travailleurs de demain. Pour plus d’informations sur le programme, aller faire un tour sur le site ou contacter Valérie Fortin par courriel. J’offre même mon aide pour ceux qui auraient besoin d’un coup de main pour préparer leur intervention. Je compte bien participer l’an prochain et j’espère que vous le ferez aussi!

Since I’m seventeen years old, I’m involved in many projects. I used to be that guy who always has his agenda fulfilled with meetings, appointments, events, volunteering… I was also this guy who was constantly complaining about not having enough time or always replying to people when they asked me about something, “I don’t have the time”, but it was bullshit!

Once, someone wiser than me told me this: it’s not that you don’t have the time; it’s that you prioritize something else that is more important for you. He was so right: of course, there is a finite number of hours during a day, but we choose to fill it with what is the most significant for us. It could be critical things like working, eating, sleeping. It can also be meaningful stuff like taking care or your children, or taking time with friends, and family. Finally, it can be a bit more trivial like playing games, watching TV, traveling… At the end, you have a limited number of hours in a day, and you are the only one who can decide how you used that time. So it’s less about not having time, than thinking it’s not important enough to move it on the top of your list.

We can argue that it’s just playing on words, but once I realized it was actually the case, it changed my mindset totally. I’m trying to stop saying that I’m too busy when people ask me about how I’m doing. I’m also trying to stop saying to others that I don’t have the time when they ask me about something: I can’t take something else as I have other imperative things to do. It, as well, gave me another vision on how to handle my todo list, and my projects. I’m furthermore reorganizing those by priority from what is more important, for me, to what is less.

I’m not a busy guy anymore, even if I’m… busy! So, do you have time?

We are living in a world of mobile application. Everyone, and their mother are creating an app for their services, their games or their websites. While I agree is some case you need to do it, in many cases, I don’t see the value except being part of the crowd who is having an iPhone or an Android app. What bothers me a lot is when it’s only available to iPhone users, as an example, and there is no web access. Do you hate me so much that you don’t want me to use your service?

After I moved from a cellphone to a smartphone, I had a Blackberry, an iPhone, an Android, a Windows Phone, and now, a Firefox OS phone. When I had my blackberry, at this time, it was more a feature phone, than a smart one, and we were not that crazy about apps. In my iPhone period, I didn’t care as it was the only smartphone out there, and all the applications or games were made for it. In my short time as an Android user, it started to be painful as I wasn’t part of the cool crowd anymore, and Android wasn’t as popular as today. Windows Phone came after, and we had to fight for all the apps: every time a new service would come out, I wasn’t able to try it as the first app was on an iPhone. Now, I have the same feeling with Firefox OS, although it’s a bit better as the big name has web alternative, and this OS is all about web. What do they all have in commons? A web browser! So all these years, if developers or companies had  given us a decent web alternative to their super-shiny-cool iPhone or Android app, I would have been able to be a customer.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against apps. I’m totally aware that in some cases, the experience may be better (for now), or it makes sense to do it that way, but, in many many many cases, why? It’s also the same things for people developing for a specific browser. You, developer, business manager, startup owner, marketing expert… when your service is offering only an iPhone and/or an Android app (or use browser vendor specific prefix/element in your web version), you tell everyone else “I don’t want you as a user, as a customer”. Of course, you’ll tell me that there are a lot of those smartphones owners out there, but is it a reason to ignore the rest of us? I choose not to have an iPhone or Android right now, but for some people it wasn’t a choice: they may not have access to those devices in their country. Maybe they just don’t want to be stuck with a three-year contract (we have this a lot in Canada) to have to cool new toy or worst; they would like to have one, but can’t afford it! I’m not saying don’t do application anymore, but why not start with a web version of your application first? After, make the super app you always wanted to make, but everybody with a browser will be able to access it. You’ll even be able to reuse a lot of what you’ve done!

So my ask is simple: build a web version, and open your amazing application or services to the rest of the world… and please, stop hating me! Stop hating us…

I wrote a post after my

I was at the Mozilla Summit two weeks ago, and I had an epiphany. I’m not an employee anymore; I’m a paid contributor. Mozilla is giving me money to contribute to the Web full time: to help the web be more open. It’s a huge, and important mission! I’m also really happy with what I’m doing day to day: I can be myself, work on the things I like, and do what I call real evangelism. I have amazing co-workers from who I learn a lot. If you want to grow, you need to be surrounded by people more brilliant, and better than you, and it’s what it’s happening right now. I made some good friends as it’s also important for me to move those relationships from co-workers to friends. I put some faces on them too, as working remotely have some negative aspect like not knowing in person your co-workers. I also think I’m a far better Evangelist right now because of my experience, and how I’m handling my day to day at Mozilla: I’ve been driving my journey by thinking about the impact, the visibility, and the scale that my actions have - in other words, being efficient (thanks Ryan for this). I also have the pleasure to travel a lot, and around the world: I have the latitude to take some days off wherever I am to do the tourist. That also means that as a public speaker, I made my debut as an international speaker, and as I like to share my passion with other, this is amazing for me. I was always, and will invariably be a pragmatic guy, but my heart was always on the open side of things: I can say now that I have to two feet in it, and that I’m believing even more about transparency, openness, and freedom on the Web. I also learn that Mozilla is really just not about Firefox, or Thunderbird: we have many softwares, and programs that we (paid staff, and amazing contributors) are working on. Mozilla wouldn’t be possible without all the contributors, who took their time to make a better Web: it was amazing to see many of them at the summit. This company, or organization, whether you would like to call it, is all about doing stuff: as an example, the summit was all about discussions, and collaboration, no sits, and listens conference style like others. I really believe in a more open web, and a platform like Firefox OS: the power of HTML5 with no proprietary APIs. It’s truly about giving the web back to people, and giving access to the Web, and giving amazing tools to the people who build it, no matter which platform you use.

I’m proud to be a Mozillian, and I hope I’ll be a contributor for many more months years…

P.S.: This post is more a brain dump of everything I had in mind about my three months, but I thought that, even without any conductive wire, it made total sense…

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me about my own experience about sleep apnea as he got diagnosed. I hope this post will help people to understand what is it, and how to live with it.

A little less than two years ago, I decided to take an appointment with a doctor as I was always feeling sleepy. Even after a good long night of sleep, I was waking up in the morning feeling tired, dizzy, and sometimes having a headache. Of course, I was not the most active person in the world, but I was sure something else was wrong. Once in the doctor’s office, after some questions, the doctor told me that I was a good candidate for sleep apnea, so he sent me to an ORL (Oto-Rhino-Laryngology). The ORL agreed with the doctor, so he asked me to do some tests to see if it was really the case. I went to a private clinic as the waiting time for a test in a public one was a couple of months, and would not have been as accurate. If I’m not wrong, it cost me 1000$ instead of being free, but since it was ruining my life (always tired!), I decided to go for it. The result, as you can expect, is that I was doing sleep apnea like crazy!

What is sleep apnea? #

From Wikipedia, sleep apnea is a type of sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing or instances of shallow or infrequent breathing during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from at least ten seconds to minutes, and may occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. In my case, If I remember, I was pausing nearly once per minute. From what the ORL explained me, that means that my brain is always working, making me breathe when I stop, so I never really sleep: I, at no time, reach the sleeping phase where you truly recover. Even after a good night of sleep, maybe eight, nine or even ten hours, I was feeling sleepy: it’s because I was kind-of sleeping, but never in recovery mode. This is crazy as it was probably like this for a while, and when your body doesn’t sleep enough, you know what happen! Of course, being fat doesn’t help, but there are slim people who still do sleep apnea.

How to live with it? #

After they diagnosed me with sleep apnea, I had to buy a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure): it’s basically a device that pushes air into my nose (or mouth depending on the mask, and how you breathe) to help me breathe normally while I’m sleeping. The result? It changed my life, nothing less! Of course, not at the beginning as it’s the most annoying thing in the world to have to sleep with this, but once you get used (if you can really get used to it!), it helped me to have a full real night of sleep. I was finally able to get to the recovery level of sleep everybody needs. It also means that I need to sleep with this every night, and that I need to travel with my CPAP. It’s really annoying, but it’s something I cannot put away, trust me. There are many types of mask, CPAP, and even tubes. On my side, I decided to invest in a good one (and my insurances reimbursed it, yeah) so I went with the ResMed S9 (around 1000$). It has this nice little feature that gives you some data on a SD card, but more important, and humidification system so you won’t have throat or noise irritation in the morning. With the CPAP, I’m using a Swift LT mask (I want to change it for a newer model): I tried a mouth one, but it was too big, and I realize that I’m breathing through my nose while sleeping, instead of my mouth. Last, but not least, they gave me a ClimateLine: a tube that heath the air so it’s not uncomfortable when you breathe. As you can see, it cost a lot to have sleep apnea.

As I said, being fat doesn’t help, and I won’t know for sure if it’s because I weigh too heavy, but it’s one of the motivation why I want to lose weight: get rid of this annoying “I’m breathing like Darth Vader” machine. Keep in mind that I’m not an expert on the subject, so if you always feel sleepy, have some symptoms, please consult a doctor. If you have any questions related to my experience, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email if you want to keep your question private.

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Since Philippe is a security expert, and a former leader of the Montreal chapter of OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project), security was the main driver of this discussion. Philippe highlighted the importance of security in all the process of building software: that means from the design of your project, to the testing phase. I also asked Phil to give us some advice to help us think a lot more about security when building software. Did you know about OWASP? Are you really taking care of security in the creation process of your application? Share your thoughts!

I got requests for speaking at user groups, conferences, workshops and hackathons or to participate in panels, so it’s been a while that I’m thinking about doing a blog post on speaking requests: I think it makes more sense now since there is a specific process at Mozilla. First let’s split the requests by two categories: technical topics, and personal one.

Technical topics #

Part of my role as a Technical Evangelist is to speak at events or run workshops, and hackathons all over the world. All those events, or topics, are technical ones or related to a topic for people in IT. Primarily, it should be related to Firefox OS, but it can also be anything related to mobility, and the Web (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript). Some examples, but not limited to, of the topics I can do are:

• Firefox OS tools, get your hands dirty
• Firefox OS Web APIs, taking it to the next level
• Firefox OS apps, get ready to be successful
• Fixing the mobile Web
• Mobile First
• Responsive Web Design
• Building mobile experiences that don’t suck

If you want me to speak on a technical topic (or anyone from Mozilla) the process is simple:

1. Go at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/form.dev-engagement-event
2. If you don’t have an account, create a free Bugzilla one or create one using Persona (suggested)
3. Enter the information requested about your event like dates, descriptions, what you are looking for…

Be sure to fill the “Are you requesting a specific person to present or participate at this event? If so, please list their name(s).” textbox with my name if you wanted me to talk. It’s also the same process if you are looking for a sponsorship or both, sponsorship, and having a speaker. What can you expect after? Our team is getting together on a frequent basis (we tried to, but with travels, events, different countries, it’s not always easy, so we won’t commit to a delay, but of course, the sooner you contact us, more chances you have to get an answer on time), and Robyn Chau will get back to you either to get more information, or to let you know about our decisions. Keep in mind that there are different reasons which can prevent us to participate or sponsor your event, and we receive many requests.

Personal topics #

You know me: I like to share with others. So it’s why I’m also speaking on a personal side, but in those cases, the topics aren’t technical as I’m not just an IT guy! For now, I mainly have two topics I’m sharing with others, but still not limited to:

• Personal branding, more important than ever

• Public Speaking? No thanks.

I realized a couple of years ago that thinking about myself as a brand could help me achieve my goals, and I want other to understand this also. I, as well, want people to know that public speaking is great, and I want to help them to try it: it’s less complicated than it looks like, and you can give as get a lot out of it. For those kinds of presentations, since I’m doing this on my own, it needs to be, either in Montreal, or anywhere else, but you need to pay my travel, and expenses. If you want me to speak about those one, just send me an email, and give me some details about your event, and about what you are looking for exactly: I’m open to suggestion, and of course, to go out of my comfort zone.

Simple rules #

Firstly, as you know, I can do those presentations either in French, or in English. I’m not your usual speaker, and you can expect me to go on stage, no matter the type of events, with my jeans, and t-shirts as an example. On top of that, I have some simple rules. It’s not to sound pretentious; those are just rules I set with previous experiences, and how I’m dealing with public speaking. Those simple rules will help us to have a win-win situation:

• I won’t provide the slides in advances as I usually make modifications until the last minute;
• My slides will be made public right after my presentation (on slideshare, and I usually do a blog post about the presentation);
• My talk will be recorded, and I’ll make it public after the conference (if you record the talks yourself, I’ll be more than happy to promote it after you release the recording);
• I want to use my own computer as I have many configurations needed for my talks (even for the non-technical one, no surprise on stage).

So, I hope this post will help you manage the speaking requests at Mozilla, but also if you want me to speak at your conference or user group. You can see a list of events I participated or even the slides I used. It’s a simple process that will make my life, and yours, easier! So, what’re the next events I don’t want to miss? Let me know!

On the morning of Wednesday the 23rd of October, I’ll have the pleasure to speak at the Social Media Breakfast Montreal event. I’m really excited about it as it’s the second time they give me the chance to talk about a non-technical topic that is also a pet-peeve of mine: public speaking. As I defined myself as a public speaker, and that I’m speaking at conferences for a couple of years now (about 80+ talks), I seriously want others to start to do it. I’m also having the idea, since a couple of months, to create some kind of speaker camps to help people to start with public speaking! It’s a real pleasure to do it, and it’s amazing to see the impact you have on people while on stage. It’s also something who gave me a lot in return: you help people, but you learn a lot from attendees. Here is the abstract of my presentation:

You may think that public speaking isn’t for you, but you’d be wrong. Do you have a passion? Do you like to share with others? Public speaking will help you spread the love in your industry, and help others find success. But let’s be honest: you’ll get a lot out of it too. You’ll learn from attendees, grow your network, get visibility, and much more in return for your efforts. Let’s explore why there are good opportunities for you, how to set and achieve your goals, and where can you start. Who knows, you may have a born public speaker hidden inside of you!

It’s now time to get your ticket for the event because there are few left, and it’s free: thanks to ING Direct who sponsored the event! I’m looking forward to share some of my insights about why, and how to start public speaking, but I’m also looking to have some good discussions with the attendees of the breakfast, as it’s the most important part for me. Are you doing public speaking? Would you like to start? Do you think it’s not for you? Share your thoughts!

I was talking with the friend Christian Heilmann the other day, and he was highlighting the fact that it’s important today to have a Twitter manifesto, or a place where followers can refer about what you do, what you won’t do, and what can happen if they follow you on Twitter. Since I’m always transparent on how I manage my online life, I thought it was a good idea to do one too, so here it is.

What I’m doing on Twitter #

• Aside from my blog, Twitter is one of my favorite social media, so I use it a lot. That means that I tweet a lot, and often.
• I tweet about anything, and everything: technical stuff, stuff I read, musics I like, videos I enjoyed, venues where I am, stupid thoughts, RT from others…
• I use it as a personal account, so it’s not filtered: that means it’s 100% me, like with everything I do.
• Twitter is also a source of great informations for me, so I’m reading a lot of what I see, so I’m filtering a lot my following.
• For me, Twitter is also about communicating with others, so I once in a while, have a good discussion over Twitter (that means a lot of tweets, back, and forth).

What I won’t do on Twitter #

• I won’t automatically follow you back if you follow me.
• I’m not following a lot of people as I prefer to get quality content than too much noise. Even if I know you in person, that doesn’t mean I’ll follow you.
• My tweets aren’t, and will never be any official statements or neither an official channel from my employer.
• I’m not a marketing channel, so even if I tweet about something my employer did, it’s because I found it was awesome. Same for any company, even about competitors.
• I won’t promote your stuff if you ask me too on Twitter. I’m always happy to help other with my network, and reach, but I won’t just promote something for the sake of promoting it. Send me an email, give me some meat, and we’ll see: it needs to fit me, and I won’t promote something I don’t know or don’t believe in. At the end, bloggers (or people on Twitter) aren’t cheap labor…

It’s your choice #

At the end, you have the choice to follow me or not. I use Twitter in a way that make sense for me, so if you think I tweet too much, if you are upset because I don’t follow you or unfollowed you, or if you don’t like my personal tweets, you have the power to unfollow me. That sounds rude or pretentious, but trusts me, it’s just a conclusion I came with a couple of years ago: you cannot please everyone, and I won’t change to please other.

I have the intention to update this manifesto once in a while. Do you have a Twitter manifesto? Do you think it’s important to have one? Share your thoughts!

In this video, we talked about Confoo of course, because it’s one of the conferences we both love. I, obviously,  asked Keith to talk about Make Web Not War itself, and I’m seriously happy that he took the lead on it, and didn’t let the program die: they just build a new site, get new partners… They did a really great job with the site, and the improve approach they took. Open Source, Web Standards, Open Data, and interoperability is what is all about. We also talked about the lounge, and technology we had at the conference. I really hope Microsoft will be there again this year to show the amazing stuff they do, and I hope I’ll be there too to show the awesomeness of Firefox OS! The more I think about it, it was mostly a video about promoting Confoo than Make Web Not War.

Were you at Confoo? Will you be there next year? Did you know about Make Web Not War? Do you think Microsoft is more open than before? Share your thoughts!

P.S.: I really need to find a cool Firefox hat (or something else) related to Firefox, I could wear. You know I don’t like to be like others (I guess it’s part of my extrovert personality), and I have no problem to be the one you notice (or point out to) in the room!

It’s been a while that I want to write this blog post, but the friend Nicolas Roberge, beats me four years ago (in French). I think it’s still an important topic, so I’ll write my own version of it.

Since a couple of years, we have many communications channels on the web, and some of them has been used to cross-promote others. As an example, when I’m writing a blog post here, I’m promoting it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Delicious. It’s a way for me to let people know about my blog, and reach people who didn’t subscribe to it. You’ll tell me that if they didn’t subscribe, it’s because they don’t want to hear about my opinions, but it’s another topic. Too often, people will comment my post on the platform where they see it: if they saw a tweet about the post, they’ll reply to it directly, instead of using the comment section to do it. For me, there are two problems with this:

1. It spread the discussion on many places;
2. It doesn’t help with the sustainability of the content.

It spread the discussion on many places #

I have no problem to have many discussions, with a lot of people, on different platforms. The problem is that it really spread the discussion. That mean that people who replied to me on Twitter, may not have seen what others told me on Facebook. It dilutes the conversations as for me, as an example with my blog, it’s not just about making my thoughts available to everybody online: it’s about conversation. It’s not only about having this one on one bid-directional discussion: it’s also about one to many. Sometimes, other’s opinions will make me think about something I didn’t have in mind, or may change the way I’ll add a comment to a discussion. No matter the platform, if everybody would comments on the same platform, I’m sure it will help us have a bigger, and astonish discussion!

It doesn’t help with the sustainability of the content #

I made a clear decision a couple of years ago: my blog will be my main communication platform. Don’t get me wrong, I like Twitter (I also tweet a lot), and I know the importance of LinkedIn, but my blog is the only home online I really own. I won’t go further about the importance of owning your content, or to start a blog as it could be a post by itself, but this is my choice. In the future, if someone wants to check an old post I did, he won’t have all the retroaction of people. If I choose to close my Facebbok account as I did a couple of years ago (I re-open one for the sake of event’s invitations), I’ll lose every discussions. That could happen with my blog, but as I said, I own it: what will happen if tomorrow Twitter closes? Alternatively, if Twitter got bought by another company who just let it die at some point. Again, I’ll lose everything. Let’s be honest; it’s also not easy to find conversation on those platforms. Some of those social media don’t have any advantages of opening their system: in my case, my posts are indexed, it’s open to everyone, you don’t need any account or to install an application… Just use your preferred browser!

So let’s be honest: we don’t always take the time to comment to the source of a post, a status… I even have comments sometimes from people who didn’t read my post at all, just by checking the title they saw on the platform I promoted it. I still think that like anything in life, you need to take the time to do it right. So from this day forwards, think about it, and comment at the source. Do you think it’s a crazy idea? Are you already doing it? Do you think it’s stupid in a world where we have so many communications vehicles? Share your thoughts!

You don’t have to tell me: I know I’m lucky to have a job that gives me the opportunity to travel. At the end of the month, I’ll go to Guadalajara in Mexico for a Firefox OS workshop, and I’ll take two days off to visit.

As usual, I’m using my network to get some insights about what do to in this city that I never visited before. It’s been the fourth time I’m doing this (the first time by email, and the last two with blog posts), and it served me well: every time I got amazing suggestions from people, thanks a lot. It helped me to find good places to go, astonishing restaurants for excellent dinner, café I shouldn’t miss, and more. Of course, there are places that all tourists should go, but people also introduce me to less-known places that I didn’t want to miss. For me, visiting a new city is all about going to specific attraction, but also just walking through the streets with no destinations: it’s usually an amazing experience.

So, anyone from Mexico that have great insights? Did you travel to Guadalajara? Do you have any secret spot I should know about? Any stuff a tourist shouldn’t miss? Please let me know.

As you probably already know, I made a series of interviews at Confoo last year. It was a good place for this as many excellent speakers, and developers were there. One of the interviews I did for the Make Web Not War TV was with Raymond Kao, or Ray as everybody calls him. What I like of Ray is that he is not just the guy behind People & Code in Toronto, but he also runs many more stuffs, like LearnTO or MobileStartupTO.

In the video, we basically talk about the 3D printing booth that they had in the Make Web Not War lounge during the conference. It used the Kinect sensor to scan the person or any other object to print them in 3D. I didn’t have the time before leaving Microsoft to edit this video, and add more footage as I promised you, sorry about that. We also discuss about how they use Windows Azure to make all of this happen. Last, but not least, Raymond introduces us to what they do at People & Code, a company I highly suggest you to work with if you are in Toronto.

Do you think that 3D printing is the future? Did you see anything amazing that has been done with those? What do you think of these kinds of projects? Share your thoughts!

Nearly two years ago, I did a blog post about my life manifesto. It was a way for me to “put on paper” the guidelines for my life: who I’ll be, what I’ll do, and how I’ll do it. Those six elements were very useful as I kept them in mind in every situation, and every moment in my life.  Today, I feel the need to update my manifesto with new reality, and to reflect where I am in my life now.

So here are the pillars of my life:

1. Be authentic;
2. Be regretless;
3. Do epic shit;
4. Go out of your comfort zone.

What changed? #

I don’t believe in big plans: they usually contain too much, and it’s hard to stick to it. Let’s do one thing, but do it well, so I tried to simplify my manifesto by going from six points to four. I removed “do what you love”, not because I don’t believe about this anymore: it’s implicitly part of the “do epic shit” one. I don’t believe you can do something epic if you don’t love what you do. If you read that blog for a while, you certainly know that I don’t care about what others think of me: if you like me, of course, I’ll be happy. If you don’t like me, I don’t care, because it’s who I am, and I won’t change for you. So I removed the “don’t care about the others” for two reasons. The first one, if you are authentic, it means you don’t need to change for others; you are who you are. For me, you are just yourself, whether it please other or not. I also thought that the connotation was quite negative: I’m no way near an anarchist. I, as well, changed “do it” to “do epic shit”. Doing something is one thing: doing something amazing is another. Doing epic shit, imply that you need to do stuff. Last, but not least, I tried to keep my manifesto positive, so I changed “have no regrets” to “Be regretless”.

Let me explain a little more what those points mean for me as it may have changed a little from the first version of my life manifesto.

Be authentic #

It’s really about being yourself, in every situation. Don’t change for others. You are who you are, and if people don’t like you that way, you may not hang with the right people. Somewhere, there are people that like you exactly how you are.

Be regretless #

This one is tricky, as there are many definitions of regrets. My meaning is about stuff I didn’t do. I prefer to have remorse because I did something wrong, then having regret to haven’t done something. I have one big regret in my life, and it haunts me constantly.

Do epic shit #

If my manifesto wasn’t all about positive stuff, I would also be able to say: don’t be average. You can be awesome in every part of your life, personal or professional. The sky is the limit, and maybe not! Do stuff, make shit happen, and make it epic.

Go out of your comfort zone #

You know this one was coming, hence the title of this blog. There is your comfort zone, and there is were the magic happen. Guess what, there aren’t at the same place. If you want to succeed, if you want to live your life, if you want to grow, you need to go out of your comfort zone. I would be far from were I am now in life if I had  always stayed in my comfort zone.

Do you have a life manifesto? Do you plan to make one? What do you think of my four rules? Share your thoughts!

I got a question from someone about how to manage our social media connections, mostly on professional networks. I would say that there is no unique way of doing it, even if a social media expert suggests you to do it one way, you need to find what make sense for you. Since there is no right answer, I still wanted to write about how I personally manage the networks I’m using the most: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

LinkedIn #

As you know, LinkedIn is a professional network: basically, the place where you put your CV (it’s my only CV since a couple of years), and where you should connect with people you work with, either colleagues, customers or people you know in your industry. On my side, I decided to accept anybody as a connection. It may not be the best practice here, but in the past it served me well: you never know when someone in your network, that you don’t know in person, may help you or may need your help. Of course, once in a while I got someone who spam me, but there is an option to remove connections. Since I’m using LinkedIn to promote my blog posts, and any URL related to my industry, it gives me the opportunity to reach more people. It also gave me the opportunity to get more exposure when I was looking for a job, and get nice job offers from people I didn’t know at all, but whom saw my profile because we were connected.

Twitter #

In Twitter, there is no real connection like in LinkedIn or Facebook: you can follow me, and I don’t have to follow you, or vice versa. I really like that model as it gives me the opportunity to follow who I want, and others to follow me if they want. I’m not playing the game of, I’ll follow you if you follow me, or I’ll unfollow you if you don’t follow me after. Too often people do this with me: they follow me, but when they see I don’t follow them back, they unfollow me. Personally, I found this attitude very stupid: what changed? Is my content not interesting anymore because I don’t follow you? Of course, I’m publishing a lot of things on Twitter, but this may be another post: a Twitter manifesto. So on Twitter, I’ll follow you if I find you interesting, that’s it! It’s not because I know you that I’ll follow you. It’s not also that you are not an interesting person, but if you are not tweeting about topics that I’m looking for on this network, that won’t happen. I can also follow you for a while, and if I see that your content is not for me, I’ll unfollow you. I’m following a very low number of people on Twitter, so don’t be upset; it’s a choice I made!

Facebook #

I have a hate love relationship with Facebook. Actually, I don’t like Facebook, and I deleted my account 1-2 years ago. The problem is that so many things are happening there that I didn’t really have the choice to come back: I was missing all personal, and professional events! On that note, I’m publishing all my tweets on Facebook to keep it alive, so some people don’t like it, but theyalways have the choice to remove me as a friend. Talking about friends, I don’t know why, but I kept the term as it is on Facebook so that means that if we don’t know each other in person, and that we don’t have at least a small conversation together, I won’t accept your friendship request. I also don’t send requests quite often, so feel free to add me if we know each other face to face.

So this is quite simple, and the way I’m managing my connection on those three social networks. Again that is personal way of managing them, and I’m not saying at all that you should do it like this. On your side, how do you manage your social media connection? Did I miss important services you would like me to talk about? Is there something you think I could improve in my way of managing those? Share your thoughts!

This is the 9th video of a series of twelve interviews I did for my old project, Make Web Not War TV. Again during Confoo last year, I had a great discussion with Raymond Tsang from IdeaNotion. In this interview, we talked about his first experience at Confoo, one of the biggest technical conferences we have in Montreal (Canada). We also discuss about the Make Web Not War lounge that my team, and I did at the last edition: it was a good conference for Microsoft to meet developers, get feedback, show the openness of the company, change the perception, but also get people to build on our platform. I really hope Microsoft, and Make Web Not War will continue to sponsor, and be an active partner of this amazing conference.

We also talked about the Twitter wall that Raymond, and his team made for the event. It’s not just about Twitter as they as well included Instagram, Facebook, and a lot more social media. We focused on interoperability, and why they choose many technologies as a proof of concept for Windows Azure on a Linux virtual machine. You also have one of my famous “lost in translation” moment! Last, but not least, we also talk about Windows 8: it was my main focus as a Technical Evangelist! So, last year, were you at Confoo? Do you plan to attend the next edition? Do you like Twitter wall in conferences? Share your thoughts!

It’s been a couple of years now that I’m a Technical Evangelist, and funny enough, often my discussions with developers turn around marketing. Many developers asked me how to get traction with their applications: how to get more users, how to be featured in the marketplace, how to get more download, or how to have users write reviews about their experience. Even if my advices in this post will be focused on Firefox OS applications, you can transpose all of those to any platforms or mostly any applications type.

The first thing you need to know is that nothing will happen by magic: after you developed your application, you need to market it. You may have the best application that the universe has known, if nobody knows about it, it doesn’t help. I’m far from being a marketing expert, but let’s be realistic, in a world with so many applications, and services, there are few chances that you become rich just by publishing your application to the marketplace: you need to work a little more. In that situation, a good idea may be to find someone who has that expertise to help you, but you may not have the resources to do so, so there are a couple of tricks that may help you, or at least, won’t hurt to do.

Give an astonish experience to your user #

I would say that the first step is to create a great experience with your application. If you are the 30th chess application out there, with nothing better than the 29th previous one, not sure why a user will use your game. If the application isn’t easy to use, or have a bad UI, it certainly not helps you to get traction. If you got some bugs in your application, you lost your chance! I read somewhere that most applications have been used once: the user opens your application, don’t get a great experience, and it’s done, next. Did you help the users to solve one of the three usages of mobile application (I’m micro tasking; I’m here right now; I’m bored)? Is this something innovative or creative enough to get the user’s attention? At the end, it’s all about the experience you give to the user.

Use the marketplace at your advantage #

One thing with Firefox OS application is that you don’t have to publish it to the marketplace to distribute it: you can add an install button on your website, start your own marketplace or just point people through the application. On the other side, people are used to a world with marketplaces, and even if for us, the web is a marketplace, it may be a good idea to add your application to the one we are maintaining at Mozilla: I’m quite sure it’ll be the first place users will look at to find a specific application.

In most marketplaces, there are no real ways to help yourself to get featured, but it never hurt to ask people in the company behind the product. I remember that at Microsoft, we finally found a way to make suggestions of good Canadian applications for the Canadian marketplace. It wasn’t obvious, and we weren’t able to get all applications as featured app, but we tried. Of course, there is no way we can get all applications as featured one, but maybe someone in the company has the power too. Don’t be this annoying developer who wants everything from everyone, but at least, try to go fishing to find the right information. Sometimes it’s less about asking to be featured (I would say it’s never the way to go), but more about trying to get your application be noticed by one person from the company. If I don’t know about your application, I’m not able to see how it’s awesome: if you ping me to let me know you created something nice, if you did a great job, I may be more inclined to find a way to help you, if it’s possible. In any situations, try to see what is the pattern in the applications featured: it may help you to find what you need to achieve to make it there.

Last but not least, when your submit your application to the marketplace: take the time to do it. Make good screenshots, add amazing description, fill all the information we need. It will help the users to find your application, and sometimes, it will make a difference between an installation or just looking at the entry in the marketplace. I know for sure that personally, an application without any decent screenshots is a no for me: I can’t judge if the app is good enough to install it, even if it’s easy to uninstall after. Not everybody is like me, but it won’t hurt for sure to make your application entry in the marketplace right.

Find new ways of promotion #

It’s not just about the marketplace. How about blogging on your application? Is there any user group giving possibilities to present what you did? Maybe you can find websites that are related to your application type, and ask them to make a review? Find an interesting podcast related to what you did, and ask them to interview you? For me, waiting that people come to you to ask you about X, and Y is stupid: ask, try, and you’ll see. If you wait, there a lot of chances, nothing will happen. If you try, open some doors, and ask, there are also chances that nothing will happen, but who knows, at least you tried.

Ads seem another way to promote your application. I’m not a fan of ads at all, and I can’t tell if they are really efficient: for me, they are more annoying than anything, and I don’t check them, but I supposed it’s working as they still exists. At this point, be creative, there are many ways you can promote your application, but you need to find the ones that make sense for you.

Add a call to action #

Getting reviews for your application isn’t an easy task: people use your application, but don’t really take the time to write a review. I know, I’m guilty of this also as I rarely leave feedback when everything is good! I’m not a fan of those popups that ask the user to submit a review after X number of uses, but it seems that they work. Don’t be that developer who asks them each time they open the application: I would say if you go that route, do it once, and that’s it. Even better, as it less intrusive, is to add something in the about page or in the marketplace description. Try to encourage the developers to leave feedback, and let them know you are there to help if there is anything. You’ll create a relationship with your customers, and that worth a lot! Add a call to action in a blog post about your application: ask users to review it in the marketplace as it will help you. You would be surprised: these call to action works!

At the end, there is no automagic solution in this post, and they may seem obvious for you, but I think it’s still important to put those out. Those are steps in the right direction to help you being successful, but cannot guarantee it, of course. You also need to take into consideration that our platform is still young, and don’t have as many users as iOS (they have the same problem, because there are too many applications, it’s hard to get out of the crowd), as an example, but there is also a great opportunity there: be the first one to publish a specific application, so get more visibility. Did you use one of these tricks? Do you have any other advices for developers who wants to get more users? Any of those was more helpful for you? Share your thoughts!

_Creative Commons Image: https://j.mp/1bFKIs2_

Applications natives vs applications web? Telle est la question qu’on me pose régulièrement. Pour en discuter,

Je dois dire que je ne suis pas fervent du titre du panel, mais comme l’ami Jan-Nicolas Vanderveken m’a demandé d’y participer, je ne pouvais refuser: ce n’est toutefois pas vrai, je ne pouvais y être au début, mais mon horaire à changer, donc merci à Jan-Nicolas de m’avoir fait une place. De plus, comme tout ce qui touche application web et mobile me passionne, je ne pouvais rater la chance d’en discuter, encore. Ce soir, d’après ce que j’ai pu comprendre des autres panelistes, je serais un des seuls (le seul?) adeptes des applications Web: que cela ne tienne, je suis quelqu’un de pragmatique et chaque option à ses avantages, mais aussi ses inconvénients. De mon côté, je tenterais de présenter les points positifs des applications Web, tout en gardant à l’esprit les inconvénients: je crois que le but de la soirée est d’aider les gens dans la salle à bien s’y retrouver. Dans tous les cas, malgré les lutteurs sumos sur l’affiche, j’espère que cela ne tournera pas en bataille de fanboy, comme trop souvent avec ce genre de panel.

Vous pouvez signaler votre intérêt sur la page Facebook de l’événement, mais pour vous assurer une place, c’est sur EventBrite que ça se passe. On se voit ce soir? De votre côté, êtes-vous plus application native ou web? Êtes-vous plus comme moi et préféré les solutions HTML, CSS et JavaScript? Partagez votre opinion et merci à TP1 pour l’organisation de cet événement!

P.-S. : Je viens d’apprendre qu’il n’y a plus de places, mais vous pouvez vous ajouter à la liste d’attente et si une place se libère, vous serez avertis.

As I did with my first visit in Seattle, and the one in Krakow, I’m asking my friends, and network what to do. Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much time as I wanted in Krakow (I had to work since my week before wasn’t very productive), and didn’t plan anything specific when I was in San Jose last week, but trust me, I’m taking two days off in Brussels to visit this beautiful city.

I know Belgium is the place for food as I have on a list some specific things I want to taste: French fries, chocolate, waffle, and some tasty local beers that we don’t have the chance to drink here. For sure, I’ll need to do a lot more exercise during this trip as it won’t be good for the belly! If you ever went in Brussels, any places I should not miss? Any restaurant I really need to try? Any specific beer I should drink? Any museum I should buy a ticket for? I may have some time during the Mozilla Summit to visit a little, but I prefer to plan for the nearly two days I’ll have off there. I’ll also do my own research, but I consistently like to ask my network too, and build on top of others experience. Of course, I’ll try to do at least one or two geocaches there, and just walk in the town, without any specific destination: it’s always a good way to find less-known area.

Again, I’m very lucky to have the latitude to do this with my job, but trust me; my employer doesn’t loose on this. Before I forget, if you have any suggestion when it comes to cellphone data providers while I’m there, I’ll need to buy a sim card: I can’t live without data! So anything I should do? Any good or bad experience you had there? Any recommendations? Share your thoughts!

Yesterday, I did a talk at Kongossa Web Series about personal branding. It’s a passion I have, and I really think it’s more important than ever, so I want to spread the words to as many people as possible. It’s why I was happy when the organizers asked me to talk about it in their first edition of the event in North America.

Personal Branding, more important than ever - Kongossa Web Series - 2013-09-21 from Frédéric Harper

As usual, the slides are for the attendees, as it may not make sense if you weren’t there. I also, recorded myself during my presentation so you can listen to me while following the slides (sorry for the audio quality). I recorded my presentation, but for some reason, I cannot do any editing in any software, and I can’t publish in the actual format, that wouldn’t serve the goal well. If you want, you can wait as the organizers recorded all sessions, and will put videos online, but it may not be soon: they plan to release about one presentation per month, so if you can’t wait watch the presentation below.

Personally, thinking about me as a brand really helped me a lot: I went from developer to the Technical Evangelist I wanted to be. I usually do technical presentations, but since it’s a pet peeve of mine, and that I’m not just about technical stuff; I enjoyed a lot doing this presentation. Actually, I’m looking for brand new opportunities to present this topic. For me, personal branding can help you achieve new goals, be that linchpin, and be successful! Did you attend my presentation? Did you like it? Any comments? Do you believe in personal branding? Do you think I’m just crazy? Do you have any personal story about it? Share your thoughts!

I found this drawing of Jeff Taylor, and I in my archives: it has been done by an attendee during my talk at the Social Media Breakfast. Nice one, but one thing is wrong: we were not fighting at all. Maybe someday, I’ll have Cynthia Savard-Saucier from TP1 attend one of my talks, and do something like this.

Two days ago, I did a keynote on Mobile First, and yesterday I did a presentation on Responsive Web Design at the Web and PHP Conference in San Jose, California. Those are two topics that really passionate me. I did a couple of presentations on this topic when I was at Microsoft, and there is no reason why I should stop right now, as it’s still very important.

Responsive Web Design - Web & PHP Conference - 2013-09-18 from Frédéric Harper

As usual, note that the slides are only for the attendees, as they won’t make sense for you if you weren’t there. I finally start CamStudio before my presentation, so here is a screencast of my talk: note that it was recorded with the microphone of my computer, and I’m moving a lot on the stage when I’m presenting, so the sound is not always good (on top of that, it’s echo because of the room, and the microphone I had - I’m looking for a better way to do it - maybe a wireless mic to my computer). I hope it’ll help the attendees to grab bits they may have missed, or to learn more about the topic for people who weren’t there.

Did you know about Responsive Web Design? Do you think it’s important to support more viewports than just the usual size of a desktop screen? Did you use Responsive Web Design for web sites or web applications development? Do you plan to use it in the future? Share your thoughts.

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/mobile-first-web-php-conference-20130917-keynote

In my presentation, I’m talking about the actual problem when it comes to Web experience, what could be a good solution (mobile first), what is it, why we should think about starting mobile when we are building a web site or applications, the pros as the cons of this philosophy, and how to get started. The second day of the conference is mostly done (first day was all about workshops), but if you are near San Jose tomorrow, come see us, it’s free, and I’ll do a presentation on Responsive Web Design.

Did you know mobile first? Did you start with the mobile platform first? Did you find it difficult to switch to this method? Do you think it worth it? Share your thoughts.

P.S.: As usual, the slides are there for attendees. I’ll create a screencast later, forgot, again, to start CamStudio.

Creative Commons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76662436@N08/8569155191/

Still part of the series of videos I did for the Make Web Not War TV project I had when I was at Microsoft, I did an interview at Confoo with Bryan Xu from IdeaNotion. I had the please to work with the guys at IdeaNotion for an Open Source project, MetroPress (now IdeaPress) that was helping people to build Windows 8 application from their Wordpress blog.

In this interview, we talked about MetroPress, Wordpress, Windows 8, and of course, his company. If you want a good company for your projects, hire them! I’m now back in the Web, and prefer to get the full experience of a Web site or Web application, but it was a good project for what we had to achieve at that time. On your side, did you use MetroPress? Are you building Windows 8 applications? What do you like or not from the OS? Are you using Wordpress? Share your thoughts.

Merci à chérie qui a été au Comiccon Montréal hier et qui a fait la file pour m’avoir un autographe de François Pérusse! L’avoir su avant, j’y serais allé moi-même, mais nous avons vu qu’il était sur place seulement le vendredi soir. Pour moi, Pérusse c’est plusieurs années de rire, et ce, encore aujourd’hui. Que ce soit avec ma première cassette de l’album du peuple tome 1, ou les 2 minutes du peuple à la radio, j’ai toujours eu un plaisir à écouter ses folies. François Pérusse fait partie de ma courte liste de personnes de qui je suis un fan fini…

P.-S. J’ai beau changer mes configurations, mon scanneur donne cette piètre qualité…

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2013/09/fox_say.jpg)

Since it’s Friday, and that I’m boarding the plane in a couple of minutes to come back in Montreal from the lovely Krakow in Poland, I thought that a small post like this would be perfect for the end of the week. So, what does the fox say?

Today I did two presentations at the Firefox Krakow workshop. The first one was an introduction to the tools you’ll need to develop Firefox OS application: you don’t need any special IDE, but you’ll see that using the

Firefox OS tools, get your hands dirty from Frédéric Harper

I also did a quick overview of the Firefox OS Web APIs. My goal wasn’t to make all attendees experts with Web APIs, but to fill their brain with them: it’s usually what you avoid doing as a speaker, but in my case, I wanted them to know that they exist, and are easy to use. You may not need them for your Firefox OS application, but if it happens, you’ll know they exist. I mostly wanted developers to know that we have awesome documentations on the Mozilla Developer Network they can refer to whenever they are looking for something.

Firefox OS Web APIs, taking it to the next level from Frédéric Harper

Of course, slides are slides, they, by no mean, replace being at the presentation as they are only visual support: used them wisely! I’ll try to record myself presenting them when I’ll have free time (I forgot to start CamStudio when I was presenting). It was a real pleasure to visit Krakow, and Poland for the first time, and I hope the attendees got as excited as we are about Firefox OS. Remember, whether you were at the workshop or not, if you need any help with Firefox OS, please email me. Ping me also if you don’t need help, but submitted an application to the marketplace, I want to see what you did!

I also did a quick overview of the Firefox OS Web APIs. My goal wasn’t to make all attendees experts with Web APIs, but to fill their brain with them: it’s usually what you avoid doing as a speaker, but in my case, I wanted them to know that they exist, and are easy to use. You may not need them for your Firefox OS application, but if it happens, you’ll know they exist. I mostly wanted developers to know that we have awesome documentations on the Mozilla Developer Network they can refer to whenever they are looking for something.

I really like the promotional video that the people behind

I’m very excited to be able to share my point of view about personal branding, and help people to understand why they should care. I already did a small conference about the topic at Social Media Breakfast, and now I’ll have the chance to do a full keynote on this pet peeve of mine. I’m happy to see that my replacement at Microsoft, Rami Sayar, who will be a rock star Evangelist, will also be there: a good way to connect with the new Microsoft guy in town! See you at KWS!

P.S.: Wow, at 0:55, they were able to make me smile!

I had the pleasure to meet

We talked, of course, of Windows Azure as Cory is one of the most knowledgeable Evangelists I know on the topic. Since Cory comes from a PHP background, we talked about the Openness of the Microsoft cloud platform around PHP, but also around other programming languages. We highlighted the fact that Windows Azure, isn’t just about Windows: you can run Linux too. It’s also not only about .NET, and PHP as you can use Node.js, Java, Ruby…

I plan to move my blog in the cloud, and personally Windows Azure will be my platform of choice. Since the price is good, that the Windows Azure Websites is what I would need, it’s easy to use, powerful, and I know how it’s working (it was one of my focuses as a Technical Evangelist), I think I can’t go wrong. In any case, if I need help, I also know who I can ping! Are you in the cloud? Do you know what are the advantages of Cloud Computing? Did you know about Windows Azure? Do you prefer Amazon or any other services? Share your thoughts!

Le samedi 28 septembre prochain aura lieu un

En réalité, cet événement se déroule sur trois jours. Le vendredi soir se veut un 5 à 7 optionnel où ils vous sera possible de rencontrer les organisateurs et les autres participants, mais aussi de débuter la réflexion sur ce que vous allez accomplir lors du reste de la fin de semaine. Le samedi étant la journée principale, ceux qui le désirent pourront écouter diverses présentations qui vous aideront à comprendre la plateforme, savoir comment débuter et comment en tirer le maximum. Pour ma part, j’ouvrirais le bal en présentant la plateforme, ainsi que la vision derrière Firefox OS. Bien sûr, la journée de samedi sera 100% codage, donc aucune obligation d’écouter les présentations si vous désirez travailler sur votre application. Pour ceux qui vont se donner à 200%, vous pourrez continuer de coder le dimanche et vous aurez la chance de présenter votre chef d’oeuvre vers la fin de l’événement. Bien sûr, il y a aura possibilité de repartir avec des prix pour votre participation.

L’événement est gratuit et se passera à La Commune, située au 266 rue St Paul Est. Vous pouvez mentionner votre intérêt et rester informer en vous joignant à l’événement Facebook. Toutefois, cela ne garantit pas votre participation; il vous faut prendre un billet gratuit sur le site EventBrite. Je vous invite donc fortement à vous inscrire, car il reste peu de place: si jamais vous ne pouvez plus venir, annuler votre inscription pour laisser la place à quelqu’un qui pourra y aller. Cet événement est une bonne façon de connaître une nouvelle plateforme, d’aller chercher de nouvelles connaissances, de rencontrer d’autres passionnées comme vous, et ce, même si vous développez présentement pour d’autres plateformes. Pour toute question, veuillez contacter les organisateurs avec EventBrite ou en posant vos questions sur l’événement Facebook.

Alors, vous verrais-je sur place le 28? Avez-vous déjà une idée d’application que vous voulez faire? Avez-vous plutôt déjà une application faite avec HTML5, CSS3, et JavaScript que vous voudriez rendre fonctionnel sous Firefox OS? En espérant vous voir lors du hackathon!

P.-S.: Si vous ne pouvez venir, mais que vous voulez développer une application sous Firefox OS (ou rendre une application HTML5 fonctionnelle), même si vous ne pouvez venir pour le hackathon, envoyez-moi un courriel.

As I’m always trying to find better ways to use my time, I started to listen to audio books instead of music when I’m at the gym. It didn’t change my motivation at all to perform, and it will give me the opportunity to learn more from books while I’m getting healthier. I also try once in a while to find new interesting podcasts, so I listened for the first time to the Big Web Show from Jeffrey Zeldman. I didn’t go in order as I wanted to start with the episode of Lea Verou, since I’ve been following her for a while.

Overall, it was a good episode, and I think I may be a frequent listener to this podcast: I’ll listen to another two-three episodes to see if it’s for me. It’s always interesting to see how industry leaders are thinking, what was their journey, and what’s next for them. One thing surprised me: Lea Verou mentioned at least one time, that it was embarrassing that she learned or developed with a technology X. If I’m not mistaken, I think one of her examples was about Visual Basic. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been a huge fan of Visual Basic, but it was there, still there, and largely used a couple of years ago. There is also no relation to the fact that I’m a former Microsoftie. I’m a big believer in the fact that any programming languages are good: they may not fit all your needs, the needs of the customers, may not be the best choice, but they are, however, programming languages. No matter how simple or not they are, you still had to learn them, learn how to code, and how to create stuff with them. For me, there is no shame in it, at all! There are no cool programming languages, nor bad ones. Of course, I have preferences, and when I’m mentoring someone, I always try to help understand the pros, and cons of what they are looking for.

I did Java development for years, and it was the only programming languages I wanted to do. Is there any shame about this, even if Java is clearly not the choice of developers these days? No, because I learned a lot with this language, and I built some amazing stuff, like an online collaborative drawing tool, and a welding simulator. I also remember that at the beginning, thirteen years ago, I didn’t want to work with the Web at all, and look at me today, I’m all about Web. For me, belittle programming languages you used, is like not loving someone because he likes a music group I don’t love…  Yes, very bad analogy, but you get the point! It’s good for all part of your life: we make experience, we fail, we get back on our feets, we learn, and everything is part of our journey. These programming languages you learned in the past are also part of your developer’s journey, and you should be proud of it!

What are the programming languages you learned? Is there any you are not saying out loud? Do you think I make a mountain out of nothing? Should we be ashamed of what we learn as developers if it’s not cool enough? Share your thoughts!

This is a question I get quite often from people who are blogging or think about starting to blog. They are trying to find if they should blog in their mother tongue, or in English, or even if they should do both like me. They want to know why I choose to do both, and when I choose to write my posts in French, or in English.

Firstly, English is kind of new to me, so the first couple of years I blogged, it was in French only. When I started to learn English, I was wondering if I had to change the languages of my posts. To help me think about it, I asked myself three questions, that you may want to ask yourself too:

1. What is my goal for blogging?
2. What would be the advantages of blogging in my mother tongue?
3. What would be the advantages of blogging in the foreign language?

What is my goal for blogging? #

For me, blogging was, and will always be about myself. Unless I write on companies’ blog, I blog because I like it, and because I want to share my opinions with others. It’s not because I want to make money, be famous, or any other reasons: if these happen, it’s a bonus, a nice one, but still a bonus. With this in mind, my choice of languages wouldn’t be about anything else than a personal decision. Of course, I’m not stupid either, if I didn’t have readers to share my thoughts with, I wouldn’t have started a blog, but a personal diary on paper! The only thing is that I’ll never publish something to please others, but I wanted people to read me, of course. This question helped me, and will help you to set the table for the next two.

What would be the advantage of blogging in my mother tongue? #

My mother tongue being French, what would be the advantages to continue to blog in French only? It would be easier for me to do so, as it’s simpler for me to write in French, of course. I also already had a French blog, with a French domain name: moving to an English one would be more trouble. Since I had this blog, I had readers I didn’t want to loose: they may be upset if I blog only in English from this day forwards. All of these elements were part of my thinking about the languages I’ll use in the future.

What would be the advantage of blogging in the foreign language? #

What about doing it in English? It would help me practice a lot more my writing skill, and this skill was very important for my professional life, but also, let’s be honest, for my personal life too. I may have to move to a new domain name as I highlighted when I thought about blogging in French, but it was not a big deal from my point of view: for me, it was important to have a domain name English people will understand. I’ll also be capable to reach way more people by doing so, and most French people understand English enough to be able to read, so I may not lose many readers: at the end, I didn’t have a crazy amount of readers at that time, but I still wanted to respect them. Since I was doing many events outside of Quebec, I wanted my new connections to be able to read my thoughts, as mostly everybody outside of Quebec (or some places in Europe) don’t read French.

The result #

In my case, I finally decide to mostly do all my blog posts in English, but once in a while continue to do French blogging. I didn’t want to manage two blogs, or translate all my posts in both languages, so I decided to use only one blog (this one that I created), but have two categories: French posts, and English ones. People usually try to avoid this as it’s not a good practice, but for me, it’s working: French readers can follow the French category, and English people can avoid the French posts I’m doing once in a while. The result: I don’t have to manage more blog, and I have a lot more readers (keep in mind also that I reach a lot of people in my job, and public speaking, so that’s helping).

How I choose when to write a blog post in English, or in French? #

In my case, the equation is simple. Is the subject for French people only, or about something that is happening in French (a French event, something specific about Québec…)? If it’s the case, I write the post in French. Everything else is written in English for the reason above: practicing my English, and reaching more people. Even if all the experts usually suggest to either, write only with one language, have two separate blogs or translate everything, I choose to go upstream, and it’s working perfectly for me. Note that you may not have the same result, but without trying you won’t know. I would haven’t done it that way if it was for a company blog, but since I’m blogging for myself, if readers aren’t happy, there are plenty of other blogs on the Internet.

For me, it was a way to reach more people, grow my blog, continue my passion of blogging, share more of my thoughts or opinions, and improve a lot my English. So, are you blogging? What are the topics you like to cover? Do you blog in your mother tongue or any other languages? Share your thoughts!

As I’m writing these lines, I’m sitting in the post-operations’ waiting room. My mother just got cardiac surgery, and we are waiting after her to wake up. Fortunately, everything went well; the operation was a success! There is no word to say how I feel relief, and happy now.

Yesterday, she finally got the call from the hospital to let her know that she was going to have the surgery today. Until that exact moment, I was totally confident, but it changed: I was really stressed out. Actually, I wasn’t; I was terrified. Both my parents had huge operations in the past, but I was too young to worry about it. I’m lucky as until today, I never really had any major issues in my life, my friends or family’s one. It’s the first time I have something like this, that touch me so closely. Yesterday, I went to the hospital to stay with my mother, her best friend, and my dad: she definitely needed love around her as she was also really stressed out by the operation. At the end, this is a critical one, but I had no right to fail, and I had to be strong, for her. Even now, seeing all the wired connected to her, I still need to be strong as she can wake up at any moment. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about “being a real man”: it’s about being the rock that she needs right now. Being this person who is there for her, and that will give her the confidence she needs to know that everything will be fine.

I think it’s important for us, when a loved one is having trouble, to be that pillar who helps the member of your family or a friend to go through this difficult moment. It’s in those situations that you see who really is your family, and who are the people you can call friends. Happily, for me, everything is moving toward a happy end…

P.S.: I guess writing was helping me to calm down as it’s the only thing I was able to do, not even emails.

I hope that my friends who had a long weekend, had a good one. For this Tuesday post, that feel like a Monday, I wanted to share another interview I did for my previous project, Make Web Not War TV, that I wasn’t able to finish before leaving Microsoft. All the interviews were timeless, except this one: I’m really sad I didn’t publish this one at times, as it was a good interview with Robert Giggey, the Open Data lead at the city of Ottawa. Filmed at Confoo, during the Make Web Not War hackathon, we talked about Open Data, the city of Ottawa, why they found it’s important to support it, the benefits for everybody, their amazing competition Apps4Ottawa, and the type of applications they got with this contest. I still wanted to put this video online as I think it’s really exciting to see a city in Canada who is totally into Open Data, and who believe it will help the citizens, the companies, but also the city to grow, and give better access to information for Ottawa. I’m pretty sure that they’ll do a third edition, so you’ll know about it, even before they’ll announce it (don’t take this as a statement, actually I have no idea if they do another one, but with the success they had the last two years, I can’t imagine them not doing one next year).

From my experience with Open Data in Canada, I think that Ottawa is probably the best city when it comes to opening their data, but also, giving correct ones, and proper formats. Do you know Open Data? Did you use Open Data in one of your projects? Is your city doing a great job to open their data? If you are a Canadian, will you participate in this competition if there is one in 2014? Share your thoughts!

I never really care about Labour Day: for me, it was just another holiday. Of course, I always thought that it was to celebrate workers, to take time off from the hard work people are doing for someone’s bread and butter, but I never really celebrate it. I read about the subject this morning, to learn a bit more on it. From the little I read, it was mostly to help workers who were exploited by companies with the help of unions, and at the end, to celebrate work-life balance. On my side, I consider myself lucky to wake up every day to do what I like, and being paid for it. I think it’s a privilege that not everybody has, so from this day forwards, the Labour Day for me will be that celebration. I don’t think I will do anything special, but I’ll at least take a moment to think about how lucky I am, and I’ll continue to encourage people to take the lead of their lives, and do what they want to do for a living. Happy Labour Day everyone!

P.S.: Thanks to Mathieu Hétu who gave me the permission to use one of his latest Scrum Comics. It’s a regular comic that Mathieu put online to picture some interesting moment in the life of people who use scrum framework. Since I’ve done my ScrumMaster certification, and used it on some projects, I found his comics very funny. It happened that this one was a wink to me…

One thing I do to help me being productive is to get out of my head everything that is not related to the actual task I’m doing. To do so, I’m using tools like Remember the Milk or my Google Calendar. In the latest, I also add tasks I need to do at a specific time or interval. Some of the tasks I added recently have been related to my social media accounts: every month, I’m taking five to ten minutes to review the access I gave to applications or sites to those accounts.

A better approach would be to remove access not needed anymore as soon as it’s the case, but I don’t always think about it, so it’s why I have a recurring calendar item for it. Think about all the websites or applications that ask you to get access to your Twitter or Facebook account as an example. If you are like me, you like to test new applications, subscribe to brand new websites, and play with hot stuff: you never know when something we’ll be useful (or when you’ll create a false need, haha). Most of the time, the application doesn’t do what I was expecting, is shitty or is something I don’t really need. Since I’m a fan of cleaning my online presences, I try to delete accounts I’m not using, but some can fall toughs the cracks. As I’m using my social media accounts, personally as professionally, I want to be sure that those are safe, and that no spammers, hackers or just services I don’t use anymore cannot send, delete or manage my account if I don’t want to. It’s so simple, as I said, once a month, I visit app settings’ page for Facebook, the Twitter applications settings page, the sharing & extending account page of Flickr, and the authorized applications’ page on LinkedIn.

In the future, I’ll add more accounts to that list, so I’ll be sure that all my accounts are as safe as they can be on the permissions’ side. I think you should do it to: start with that list, remove the one you don’t use, and add the one that wasn’t in my list. It won’t take you much time, and your account will be a bit safer.  Are you doing this cleanup task once in a while? If not, will you do it? Are there any major sites I forgot in my short list? Share your thoughts.

I’m very fortunate to have a job which gives me the opportunity to travel. When I was at Microsoft, I used to travel a lot in Canada, and every time I had the chance to go somewhere brand new, I was taking two days off to do the tourist. I like to discover unknown places, new cultures, and there is no reason that it will chance with my new role at Mozilla. Except that now, the travels aren’t limited to Canada. The next place I’m visiting is Krakow, in Poland, and I’ll take two days to visit a little.

What I try to do when I’m going somewhere is to ask people who live there or people who already travel to that city or country. I want to maximize my time there as two days is not that long. As an example, the last time I took some days off is when I went into Seattle. I asked some friends there, and they send me some good suggestions: the advantage of doing this is that you can get nice spots that aren’t known by tourists. So the last two days I took in Seattle, I went to a museum, the first Starbucks, the best place for donuts, a really nice marketplace, I did an underground tour, went to a tower with a breathtaking view (I’ll do a more complete post to share my cool post to visit)… I would say that half of them would have been on my list as I did some search, but I would have missed the other half of nice things I did. Since I believe a lot in the power of our network, I’ll try to crowd source my visit to Krakow, hoping Polish people read my blog, or friends who traveled there.

I didn’t start to check yet what I want to do, but I’ll have about two days off before I work, so what would you suggest me to do? What is the thing a tourist must do when he goes to Krakow? Any secret places I would need to visit or things I need to try/food that may not be as known? I also plan to do a recapitulation post after to share what I did with others, so next time, if you want to go there, you’ll have a good list of stuff to do, and as well to see.

Adding you as a connection on LinkedIn, doesn’t mean I want you to add me to your newsletter.

Giving you my email after buying your product online is only because I want a receipt, not to add me as a member of your mailing list.

Leaving a comment on your blog, doesn’t give you the right to subscribe me to your newsletter.

Creating an account for your website doesn’t give me the ability to see this invisible checkbox that magically subscribes me to your monthly email at the same time.

Finding my email online doesn’t implicitly give you the freedom to send me your newsletter.

Accepting my business card is not an agreement on my side that I want you to sign me up for your regular publication.

I can write about this in many other ways; it will still be true. If I didn’t explicitly specify, either to you in person, by subscribing myself, or by checking (or should I say, leave checked) the checkbox, there is no way, I repeat, NO WAY, you have the right to subscribe me to your newsletter. Email is my primary way of communication, and I don’t want to lose time with emails I didn’t want. If I want to stay in touch, trust me, I’ll do it: adding your RSS feed to my reader, connecting on any other social media, subscribing myself to your newsletter… I’m tired of this bad practice, so let’s be clear, if you do this, you’ll lose a customer, a member of your site or even a contact in your network. That’s it!

I was using Windows 8 on my Macbook Air as the only operating system. Since a couple of days, I wanted to be able to help developers under OS X, so I figured out that it would be a good idea to reinstall OS X, and have a dual boot (yes, I should have done this right at the beginning, don’t ask). The problem is that once you install Windows as the only OS, there is no way (at least no way I found, and nobody was able to help me) to reinstall OS X. I had to format my computer, reinstall OS X, and install Windows again right after. I thought that yesterday evening would have been a good idea as I had time, but it gave me more problems than I thought.

Funny enough, I never had any problems with Windows Updates when I was a Microsoftie, but since yesterday I had many problems: failed to update, failed to download… I tried many things to fix it, but the instructions in this video saved me.

Currently, everything is working well, and I now have a dual boot working perfectly. I just wanted to share this information with you as it may help you at some point. Next step, I may try to make it a triple boot machine with Ubuntu (it’s been a while my friend), so I’ll be fully functional to help all kinds of developers build their amazing Firefox OS application.

Let’s start this week with another interview I did for the project that I never had the time to finish at Microsoft, the Make Web Not War TV. This time, I did a couple of interviews at Confoo last year, and one of them was with Stéphane Guidoin. Stéphane is a well-known activist around Open Data in Montréal, and in Québec so obviously, we mainly talked about Open Data. We discussed about what Open Data is, what it means for us, Open North, Montréal Ouvert, Québec Ouvert (in French), and how to create a project or a product by using freely available data from governments, cities, and even private enterprises.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Open Data (in French), but those organizations really need our help to make it better. I worked closely with Open Data project with Make Web Not War, and let me tell you that it’s not easy as the main problem actually is the quality, and availability of the data feeds. Did you know about Open Data? Did you work on an Open Data project? Do you think it’s valuable to have those open data feeds? Share your thoughts.

I always wanted to publish this draw that the friend, Philippe Gamache, made of me for a presentation I did two years ago, in English, at the PHP Québec user group. As you can see, it was a bit jerky… I do not have a lot of things I’m not confident about in my life (hey, I’m a positive person), but speaking in English was one that put me totally out of my comfort zone. Last Thursday, I made a quick jump at the HTML Toronto user group, and discussed with the friend Matthew Potter, the organizer of this amazing group. He made me notice something: at the beginning, I was apologizing for my English in my presentations, and now, I’m making jokes out of it. I think it’s the proof that I’m way more confident that I was… I even have the friend Brendan Sera-Shriar who told me that I lost a lot of my accent: this comment came from an anglophone, so I was kind of proud about it.

Because I’m still (always) learning, I would finish this post by saying, don’t be shy to let me know when I say something incorrect, or when a sentence I wrote could be better. I used to work with the friend Andrew Howell who always helped me correct some wrong usage of words (hey Andrew, much, many), and trust me, it was always appreciated, and help me a lot with my day-to-day conversations. I promise that I won’t be upset as I want to be better!

Yesterday after our team offsite, at the restaurant, the friend Christian Heilmann told us that he didn’t want to be old, and have no stories to share with others. Like him, I don’t want to get aged, and have just, as the pillars of my life, knowledge about the city I’m living in, only experiences about the same restaurants, knowing only the people close to my network, having a life where everything I did was strictly in my comfort zone. I want to meet unknown people, extend my knowledge to new areas, visit unknown countries, try new food, find brand new activities… So it’s why, I want to commit myself here about new experiences, but I also want you, to be part of my journey. A little like the friend Fabrice Calando did with his excellent “Hack your life” posts series, I want to add stones after stones to what will be my life, and encourage you to do the same by sharing it with you.

It’s something I realize a couple of months ago: I was the kind of guy who were always doing the same activities, was eating the same meat at the restaurant, and never really went away from my beautiful city of Montréal. Since, I tasted unfamiliar food, traveled a lot more, found brand new passions, meet unknown people: in other words, I started to live! Once in a while, I’ll share with you some new things I tried, give you my impression about those, and of course, invite you to go from reading my post, to make your own experience. The idea is quite simple as it can go from just trying a new restaurant, visiting a new country, and going to the museums or doing something a little crazier like sky diving.

Even if you don’t follow this series or my blog, if you already did what I’ll experience, or if you think this is stupid to do this kind of commitments with myself, I’m asking you one thing: live your life with your eyes wide open, and make new experiences. When we’ll be old, we’ll have no regrets, and we’ll have memories to share with the loved ones or to remember in tougher days…

Do you enjoy new CSS features? Did you read Jonathan’s book? Do you have any best practices for CSS? Share your thoughts.

P.S.: I try not to publish posts in the same series consecutively, but I’m in Toronto for a team offsite, and didn’t have the time to write a more complete post for today.

What is a great mobile experience for you? Should we always design for touch? What will be the future of the Web? Share your thoughts.

There are so many parodies of the Keep calm, and carry on poster used in the Second World War, and even if most of them are shitty, once in a while, I found a good one. A couple of weeks ago, the friend Christian Heilmann tweeted about one from the Mozilla assets: Keep calm, and browse on. I thought it was brilliant, but I didn’t like the gradient background. I tried to find a vector version, but wasn’t able to find one, so my friend, Valérie Doré, made one just for me! She found the vector version of the Firefox logo, download the usual font used for this poster, and made two SVG versions: one like the original asset, and another one with a full circle (shown above). I now used it as my background, and plan to use it elsewhere. Thanks to Val for this amazing work, and feel free to let her know about your appreciation of her work if you used it (or not).

I opened a TripIt account when I started at Microsoft (French post) as I was going to travel a lot. At that time, it wasn’t something I used much, and my account became a ghost account as we see many of them on the web. Once in a while I try to clear my dead accounts by cancelling them, but I thought that I could use in a more efficient way my TripIt account now that I’m at Mozilla.

The idea is simple, firstly, it will be a good logbook about my travels for personal usage: where I’ve been, and when. I updated my previous trips, so my account is now up to date. It’s also a good way, I think, to share with friends, and followers where I’ll be next. As I said quite often, for me, Evangelism is all about people, and as I’m someone who is very social (see how things go well together), I want to meet the awesome person you are when I’m going in your city. As I try to keep up to date my speaking page on this blog (you can see all the presentations, panels, keynotes or hackathons I did, or I’ll do), I’ll try to keep my TripIt account with the latest information on my future trips. Because I’m always open to meet new folks (or meet again old friends) for a coffee or a beer (or anything else) to discuss or help in person, that mean you can let me know if I’m going in your hometown, and you want to meet. You can check my public account (also accessible from the TripIt icon on top of this blog) with all the information you need, but if you also have an account, you can add me as a connection. Being a connection would make it easier to see where I’m next, but also see if we are somewhere at the same time (there are free accounts, which I use). Last, but not least, the offer is also for my buddies in Montreal! Of course, it’ll always depend on my agenda, as sometimes when I’m outside for meetings, as an example, I won’t have time to go out as all my week is already planned. So in all cases, if you want to meet me to talk about your project, getting help about Firefox OS or just chat about anything else not related to work, ping me on Twitter or send me an email at fharper@oocz.net. Hope to see you soon!

Don’t get me wrong, I like the startups’ world. I like the passion, the enthusiast, the culture, and the innovation that is happening in startups. On the other side, there are some concepts that people are spreading that irritates me. I know I may be stoned on the public place for this post, but I had to share my annoyance with others.

Being your own boss is the only real way to live #

Let’s be clear, starting a company is not for everybody. Even people that have the aptitude, and the Will to do it, may not want to do it for different reasons. There are some pros, and cons to be an employee, but there are also pros, and cons to be your own boss. It’s not true that the only ultimate way to be someone in life is to start your project, your company, or your startup. Some people are happy by being employee, and they’ll have a wonderful career. It’s a choice, like everything else. On my side, I did both, and for now, I’m pleased to be an employee as in my role, I have the advantages of an employee, and the one of a freelancer.

The ultimate target is an exit #

I have the feeling that most people who build startup, just want to get buy. Of course, who doesn’t want to get tone shit of money for the work they did, but some others want to continue to work, and live with their product. You had the idea, you built it, you marketed it, you are proud of it, and you want to continue to do so. Many small, and big companies are working like this. I think there is no shame to want to make a living out of it, instead of just trying to find the right investors who will buy everything you did. I had a discussion with some people who wanted to create a startup, but were afraid to take their own path as everything they read/saw was about raising money, and selling. Maybe I’m just ignorant, and startups are only about making a product to be buy by someone…

You’ll be the next Facebook #

Let’s get real here; so many people are expecting a millions dollars exit or to be the next Facebook. I’m a big believer in the fact that you need to have goals, but you also need to be realistic. Of course, nobody has the goal to fail, or to be just average, but not every startup will be successful, and for those that will succeed, they won’t all make millions. It’s not an easy world, there are a lot of competitors, a lot of new ideas, and many are fighting to get the attention, and the money they want. Like in anything else, you need to fix your goals, and face the truth. I just would like people to be more honest as I saw many credulous people take those words as gold. Sometimes, it makes me think of the gold rushes in the 19th century.

Mentorship is all about marketing/startups #

This one may be a bit more personal. I saw many mentorship programs, incubators, accelerators that are there to help startups to start, to grow, and to be successful. Most of the time, they are focusing on people who were/are part of startups, or marketing people. Don’t get me wrong, marketing is important; it’s even critical. You can have a good product, but if you don’t reach your audience, you’ll fail. On the other side, you can have the best marketing folks with you, if the product sucks, you’ll fail, and probably even harder as you’ll get attention for a shitty product. As a technical guy, I would like to see more technical mentors in those programs. Customers may not care about how you built your product, or which technology you used, but with a bad infrastructure or a not so good choice of technology, you could hit a wall: spending money on awful technology, infrastructure not decent enough for your “The Verge” moment (what we used to call your Slashdot moment), losing time as money with refactoring… It’s why I liked the fact that Microsoft had an Evangelist at Notman House to hang out with FounderFuel cohort (used to be me). I also would like to see more mentors not coming from the startup world. It may sound weird at first, but think about it; they still have experience, and opinions that can help you to be successful.

I may have chosen an exaggerate title for this post, but those points aren’t less important, and I’m not sure they are helping the startups’ culture. For the purpose of this post, here is a bit of my background: I’ve been an employee of a small/medium/huge company, I’ve been part twice of what we can call a startup (the word wasn’t popular in Canada at that time), I’ve been a freelancer, and I hung out quite often within the startups’ world in Montreal. I’m far from being an expert about startups, but it’s even more frightening as it’s what I saw from the “outside” so I may not be the only one. As I write before, I’m happy where I am now, but I may get back to freelancing or will create my startup one day, so I have nothing against those types of enterprises. From what you read, am I wrong? Did I misunderstand something? What do you think about those points? Share your thoughts.

A couple of months ago, Franck Nlemba contacted me about a project he was working on: a conference in Montreal with the mission to help Africans to learn about all the possibilities they have when they come in Montreal, but also, to try to reinforce the relationship between this extremely passionate community, and the Montreal Web industry. He didn’t take me too long to jump in the ship, and help him to make contact with the right folks.

The Kongossa Web Series (KWS) Montreal site is now live, and I’m happy to let you know that the event will be held at the Amphitheater Ernst & Young in Concordia University on September 21st. This “Montreal Style” (French & English) event will focus on social, and economic development of technology: a topic worth for everyone! You’ll have local speakers as Rami Sayar, and myself, but you’ll also have the chance to see international ones. No technical presentation for me as for my keynote, I’ll share my experience about another topic that really passionate me: the personal branding. Here is the abstract of my talk “Personal branding, more important than ever”:

You may think that personal branding is not for you? Why would you care about your own branding, you aren’t an actor nor the singer of an international rock band, no? In those days where everyone has the power to stand out more easily, share more quickly, and grow their network like never before, it’s more important than ever to think about yourself as a brand. Of course, it’s not about going as far as your favorite soft drink brand, but we’ll explore together the what, why, who, and how of personal branding.

On that note, I encourage you to join us on the 21st of September, and buy your ticket right now. It’s for everybody, not just Africans! It’ll be a chance for all of us to see great presentations, learn from startups, meet international speakers, foster the entrepreneurship in Montreal, tighten our relationship with different culture, assist to amazing workshops, and of course, network with other passionate.

Here is another interview I did for my never born project, Make Web Not War TV, at the Web à Québec (website in French). I had the pleasure, on the first evening of the event, to interview Mike Kruzeniski, Design Lead at Twitter, who was a colleague before as a Principal Design Lead on the Windows Phone team at Microsoft. We talked about Modern UI (used to be call Metro UI), content before chrome, tips for developers who wants to make a good design, and more.

Are you a designer, or a developer? Do you like great design? Any good example? Any tips for people like me who suck at design? Share your thoughts.

It’s been six years today that we are officially together, and a little more than five that we are engaged (for my friends outside of Québec, it’s a common practice here). I wrote about it last year, and I’ll do it again right now: the secret of our couple is that we can be ourselves. It’s also because of the freedom we give to each others. I can be myself of course, but I can do what I want to do. There is no grumpy woman at home when I go out to play badminton for the second time of the week, nor when I’m going out for a beer some beers with friends or not even a rebuke when I’m traveling, again, for work. Those are the things I like to do, and she respects this. On the other side, there is no frustrated Fred when she has many events to cover for the blog she is writing for (in French), nor any jealous boyfriend when she goes out with friends. We live together, but we also let the other half live his/her life with the things he likes to do, and we don’t even force ourselves. There is no obligation to like all the same things or to do everything together, and it’s perfect like this.

It’s been six years today, and I’m looking for many more celebrations like this one.

Time flies; I thought I started at Mozilla last week, but it’s already been one month that I join the amazing evangelists team. I really enjoy what I’m doing as I can’t remember one day that I wasn’t surprised when it was time for lunch or dinner.

After four weeks, I have a better idea of the role, the team, and the company that I had when I wrote my first week post. You would be surprises of the amount of things I learn about all these, but also about myself. Even if it’s been only three years that I switched from a Developer role to an Evangelist one, I have an approach that I didn’t have when I join Microsoft: I think you call this, experience. I always approach my tasks with three concepts in mind: impact, scale, and visibility (thanks to Ryan Storgaard, and Thomas Lewis). I’ll do another post just on this topic as I think it would help others with their job. Specific to my role at Mozilla, and to Mozilla itself, there are many things I realized (it’s inevitable that I’ll compare with my previous role, but by no mean, it’s to lower Microsoft as the role was fantastic):

• The company is structured, but more laid back: that means less reporting, fewer meetings, less complicated processes… For someone like me, who needs freedom to be successful, and who don’t like meetings, it’s fabulous;
• As the company is all about being open, I have access to all informations I need to do my job: no surprise, no secret, and all data available. As a Technical Evangelist, you need this to be able to help developers, and give them the right information;
• Work-life balance is not a concept; it’s part of the job. The more I’m getting old, the more I tend to want time to relax with friends, and family. My job is a passion, but I still have a life outside of it. It’s cleat at Mozilla that we try to avoid getting burned, even during specific crazy time, and I enjoy the respect of my time (not everything is always urgent);
• Everybody loves Mozilla. It’s probably not true, but it’s still a big difference from my previous role. Even if I was the right guy to go in the trenches (I was responsible to talk to non-Microsoft developers, about Microsoft - not always easy, but a challenge I liked), it’s refreshing to talk to people who like the company you work with;
• It’s more technical, and I’m like a fish in water. I’m a developer who used his social skills to be an Evangelist, but I always missed coding.  I don’t want to get back to a developer role as I like being an Evangelist so much, but I didn’t have a lot of chances, and time to do this in my previous role. Now, I need to build an application (part of my goals). I also need to do my code demo, and prepare my materials for conferences or workshops, as it’s not the job of another Evangelists team (at Microsoft, mostly everything was done by Corp) or the product team;
• It’s all about Web, Web, and Web. It’s funny because 12 years ago, I didn’t want to build for the Web: real men were doing standalone applications! Many years before, I changed my mind, and I like web technology so much;
• There are exciting bonuses for this role. As Mozilla is all about Open Source, my role is about sharing as much information that I can, and publishing my code of places like GitHub. I like to go to conferences (a role without that aspect wouldn’t be a good one for me), and to travel, so since our team covers the world, I’ll have interesting travels outside of Canada really soon: Krakow in Poland, and Brussels in Belgium are coming.

There are probably many more elements I figured out, but those are the ones that really have an impact on the job. It’ll sound cheesy, but after one month, I can say that I really like my job, my team, and the company. The move was not easy, but I don’t regret it as I feel this role has been even more built specifically for me. Let’s do another post after the fateful three months: like in any other jobs I had, I’m in a probation for the first three months, and I used to say that if you reach that time frame, and still happy with what you do, there are a lot of chances that it’s a job for you (the magic of the beginning is kind of done at that point, so it’s all the truth in your face). If you have any questions about my role, Mozilla or Firefox OS, please let me know.

P.S.: The animal in the picture is a red panda, also call Firefox.

The conference will happen on September 17th, and 18th from 1 PM until the end of the evening. It’s unusual for a conference to start that late during the day, but my understanding is that it will be easier for people to take two afternoons off at work, instead of two full days: not a bad idea (except that I’m speaking at 10:15 my time on the second day, arg). There is also paid workshops the day before on PHP, bootstrap, security, and more. For those of my readers who would like to attend the workshop, you can use this code WPC13FRED to get a discount (from £199 to £159 - a little more than 60$). I’ll be there for the two conference days as I’ll do a keynote on Mobile First on the first day, and a presentation on Responsive Web Design on the second one. Here are the abstracts:

Mobile First

As the industry of mobility is exploding right now, and the support for new technology is now available on all the principal platforms, we must stop thinking about mobile phones as secondary devices. The mobile first philosophy forces us to think, design, and create for mobile phones first. Using this technique forces us to focus on what is really important for our users, and our customers without neglecting others devices, like PCs.

Responsive Web Design, get the best of your design

There is no mobile Web, there is no desktop Web, and there is no tablet Web. We view the same Web just in different ways. So how do we do it? By getting rid of our fixed-width, device-specific approaches and use Responsive Web Design techniques. This session will focus on what is Responsive Web Design and how you can use his 3-pronged approach on your current apps today which will also adapt to new devices in the future.

I hope to see you there, and please if you go, come say hi. I also encourage you, whether you can or cannot attend, to read the free magazine (I did three articles for them, more coming). It will be my first time in San Jose, anything special I should do, or somewhere I should go if I have time? Do you plan to attend? Is there any session that interest you more? Share your thoughts.

When I was a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft, part of my role was to lead our effort around non-Microsoft technology. To achieve this, I join the amazing team of Make Web Not War, and lead this initiative from a DPE (Developer Platform Evangelist - my department) perspective. One of the projects I had was to create a Make Web Not War TV, a series of video interviews with developers, designers, speakers, and technology enthusiasts to share their passion, and expertise with the community. I did a little more than 10 videos, but never had the chance to promote them (focus changed, and the fact that I was leaving Microsoft didn’t help).

Now, even if I’m not at Microsoft anymore, I would like to share these interviews with you. Most of them aren’t outdated, and still relevant. Since I left, this project won’t be a priority anymore, and since these people took their time to answer my questions, I would like to give them the forum they merit by presenting them on my blog. Let’s start with the first video I did with Marc Gagné, a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft, who was part of my team. If you make abstraction of the quality of the video (it was my first one so the lightning, and sound are not always perfect), we had a great discussion about Microsoft, the startups, and our presence in Notman House. The video is still relevant except the fact that, obviously, it’s not me anymore that hold the BizSpark Lounge at Notman, but my replacement (not announced yet, but I’ll keep you up to date when it is public).

What do you think of the startups’ world? Are you building one? Did you know Notman House? Share your thoughts.

Je dois dire que je ne suis pas un grand fan de tennis: j’ai assisté 1-2 fois à des parties, j’ai bien aimé, mais pas nécessairement pour y retourner. J’étais toutefois curieux d’aller voir ce que Rogers avait créé, pour la Coupe Rogers,ainsi que de voir la murale faite par le collectif EN MASSE, lorsque j’ai été invité au lancement du site TennisROGERSmtl.

Premièrement, je ne suis pas un grand connaisseur au niveau de l’art de rue, mais je dois dire que je suis un fan de ce qu’EN MASSE fait et j’ai bien aimé la murale (photo ci-haut) qu’ils ont faite en collaboration avec Rogers. Ayant lieu à la Station 16, galerie d’art que je ne connaissais pas et qui m’a bien plu (je compte y retourner, car il y avait trop de gens lors du 5 @ 7), des gens de Rogers était sur place pour nous présenter leur nouveau site Web spécialement concocter pour le tournoi qui a lieu actuellement. J’ai bien aimé que le tout soit fait sans tambour ni trompette: nous avions le choix de nous diriger vers la station de présentation pour obtenir une démonstration. Je dois dire qu’à priori, je ne suis pas adepte de ce genre de site à usage unique. Vous savez, le genre de site où on investit beaucoup pour la mise en ligne, mais qui ne sert que quelques jours et dont on n’entend plus parler après. Par contre, en tant que Montréalais, ainsi que pour les gens de l’extérieur, je vois une certaine utilité à ce portail d’informations qui nous permet de bonifier notre expérience avant, pendant et après. Que ce soit pour connaître les bons endroits proches du stade Uniprix, augmenter ses connaissances du tennis ou obtenir quelques astuces technos reliées au tennis (vous aurez deviné, ma section préférée), le site est à votre disposition. J’ai bien aimé le fait qu’on fasse appel à une compagnie d’ici pour l’ajout initial de capsules et qu’on cherche à impliquer des blogueurs dans le processus.

Une belle initiative de Rogers qui j’espère ne prendra pas la poussière après la coupe de cette année. Après tout, le site peut servir à l’année pour les adeptes du tennis et si je ne m’abuse, il y a une coupe par année. Alors, êtes-vous fan de tennis? Pensez-vous que le site TennisROGERSmtl est vraiment utile? Partagez vos impressions.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/6147153

It’s now time for you to add this feature to your application.

If you are using Ginger, the grammar corrector, with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, like the one in Wordpress, be aware that Ginger may add spaghetti to your code. I’m trusting TinyMCE inside of Wordpress for years as the code it generates is valid, and is far better than it was before, but one week ago I noticed something in my code: Ginger was adding HTML elements to it, his way to manage the correction in my text. What a surprise to see that sometimes, this code was saved in my post. The result? An HTML code stuffed of span that shouldn’t be there after I finished the correction. Here is an example:

More concretely, it means going to conferences, user groups, startup incubators, universities…. to present about your technology, to talk with, and meet people. This is where you will build strong relationships, and where you’ll find influencers to help you achieve your goal, and scale. It’s not just about conferences, think about hackathons, and workshops: they are good places to help people learn your API, or start to use your product. You can also leverage what you are doing offline, online, by doing video interviews, recording your talk or doing recapitulation blog posts.

Maybe it was a bug for a specific version, perhaps it was a problem with Wordpress, but it was enough to remove Ginger, and clean my code (I still need to look in older posts to see if there is still improper code). At the end, I don’t want any plugin or application to miss with the code from my posts. If Ginger screw your code too, use an editor like Sublime Text who can find & replace with regular expression, and use the number 1 to find, and number 2 to replace:

1. (GINGER([^<]*))
2. 1

It will find all the , and replace them with everything in the first parenthesis (the code/text we want to keep for now). After this one, we can now remove the first part of the Ginger by using the next string to find, and replace it with nothing:

1. <span class="GINGER([^>]*)>

It should leave you with a clean code, at least without any Ginger specific elements. I tried it on many posts with success. Hope it will help you too.

P.S.: I wonder if the class GINGER_SOFATWARE is a typo by developers or not.

Hier matin j’ai eu le plaisir d’aller parler de Geek à l’émission de radio Médium Large diffusée à Radio-Canada. En compagnie de l’ami Alexandre Enkerli, ainsi que d’une nouvelle connaissance, François Lemay et de l’animatrice Isabelle Craig, nous avons tenté de démystifier un peu la culture Geek. Comme vous le savez, dès qu’il s’agit de parler des Geeks et de promouvoir cette culture dont je suis issue, je suis toujours partant! Nous avons donc abordé divers sujets dans cette courte discussion: qu’est-ce qu’un Geek, Geek vs Nerd, type de Geeks, culture et bien plus. Je tiens à remercier toute l’équipe pour l’invitation. L’émission étant en ligne, si vous le désirez, vous pouvez écouter directement notre segment d’une vingtaine de minutes.

Une mention spéciale à l’équipe qui ma grandement impressionné par rapport à la rapidité de mise en ligne de l’émission (je pense qu’une heure après, si ce n’était plus tôt, tout était en ligne), en accompagnant le tout d’un court billet mentionnant le sujet, ainsi que d’une photo des invités. Étant en faveur de la pérennité de l’information, je félicite l’équipe. Cela permet aussi d’offrir l’information à la génération du Web qui n’écoute probablement pas la radio.

For the first one, I got an interesting question from a developer last week. He was asking if it’s possible to play mp4 in a Firefox OS application. The answer is yes, and no. You cannot play a mp4 in the

https://gist.github.com/fharper/6091404

Keep in mind that for now, it’s not working in the simulator, and it also depends on the codecs on a real device. As an example, it wasn’t working with a file using isom, but it worked well with one using mp42 codec.

Très (trop) souvent, j’ai des idées de projets, des fois reliés au monde des TI, des fois non. J’ai eu une passe où chaque idée que je considérais valable voyait le jour, peu importe le créneau. Ces projets furent tous très intéressants, m’ont apportés beaucoup et j’espère, ont apportés beaucoup aux gens qu’ils ont rejoints. Certains vivre encore, d’autres sont terminés et bien heureusement certains ont été repris par d’autres. Avec le temps, je me concentre de plus en plus sur ce qui est relié à mon travail, ma passion, plutôt que de m’éparpiller. C’est d’ailleurs pourquoi on ne verra pas de deuxième édition du Failcamp Montréal (du moins, organisé par moi).

La première et dernière édition (en anglais) fut en 2011, mais j’ai toujours voulu en faire une deuxième, soit en 2012 ou en 2013. Le but du camp, qui en réalité n’est pas un vrai camp vu que c’était organisé, était de prendre conscience qu’un échec (fail) n’est pas une fin en soi. C’est une façon d’apprendre de ses erreurs, de devenir meilleurs et d’en faire profiter son avenir. Je suis assez fiert de cette première à Montréal où j’ai fait salle comble au bureau de Microsoft, soit 75 personnes au total. J’avais bien sûr une belle brochette de présentateurs (je déteste cette expression, mais je l’utilise tout de même): Julien Smith, Michelle Blanc, Martin Lessard et Fabrice Calando. Tous sont venus nous parler de leur expérience, de leurs échecs et surtout de comment ils ont utilisé cette leçon pour devenir meilleur. Le résultat? Plusieurs personnes, dont moi, en sortirent inspirer et un peu changer, pour le meilleur. Ce fut une belle soirée que je ne regrette pas d’avoir organisé et je suis heureux d’avoir eu le privilège d’écouter ces formidables communicateurs.

Le temps a toutefois passé et je m’aperçois qu’une deuxième édition n’arrivera pas, du moins pas par moi. Failcamp étant une belle expérience, il n’entre pas dans ma vision actuelle, soit de concentrer mes projets sur ce qui est relié à mon travail. Je lance toutefois l’invitation à qui voudra bien reprendre le flambeau! Croyez-moi, si vous avez un peu de temps, ça en vaut la peine. Avez-vous assisté à la première édition? Si oui, qu’en avez-vous retiré? Sinon, pensez-vous qu’on peut apprendre de nos échecs? Partagez vos idées avec moi!

As you probably know now, my new role at Mozilla is all about Firefox OS. I’ll have opportunities to do broader Open Web stuff like the friends (and now co-workers) Christian Heilmann, and Robert Nyman do, but at the end, 99,9% of my time will be dedicated to the mobile side of the Open Web with our new OS. This assignment was a perfect fit for me as it combined many of my passions, and experiences: the Web, Open Standard, Open Source, and mobility.

As you also know, I like to help people, and I firmly believe that the role of an Evangelist is not just to promote stuff, but also to help others being successful. So part of my role is to help you, Web developers, to create, and deploy your application to the Marketplace (or not, as you don’t have to). It doesn’t matter if you are building a new application for Firefox OS, if you are porting a website, if you are porting a mobile application you did with web technologies (Windows 8, Blackberry, PhoneGap, WebOS…) or even if you are porting a native mobile app (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone…).

The process is simple, send me an email to fharper@mozilla.com with information about what you are trying to achieve, what is your problem, and with the code you tried, cause the error or isn’t working. If you even have code I can download/install, and try, it will make my work easier. A better way to do would be to ask your question on StackOverflow, and send me the link by email or on Twitter. If so, the question, and the answer will be public, and it’ll help more people. I highly encourage you to use the latter if nothing is private, and also, let’s be clear, there is no stupid question!

Last but not least, I just don’t want to hear from you if you are having a problem. If you get a good experience with the platform, please let me know. I, as well, would like to know if you successfully published your application to the marketplace! I also encourage you to share this post to everyone who could take advantage of it. So did you start to play with Firefox OS? Did you already build something? Do you have any plan to do so in the future? Share your thoughts!

Today I’m starting my second week as a Technical Evangelist at Mozilla focusing on Firefox OS. Of course, everything is new, and magic, so I’ll need more time to get a better idea out of it, but I can say that only after my first week, I’m really happy with my new job.

The first days were a lot about filing documents, reading wikis, creating accounts, ordering stuff, learning the platform… The usual tasks in a new role, but at the same time, I already started to do what they hire me for. Working with a smaller company that moves 100% toward the mission they have, gave me another perspective on work: it also gave me the opportunity to have a real impact on the business, and this, really quickly. I already started to work with Firefox OS’ developers to get their applications in the Marketplace. Helping people being successful is one of the reasons why I enjoy so much being an Evangelist. It’s also energizing to work with people that want to work with you, that love your products, and that like the company you work for. In my previous job at Microsoft, I was working with people who didn’t really use Microsoft technology, or worse, that didn’t like the company at all. Even if I had the character for the job, it’s refreshing to see the other side. Just as an example from when I was at Microsoft, I even had people who refused to shake my hand because I was a Microsoftie (I’m serious - so stupid!). I also started to schedule some travels for team meetings, and for the first Firefox OS event I’ll lead. So excited!

I still have a lot to learn, but I’m starting my second week with a big smile on my face. I wanted to share a bit of my happiness with you this morning, and I hope you like your job as much as I do!

P.S.: Mozilla is not formal with job titles, so even if they hired me as a Senior Technical Evangelist, I’m trying to find a title that would be awesome, and would represent my work on Firefox OS as something that would fit me. If you have any ideas, please let me know in the comment section.

Cette année encore, ZooFest accueille le Geek Show et ce n’est pas pour me déplaire. Ils en sont à leur troisième édition (mon billet invitant à aller voir la première édition, ainsi que la deuxième) et pour avoir été présent aux deux premières, je ne voulais pas rater l’événement. Encore une fois, la production m’offre deux places (désolé, j’ai déjà un invité, haha), mais ce n’est pas pour cela que j’en parle ici: c’est tout simplement, car j’ai bien ri lors des représentations des années passées et je comptais bien y retourner cette année. De plus, toute initiative Geek entre totalement dans mon créneau et aide la mission du Festival Geek de Montréal (repris d’une main de maître par une nouvelle équipe) qui est, entre autres, de promouvoir cette magnifique culture.

Si vous êtes Geek, plutôt dans ma génération, vous allez aimer votre soirée. Blagues reliées aux jeux vidéos, aux consoles, aux RPG, aux jeux de tables, à l’informatique ou juste aux situations entre Geeks que la vie de tous les jours nous apporte, vous serez servis. De plus, c’est aussi une occasion de connaître des humoristes tels que Yannick DeMartino que j’ai découvert et adorés lors des deux premières éditions ou Korine Côté que j’ai eu le plaisir (des oreilles… et des yeux) de découvrir l’an passé. Selon leurs propres mots:

Cette année c’est notre Retour du Roi, notre Retour du Jedi, notre Retour vers le Futur.

Notre troisième Geek Show! Du tout nouveau matériel avec la même chouette équipe de souffleux de cassettes.

Jeux vidéo, science-fiction, film, super héros, technologie, etc., présentés sous forme de blagues, sketches et anecdotes.

Je vous suggère donc d’acheter vos billets avant qu’il n’en reste plus, que ce soit pour le 21 (complet!), le 25 ou le 26 en soirée. Un 25$ bien investit!

P.-S. Venez me saluer si vous choisissez la représentation de vendredi prochain.

I’m a big believer in the fact that you learn something in mostly everything you do. I learn a lot in past jobs, and it was the same at Microsoft. Today was my last day as a Microsoft employee, and I wanted to thank the company, and more importantly, the people as the past two years, and a half was an important part of my career in IT. Since there is never enough of bromance on the Internet, I thought I would do it in my own style, with a blog post…

Even if it’s stupid to list some people as you always forget people, and upset them, I’ll do likewise as I meet some important people that I want to thank publicly. At the top of my list, I want to thank John Oxley, my first manager. He his the one who gives me my chance, and offer me the opportunity to make a career change from Developer to Evangelist. I also want to thank Ryan Storgaard, my second, and last manager who helped me to be a better Evangelist. This guys supported me until the end, even when I told him I was leaving! Part of my old team (not because of their ages, albeit…) I want to thank Damir Bersinic, who was like a dad for me, Joey DeVilla, who teached me that even in a big enterprise you can stay yourself, Christian Beauclair who was my hire buddy (was so happy he was French!), and Rick Claus, who teach me that the stronger hardwares can always be Claused!

Also part of my team, I want to thank Paul Laberge to be one of my closest friends in the team, and I hope we’ll keep in touch. I cannot talk about my team without talking about the mentorship our own Principal Technical Evangelist, Thomas Lewis (aka Tommy Lee), did with me in some challenging times. It was also a pleasure, day to day, to work with amazing people like Ruth Morton, Susan Ibach (one word: wine), Marc Gagné, Pierre Roman (continue the French pride in the team), Anthony Bartolo (I’ll always hate you Bartolo!), and Jonathan Rozenblit. Part of DPE Canada, I had the pleasure to work with the Marketing team, and I want to specially thank Harpreet Grin as Harp was always there for me! I also had the chance to work with some lovely Audience Marketing Manager as my partners in crime: Angie Lim, Samantha Wong, Reemah Khalid, and Vanessa Beeswanger. It was a pleasure to work with all of you, and you each own a big part of who I am now. Last but not least, my CSI friends with whom I worked closely: Julia Stowell, Nik Garkusha, and Keith Loo. It’s because of people like you that Microsoft is more open than ever, and that it will continue to go in the right direction.

The role I had, and in my own opinion, also Microsoft, are not just about employees: it’s also about people in the communities that help to make a difference, so it wouldn’t be fair to finish that post without listing some of the amazing people I meet that helped me day to day with their energy, and passion! Firstly, let me thank Guy Barrette, who is one of the people in Montreal who helped me understand Microsoft, and answers many questions I had about me vs the role before entering the interview process. Another special thanks to Mathieu Chartier, a good friend of mine who always believe in me, and always challenged me (he still does!) on my way of thinking. I also want to thank Mario Cardinal, Etienne Tremblay, Laurent Duveau, Sébastien Lachance, Matthieu Guyonnet-Duluc, Bryan Xu, Raymond Tsang, Matthew Potter, Raymond Kao, Bonnie Lui, and many more that I won’t list there as it would take me too long… Thanks for being that awesone, and help the IT industry with everything you do for your respective community!

As in everything in my life, Émilie Plante, my fiancé (yes, people from outside of Québec, it’s normal to be engaged for more than one year without any wedding date) who supported me from the beginning, and will support me in my next adventure. As for all other, if I forgot you, I’m sincerely sorry (I know it was stupid to list people), but trust me, if our roads crossed at some point during my time at the Empire, I’m thankful for everything we did together…

For all of you my friends, thanks, thanks a lot for being there. Thanks for helping me, thanks for being brilliant co-workers, thanks for your passion, and love. Last but not least, thanks for enduring me all these times as I know it wasn’t easy! It was a real pleasure to work with you, for some of them we’ll continue to work together on other projects, and I really hope we’ll all keep in touch. Again, thanks Microsoft for everything…

P.S.: The picture was taken at the Make Web Not War communities night 2011 in Toronto with, from left to right, Nik Garkusha, myself, Anthony Bartolo, Joey DeVilla, Gladstone Grant, Jonathan Rozenblit, and Alexander Yakobovich.

Seriously? I mean, the wall painting was not beautiful, and now, they added some distaff to fit the wall. At least, if it was for kids I would understand, but there is nothing there for kids: no toys, no sand, no water fountain… I pass in front of this quite often, and I rarely see people enjoying the precious moment they have in this wonderful swamp, and of course, our taxes probably paid this!

P.S.: For those not in Montreal, Verdun is the neighborhood in which I live in Montreal.

I just found in my draft folder a post about an online presentation I did one year ago on WebMatrix. Even if the software as evolved in the last year, and that it wasn’t one of my priority anymore, I thought it would be nice to share this video as I think WebMatrix is a good lightweight IDE for Web, and PHP developers (note that didn’t use it since a year, as I was mainly using Visual Studio as my main IDE, and now Sublime Text). It’s a also a good way for me to see how I improve my spoken English :)

P.S.: The Demo God was not with me for this one

I have neglected you with the HTML5 challenge, but trust me, I had a lot to do with my job change. The second challenge will be all about Web Socket. The Web Socket API fascinates me as it gives us the opportunity to do two-way communication with a remote host.

So for the second challenge, you’ll need to create the usual demo you see with Web Socket, a little chat Web application. Nothing complex, you can even give a random nickname to identify each user, and they will see what other users are typing in the chat window. You’ll have one month to do the challenge, and you’ll be able to share your code, and comment on my solution in the blog post I’ll do to share it.

More information about the HTML5 challenges #

What are the HTML5 challenges? #

Once a month, I’ll publish a little challenge on Web technologies around HTML (HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript). My goal is to help people who want to learn the new features, and elements of the latest version of HTML, by setting some deadlines, but also, by focusing on clear little tasks. Across everything I’m doing, there is a constant feedback: people want to learn new technology, but they don’t always have the time to work on big projects, don’t have the patience of reading a full book, or just fail as there is no motivation. I hope that these challenges will motivate developers, and even non-developers people to learn about those.

It will sound cheesy, but at the end, there is only the satisfaction of learning something new, and build some little project by yourself. There is no prize, or leader board, as for me, everybody is a winner! I also want those challenges to be easy to manage for me, so I’ll keep this simple.

Can I participate? #

Everybody can participate! Keep in mind that it’s not a step by step tutorial, but clearly a challenge with no more indication than the end result I want you to do. The goal here is to give you the latitude to create the solution by yourself, and learn where to find the right information. If you don’t feel comfortable with a specific challenge, of course, nothing force you to do it, and you can wait for the solution to see how it works. At the end, there are enough sites talking about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the Web, that you can do it (by yourself, avoid copy pasting…)! On the other side, if you already know these technologies, why not validate your skills by doing those challenges. At the end, we never use all the features of a technology, so you may come across something you don’t know…

Is the solution you’ll give us is the ultimate one? #

Of course not! I’ll give you a working solution, and a solution that makes the most sense with my actual knowledge. My code will be tested with the HTML W3c validator, CSS W3C validator, and JSLint (note that for JSLint you’ll never have a perfect validation with my code as I ignore some of the errors it’s reporting). I will also test the code on the latest releases (no nightly builds) of Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera if the features are available in all those browsers. Last, but not least, my code will be available on GitHub, and you’ll have a live version to play with it.

I’m the kind of person who think that there is always space for improvement, so I’ll be happy to discuss my solution if you don’t agree with it, or if you think there is a more efficient way to do it.

I find those challenges amazing, can I help? #

There are three ways you can help:

1. Participate! That sound weird, but if nobody is participating in the challenge, I won’t do them as the goal is to help people learn about the technology. By participating, you’ll show me that there is value in what I’m doing (other way, I’ll take this time to do something else);
2. Suggest challenges as it will help me to find interesting challenges to motivate people to learn about these technologies;
3. Promote the challenges by sharing them with your network. Whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, to a friend by emails, to the co-worker at work, in your user groups, sharing these challenges will help the first two points: participation, and more suggestions. At the end, it will help a bigger goal than these two one, it will help promote the standard, and good practice on the Internet, and that, is an amazing way to help the Web go forward.

Where can I find older challenges? #

You can look on this blog for the tag “HTML5 challenges” and you’ll see all posts related to those: the introduction one, the challenges, and the solutions.

1. Canvas & File API (the solution)

The friend, and future co-worker Christian Heilmann did a good blog post by giving some tricks for people who want to do some public speaking. It’s no secret, I want to start a speaker camp (workshop) in Montreal to help people about public speaking as I want more people to be able to share their love, and expertise on technology (I’ll get more information on this Mozillians speaking workshop). With this in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the tricks I have to add to Christian’s list. By no mean it’s a complete list, but I hope combine with the post from Christian, it will help you.

• You are the expert: when you are on the stage, you are the expert, act accordingly. Don’t brag or be pretentious about your knowledge, people are there to learn from what you’ll share with them. It’s OK if you don’t know something, let the person know, get his contact information after the presentation, find the answer, and get back to him. There is nothing worse than a speaker giving a bad answer just to give an answer: you’ll lose credibility, and you’ll set people for failure.
• Be yourself: this one sounds weird at first, but trust me it makes sense. Stay yourself on stage, don’t try to be someone else or act like someone else: it won’t be comfortable for you, and it may not give a good experience to the attendees. Actually, I would say that this trick is not just for stage speaking, but for all your life… be yourself!
• Slides are not your presentation: the slides, if you use them, are there to give a visual aid to the attendees, and may help you to remember the flow of your presentation, but by no mean, it’s the presentation. Please, please, and please, don’t read them. If people in the room can just read them, why are you there? If you are having text in those, make the text bigger so the last person in the back can read it, and make your content breath a little.
• Repeat the questions: whether you are recorded or not, when someone asks you a question (if attendees have no mic for questions), please repeat it, and summarize it if needed. That will help other attendees to understand it, that will help you to focus on it, and if the person who asked the question take 5 minutes to do it (that never happens!), it will help you to see if you get the main element out of it.
• Live coding or not: I won’t tell you what to do, but I personally find boring when a speaker is taking too much time to code in front of me, and most of the time, trying to find the bug he created by doing so. If you choose to do it, do it quick, have some snippet or fully working code to help you get out of trouble if needed. At the end, know your stuff, and like with the slides, be sure the code is big enough so everybody can read it.
• Don’t ask who don’t know something: firstly, it may be intimidating for people in the room to let all other attendees know that they don’t know something, so most of the time, you may get no hands up, and you’ll skip something important that may have helped many shy people. Secondly, be positive, people are way more proud to show that they know something, and may not lie about this. In any case, follow the level of your presentation: if it’s a beginning one, assume people know nothing. If I’m an expert in a beginner presentation, it’s my fault. If it’s a level 400, act accordingly.
• Have a flow: start from point A, and go to point Z, in that order. I saw a couple of presentations where the speaker wanted to show too much stuff, not always related, and the end result was confused attendees. At the end, it’s all about telling a story to the audience.
• Be energetic: I’m not saying that you need to jump everywhere on stage, but be excited about what you’ll talk about, have some energy, and give your show. If I want to see a monotone, and boring speech, I won’t pay to assist a conference, and I’ll watch a parliamentary debate on the TV…
• Don’t take attendees survey too personal: of course, you can have bad reviews or comments on your talk because you were boring, and you didn’t know your subject, but I’m sure that if you are on stage now, it’s because you are great. Sometimes, attendees can give bad reviews on your talk, and the problem is that most of the time, you have no context. It could be because the attendee didn’t read the abstract of your presentation, and was expecting something that didn’t happen. He could think that you said something wrong, but maybe, he is wrong (it may be you also!). It may not be a good day for him or her, and you are the punching bag. On the other side, it’s important to take those into consideration, has they can help you a lot to improve your speaking skills.
• Be approachable: depending on your topic, most of the time, there is not enough time to take all the questions. Hurry to remove your stuff from the stage to give the next speaker enough time to prepare himself, and go out of the room to take more questions. Don’t be that superstar that doesn’t have time to give more autographs. This is usually the time where you’ll get the most interesting questions, meet the most interesting people, and create new relationships.
• Introduce yourself, but quickly: people may not know you, so it’s important to introduce yourself, but do it quick. Nobody sign-up for your presentation to learn about you for 5+ minutes.

I hope it will help you, and maybe give you the desire to begin as a speaker as there is a lot of places where you can start like camp events. Any other tricks for speaker? Some of these you disagree with? Share your thoughts.

Don’t overreact, the title is just to get you to this post as I’m not really crowdsourcing my bio (nor thinking I’m important enough to have a full biography!). You know, I’m in the process of changing job, and I need to review my bio (for conferences, articles… I’m doing). Since I suck at it, I thought it would be nice to get your ideas from what you know about me, what you read on this blog, the laugh we share, what you saw on Facebook, the event we worked on together, what I share on Twitter, the good & bad moments we had, the presentations I did, my experience on my LinkedIn profile… So far, here what I have:

In the IT world for more than 10 years, Frédéric Harper started as a developer working with different technologies focusing on Web, and mobile development. One day, Frédéric got a revelation, and decided to use his social skills to become an Evangelist. He spent a few years showing the Openness of Microsoft talking about Open Source, Web standards, and Interoperability. Now, as a Senior Technical Evangelist at Mozilla, Fred shares his passion about the Open Web, and help developers be successful with Firefox OS. Experienced speaker, t-shirts wearer, long-time blogger, passionate hugger, and HTML5 lover, Fred lives in Montréal, and speak Frenglish. Always conscious about the importance of unicorns, and gnomes, you can read about these topics, and other thoughts at fred.dev.

What is missing? What do I need to remove? What should I change? It need to be “Fred style” (thence the unicorns, gnomes, and Frenglish), but still good for different cultures… Share your thoughts… or not!

As you know, I’m leaving Microsoft on July 2nd, and I’m joining Mozilla, so we need to find a replacement. Do you think you can be a Technical Evangelist? Are you passionate about Technology? Do you live in Montréal, and are a Francophone who speak English (I know the irony of doing this post in English)? Do you like to share, and help others? Are you good with working at home (or go at the office if you prefer…), and some occasional traveling? Do you know iOS or Android? Do you believe in Microsoft products, and technologies (note that you don’t have to know them, you can learn)? Would you like to be paid to work with partners, do some blogging, helps developers being successful, work with brilliant people, help the communities to grow, work with startups… ? If you answer yes to one or many of these questions (even better), please give a closer look at the official offer online.

I tried, with my experience, and my understanding of the evolution of my actual role for the Fred 2.0, to create a description of the offer in my own words. If you have any questions, comments or would like to meet for a coffee to discuss a little more about it, please send me an email at fredh@microsoft.com. I’ll be more than happy to have a good discussion with you, and no worries, it will be a secret as you may not want your actual employer to know about it…

Important (that mean you need all of them to apply) – In no particular order #

Living in Montreal: it’s important for Microsoft Canada to have a representative in the Montreal area for such important places like at Notman House, and with all the user groups as the conferences happening here.Bilingual Francophone: since the candidate will cover the Montreal area, and that Microsoft cares about Francophone it will be important to have a Francophone. It will also be important that the person speaks also in English, as it will have to join an English team, and cover all the rest of the Canada.Developer experience required: It’s very important for an Evangelist to have development experience. You need to understand the pain, problems, and day to day of a developer to be able to reach them.iOS and/or Android background: Android and/or iOS experience is required. One of the main focuses for the candidate next fiscal year (beginning July 1st) will be about reaching the mobile developers around iOS and/or Android technology to get them on board with the Microsoft stack, mainly Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8. It will also be an opportunity to get them to use Windows Azure as a backend. A preference will be around iOS experience.HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript knowledges: another audience that the Evangelist will reach is Web developers. Since one of the technology to build Windows 8 application is HTML, it will help him get developers on board.Passion of technology, and people: without passion around technology, you won’t be able to be a good Evangelist. You also need to have the passion around people, and to see them being successful.Presentation skills: part of the role include presentations at conferences, in user group meetup or in online webinars. You’ll also have to lead some workshops or hackathons. With this in mind, it’s important that you are comfortable to speak in front of a crowd as a subject matter expert, and be able to vulgarize on these topics. Please note that it’s part of the role, but not all what you’ll do.Self-learning capabilities: as an Evangelist, you need to be able to learn by yourself. You’ll start on focussing on Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Windows Azure, but you’ll need to follow the versions of these products, the new API, and the new features. Your focus may also change to include new product or new technology, and you always need to be on the cutting edge of those.Leadership: based on the scorecard, and DPE (Developer Platform Evangelist) plan for the fiscal year, you’ll have to define your plan with your virtual team (you, and your partners, like an Audience Marketing Manager, and a community manager from the Commercial Software Initiative department) on how you want to achieve the year goals. On the personal side, you’ll also have to define your commitments for the year, as they will help you to focus on what is important, and help your manager to review your performance.

Assets (that means it’s a plus if you have one or all of them) – In no particular order #

AWS background: part of your work is to win over competition of Windows Azure. Educate people about Cloud Computing, and letting them know about Windows Azure will be part of your day to day. Since Amazon is one of our strongest competitors, and more important, is probably the biggest one when it comes to Startups. Since startups, and the cloud is very important at Microsoft, having some knowledges around AWS would be a great asset for the role.Knowledge around Windows 8: all Evangelist has a primary focus related to our scorecard for the year, and the new Evangelist will also focus on Windows 8. That means, that you’ll need to be at level 400 (technical level you see at conferences) on Windows 8 application development using HTML5. If you have any experience developing, and deploying a Windows 8 application, it will be a good asset for the role. If you don’t, you can learn quickly the WinJS API as the perfect candidate will already have HTML5 skills.Knowledge around Windows Azure: even if the Evangelist has a primary focus, he will still need to support other technology like Windows Azure, and have an understanding of the technology compared to a level 200. Since Windows Azure is Open, it will be a good opportunity to leverage our cloud offering to the HTML, iOS, and Android developers as they mostly all needs backend, databases, and more.Knowledge around Windows Phone: Last, but not least on the technical side, the Windows Phone. This one is really Microsoft specific as you need to use C#, and XAML to build applications.Writing skills: part of the role you’ll have to write code sample, code demo, presentations, and blog posts sometimes technical, sometimes informational. You need to have a good quality writing in French, and in English.Online & offline presence: being an Evangelist means that you will create a connection online, but also offline with influencers, developers, and many more people. Already being part of in-person communities like specific user groups would be a must as it will be easier to do your job if people already know you. Online is an important part of what we are doing as it help you scale, so having a blog, a Twitter account or any other social media presence would help you reach more people. It’s easier for the team if you already have a good network.

My new role #

As a Technical Evangelist, I’ll focus on the new Firefox OS that Mozilla is working on. It will be a good way to continue to make the Web more Open, and give an opportunity to the Web developers to use their existing skills to be successful, and reach a new market. What people need to understand is that Firefox OS is not competing with iOS or Android. It’s an Open platform that will give an opportunity to emerging markets, where there is no devices available like the iPhone or places where people can’t afford them. It will be a chance to go from features phone, to a full fledged quality smartphone.

Part of my role will be doing conferences, hackathons, and workshops. It will imply, of course, travelling, and my audience won’t be restricted to Canada only. At the beginning it will be more in South America, and Eastern Europe, then everywhere else. It will also imply online work like being on social media, writing blog posts, doing code demos, presenting at online events, and helping people on technical forums. At the end, it’s what I’ve been doing for a living since the last 2 years, and a half, but worldwide instead of just Canada, and on Firefox OS as on the Open Web. What is also great is that I’m leaving a team of smart people, for another team of smart people! I’m happy to be able to work with friends like Christian Heilmann, and Robert Nyman.

Microsoft, and now Mozilla, it’s weird #

It may, but think about it, I was talking about the Openness of Microsoft. For the last 2-3 years, my main topics were around Open Source, Web Standard, Open Data, and Interoperability. Now, I’ll talk about the Open Web, and continue to share my passion about Web technologies. As for the mobile part, I developed on iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and since I joined Microsoft, I evangelize about the Windows Phone platform, so talking about a new product, like Windows Phone or Windows 8 is part of what I was doing day to day. I can’t wait to show the awesomeness of Firefox OS to developers.

It’s still about people #

Being an Evangelist is all about people: helping people to be successful, and learn new things is what drives me day to day. Even if I’ll travel a lot, like I was doing at my first half at Microsoft, I’ll stay in Montreal. That means I’ll still be there to help you, and support the local community. On top of that, whether you are in my hometown, or everywhere in the world, if you are a Web developer or a mobile developer, I want to hear from you. We’ll, together, make that amazing platform the best out there.

My first day will be July 15th. Until that day, I’ll continue to finalize some stuff at Microsoft, and I’ll take 2 weeks of vacations to be well rested, and ready to take on my new challenge at Mozilla. I’m super excited, and can’t wait to start!

In today’s world, we can capture everything with our smartphones… even videos like this one! When my doctor told me I should drink less coffee, I had to find a replacement somehow, and I now like to drink tea (without caffeine) once in a while. I’m tired of having the choice between “English Breakfast” or the other irresistible camomile, so I bought a little kit I can bring with me when I’m traveling. Thanks to Anthony Bartolo for recording this… I hate you with love Bartolo!

P.S.: Yeah, I’m expecting many people calling me Tea Princess in addition to my co-workers that were at the table with me at that time!

Guess which one I am…

You probably know it by now, I’m looking for a new opportunity as I’m leaving Microsoft. The next challenge that I’m looking for will certainly be in the Evangelism space (or something related) as it’s a role I like so much, and that is what I want to continue to do for a living.

Since the announcement, I’m overwhelmed by the comments, testimonials, and job offers I got. I thought it would be a good idea to do a more complete post on what I’m looking for, but also what I have to offer. Firstly, to be an Evangelist, you cannot just promote any technologies, products or companies: you need to be excited about what you’ll have to evangelize. It’s a matter of being honest, and true to yourself, but also, to your employer, and to your audience.

Who am I? #

For the first 9 years of my career, I was doing development: Web, and mobile. I played with many technologies like Java, PHP, EmbPerl, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C#, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Linux, Windows, BlackBerry, iOS… A little less than 3 years ago, I finally mix two of my passions together, technology, and people, to become a Technical Evangelist. In that role, I had to work with technology like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Windows 8, Windows Azure, and Windows Phone.

Whenever you’ll see me, I’ll wear jeans (or short), and a t-shirt. The Geeky or funny t-shirts are now part of my brand. I also like people, so it’s why I’m doing this job: I like to share my passion, and help people being successful. Transparency, and honesty are part of who I am, so you can expect to have an open relationship with me.

Unpretentious, I call myself a doer, someone who make things happen. As an example, I created a festival to promote the Geek culture in Montreal, and with the help of passionate people like me, we created a non-profit organization, and were able to have more than 750 attendees on the second edition. I also co-founded an HTML5 user group that now has around 600 members with monthly meetings. I like to take an idea, and make it a reality.

If you want to learn a little more about me, please read this blog, it’s an open book!

What is Evangelism for me? #

Call it an Advocate, an Advisor or an Evangelist, the role is sometimes different from one company to the other. Of course, the goal of having an Evangelist in your rank is to get more people to use your technology, your product or to promote something your company believe in, like the Open Web. But the role is all about people: connecting, creating relationships, and helping them to be successful. I separate the role in two parts: offline, and online. I put offline first as I think it’s critical to go where they go to win the heart, and mind of your audience.

More concretely, it means going to conferences, user groups, startup incubators, universities…. to present about your technology, to talk with, and meet people. This is where you will build strong relationships, and where you’ll find influencers to help you achieve your goal, and scale. It’s not just about conferences, think about hackathons, and workshops: they are good places to help people learn your API, or start to use your product. You can also leverage what you are doing offline, online, by doing video interviews, recording your talk or doing recapitulation blog posts.

Online is also important as you can’t be everywhere, and it’s easier to scale online. Social media will be one of the key tools you use: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… it all depends where is the audience you want to reach. The blog is a critical asset for an Evangelist: whether it’s on his own property, or the one from his employer, this is the place to do announcements, put code demos, do technical posts, and much more. Depending on your goal, taking time to go to forums like Stack Overflow to help people can be an amazing tool for success. Last, but not least, webinars, and videos will help you reach people in a different way. Keep in mind that if you can reach people, you won’t have the same relationship with them as when you do it offline.

So this is how I’m seeing the role of an Evangelist, and what is great is that at the end, I have experience with all of these.

What kind of role exactly I’m looking for? #

I want to do presentations as it’s one of the main things I like, and it’s how I see the path to success for an organization: sharing the love of the platform. I have no problem going in company once in a while, but I prefer a broader approach. I like to travel for work, and I have no problem to do it very often (I even have a Nexus card, the best 50$ I ever spent). I cannot deal with micromanagement, as for me, you need a bit of latitude in this role, and I can manage my day to day to reach the goal I have been given. I’m also used to work at home, and not having to work from 8 to 5 for a couple of years now, so it’s something I’m looking for also. Last, but not least, I’m not looking to move, for now, as I’m happy in Montreal, but hey, I’m not far from the airport. Oh, and keep in mind that if I can’t be myself, who I am, at work, it’s because the job is not for me…

What will you get? #

This answer is simple: you’ll get an Evangelist with experience, that like challenges, who is creative, and who is probably too much social. You’ll find an honest, and effective person with already an online presence, and strong network. Last, but not least, you’ll have someone who don’t take himself seriously, who like to share, and have a passion for technology, as for people. One transparent person, no surprise.

So If you see a fit for a role you have, the company, and the team, please let me know. You can also check my LinkedIn profile for more information.

This is so me, the yellow tie, belt, and shoes… This is the outfit I wore at Emilie cousin’s wedding.

For two years, and a half, I was a proud member of the Developer Platform Evangelist group (DPE) as a Technical Evangelist. During all that time, I shared with you the Open side of Microsoft. From the beginning till the end, I helped developers being successful on the Microsoft stack, changed their perception of the Death Star, and through this, meet some amazing people, but I’m reaching the end of this journey.

Leaving Microsoft #

I really like the “we enter as friends, we leave as friends” quote my friend, Joey DeVilla, used in his own departure post as it reflect a lot of the actual state of my relationship with Microsoft. The reason is simple: the Technical Evangelist role as evolved in different ways at Microsoft, and I have the feeling that I’m not the right person anymore to help the company achieve its goals. I’m very happy to had the chance of being part of this amazing team, and worked with all those brilliant people. It was a pleasure, an honor, and I learn a lot during these years. It’s because of the people who cross my road at Microsoft, but also outside of Microsoft during that time, that I can pretend to be a better person now, and an even better Evangelist!

Making the world a bit more Open #

When Microsoft approached me 3 years ago, I accepted the challenge (French post) to help Microsoft become more Open. They wanted someone to help them changed the perception, educate internally, and externally, and be that person at Microsoft Canada that would be able to Evangelize the Openness of Microsoft. It’s still not perfect, but I saw a big change in the last couple of years, and it continues in the right direction. More concreatly, most of my time was around four pillars:

• Open Source: changed perception around Open Source, and Microsoft by talking about interoperability, Open Data, Web Standard, and all Open Source projects we had.
• Web standard: HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript related to Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10, and Windows 8. On the Internet Explorer side, it was all about showing the respect of the standards, and educate people about the new version of HTML, and what, as developer, they can achieve. For Windows 8, it was basically to help Web Developers used their existing skills to build Windows 8 application.
• Startups: I really enjoyed to work with startups to help them be successful, see how Microsoft can help them, and take them to the next level. It’s such a beautiful world!
• Cloud computing: being responsible of the Openness of Microsoft in my team, Windows Azure was a big asset. Talking about PHP, Node.js, Wordpress, Linux Virtual Machine, PaaS, IaaS… became a real passion for me.

Make Web Not War, the brand, and the site, was from the beginning to the end, my main responsibility. Think about hackathons, workshops, conferences, blog posts, and taking this community to the next level. I’m proud of what I achieved since I join Microsoft, and I firmly believe that it helped Microsoft to be more Open, and be perceived as the company it is really.

The future #

As I’ve always done in my life, everything is about passion: life is too short to do things you are not excited, and passionate about anymore! Don’t get me wrong, I like to be a Technical Evangelist, and trust me, there is a lot of chances that the next step in my life will be as a Technical Evangelist (or something related). I like technology, I like to share my passion, and I like to help others being successful! So for now, it’s a bold move as I have nothing set in stone for my future yet. The only thing I know is that July 2nd will be my last day at the Empire. So from now on, I’ll be looking for the next challenge. Mostly around Evangelism (or Advocate if you prefer) on technologies I like, but I’m also open to learn about anything that would fit my profile. As far as I miss developing softwares all day long, I’m not looking to get back in this kind of role. I’ll do a more complete blog post on what I’m looking for, what I’m not, and the kind of person you can expect to work with if you hire me, but keep in mind those keywords if you are looking to hire: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Open Source, Web, Mobile, Cloud Computing, Startups… Please feel free to look at my LinkedIn profile, share this post on your social media, or send me an email if you think you have something interesting for me!

The opportunity #

With me leaving Microsoft Canada, that will leave, of course, an empty seat. I’ll start soon to look at who will be the next person to take the role. The deal that I have with my actual manager, that I need to thank for his amazing support, is that I need to find someone who will be better than me. It doesn’t mean that I was a bad Evangelist, of course, but that mean that this team continue to get better, and better, and trust me, this is an all-star team at Microsoft worldwide, so they are looking for the greatest, and the brightest people! The person I’m looking for should have a kind-of Evangelist profile, will be based in Montreal (as I was - there is an important community here), need to be a bilingual Francophone, knows iOS or Android development, and should know the latest, and the greatest of HTML (read, HTML5). For the role itself, I think that the post Joey did, before I join Microsoft, is still so relevant, but I’ll also do a more complete one from my own perspective. So if you think you have the profile, as the official job posting may never go online, please let me know by email. I care less about your resume, than who you are, what’s your thought on the Microsoft platform, and what you did in your community.

At the end… #

It was a hard decision, but being happy in life is not something you want to postpone, and like my friend Rick Claus said, it’s about chasing your dream! At the end, it’ll change nearly nothing for you. I’ll still be there to help you being successful, learning new technology, and putting you in contact with the right person depending on your needs. For the friends I’ve made, we will still be friends. For the people I meet, we cannot erase this part of our life, and I’ll still be a contact on whom you can count. I have also no plan to move from Montréal, so I’ll still be part of this amazing community, and help it growth. For Microsoft, they will get a new kick-ass Evangelist that will bring new ideas to the team, and let’s just say that they got a new influencer outside of the company. So I’m ready! I’m ready for the next journey, all pumped up, and excited…

P.-S.: If we worked together at some point, please feel free to leave me a recommendation on LinkedIn.

You know me, I like to share with others. I also like social media, and I’m a big believer in the strength of those online tools. It’s why I accepted the offer of Nancy A. Locke when she asked me if I wanted to be part of a roundtable discussion at the McGill Writing Centre around Social Media.

I should have written this post way before today as the event is this Thursday from 18:00 to 21:00. The friends Ray Hiltz, and Luis London will be there with me, as two people I’ll have the pleasure to meet, Matthew Burpee, and Lisa Ursano. To give you a better idea of the event, here is a part of the description on their website:

… for a roundtable discussion on the relatively new and rapidly evolving world of social media. What role do social media play in marketing and public relations strategy? What impact do social media have on content authoring? What skills do writers need to enter this important market and benefit from these critical communication and collaboration platforms? To blog or not to blog? Facilitated by Nancy A. Locke, who teaches the MWC’s course on Writing for Digital Media, this event provides an opportunity for participants to gain insight into how design, communication, and marketing principles shape our social media encounters, and to raise questions about the role of social media in our private and public lives.This event is a paid one, so get your ticket while it last if you want to chat with us about social media in today lives!

Because I know how the Internet is working, let me also specify that this is not considered as the ultimate, and perfect solution: this is the solution I made with my knowledges, and I will be more than happy to discuss it in the comment section. The last thing to take into consideration before we start: I suck with design, and it’s OK as the goal is not to have something pretty, but something functional. To make things clear, people who just want to play with the code can make it yours by cloning, forking, or downloading a copy of it from the repository on GitHub. For others, I’ll explain each part, and if you have any questions, please let me know in the comment section.

For the rest of the post, to save some space, I assume you know the basics of HTML, so I will paste or write only about things directly related to the challenge (example: I won’t paste the import statement for my own JavaScript file), but the sources on my GitHub profile are complete. Note also that all my code has been verified with the HTML W3c validator, CSS W3C validator, and JSLint (note that for JSLint you’ll never have a perfect validation with my code as I ignore some of the errors it’s reporting). I also make the code, and tested in on the latest releases (no nightly builds) of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

Let’s start with the HTML code:

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-htmlchallenge-html

The of type file will give us the opportunity to open the image to draw on it. We won’t use a form here to load the file as we’ll use File API later. The element will give us the opportunity to take the draw on the element, and fire up some JavaScript code that will create the image we’ll be able to save. For now, it is disable as we didn’t load an image yet, so this button is useless. The element will let the user draw on the image we’ll load. Last but not least, the element where we will load the result of our saved image so users will be able to load it. Nothing very exciting there, but you have the first step to a successful challenge. Now, let’s take a look at where all the magic happens, the JavaScript file:

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-1-js

The first thing is to prepare our application to react to different events. Right before, we’ll check if the browser supports canvas by using a subset of Modernizr, and if the browser support also the File API. If it’s the case, let’s add a simple change event on the file input so we’ll be able to load the file when the user will select one. We’ll add mouseup, and mousedown events to the canvas so we know when the user will draw on it. Last but not least, we’ll add a click event to the generate button to fire up the function that will save the image from the canvas. If the browser use by the user don’t support canvas or File API will disable elements on the page, and let him know about the fact he can’t use our application. The second part of the code is the function that will load the file loaded by the user into the canva__s element.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-2-js

The first thing to do is to make sure that the canvas element is visible, and the img is not. It’s not critical, but I added these lines of code to make sure the users can use the tool more than once without having to refresh the page. The magic happens at line 9, where I started to access the file with the FileReader, and I’ll start to read it with the readAsDataURL. After this, I’m setting an event handler once the operation will be successfully completed. In that case, I want to load the image that I accessed with the input field of type file. Once the image is loaded, I’ll resize the canvas element with the size of the image the user selected, so it will work with any image size as little or as large they will be. I’ll do the same with the hidden img element that I’ll use later to create the modified image. Last, but not least, because the canvas itself have no drawing abilities, we need to get one of his context, in our case, the 2d one, and use some script to do it. By using getContext on the canvas I’m able to draw on it, like drawing the image I built a couple lines before.

Now, I need to let the user draw on the canvas so I defined the startDrawOnCanvas function that I used in the first JavaScript code of this post.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-3-js

There is nothing complicated here: I’m setting a listener on mousemove on the canvas element, so if the user moves his mouse over the canvas when the mouse was down (remember the listener I added at the beginning), the function drawOnCanvas will be fired up. I did the same thing to stop the drawing by removing the same listener when the mouse is up.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-4-js

Now, let’s check one of the biggest function, or I should say, one of the most important one for this challenge, the drawing function.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-5-js

Actually, it seems worse than it is. Firstly, let’s get some data to draw on the canvas. We need to access the left, and top from the canvas, since the position of the mouse will be relative to the left top corner of the browser window. Once we have those positions, we can start to draw by, of course, getting the 2d context again. In my code, I used the fillStyle function to set the colour to black, but it’s just for this challenge purpose, as the default colour is already black.

The fun begins with the beginPath function. I would have been able to use something simpler like fillRect, but I figured out that if we are going to have only one tool to draw, a circle would be better. To create a circle, we need to create a path by starting it with the begin function, and closing it with the close one. Everything between those two functions will make our path, in that case, an arc. The function takes 5 parameters: the x coordinate where we will start the drawing, the y coordinate where we will start the drawing, the radius of the circle (5 is totally arbitrary, I thought the size was good enough for drawing), the starting angle (in radians - we’ll start at 0), and the end angle (also in radians - Math. PI *2 will make a full circle). In theory, you can also add a last optional parameter to tell the function to draw counter-clockwise, but it changed nothing in our case. At the end, we are calling the fill function to render the path we just created.

The last JavaScript function is the one I used to create the img the user will be able to save.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-6-js

In that case, the only important lines are 6, and 7. We are setting the src of our hidden img by creating an image from the canvas element using the toDataUrl function. After this, the user will be able to right-click where he was drawing, and save the file. Another solution would have been to use a trick with window.location.href (see the code below), but it’s not implemented in all browsers yet.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-7-js

For this not so beautiful HTML page, I used very little CSS.

https://gist.github.com/fharper/213a9b876a3ede3525fa9ee63e01a9a7#file-1-css

Let’s start with the #image one. I’m telling the browser to hide the element when it’s loaded, and set to an absolute position at 0 pixels from the left. It will give me the opportunity to have the image the user will save, and the canvas element one over the other, so when the user will ask to save the image, he won’t have to deal with an element elsewhere in the page. Not critical, but I thought it would give a better experience. As for the rest, nothing complicated here. Oh, maybe you didn’t see a lot of attribute selector, like the [disabled] I used with #imgSave. It just means that if this element have this attribute, this CSS will be rendered.

That’s it, you now have a simple HTML page that lets the users load an image, draw on it, and save the new masterpiece to his computer. So did you do the challenge? If you did, please share your result with us in the comment section. Did you had any problem? Do you find anything that I can improve? Do you have any challenge you would like to see? Did you find this one useful? Share your thoughts, and keep looking at my site for the next one.

P.-S.: It’s a pain in the ass to find a good code plugin for Wordpress, so hope you’ll like the one I choose. I replaced the one I had, as this one is better, and it’s the less worse I found!

Creative Commons: https://www.w3.org/html/logo/

]]> 2013-05-01T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/founderfuel-et-lentrepreneuriat-a-montreal/

Depuis quelques semaines, nous avons (Microsoft) une salle nommée le BizSpark lounge (en anglais) à la maison Notman. Un minimum d’une fois par semaine, je me rends sur place pour rencontrer des entrepreneurs, discuter technologies et tout simplement être présent pour connecter avec les gens du milieu du Web à Montréal. Malgré le fait que j’ai toujours gardé un oeil attentif sur le milieu des startups, ce n’est que depuis peu que j’y suis beaucoup plus initié.

En effet, la maison Notman est le nid de FounderFuel, un programme d’accélération d’entreprise de Real Venture. Étant présent assez souvent, j’ai eu l’occasion de discuter avec des entrepreneurs, des VCs, de voir comment le programme fonctionne un peu, de ressentir l’énergie des gens qui participe à FounderFuel… bref, de vivre un peu cette culture dont on entend tant parler. Je dois dire que ce milieu m’intéresse de plus en plus et que je suis bien content d’avoir une bonne relation avec les gens de la maison Notman, FounderFuel, Real Venture et de la fondation OSMO qui est derrière le projet de la maison. Cela me permet, bien sûr de faire mon travail en tant qu’Évangéliste en soutenant les startups avec des programmes tels que BizSpark, mais aussi, en m’imprégnant de cette culture tout en la découvrant toujours un peu plus. Je ne me souviens plus comment je suis tombé sur cet article de Jobboom qui a fait un projet de série Web sur la première cohorte de FounderFuel, mais je n’ai écouté que les 2 premiers épisodes et j’ai eu envie de la partager avec vous.

]]> 2013-04-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-34/ If you are showing or doing code examples in your presentation, change the font to a really big one or zoom on important parts of the code so your audience in the back will be able to follow-up with what you are doing on stage.

]]> 2013-04-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/designing-a-windows-store-app/

Part of the first event we did a couple of weeks ago in Toronto with our friends of DevTO, HTML5 Toronto, and JavaScript Toronto, I also did a presentation on how to design a Windows Store application. It was a mix of good practices for the UI, the UX, and the integration you should do with the Windows 8 features to give a great experience to your users.

I’m no way near to be a design expert (trust me, I suck to design beautiful applications), but as a developer, and a user, I know what makes a good experience, and I know when an application sucks. Developers tend to minimize the impact of the details by considering the fact that their application has all the amazing features a customer who needs. Let me tell you this: if your application is ugly, don’t give me a good experience or have no integration with the platform, people won’t use it. They will check for alternative, and you will lose a user. So thanks again to Matthew Potter who recorded my afternoon second session (my morning session) at our installfest.

]]> 2013-04-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-33/ If you are not a nutritionist, a trainer, a kinesiologist or someone who had to lose weight, please keep your fabulous tips for yourself, it’s insulting.

]]> 2013-04-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/building-windows-store-apps-more-exciting-than-a-unicorn-in-wonderland/

You are so passionate! It’s Saturday morning, a bit of drool near your mouth, your pillow printed on your face, and you are still sleeping? Never mind, Fred will start the day by giving you the same effect as if you were dancing with leprechaun in a pool filled with coffee! HTML5? CSS3? JavaScript? All those amazing technologies are making the party with the latest version of Windows, and it’s a festivity you don’t want to miss. The good fortune may be at your door, so let’s explore why you should be as excited building apps than a unicorn in Wonderland…

This, was the abstract I sent to the guys from DevTO, HTML5 Toronto, and JavaScript Toronto before they announced the Windows 8 workshop they done with us, Make Web Not War, 3 weeks ago. My role, do the keynote to get people excited about developing for the platform, and wake up people on this lovely Saturday morning. So based on what I sent, I had to build the proper deck, that you can view in my previous blog post. I think it’s a 15+ minutes presentation I can still iterate to make it more exciting, but from the feedbacks I had, I think it was successful! Thanks again to Matthew Potter who recorded the presentation during the day.

]]> 2013-04-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/so-you-want-to-work-at-home/

I don’t know why, but I have something with blog post series. I have tips and tricks for people, show me your book, Fred’s tees, HTML5 challenges, and now, so you want to series… This one is all about giving some food for thought on some of the questions or comments I usually have. I started this series with the Evangelist role, and I’ll continue with working at home, as it’s quite often a topic people want to talk about.

Firstly, let me tell you one thing: working at home doesn’t mean you can do everything you want. In theory, you can, but you’ll have to live with the consequences. Usually, the jobs that give you the opportunity to do so are based on a trust relationship between you, and your employer. There are some pros, and cons, like with anything, that you need to keep in mind. Let me give you some of those based on my own experience. It has been mostly 5 years now that I don’t have to go work in an office: 1 when I was working for IBI Solutions, 1 when I was a freelancer, and more than 2 as a Microsoft employee. Since the beginning, I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good #

• Saving time: if everything goes wrong between my bed, and my office, it can take me up to 5 minutes. If I compare this to the 1 hour of drive in traffic or public transit I had to do before, I can save up to 9 hours per week. It’s a lot of time.
• No lunches: I can eat whatever I want as I don’t have to prepare stuff the evening before, so it’s easier for me to eat healthier as I had the bad habit to go to restaurants instead of bringing a lunch with me.
• Flexibility: depends on your job, you may not have to be in front of the computer from 8:00 to 17:00 so that mean you can easily go to the dentist, be there for the delivery of a package… At the end, the important thing is to be sure to do what you have to do at the end of the day (week) if you take some time for personal things during the day.
• Productivity: don’t get me wrong, I like people, but it’s a lot easier to be productive when nobody can interrupt you at any time.

The bad #

• Productivity: you really need to be responsible as distractions are everywhere. A full day of work can easily disappear with many things you can do at home. You’ll tell me that Facebook, and Cie can do the same at work, but you need a lot more discipline at home as your boss won’t be there to watch you. I need to say that a couple of years ago, it was not easy. Now with experience, and a couple of tips, and tricks, it’s working perfectly.
• Co-workers: I said in the good, that you can be more productive because there is less interruption, but on the other side, you won’t see your co-worker too much. For someone like me, who like people, but also who consider most co-workers as friends, it’s no easy task. Let’s just say that you need to cherish the moment you are all together! Some people may argue that it’s not that easy to work remotely, but if you have the right tools, and work with people who are used to work remotely, it’s not a problem.
• Physical health: by working at home, I do a lot less exercises. That may seem ridiculous, but trust me, you walk a lot less, and you can feel it at some point. The trick here is to try to stay active in other parts of your life, like going to the gym.
• Psychological health: since you woke up in your house, work in your house, eat in your house, relax in your house, and sleep in your house, you are always in your house. At some point, you’ll need to go out. So put some stuff in the evening in your calendar, just so you can get out of your home, and see some people.
• Flexibility: I said it’s a good thing as you save some time, but it’s also a trap you can fall into. Since you are not at the office, I hear some people that had the impression they were doing not enough like people at the office, so they worked a lot more. Also, you need to have a separate room for your office, so you can cut from work, and personal stuff. Even with this, it’s easy to sneak in, and finish a project at 9pm, because the work is at 1 minute of walk.

The ugly #

• Personally I think there is no ugly part of working at home. Of course, you can make it ugly, but even with the bad part I listed above, nothing you can change, and make it an advantage. I would say that with the experience, all the bad points I listed, aren’t bad anymore for me.

There are also a lot of benefits for the employer. It will save cost with furnitures, office space… The employee will also produce more as he will work when he’ll really be productive. The work/life balance is also really important, so saving a couple of hours per week is not something to neglect. Last, but not least, with everything put together, there is a lot of chances that the employee will be more than happy. Of course, I said it before, it will work only, and only if there is a trust relationship between both parts, and this won’t work if your manager is the kind of manager who like to micromanage.

So at the end, that may or may not be for you. Some people can’t work at home, some others can’t go back full time in an office (like me!). If you want to work from home, there may be a way for you to get it done. Do you see any other good, bad or ugly points that I missed? Would you like to work from home? What is your plan to make it happen? Are you working from home? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2013-04-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/html5-windows-8-friends-with-benefits/

In March, I was in Toronto for a Windows 8 event that DevTO, HTML5 Toronto, and JavaScript Toronto made in collaboration with us, Make Web Not War. The event was a mix of installfest, hackathon, and some presentations. I started the day with an introduction to Windows 8, and how to build amazing applications with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. As I like to scale online with in-person events, I was happy to see that Matthew Potter was streaming the event online, and kept a copy for on-demand viewing. Let’s start this Monday with some Windows 8 love with my always sexy English accent!

P.S.: I like this picture so much, thanks Chow Productions Inc.

]]> 2013-04-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/soyez-remercie-comme-il-se-doit/

Finissons ce vendredi avec une photo que je n’arrive pas à bien qualifier. Prise dans la toilette d’un Esso à Pointe-Saint-Charles, cette magnifique affiche laminée, qui part d’une bonne volonté j’en suis sûr, me laisse perplexe. Entièrement d’accord de vouloir garder l’endroit propre, mais l’arrière-plan de nature, dans un endroit tout aussi peu confortable qu’une étroite toilette de garage, je ne sais pas. De plus, on nous offre un désodorisant pour nous remercier d’avoir signalé que cettedite toilette n’est pas propre… Je vous laisse à vos réflexions sur le sujet!

]]> 2013-04-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/html5-challenge-1-canvas-file-api/

For the first challenge, let’s start with an element that raise a lot of curiosity, the . Your challenge is to create a little paint software. Don’t be afraid of the term, it’s simpler than you think: it’s a site that will give the opportunity to the user to open an image file, draw on it with the mouse, and save it after. Since the File API is pretty boring by itself, you’ll have to use it to accomplish your goal. The minimum requirements for this challenge are:

1. Use File API to load an image;
2. Load the image into a element;
3. Let the user draw black lines on the with the mouse (like using a pen in paint software);
4. Let the user save the new image (original image + black lines).

Of course, you can go crazy, and make a beautiful UI, add more color options, add more drawing tools… but since you’ll have only two weeks to do this challenge, concentrate on the initial goal first. At the end, you’ll have a better idea on how to use , and the File API. So stop reading, and start coding! You have until May 2nd, as I’ll post the solution in two weeks.

P.S.: Special thanks to HTML5 Toronto who helped promote the idea.

More information on the HTML5 challenges #

What are the HTML5 challenges? #

Every two weeks, I’ll publish a little challenge on Web technologies around HTML (HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript). My goal is to help people who want to learn the new features, and elements of the latest version of HTML, by setting some deadlines, but also, by focussing on clear little task. Across everything I’m doing, there is a constant feedback: people want to learn new technology, but they don’t always have the time to work on big projects, don’t have the patience of reading a full book, or just fail as there is no motivation. I hope that these challenges will motivate developers, and even non-developers people to learn about those.

Why only two weeks? #

Whatever the time I’ll give, that will never be enough for some, and always too much for others. I thought that two weeks would be perfect as the challenge are not big one, and for me, it will give me enough time to squeeze this in my schedule. By that time, you’ll have to find how you’ll solve the challenge, read some documentation, create some functions, fix some bugs… and be successful!

Can I participate? #

Everybody can participate! Keep in mind that it’s not a step by step tutorial, but clearly a challenge with no more indication than the end result I want you to do. The goal here is to give you the latitude to create the solution by yourself, and learn where to find the right information. If you don’t feel comfortable with a specific challenge, of course, nothing force you to do it, and you can wait for the solution to see how it works. At the end, there are enough sites talking about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the Web, that you can do it (by yourself, avoid copy pasting…)! On the other side, if you already know these technologies, why not validate your skills by doing those challenges. Also, we never use all the features of a technology, so you may come across something you don’t know…

What can I win? #

It will sound cheesy, but the satisfaction of learning something new, and build some little project by yourself. There is no prize, or leader board, as for me, everybody is a winner!

Is the solution you’ll give us is the ultimate one? #

Of course not! I’ll give you a working solution, and a solution that makes the most sense with my actual knowledge. I’m the kind of person who think that there is always space for improvement, so I’ll be happy to discuss my solution if you don’t agree with it, or if you think there is a more efficient way to do it.

I have challenges suggestions, can I let you know? #

I’ll be more than happy to know about those. Just leave a comment on one of the HTML5 challenge posts, and I’ll keep those in mind when I’ll post the next challenge. At the end, I want you to learn things that are relevant to you.

I find those challenges amazing, can I help? #

There are three ways you can help:

1. Participate is the first one. That sound weird, but if nobody is participating in the challenge, I won’t do them as the goal is to help people learn about the technology. By participating, you’ll show me that there is value in what I’m doing (other way, I’ll take this time to do something else);
2. Suggest challenges. By suggesting new challenges, you’ll help me find interesting challenges to motivate people to learn about these technologies. Feedbacks on the challenges will always be welcome as I may find those really interesting, but it may not be the case for others;
3. Promote the challenges by sharing them with your network. Whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, to a friend by emails, to the co-worker at work, in your user groups, sharing these challenges will help the first two points: participation, and more suggestions. At the end, it will help a bigger goal than these two one, it will help promote the standard, and good practice on the Internet, and that, is an amazing way to help the Web go forward.

Where can I find older challenges? #

You can look on this blog for the tag “HTML5 challenges” and you’ll see all posts related to those: the introduction one, the challenges, and the solutions. Note that for now, since it’s the first challenge, you won’t find a lot of posts.

]]> 2013-04-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-32/ Bringing your kid to the gym is one thing, as there is a kids’ corner with some toys, and movies: letting her go everywhere without watching her as she can clearly hurt herself, is another.

]]> 2013-04-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/kobo-town-jumbie-in-the-jukebox-a-festive-music/

Once in a while, music companies send me albums or show tickets as they know that I’m a big fan of music. Even if I have no obligation, every time a company gives me something, I try to do a blog post to give my own personal opinion, whether it’s positive or not: at the end, they give me something for free, so why not take the time to share with others.

Even if I’m not a professional music critic, I thought it would be nice to share the one eOne Music Canada sent me. First, when it comes to music, I like many styles, and I’m always open to find new artists or groups. Actually, it’s a great moment to buy a new album of an artist you like, and it’s mostly certain that this will give you some good listening time, but finding something new is an amazing experience (when it’s music you enjoy, of course). It’s exactly what happened with the album of Kobo Town, Jumbie in the Jukebox, that will be out on April 23.

The festive beat of Kobo Town took me right in the summer time: we had snow in Montreal in mid-April, so it was the perfect timing. Jumbie in the Jukebox is, for me, a great mix between Caribbean, Jamaican, and acoustic that give a unique sound to the Toronto’s group, and their second album.  As with everything, the first impression is very important, and it’s the case when I’m listening to a new album. It’s not easy to find an album that is mostly good, and it’s even rare for an album you like from the first song… to the last one. Usually, I’m lucky if I like half of it. Jumbie in the jukebox was better than I was expecting: from the exception of 2-3 songs on 12, I really enjoyed my first listen of the album.

I never know what to write about music albums, so put your sandals, go to the beach, ask for a good sangria, put some Kobo Town in the speaker, dance, and enjoy the moment.

]]> 2013-04-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/erreur-404/

Bien joué aux gens de la boutique informatique de la coop de l’UQÀM. Ça fait changement des messages standards de déménagement…

P.-S. Merci à l’imbécile qui a fait un graffiti sur la fenêtre… je déteste tellement les graffiteurs…

]]> 2013-04-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-festival-geek-est-de-retour/

Je me souviens encore du 22 juillet 2009, le jour où j’ai décidé de lancer l’idée de faire un Festival Geek à Montréal (aka GeekFestMtl). Ce fut hallucinant de voir tous les commentaires positifs des gens qui voulaient que je fasse de mon idée, une réalité. Ce fut à un point tel que 5 jours après seulement, j’avais déjà ce que j’ai nommé le Core Geek Team: l’équipe de bénévoles responsables qui feront en sorte que le festival se réalise et qu’il soit un succès.

Environ deux ans après, à la suite de la deuxième édition qui fut un vrai succès (plus de 750 personnes sur 2 jours), j’ai décidé d’y mettre un terme pour plusieurs raisons. Quelques mois ensuite, j’ai rencontré quelques personnes qui étaient prêtes à reprendre le flambeau et c’est ainsi que la troisième édition du festival verra le jour ce samedi 13 avril. Je dois dire que d’une part ce n’était pas facile de laisser partir ce projet, mais je suis très content de voir que ce dernier continue. Pour la première fois, excepté durant le panel sur la mobilité auquel je vais participer, je pourrais vraiment profiter du festival. J’ai bien hâte de voir ce que la nouvelle équipe a mis en place, la nouvelle formule, le nouvel emplacement et l’ajout de leur vision à cet événement. Je ne voulais pas intervenir d’aucune façon que ce soit dans le processus, même pas en tant que membre du CA, pour leur donner toute la latitude dont ils ont eu besoin pour mener à bien leur événement. Je suis très fébrile pour ce samedi et je leur souhaite un succès inoubliable (croyez-moi, organiser un tel événement est une expérience enrichissante et inoubliable)!

Les billets sont en préventes jusqu’à ce soir (oui, désolé, ce billet est dans mes brouillons depuis environ 1 mois, arggg!) au coût de 12$ et en vente sur place au coût de 15$ (consulter l’horaire). C’est donc un rendez-vous ce samedi à l’hôtel Espresso situé au 1005 rue Guy pour la 3e édition du Festival Geek de Montréal!

]]> 2013-04-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-31/ As a speaker, don’t read your slides, they are a visual support for your presentation.

]]> 2013-04-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/html5-challenges-are-you-ready/

Since I joined Microsoft, part of what I’m doing is promoting Web standards. It’s even more important now in my role as you can use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build Windows 8 applications. I did many events as workshops or hackathons, and even if there are many people who know the latest, and the greatest in term of HTML5 (when I’m talking about HTML5, I’m usually saying HTML5 + CSS3 + JavaScript [EcmaScript 5]), there are still a lot of people that just start with these new technologies or some of those new features.

Many of these people told me that they would like to learn the new functionalities of these technologies, and I thought that a challenge series would be a good way to help, and motivate them. I’m not sure yet about the exact form it will take, but I was thinking about maybe a new HTML5 challenge every other week (strictly HTML5, not related to any platforms, but of course you’ll be able to use these new knowledges to build Web pages, mobile apps using PhoneGap, Windows 8 applications, boot to Gecko [Firefox OS], BlackBerry applications…). I would post a challenge, and you’ll have two weeks to make it. After this, I’ll post the solution I made, and I’ll post the next challenge. Those challenges would not be too complex or time consuming to build as you won’t have to build a full website, but more in the range of knowing specific part of the standard kind of thing. A good example would be to create a little Web chat application using Web sockets, or to modify a picture using the canvas element. Two weeks would be enough for you to learn the specific element or feature, to make the code, and for me, to think about a new challenge, and create the solution. It could also be a good way for more experimented people to play with features they don’t use too often, or just to confirm their knowledges.

Would it be something useful for you? Do you think it would be a good way to help you learn the technology? If it’s the case, please leave a comment in the comment section of this post, and I’ll contact you when I’ll start the challenge. Also, since I’m going to invest personal time on this, I would appreciate that you share the idea with friends who would be susceptible to like it, as more people will have an interest in this little HTML5 challenges idea, the more chance I’ll take this idea, and make it a reality!

]]> 2013-04-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/building-windows-8-apps-more-exciting-than-a-unicorn-in-wonderland/

Today I was in Toronto for the second Toronto user group workshop on Windows 8 with HTML5 Toronto, JavaScript Toronto, and DevTO in collaboration with us, Make Web Not War. Since I did all the presentations on the first event they did 3-4 weeks ago, I was only doing the keynote to wake up the people on this Saturday morning. As usual, here are the slides I used for my presentation:

Toronto user groups workshop #2 - 2013-04-06 - Building Windows 8 apps, more exciting than an unicorn in wonderland from Frédéric Harper

Based on the underpants gnome business model, we took a quick 15 minutes to talk about why it’s more exciting to build a Windows 8 application than being a unicorn in Wonderland. The plan was simple:

1. Collect the tools;
2. Build the apps;
3. Profit!

I won’t write more details about what I’ve said as the recording of my presentation will be available soon, so I’ll do a blog post with the video as soon as it will be available. On this note, enjoy your Windows 8 coding, and let me know if I can help!

]]> 2013-04-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/dance-like-nobodys-watching/ Watch this video before reading the rest of this post.

Did you watch it? What was your reaction? Is this guy crazy? Is he funny? Would you be ashamed to know him? This guy is a lot of things, but certainly not ridiculous… He is passionate by his job or hobby. He is a music fan, and really like this song. He is the happiest DJ in the world (taken from the YouTube video title, but still true)! Is he the happiest DJ in the world because he looks happy, and smile a lot? Maybe! But maybe it’s because he is living this moment at 200%, and he is dancing like nobody’s watching…

Too often, we are dancing for others, and we should not. Replace the word dancing with everything you want, and you’ll see it will still make sense. How often were you ashamed to tell your friends you like a song of an unpopular singer among them? How often did you change yourself with better clothes just because you were afraid to meet someone you know between your house, and the convenience store? Too often, we are living through others, or seeing ourselves within one’s eyes.

I know, this video is very old if we count in Internet ages, and I have already talked about this topic before, but I was mad to see so many people at that time mentioning that this guy was ridiculous (this post was in my draft folder for a while). Instead of laughing about him (of course he is funny, but I’m talking about mean laughs), we should be proud. Yes, we should be proud that this guy is happy, and don’t care about how others see him. We should also be mad, as most of us are not as strong as him, to be ourselves in every situation. Trust me, when you start to live for yourself, and be yourself in every moment of your life, it’s not always easy, but it’s worth all the effort. We are used to seek attention, and esteem from others. Even if it’s important to be loved, and be respected, I would say that it’s only important if  it’s about who you are.

So starting now, be yourself in every circumstance, live your life at 200%, and… dance like nobody’s watching…

]]> 2013-04-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/please-leave-a-tip-or/

God will know… Saw this tip “jar” at the Daily Dozen Doughnut Company last time I was in Seattle. It always makes me laugh. By the way, if you go to Seattle, take some time to go to the Pike Place Market, and be sure to order a bag of those yummy mini donuts, and why not accompany this with a good coffee from the original Starbucks.

]]> 2013-04-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/portrait-de-blogueurs-se-termine-ici/ Ceux qui me connaissent depuis quelques années savent qu’il y a environ 2-3 ans j’avais parti une série de vidéo nommé Portrait de blogueurs. Cela fait environ 2 ans que je n’ai pas faits d’entrevue et le nom de domaine ayant échu, j’officialise la mort de ce projet aujourd’hui.

J’ai eu bien du plaisir à rencontrer et filmer ces 27 blogueurs francophones, que vous pouvez maintenant retrouver ici en cherchant le tag portrait de blogueurs. Ce fut un beau projet où j’ai rencontré des gens formidables, mais un projet, comme plusieurs qui n’auront pas de suite. L’idée de base était simple: promouvoir la blogosphère francophone! Le concept de ce podcast vidéo aurait pu être amélioré pour demander moins de temps (déplacement, un peu de montage, entrevus…), mais je préfère me concentrer sur mes projets actuels liés à ma profession.

La blogosphère et les blogues ne sont pas morts, au contraire! Ce fut une belle expérience que je suis content d’avoir mise de l’avant. Merci à tous les blogueurs et blogueuses qui se sont prêtés au jeu…

]]> 2013-04-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-30/ If you gave me a deadline for a specific task, please respect also the deadline on your side before asking me if the task is completed.

]]> 2013-04-01T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/mamairie-ca-une-plateforme-de-participation-citoyenne/ Il y a un peu moins de deux semaines, j’ai vu que les amies de Nord Ouvert (une OBNL) font une campagne sur IndieGogo pour ramasser des fonds qui iront dans la l’entretien du site MaMarie.ca, mais surtout dans la mise a niveau de celui-ci et de la collecte de données provenant de la ville de Montréal pour donner vie à ce beau projet.

Malgré le fait que je ne suis plus impliqué en politique comme dans le passé, l’avenir de ma ville et les décisions prises par les élus me préoccupent. J’aime ma ville et je crois que chaque citoyen devrait s’impliquer un tant soit peu, ou du moins, se tenir au courant et réagir lorsque des décisions insensées sont mises de l’avant. Avoir une plateforme où il nous sera plus facile en tant que citoyen d’être informé de ce qui se passe, obtenir publiquement des réponses à nos questions, suivre et débattre sur certaines motions avant que celles-ci soient prises et faciliter le dialogue entre nos élus et leurs citoyens me semble tout à fait important! Malgré un certain cynisme de ma part face au différent palier politique, je crois toujours en un gouvernement plus ouvert et transparent. Voici, une petite vidéo expliquant le projet.

Si comme moi vous voyez l’importance d’un tel outil, n’hésitez pas à aller consulter la page de financement et faire un don (tout don fera avancer le projet!).

]]> 2013-03-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/do-you-recognize-your-local-high-speed-internet-cable-provider/ I don’t know about you, but I found this fake ad so hilarious, and at the same time, so sad as it’s really true for Canadians! It makes me think about the project triangle, choose two of these three elements: quality, cost & time. For our Internet provider, it’s usually the same thing, you have the choice between two of these three elements: speed, reliability & cost. On my side, I’m pretty happy with Videotron on the cost, and reliability sides, but I’m paying way too much for what I have… Thanks to Joey for this find.

]]> 2013-03-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-29/ If the pedestrian red light or the traffic red one is on, there is only one thing to understand: you can’t cross the street.

]]> 2013-03-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/obvious-placard-is-obvious/

I took this picture last time I was in Seattle. I’m a big Starbucks fan, but seriously? Oh, I get it! It’s for people who are walking, and watching their phone at the same time: they won’t miss the coffee shop…

]]> 2013-03-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/i-wont-give-you-the-answer/

From the time I had to help other developers, had interns, lead development team, became the subject matter experts, did proctoring in workshops… I have always been that kind of guy: the kind of guy who don’t give the answer. If you have a little quick question, and I know you did your homeworks, I’ll do. If not, or if it’s a bit more complex, don’t count on me to give you the full answer: you’ll get some guidances on how to achieve your goal. Hate me, and hate me with passion, as it’s how I rule!

Why I’m doing this? Because I want you to do more than to be successful in your project. I want you to be successful, and to learn at the same time! I don’t think you can learn if I give you every answer, but I’m a big believer in helping people to help them to find the answer. If it’s something simple, I’ll give you the right thing to do. If it’s a bit more complex, I’ll point you to the right resources, the right project sample, the right video to watch, and I’ll also let you know about the road you have to take to get the result you want. If you search a bit, hit some wall, try, and fail, you’ll remember the solution you found. It’s my style of doing thing, but I learn like this, and from my experience, it’s the way to go.

When I started as a developer, I was fortunate enough to be part of the team of more senior people: they didn’t have much more experience than me, but they knew the tools we were using, the projects we were working on, and the programming languages that were used to build the softwares. At the beginning when I was asking questions, they were giving me the right answer, and sometimes, they even did it in my place. The result? More than often, I was asking for the same question. At some point they started to point me in the right direction without telling me the exact solution. It’s how I learned how to fix those issues…

Just this weekend, I have been in a students hackathons with some students from SUPINFO, Université de Montréal, and Concordia. I remember two specific questions: how can I implement an efficient navigation system in Windows 8 using WinJS, and how can I manage to play with pixels from images in my projects using HTML5. For the first one, I gave him some insight about the implementation of navigation inside of Windows 8, and point him to some sample applications he can check to understand how it’s done. He came back to me, told me that it was not an easy task, but was clearly satisfied about what he did. My guess is that he’ll be able to do it again next time, without any help! For the second example, I propose him to check the canvas element. He came back to his place, read some documentation, implement the solution, created an amazing application, and won one of the hackathon prizes! It may have taken a lot less time if I was writing the code for him, but the satisfaction, and the learning process wouldn’t be the same. I strongly believe that these two students learn a lot more by finding themselves the right solution.

How about you? Are you the kind of person who believe we learn by doing mistake, and doing things by ourselves? Of course there are moments where I just don’t want to learn something (as an example, how to fix a plumbing problem), or I need things to get done as soon as possible, but when I’m trying to learn something, I feel this is the right approach! Share your thoughts!

]]> 2013-03-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-28/ The best way to promote whatever is to add me, without my consent, to your mailing list.

]]> 2013-03-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/now-is-the-perfect-moment/

Don’t wait for the perfect idea. Don’t wait for a better moment. Don’t wait at all! Now is the perfect moment. The perfect moment to do what you have to do. The perfect moment to create what you want to create. The perfect moment to achieve to goal you want to achieve. Do it now!

Since I’ve been in the IT industry, I got many software ideas, softwares that I would be able to build, and probably make money out of it. The problem is that I waited: I was waiting for the moment I’ll have more time or when I’ll have all the details of my idea. The problem with this, is that during the time you wait, someone else is having the same idea as you, and is building it! The result, most of those ideas has been built by someone else… Too late for me.

I was going to write a blog post just about product idea, but I thought it would be valuable for mostly anything, not just software development. Think about it! You want to lose some weight? Your plan is to start next Monday as it will be a better time to start? Why not starting to eat better now? Why Monday would be a better time to start to go to the gym? Because it’s the beginning of the week? Bullshit! If you don’t do it now, and you really can, this is just procrastination, and it may never happen. Most of the time, the real blocker, the real reason for you not starting to do something you want to do, is you.

I’m the king of procrastination, and it’s a pain in my life. Starting now, now will be the perfect moment to do what I have to do! What about you? Do you have those kind of moments in your life? Are you procrastinating? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2013-02-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/ithingy/

My new USB cable… Seriously? iLuv!

P.S.: Hey, I didn’t choose it! I bought it at the Seattle airport as I lost mine, and it was the only one available.

]]> 2013-02-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-colorful-raccoon/ Since it’s a busy time of the year, and that I don’t have a lot of time for personal blogging, I figured out I would share with you a picture I took in Seattle last week. I like graffiti. Not those ugly “I am a gansta” one, and I want to pee on my territory, but those pieces of art like this amazing raccoon! It’s now the picture of my lock screen.

]]> 2013-01-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-27/ If you send me an email, except if it’s critical, there is no need to ping me also on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for the same topic.

]]> 2013-01-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/confoo-2013-and-an-amazing-hackathon/

This year again, the Confoo conference will happen in Montreal at the end of February. I will be there, again, with the Make Web Not War team as we found that Confoo is a great place to learn, share, meet, and have fun! For the 2013 edition, we will have something special for the attendees, but we also planned an amazing hackathon for everybody, attendees or not! Sign-up now as places are limited.

Here is a promotional video of Confoo with some well-known faces of the industry including yours truly.

]]> 2013-01-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/guestblogging/ I’m asked quite often for guest blogging on this site, so let me share my thoughts on that so it’s clear.

I find guest blogging a really good idea overall. It brings value to the guest bloggers who want to reach a new audience, and to the blog owner who want more, and diversified content. With that said, I don’t accept any guest posts on my blog, even from close friends, sorry. The reason is simple: this blog isn’t about getting more views or even making money; it’s simply a vehicle to share my thoughts on different topics.

There are other ways I can help you:

• Share a post written on your own medium with me. If I find it interesting, and I think it can resonate with my audience, I will happily share it within my Twitter and LinkedIn networks.
• I may be able to accept guest articles on my employer’s blog, depending on the topic, and where I work at the time of reading this.
• If the topic suggested is interesting to me, I could write an article myself about the topic you wanted to guest blog here. It’s a very rare case because of time constraints, and it only makes sense for companies wanting to get more outreach and using guest blogging as a growth hack.

]]> 2013-01-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-26/ Please, don’t take more than one lid for your cup of coffee, and if you do, don’t even think about putting back the surplus, that by the bye, you touched with your hands, in the dispenser.

]]> 2013-01-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/web-in-2012/ La vidéo n’est plus disponible.

Vendredi passé, Alliance Numérique a mis en ligne une vidéo promotionnelle du Web-In basée sur l’édition de 2012 qui a eu lieu en novembre dernier. Lors de la première édition, j’avais animé le Tablette Camp et cette année, j’ai fait le keynote d’ouverture. Ce fut un plaisir et François Légaré, le grand manitou derrière l’événement, avait dû s’en apercevoir, car il m’avait demandé de partager mon expérience à la caméra. Je dois dire que l’équipe a fait un beau travail avec cette vidéo et soyez sûre que je l’aurais partagé même si ma tronche ne n’y serait pas retrouvé, car c’est un des événements que j’affectionne particulièrement à Montréal!

]]> 2013-01-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/2-years-as-a-microsoftie/

On the last day of 2012, it has been 2 years that I’m a Microsoftie (internal name for a Microsoft employee). As things are related for now, it has also been two years that I’m being paid to do what I like to do for a living, evangelism!

Time goes quickly as I feel like it was yesterday that I’ve become a blue badge (another way of talking about a full-time employee at Microsoft). A lot of things have changed since last year:

• The Evangelism job has changed at Microsoft Canada, and I still need to adapt;
• A member of my v-team, Julia got pregnant, and Keith took her role;
• We changed a little the focus of my primary audience;
• I started the year with a new partner in crime, Reemah, as my first one, Samantha, got a new role. Halfway during the year, I changed again for Vanessa, as Reemah also got a new role (maybe I scared them - I’m curious to see how much time Vanessa will tough me);
• The three products I’m focusing on, had new releases: Windows, Windows Phone, and Windows Azure;
• Two team members, my unknown father Damir, and Rick, changed roles inside of Microsoft (yes, there is always a lot of movement between roles at Microsoft), and another one, Ruth, left the company;
• Two new members, Marc, and Pierre, join the team (my direct team);
• …

I also learn a lot of new stuff during this crazy year:

• There are people who I don’t want to waste time anymore with (I have no problem with the fact you don’t like us or our products, but I have one with the fact you can’t have a discussion);
• It’s a good time to be at Microsoft with products like Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows Azure;
• I can handle crazy period of the years, but not for many weeks straight without taking time for me;
• The things I’m enjoying the most in this role are networking, public speaking, traveling, helping, and sharing with others;
• I miss coding, as I feel I didn’t code enough since I stop being a freelancer;
• …

It has been a great year, and I’m looking forward to an even better one.

P.S.: I like this picture. Can you guess what I was saying to the attendees of Mobiz? OK, I don’t remember it, but it’s funny what people said when they saw this picture on Facebook.

]]> 2013-01-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/so-you-want-to-be-an-evangelist/

Update: read my updated definition of the role.

It’s been a couple of times that people ask me what it take to be an Evangelist. Always in the mindset of saving some keystrokes, I decided to do a blog post about my vision of it. First let’s clarify something: there are many types of Evangelist roles around the world, and the job I have, may be quite different from the one you aim for. Also, I’ll focus on the role of a Technical Evangelist as it’s what I’m doing for the past two years. This will be my own perception of what I’m doing day to day.

The role #

The role of an Evangelist is all about people. As a Technical Evangelist, my role is to connect with the developers. I’m there to help them be successful in their project, and in their career… It’s more complex than that, but for a business point of view, I want people to use the technology of the company I work for. That means changing perceptions when they are negative, create awareness for those that don’t know what we have to offer, help them learn how to build software with our tools, and helping them to go from the idea to the realization. Day to day, my job is split into two categories: online, and offline. Concretely a week at work can contain some or all of these tasks:

• Creating a blog post on a technical topic or to announce something like an event or a great offer;
• Public speaking at a conference about a technical topic;
• Starting a conversation on social media like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn;
• Leading a workshop around a specific technology;
• Doing an online webcast with co-workers (an equivalent of a conference, but online);
• Networking in a happy hour or a conference party;
• Answering emails;
• Meeting with people online or offline;
• Creating technical content like presentations or demos for future events or for the community;
• Animating or helping at a hackathon;
• Connecting with key persons in the communities;
• Planning the fiscal year, an event, a program…;
• Traveling to new places;
• Coding, and learning new technology;
• Assisting or presentation at a user group;
• …

So you can see that the job can be quite different from one day to the other. There are also some exciting things like public speaking, or going to a conference party to network with developers by taking a beer. It’s the public face of the role, and it’s usually what people are seeing, and exciting about. You also need to think about the fact that there are less-exciting stuff you need to do (that doesn’t mean they are not interesting or challenging), like planning, some meetings… At the end, my role is to find which of these tasks I need to prioritize depending on my actual goals. What makes sense for the business or what need to be done now?

The qualification #

As someone ask me, there is no courses or diploma to become an Evangelist. For me, it’s all about the experience, and the personality of the person. On the experience side, there would be no way for me to be a good Technical Evangelist if I had never worked as a developer. The basis of my work is to talk to developers, help them solve their pain points, and get them to write software. If you never wrote a software of your life, never had the problems you can get by working with a customer or never had this feeling that you had to learn yet another programming language if you want to stay relevant… You won’t be able to connect with them, you won’t be a trust agent. So I would say that the first qualification to be a good Evangelist is to have experience in your domain. For me the experience is crucial, but knowing the exact ecosystem or technology for the company you want to work with is not. You can learn it! What you can’t learn, it’s the personal aptitudes you need to have to be a successful Evangelist. Since Evangelism is about people, I would say that the first element is about being social. You don’t need to be a social beast like me, but you need to like enough people to care about them, and like to network with them. You need to be passionate! There is no way you’ll be able to get people to use your device, your programming language, or your platform if you don’t have the passion. But it’s not enough! You need to be able to share this passion. I know developers who are genius, way way better than me. They have the fire inside them, they live, and breadth with code, but they are bad communicators. This is something crucial as you communicate with people all the time: by emails, on the phone, in a meeting, in person, with a blog post, by doing a presentation, by teaching in a workshop, by creating relationships with new people… all the time! Of course, this is one view of the role. There are many other Evangelists out there like the friend Christian Heilmann from Mozilla who published an ebook on this subject (I didn’t have the time to read it yet - I blame my Kindle, and the fact it’s so easy to buy books - , but knowing him, and with the experience he has in the role, it should worth the time to read it). There is also the friend Joey DeVilla (ex Microsoft Evangelist) who did a good blog post about it 3 years ago (it helped me to evaluate if I wanted to enter the interviews process at Microsoft). Those two good reads if you want to know more about what is to be an Evangelist. So at the end, for me, being an Evangelist is about people (I’ll never repeat it enough). It’s a fantastic role for people who have the experience in the field, who are passionate, who like to share, and who cares about others. I hope this post will help, and I encourage you to ask me any questions in the comments section of this post if your career plan is around this type of role or if you are just curious about what I’m doing for a living.

]]> 2013-01-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/3words2013/ Last year I took some specific resolutions, and 4 days ago, I did a quick review of my last year. The bottom line was that, having resolutions is not a bad idea, but it’s not the perfect scenarios. It’s been 2-3 years now that I’m seeing people like Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel, CC Chapman, Christopher S. Penn, and even the friend Fabrice Calando do the “3 words for next year”, instead of classic resolutions. Always by keeping in mind my life manifesto, that is still of actually, I have the feeling that it will be an amazing way to help me shape what will be 2013 for me.

Kaizen #

It’s not the first time I’m using this word as a mantra. Kaizen is a Japanese word for improvement, a philosophy that focuses upon continuous improvement of processes mostly in business. I’m a big fan of improving every part of my life: whether it’s around my work, or my personal life, I always try to do more with less, and do better as before. I think Kaizen summarize in a beautiful way one of my goals for next year: be better.

Time #

I have a love-hate relationship with time. I have the feeling that for the last 14 years, I’ve been running. I’m using all my time to work, volunteer, create… Don’t get me wrong, I’m a man of action, I like to do stuff. I like to create stuff. I like to make things happen! I just think I’m a bit tired of always having something to do. You know that feeling when you relax or do something non-productive, and you just feel bad as you would be able to use that time for something better. I will continue to create, but it will be for me, only for me. It will also be at my pace, without any deadlines (except at work, of course). This year, I’ll take the time. I’ll take the time to live…

Discovery #

You know those brats who always ask why? I was that type of kid. Why (you see!)? Because I like to know, I love to learn, and I have the need to discover new stuff. Whether it’s a new passion, a restaurant I never had the chance to go, or a city way beyond the last place I traveled to, I want to discover. For me, it’s more than learning, so it’s why I choose discovery.

Let’s see where this will take me for the next 358 days (yeah, I wrote this post one week after the beginning of the year!).  I’m looking at these three words - Kaizen, Time & Discovery -, and I feel great. If I can keep these words in mind during the next year, I’m pretty sure that my last blog post (or the first one) will be about how amazing 2013 was for me. I cannot wish you anything other than an awesome year too! On your side, did you take New Year’s resolutions? Will you try the 3 words trick? Share your thoughts!

P.S.: The image has no relation with the post, I just liked it.

]]> 2013-01-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/2012-a-good-year-for-me/

Last year, I did a list of things I wanted to achieve in 2012. It was like a big list of resolutions, that I had more, and less in my head all year long. Let’s do a quick recap.

2012 achievements #

I wanted to blog more #

I definitely blog more in 2012, than in 2011. I made 120 blog post compare to the 69 I did last year, nearly twice the posts I did the year before. Those one hundred twenty blog posts are only those I made on this blog, I didn’t count those I made on MSDN, MSDN FR, Woot Studio, GoDevMental, and of course, Make Web Not War.

I wanted to eat healthier #

I had better eat habits in 2012, but there is definitely a place for improvements here. I went less often to restaurants, and I was choosing a better meal most of the time, but it was far from being perfect. If I had to choose one item on my list I’m the less proud of, it would be this one!

I wanted to read more #

I read more. Not as much as I wanted, but I read at least 3-4 times more than last year. This resolution was centric around books, but gradually as the year progressed, I thought it was more about learning, than reading book itself.

I wanted to do more exercise #

It took me a long time to get into this one, but I finally made it. Like the one on the food, this one could be improve a lot more, but I lost more than 20 pounds, so I’m really happy with it. Now I need to keep the pace, and continue to lose weight!

I wanted to write a book #

My plan was more to write a book for the pleasure of writing one, something that I would put as an ebook format for free, but I’ve been approached by an editor to write on a technical topic. So I started the writing process at the end of last year, and I will finish it probably this week (it’s not a big book). More details on this when the book will be available.

I wanted to be better in my role #

With modesty, I can say I’m better in my role as a Technical Evangelist. I still have a lot to learn, but I think everybody, even the more senior ones, have many other things to learn about the work they do. I’m happy with what I achieved as a Microsoft employee in 2012, and I know I have an even better 2013 in front of me.

This was wrong #

By reviewing my year, and the list I made, I thought many things were wrong with it…

People usually take 1 resolution for the year #

I took 6… Even if I think I can focus on 6 things for a year, maybe it’s too much. I should focus on less topics for the year, but get them to the next level. Aim for quality instead of quantity. Get some aspect to the next level, instead of having an average year that I was happy with, but not proof of!

Those were not all quantifiable #

Most of them were not quantifiable. They were specific on some topics, but I was not able to have a clear goal. What’s that mean to be better in my role? Does more blog post? Reach more people? Get more apps? I wasn’t clear, now I’m saying that I was better in my role than in 2011 by basing myself on some assumptions. Even the one where I put some metrics, like eating healthier were not clear: eating 2 times maximum per week in the restaurant, does that mean I will eat better food? I’m not sure we need quantifiable resolutions, but if you want to have more than 2-3, be sure that these will be crystal clear.

Many things can happen #

I had the feeling that these were immutable. Like if I remove or change one, it was like I didn’t succeed. Many things can happen in a year, so maybe a resolution won’t be topical anymore after a couple of months? Maybe it won’t suit my needs anymore? I think I need more like guides, than rigid directions.

A good 2012 #

With all this in mind, I still think 2012 was an amazing year for me: I was still doing a job I like, I bought a condo, I’m still with the one I love, I have good friends… On the other end, I was exhausted at the end, I had the feeling I was reacting instead of planning, and I didn’t have much time for me, only for me. Since this post is already too long, I’ll do a separate one to share my plans for 2013! Since you had the time to meditate a bit on the last year, are you happy with what you achieve? Are you happy on where you are now? Was 2012 a good or a bad year for you? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-12-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/what-would-happen-if-you-died-today/

What would happen if the Maya were right? What would happen if you died today? This question is good for all days of your life…

Would you be proud of what you did? Would you be happy to leave the world as the person people know you right now? Would you feel you enjoy your life as much as possible? Those are all valid questions that you should ask yourself. For me, there is more than one way to be dead… I was so bored about all these posts or tweets about the end of the world that was due this morning, that it made me think about these questions. I’m not a preacher or a personal coach, but I like to share about those ideas around life, and being happier. You heard this thousands of times: life is short or you only live once. Why not act like if it was true? Be more happy. Do what you like. Stop accepting to have an OK life, and start having an awesome one!

Of course, you can give me all the excuses you want, but at the end, you are lying to you, and only you. I’m a hard believer in the fact that we own our lives, or if you prefer, our destiny. So act like it. Not tomorrow. Not on the 1st of January for your new year resolution. Do it now! Do baby step, but do it now… Tomorrow may be too late!

]]> 2012-12-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/there-is-more-than-one-way-to-be-educated/

This video gave me ghost bumps.

I may not be a billionaire or a star, but guess what, I’m loving what I do for a living. I’m happy when I’m waking up in the morning, and people pay me well to do my art (yeah, maybe I read too much Seth Godin books). All this, with no university or college degree. I’m a hard believer in education, not as much about schools, and diplomas… There are more ways to be an educated man:

• Read books;
• Find a mentor;
• Think outside of the box;
• Share with friends;
• Volunteer;
• Have discussions with people who don’t have the same opinion as you;
• Open your eyes to the world;
• And, the most important of all, do epic shit!

For me, there is no better way to learn. It’s not about exams. It’s not about thinking inside of the box. It’s not about school. It’s about living!

Creative Commons Featured Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shinythings/4018793159/

]]> 2012-12-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/take-the-time-to-live/

I am busy. You are busy. We are busy. Everybody is busy. Maybe too much?

It’s Mathieu Chartier, at the last HTML5mtl meetup, who made me aware of this: everybody is always busy, and it’s like a contest of who has been the busiest! We can say that this is the world we are living in today, but I don’t find it’s something normal. It’s also not normal that being busy is part of our answer when someone asks us how are we doing…

“How are you?”

“I’m busy. I didn’t have a day off for the last four weeks” or “Not so bad, but very busy. I didn’t see my girlfriend for the last two weeks”.

This ascertainment from Mathieu worried me a lot, because I’m this kind of person. The kind of person who is busy, too busy. The kind of person who do too much stuff so at the end, there are some direct repercussion of his life like:

• No time to relax;
• Neglecting friends or family;
• No time for other hobbies;
• Just no time to take a moment to enjoy the life.

No worries here, I’m not doing a depression, but I just think we need to take more time for us, to relax, to enjoy the life. Be careful, as I’m not just talking about work. There are many ways to make our life busy: of course too much work, but there are also volunteers, personal projects, others projects… On top of that, when we are too busy, we are starting to deliver poor results on what keeps us busy.

I’m 30, and since I’m 17, I did a lot of things in addition of my job: volunteer in scouting for 11 years with multiple roles at the same time, video podcast, audio podcast, started a usergroup, volunteer in a association, created a Geek festival, and more! Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I’m feeling that I need to slow down, get more time for me, for my family, my friends, to relax, and do some little project (I cannot live without any projects - It’s my entrepreneurial side, taking an idea, and making it a reality is my drug), that doesn’t involve timelines and/or others (in other words, no obligations). Of course, dedicating myself to the job I like by having a good work, and life balance is part of this. Do you think we are too busy? Are you too busy? Do we need more time to relax, and enjoy the life? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-11-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/ma-foi-en-lhumanite-a-atteint-un-seuil-critique/ À la fin du Mobiz la semaine passée, je suis revenu à ma voiture et j’y ai vu un papier accroché à ma vitre. Mon premier réflexe fut de regarder si ma voiture n’avait rien. Ensuite, j’ai vu ce message fort amical…

Premièrement, à la place de cette gentille personne, j’aurais écrit ceci “Imbécile! Tu ne vois pas que ce n’est pas un parking une place de stationnement, ostie de 2 watts.”. Deuxièmement, la place où j’étais n’était effectivement pas une place de stationnement, mais c’est un des employés du stationnement de la Place Bonaventure qui m’a indiqué de mettre ma voiture à cet emplacement. Vous savez, tous les stationnements font ainsi pour maximiser l’espace…

Ce qui me déprime dans cela ce n’est pas la lettre hargneuse. Je vis très bien avec ça et il m’en faut pas mal plus pour m’affecter! Ce n’est pas non plus le français de cette joie de vivre sur deux pattes. Je fais moi aussi plusieurs fautes. Ce qui fait en sorte que ma foi en l’humanité diminue encore, c’est le pourquoi? Qu’est-ce que la personne y a gagné? J’ai beau y réfléchir autant que je peux, je n’y vois rien…

]]> 2012-11-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/html5-une-revolution-a-plusieurs-niveaux/

Cet après-midi j’ai fait un survol rapide de 45 minutes sur HTML5 au Mobiz. J’en ai profité pour introduire quelques éléments que je considère révolutionnaire pour HTML5, des éléments que l’on peut utiliser sans crainte dès aujourd’hui.

Pour ceux qui étaient présent, tel que promis, voici ma présentation:

Mobiz - 2012-11-15 - HTML5, une révolution à plusieurs niveaux from Frédéric Harper

Voici quelques ressources et liens vers des exemples que j’ai utilisé durant ma présentation, question de vous faciliter la vie:

Introduction

• Contre Jour: https://www.contrejour.ie
• Illy Issimo: https://us.illyissimo.com/
• Windows Azure: (doit avoir un compte): https://azure.microsoft.com
• SVG girl: https://jsdo.it/event/svggirl/
• W3C HTML Working Group: https://www.w3.org/html/wg/
• La spécification HTML5: https://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/

Vidéo

• Support des formats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video

Plus que le Web

• PhoneGap: https://www.phonegap.com
• HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript for Windows 8: https://j.mp/ZzXznE

Canvas

• Canvas Pad: https://j.mp/Soh0K1
• Speed Reading: https://j.mp/TZM6LR
• Canvas & vidéo, blow it up: https://j.mp/XFoA9C
• AI to Canvas: https://visitmix.com/labs/ai2canvas

Web Open Font Format

• IE Test Drive Fonts: https://j.mp/TJ0wy2
• Font Squirrel: https://www.fontsquirrel.com/
• Convert otf to woff: https://orionevent.comxa.com/otf2woff.html

Géolocalisation

• Foursquare playground: https://fsplayground.cloudapp.net/

Responsive Web Design

• Article Ethan Marcotte: https://j.mp/QHkDiW
• Screenfly: https://quirktools.com/screenfly/
• Multi-Device Layout Patterns: https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1514
• Livre Responsive Web Design: https://j.mp/TJ1N84
• Exemples Media Queries: https://mediaqueri.es/

Mobile First

• Article de Luke Woblewski : https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933
• Livre Mobile First: https://www.abookapart.com/products/mobile-first
• Présentation de Luke Woblewsky : https://vimeo.com/38187066
• Livre Tapworthy: https://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920001133.do

Stratégies d’adoption

• When can I use: https://caniuse.com/
• Modernizr: https://www.modernizr.com/

Divers

• Internet Explorer 10 & Windows 8: https://bit.ly/PtZ3OL
• Internet Explorer 10 Preview pour Windows 7: https://bit.ly/SaL0eY
• Make Awesome Web: https://makeawesomeweb.com/
• Dive into HTML5: (doesn’t exist anymore)
• HTML5 learning: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ca/ie/aa740476
• IE Test drive: https://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

Frameworks

• jQuery: https://jquery.com/
• Less Framework: https://lessframework.com/
• Knockout: https://knockoutjs.com/
• Kendo UI: https://www.kendoui.com/
• Backbone.js: https://backbonejs.org/
• HTML5 boilerplate: https://html5boilerplate.com/
• Bootstrap: https://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/

Outils

• WebMatrix: https://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/
• jsFiddle: https://jsfiddle.net
• Visual Studio 2012 Express for Web: https://j.mp/W7BLuZ

Et bien sûr, HTML5mtl. Donc, essayez le et amusez-vous avec HTML5.

]]> 2012-11-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/mobile-first-au-web-in/

Ce matin je démarrais la conférence Web-In à Montréal avec un keynote sur le principe de Mobile First. Le principe ayant été lancé il y a plus de 3 ans maintenant, ce n’est que depuis peu qu’on sent que l’industrie est prête à en tenir compte et même à l’accepter. Ce fut donc avec plaisir que j’ai, pendant une courte heure, montrer les avantages et les inconvénients de cette méthode.

Pour ceux qui étaient présents, voici ma présentation telle que promis.

Web in - Mobile First: créer une bonne expérience mobile from Frédéric Harper

Voici aussi une liste des ressources que je mentionnais à fin, question de vous rendre la vie plus facile:

• Billet initial de Luke Woblewski: https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933

• Livre Mobile First de a série A Book Apart: https://www.abookapart.com/products/mobile-first

• Vidéo d’une présentation de Luke Woblewski: https://vimeo.com/38187066

• A list Apart: https://www.alistapart.com/

• Le livre sur le développement iPhone/design d’applications mobile Tapworthy: https://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920001133.do

• Screenfly, un outil de visionnement de différents appareils/résolutions: https://quirktools.com/screenfly/

Comme toujours, bien évident, un support visuel comme cette présentation ne vaut pas grand-chose si vous n’avez pas assisté. Je tenterais de faire un billet un peu plus long sur le principe ou plutôt sur ma façon de présenter ce dernier. Sur ce, je vous invite à lire le billet de Luke, et bien sûr de penser… Mobile First!

]]> 2012-11-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/quand-une-loi-protegeant-ma-langue-limite-mes-choix/ En magasinant en ligne hier sur le site de [Best BuyIci, je ne veux pas partir un débat sur la loi 101, mais je suis curieux. Ardent magasineur en ligne, cela m’arrive de ne pouvoir commander un article, mais principalement, car le magasin ne livre pas au Canada. Je reçois pourtant plein d’articles seulement en anglais. Est-ce que Best Buy a raison de faire ainsi? Est-ce que les autres sites en lignes me vendent illégalement des produits seulement en anglais? Est-ce que parce que Best Buy à un pied-à-terre au Canada? Je dois dire que si Best Buy a raison, ce que je pense, c’est légèrement abusif comme loi et même si je fais plusieurs choses en anglais, comme ce blogue, j’aime ma langue! On ne parle même pas d’un item qui va arriver sur les étalages: cet item va passer d’un entrepôt à ma maison… Bref, ça ma choqué et intrigué. Je vais m’informer et voir si je ne trouve pas réponse à mes interrogations.

](https://bestbuy.ca)

]]> 2012-10-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/merci-winners-jai-toujours-mon-coffre-fort-avec-moi-pour-laction-de-grace/

Ils ont probablement voulu traduire “We wish that our fans, and our associates have a safe, and happy Thanksgiving”. Bel effort Winners, mais un gestionnaire de communauté francophone serait de mise… La publication a déjà été effacée.

]]> 2012-09-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/responsive-web-design-at-fitc-screens/

This week I was at FITC SCREENS with my colleague Paul Laberge to talk about HTML5, Windows 8, and Windows Phone. It was my first time at SCREENS, but not my first FITC event, and I must say that the team is always doing an awesome job to bring the tech community together with their amazing events.

As usual I didn’t have the time to go see any sessions, but I had the pleasure to talk to many attendees as we had a booth with cool Windows Phone, and Windows 8 devices (actually those were Windows 7 devices with Windows 8 on them). I also had the opportunity to speak about one of my favorite topics, Responsive Web Design. I know, I already did this presentation a couple of times now, but I still have requests for, and people seem to really like it. With the feedbacks I’ve got, I decided to do it again at SCREENS, even if it was basically the same (I updated my slides with new content) that I did at FITC Toronto in April this year.

SCREENS - 2012-09-28 - Responsive Web Design, get the best from your design from Frédéric Harper

As usual, a list of resources from my presentation:

• Ethan Marcotte original article on A list Apart
• ScreenFly - tool to test some resolution
• Multi-Device Layout Patterns
• Filament group Responsive Images script
• CSS3 Media Queries JavaScript polyfill
• Hardboiled CSS3 Media Queries
• Stunning CSS3 book
• Responsive Web Design book
• Smashing Magazine article on Responsive Web Design
• Media queries examples
• CSS3 Media Queries W3C standard
• The picture element

I hope you enjoyed my presentation. Feel free to send me your comments, questions or… insults! Oh, and if you make one of your project or site responsive, please let me know as I’m always looking for nice examples!

P.S.: Why do I always look weird when someone takes a picture of me presenting? Do I always look like this when I’m presenting?

]]> 2012-09-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-restaurant-for-me-or-maybe-not/

I saw this restaurant when I was walking in Toronto yesterday evening. I shouldn’t go as I’m not supposed to be there!

]]> 2012-09-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/living-with-a-girly-girl/

I just saw this at the Centre Eaton Montréal, and it frightens me. That can totally be our bath at home, and let’s be clear, I’m not talking about the kind of bath! I love Émilie, but… too… many… shoes… at… home…

]]> 2012-09-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/dont-be-shy-leave-a-comment/

I know, I’m doing it a lot. I read a blog post, and I’m not leaving a comment to the author. There are so many things to read on the Internet, and so many other things to do that I don’t have time to leave comments. But I’m wrong! People are taking the time to share something with me, and I should let them know if I enjoyed it.

I know, it’s the same for this blog. I have many readers, but not a lot of comments. Is it because people don’t like what I’m sharing with them? I don’t think so as I often got good comments about my blog, but in-person. Is it because my content is not engaging? I’m sure not, as I also have great discussions with people, in-person, on some of the topics I’m sharing here.  I think it’s a matter of time. We are now used to real time information. We are now trained to share our ideas with the rest of the world… in 140 characters. Don’t get me wrong, Twitter is my favorite social media, after the blog. I like to share quickly what I’m thinking about with my followers, but I like to blog as I can elaborate a lot more. It’s also a lot easier to have a great discussions with people on different topics.

From now on, I’ll take time to share more on other blogs that I’m reading, and I hope you’ll do it too. Will it take me more time? Sure! Will I get some benefits from doing it? Of course! That will give me an opportunity to elaborate my thoughts. To create a relationship with the author, and other readers. To change my mind, if that makes sense, by having a healthy discussion. To find alternative ways to my actual thought. Last not least, to let the author know that I found his blog post valuable. I may have less time to read more things, but at the end, it will be more valuable.

So, are you also the kind of people who read something interesting, and don’t leave any comments? Do you take the time to discuss with someone who share his opinion on a subject that matter to you? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-09-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-25/ If your attendees have paid for your event, respect them by having someone at the door who checks for people with tickets.

]]> 2012-09-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/dont-feed-the-trolls/

I took a decision concerning trolls: I won’t feed them anymore.

I’m the kind of person who like to have a good discussion on different topics. I like to give my point, listen to others points, and discuss about the pros, and cons of both opinions. It’s healthy to do so, but with trolls, it is not! They are not there to discuss. They are there to disapprove everything you’ll say, make you agree on what they are saying, and most of the time, in a really unpleasant way. I have no problem with people who don’t have the same opinion as me, but I want to discuss with people who can argue. You don’t like my point of view? No problem, explain me why. You don’t like the product that I’m talking about? No problem, what do you find wrong with it? Deaf dialogue doesn’t interest me.

In the past, I took too much time, and energy to try to have real discussions with these people. The worst part about this is that trolls are not only people that hide themselves besides their computers: some of them do this in-person also. As I’m very transparent on the Internet, that I share my thoughts on many topics here, or on Twitter, and that I work at Microsoft, I got a lot of these false discussions. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about people who, as an example, don’t like Microsoft, or the new cool technology I’m talking about. If you don’t like my employer, or some of our technology, I totally respect that, but let’s have a discussion: you cannot just tell me I don’t like you without having any points to make!

So starting now, I won’t feed you anymore, trolls. If your comments are not arguments, or a starting point for a healthy discussion, you won’t have my attention. Nothing less, nothing more. Life is short, and I want to spend time on things that matter. You, readers, you should do it too. The only thing that keeps trolls alive, are our reactions. No reactions, no trolls. Next time, I’ll point trolls on this post, and you should do it too. How do you manage trolls on your side? Do you spend some time with them to try to have a discussion? Do you think I’m doing the right move? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-09-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/how-to-disable-autocorrect-in-windows-8/

As I write sometimes in English (read Frenglish), and sometimes in French, I’m not a fan of any autocorrect options. I used Antidote to correct my French texts, and Ginger for my English ones. So one of the things that annoyed me in Internet Explorer 10 was the autocorrect option. As the language of my operating system is English, it was removing all my French characters most of the time. I was looking for the setting to deactivate it in IE10, but I was wrong, it’s an option in Windows 8 itself. To deactivate it, go to the Charm bar -> Settings -> Change PC settings -> General ->Spelling, and put to off the “autocorrect misspelled words” option (see the screenshot below). Hope it will save you some time.

]]> 2012-09-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-24/ If your store takes cash only, please notify us before we want to buy something, or at least, have these thieves, I mean ATM.

]]> 2012-09-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/microsoft-lopen-source-la-guerre-des-etoiles-version-techno/

Dans une galaxie lointaine, Microsoft faisait la guerre à l’Open Source. Aujourd’hui, nous sommes dans un système solaire où la paix règne et l’entraide est de mise. L’étoile de la mort n’est plus, et l’ouverture, ainsi que l’interopérabilité sont les mots d’ordre de la nouvelle république. Dans cette courte présentation, venez en apprendre un peu plus sur l’ouverture d’esprit de Microsoft et sur l’évolution de l’industrie des TI. Ouvert aussi à ceux qui ne sont pas admirateurs de Star Wars!

Tel est la présentation que j’ai faite hier soir à la communauté .NET de Montréal. C’est une présentation que j’ai faite à quelques reprises lors d’événements Make Web Not War et qui s’apprêtaient très bien à une soirée comme hier qui avait pour thème "Microsoft & Open Source”. Je n’ai donc pas pu dire non à Maxime Rouiller, lorsqu’il m’a demandé de reprendre cette présentation pour introduire la soirée. J’ai donc remis celle-ci au goût du jour en poussant aussi un peu plus le concept de Star Wars, fan que je suis. J’aborde le sujet en parlant des perceptions, du passé, du présent, des erreurs, de ma propre histoire, mais surtout de l’ouverture d’esprit de Microsoft, qui n’est pas parfaite, mais au combien dans la bonne direction!

.Net Montréal - 2012-09-12 - Microsoft & l’Open Source, la guerre des étoiles version techno from Frédéric Harper

]]> 2012-09-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/an-accordion-guy-in-montreal/ Two weeks ago, my friend Joey DeVilla was in town. We planned some time to catch up, and went to a local bistro. As usual Joey had his accordion, but this time it was to give Émilie

I know the video is shaking a lot, but it’s not bad considering it was taken with my phone, by walking backwards on the sidewalk… Funny story, at some point we heard CT Moore yelling at us from his new apartment. How many time to do hear an accordion player in your street, singing French son like “Bye bye mon cowboy” with an English accent? He had no reason to think it was not Joey!

P.S.: Yes I know, the title, with the main picture can be confusing…

]]> 2012-09-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-23/ If you are making an online contest, don’t ask participants to share annoy as most as possible their friends, and followers on social media to win: that won’t make us like your brand.

]]> 2012-09-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/the-secret-that-nobody-will-tell-you-about-success/

Success means different thing for each of us. Some are looking to get more money to buy the things they liked, for others it’s all about raising a family, or being successful in their career, or a mix of many goals.

From the top of my 30 years old, I had a lot of failures, but also many successful moments: family, friends, career, personal projects… I found that there is a clear pattern in these successful achievements: there is always one, and only one key that take you to the finish line successfully, and mostly everybody seems to keep it secret! It’s you, it’s all about you… It’s about what you do. It’s about how you think. It’s about how you act. I’m a big believer of being the owner of my destiny. I’m acting like this since I understood it, and life has been good for me.

If you’re not happy with your job, find a new one. If you want more money, find a way to make more money. If you want to travel… travel! There is nothing you can’t do. Oh, but most of the time, you’ll need to go out of your comfort zone, as this is where the magic happens. You’ll need to tell the Flinch to shut up, and do what you want to do for real. You’ll fail. Everybody does, but you’ll have way more successful happy ending because you tried.

You are the only person between you, and your goals. The key to happiness, to be successful, and to achieve your goal, is nothing more than yourself. It’s not your boss’s fault if you don’t like your job. It’s not your company’s fault if you are not making enough money. Get over it, and stop blaming others, the key to being successful is you! I cannot repeat myself enough on this topic. I’m tired to read bullshit about being successful… Do, be, make things happen… be successful because you want it, because you can! How do you define being successful for yourself? Are you in control of your destiny? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-08-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-22/ Putting too much perfume create the opposite result of what you are trying to do.

]]> 2012-08-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/im-a-shareaholic-so-im-enjoying-yelp/

I like to share with others. It’s why I’m blogging, and why I like social media so much. It’s also why I’m doing my job: I’m sharing my passion about technology.

One of my preferred website in the past, Praized, is now a dead project.  This website gave me the opportunity to review local venues with a social twist. Since the company changed his focus, and closed the site, I never took the time to find alternatives, and I know there are a lot. At the last Social Media Breakfast Montreal, I had the pleasure to meet one of the Yelp community managers in Montreal, Marie-Pier. That was enough to go take a closer look to Yelp as I was happy to see that her company got people in Montreal to help their users. I know that Yelp is there for quite a long time, but even as an early adopter, and a Web lover, I don’t have the time to check every services online. I just fell in love… and created my profile.

Yelp, like Praized was, is a good mix between things that I liked:

1. Sharing with others: I can share my opinions on venues with the rest of the world;
2. Finding new venues: even if sometimes I’m conservative, most of the time I like to try new places, so I can check other reviews to find a new cool place to go out for dinner;
3. A social twist: it’s nice to find reviews from others, but even nicer to see reviews from people you know. It’s a more trustable source, because you know them.

So at the end, Yelp is a website where I go to find new venues, and to share my experience with others. What is also great is that there are not just in Montreal: it’s perfect for me as I’m travelling a lot.

I also need to say that their community managers are just awesome. No, I’m not trying to get any privileges with this statement… There are very active, and very involve in the community. I wrote some reviews for Montreal, Calgary, and Toronto this weekend, and each community manager send me a comment at some point. They are there to help you, and give you great feedbacks. I don’t know for other city, but what I also like is that they are doing many events in Montreal.

So, are you using Yelp? Are you using another website like this? Do you find those websites helpful? Are you a shareaholic like me? Add me on Yelp, and let’s share our little treasures we found!

]]> 2012-08-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/social-media-breakfast-montreal-and-the-personal-branding/

Do you know Social Media Breakfast events? Those are recurring events that, like the name said, are related to social media. It’s a way for social media enthusiasts, and professional to learn, but also to network with each other. We are lucky, has we have a chapter in Montreal, the Social Media Breakfast Montreal.

I recently got invited by my friend Fabrice Calando to assist to one of them, so I went to the last two editions with Julien Smith, and Ray Hiltz as speakers. It was a great experience to meet all the attendees, and as a social media aficionado myself, a great moment to listen to these great people that are Julien, and Ray. The next one will be in October, and they asked me to present. As I’m speaking on technical topics for my job, I also like to share with other in my personal time on different non-technical topics. I tried to find a topic that would resonate with the audience, and on which I would have fun to talk about. So on October 10th, I’ll be presenting about branding: What a Technical Evangelist can tell you about Branding.

As an evangelist, your own branding is critical for your role. Interesting enough, it’s not just about this job type: you as a freelancer, a community manager, as a…you need to think about your branding. It’s about you as a person, you as an employee, and what people will associate you with. It’s one of the most important weapons you have.

Taken from my own experience, I’ll give you some advice about your branding in-person, but also online by using social media. We’ll talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly…

It will be a way for me to share my experience of personal branding, and discuss with awesome people in the audience. So buy your ticket now for the cost of 15$. For that price, you’ll have breakfast on site, meet exceptional people, and I hope, have a good presentation, and discussion with me after. Will you join me at Social Media Breakfast Montreal to discuss about personal branding? Do you think personal branding is important? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-08-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/wordpress-dans-les-nuages-au-wordcamp-montreal/

En ce moment même Wordcamp 2012 a lieu à Montréal. Une fin de semaine pour amateurs, initiés et experts de cette magnifique plateforme qu’est Wordpress.

J’ai eu le plaisir de présenter cette année à propos de Wordpress dans les nuages, aussi connu sous Wordpress in the cloud comme dans Cloud Computing ou cet affreux terme francophone, infonuagique. J’ai tenté de faire une présentation qui s’adressait au large public qu’est celui du Wordpress. J’ai donc commencé par introduire le principe du cloud, pour ensuite parler des avantages d’avoir Wordpress dans le cloud, en abordant un peu notre offre qu’est Windows Azure, puis en terminant par une offre facile et gratuite, ainsi qu’une offre plus complexe pour plaire à tout un chacun.

Comme à mon habitude, voici ma présentation de ce matin maintenant en ligne. De plus, la présentation a été filmée par Christian Aubry de Savoir Faire Linux et sera donc en ligne éventuellement sur Wordpress TV.

Wordcamp Montréal - Wordpress in the cloud from Frédéric Harper

]]> 2012-08-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-21/ If you don’t come in advance to a concert, don’t try to go near the scene by passing in front of people who are there since way longer than you.

]]> 2012-08-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-gouvernement-investit-dans-nos-infrastructures/ Encore une histoire de Duct Tape. Vu au coin de Ste-Catherine et McGill College il y a 2-3 semaines.

]]> 2012-08-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/5-years-later-she-is-still-with-me/

Today is the celebration of our 5 years together, as a couple.

Yes, after 5 years, I am still amazed by our couple as we are truly made for each other:

• She can be this perpetual student.
• I can be this social beast.
• She can be this movie snob.
• I can be this frequent traveler.
• She can be this experimented shopper woman.
• I can be this crazy guy.
• She can be this shoe freak.
• I can be this “involve everywhere” man.
• …

We can be ourselves, and it’s one of the reasons why we are still together, and so happy. Oh, and for those of you that were asking themselves why the pictures or my 5 years anniversary with my fiancé is a Storm Trooper one, it’s because we are Geek: one of the thing we did to celebrate this special day, was to bought the complete Star Wars saga blue-ray edition. What can I say more…

]]> 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-20/ If you cannot join a meeting, please notify the organizers as soon as you know.

]]> 2012-08-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/out-of-comfort-zone-dans-la-demo-de-lagence-tp1/

Lors de la refonte de mon blogue, j’avais eu quelques offres d’entreprises d’un peu partout au Canada suite à mon billet où je mentionnais rechercher un bon designer. Je voulais toutefois encourager une entreprise du Québec. Je devais aussi choisir une entreprise capable de répondre à mes besoins, dont celui de créer un blogue moins corporatif, plus hors du commun que ce que la plupart des compagnies ont l’habitude de faire. C’est ce que l’agence TP1 a réussi à faire avec brio en créant les maquettes de mon site actuel.

Question de montrer ce qu’ils ont dans le ventre, TP1 vient de créer une vidéo de promotion faisant la démo de ce qu’ils ont accompli dans la dernière année. J’ai eu une belle surprise lorsque j’y ai vu une petite animation concernant mon blogue inclus dans cette vidéo (débutant à 18 secondes). C’est avec une certaine fierté d’y voir mon blogue avec des projets tel que Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton ou la Société de transport de Montréal, mais aussi question de promouvoir le travail de TP1 que je vous partage leur vidéo ici.

]]> 2012-08-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/20-pounds-and-counting/

It’s been ten weeks now that I’m trying to lose weight, and I must say that it’s working. I weigh myself once a week, and today I exceed the psychological milestone of 20 pounds. Actually I lost 22 pounds since May 29.

I turned thirty, five months ago, and I figured out that it was about time to do something for myself! So what am I doing to lose around 2 pounds a week? First let me say that I’m not an expert about these things, and that I’m only sharing my own story. So, am I going to the gym every 2 days to work like crazy for 2 hours? Am I doing a diet that restrict me to eat only 1/20 of what I was eating before? The answers, for me, is simpler: being more active, and being more conscious of what I’m eating.

Being more active #

I never was a sportsman or a really active person: I sit all day in front of a computer. For me, being more active mean walking more for now. At my weight, walking mean burning calories more than a skinny person. I know I may have to take something more challenging in a couple of weeks or months, but for now, this is how I’m doing it. To motivate myself, I bought a Fitbit. It’s a pedometer that sends different information to their website: steps, distance, calories burn… It’s also a bit social, and is around the gamification of being more active: I can get some badges, and can challenge myself with other friends on some metrics, like number of active time in a day. It helped me a lot to be more active, and to walk more.

Being more conscious of what I’m eating #

This one was also with the help of Fitbit: not the pedometer directly, but the site that gives me an option to enter my food, and calculate the calories I’m eating. I didn’t, and won’t do any diet: I’m eating what I like to eat, but I’m being more conscious of what is really high in calories, and also reducing my portions. For me, it was hard the first 2-5 days because I had the habit to eat the restaurant portion size of meal (definitely too big). Now, I’m eating less. It’s a bit of work to enter what you eat during the day, but that give me a clear picture of things like if I can take a little snack, or if I had to go out, and take a walk to burn more calories. That helped me a lot in learning more about the foods I’m eating.

At the end #

At the end, for me, it’s as simple as calories in vs calories out. I set Fitbit to the harder plan for a deficit of 1000 calories per day, so 7000 calories per week. That mean 2 pounds less per week (each pound is about 3500 calories). That means that each day, I can eat –1000 calories of a normal calorie intake if I do nothing. If I want to eat more or treat myself, I need to do more exercise. If I want to go faster, same thing, but I don’t push myself. I want to lose weight without going crazy, and to continue having fun. Now I’m enjoying to go out for a walk, as I even go with a friend on the Mont-Royal twice a week to change from the streets of Verdun! It’s also good to know that if I want to eat that yummy pizza, I can do it, but maybe not an entire one, or if it’s the case, I’m going to have to walk a lot more today!

For me, it’s all about being healthy, and continue to live this awesome life I have: good friends, family, job… I hope this post will help some people to lose weight, and I think I will do some post to give the do, and don’t I found since the last 10 months. Also, by doing this post on my blog, it’s a way to commit myself publicly to force myself to continue my rewarding efforts to reach my first goal of 62 pounds lost…

]]> 2012-08-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/and-others-hire-p-r-companies/

Seen this graffiti during a walk in Verdun: some are born great, others achieve greatness, and others hire P.R. companies. Funny…

]]> 2012-07-31T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-19/ If you participated in a contest to win tickets for an event, please be sure that you are available until you know if you win or not.

]]> 2012-07-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-18/ If you want to listen music in a public space, there is an accessory called earphones that could be really useful.

]]> 2012-07-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/the-comedy-nest-laughter-guaranteed/

When the new owner of the Comedy Nest told me she wanted to give me tickets to go see a show, I didn’t know what to expect. First, I didn’t know this club, and didn’t really know Anglophone humorists. Let me say that I had a great night!

The Comedy Nest, located on the third floor in the Forum de Montreal, is a comedy club where you go to see some humorists left to themselves with only a microphone. In a cozy atmosphere, you can watch these funny people with a drink in one hand, and a snack in the other. It’s a great ambiance, and even if one comedian is the main contributor of the night, they seem to have other humorists before the main show. The night we went to this 30 year old cabaret was the evening of Kristeen von Hagen, but we also had the pleasure to see David Acer, and two other funny guy. We really had a great night accompanied by many many laughs. I even had a big crush on David Acer: no, not this kind of crush, but I found him so funny (I cried a couple of times during his short performance), that I’ll buy some tickets for his own evening in August.

I really want to explore more places in my own city, as I think we have real treasures that we don’t know. You never know what to expect when you go somewhere new, but it was a big success for me, and I’m really happy to know the Comedy Nest now. For sure, it may depend on the humorists on stage, but I highly suggest you to check the website, and give it a try. Laughter guaranteed!

]]> 2012-07-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/contest-free-tickets-for-the-comedy-nest/ I think that Comedy Nest liked the blog post I did on my first experience, as they gave me two pairs of tickets for one of the show this Thursday.

As I liked you (and that I had tickets for the same show tonight, haha), I want to give it to some of you. If you don’t know the Comedy Nest, go read my post on this club. The tickets are for the 8:00 PM show that will showcase Andrew Bush (The Comedy Network’s Picnicface), Ryan McMahon (CBC’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival), Eddie de la Sieppe (MuchMusic’s Video on Trial), K. Trevor Wilson (A&E’s Breakout Kings), Darrin Rose (NBC’s Last Comic Standing), and more! It’s part of the series “Just For Laughs: As Seen on TV”. As I had a great night the first time I went, I’m pretty you’ll have a great one also at this one.

The rule is simple: leave a comment with your real name, and your real email (only me can see it), and I’ll make the draw Wednesday at 9:00 PM. I have two pairs of tickets to give, so we’ll have two lucky winners! The winners will be contacted by email, and will have until noon on Thursday to confirm they took the prize. Their name will be given to the Comedy Nest, so no real tickets needed. If I have no answers from them before noon, I’ll give the tickets to another participant.

Thanks to the Comedy Nest for these prizes, and good luck to all.

Update #

The winners are Christophe Catherine, and Luis London. Congratulations, and have a great evening at the Comedy Nest!

]]> 2012-07-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/geek-show-v2-0-gare-aux-ninjas/

Pour une deuxième année, le Geek Show se produira pendant le festival Zoo Fest. L’an passé, j’ai assisté au spectacle et j’ai passé une superbe soirée.

En effet, le 21, 22, 26 et 27 juillet prochain à 22h00 au Studio Hydro-Québec du Monument-National se produiront sur scène six humoristes d’ici aux sketches et monologues à saveur Geeks. François Boulianne, Simon Gouache, Korine Côté, Simon Delisle, Yannick De Martino et Frank Grenier aborderont des thèmes tel que la science-fiction, le fantastique, l’informatique et bien plus. Je vous laisse juger du niveau de Geeketé par vous-même en vous collant ici le synopsis de la soirée qui vous attend:

C’est ici que se poursuit l’aventure de 6 valeureux guerriers… en effet, après la séparation forcée de la Communauté de l’Anneau, ses membres poursuivent leur route alors que le Mal, personnifié par Sauron et Saruman, étend peu à peu son voile sur la Terre du Milieu… non attends… ça, c’est le Seigneur des anneaux… attends… RESET… Ici c’est la 2e édition du GEEK SHOW! Six humoristes au moins level 30 se réunissent sur les planches pour te faire sentir bien de triper sur tout ce qui est science-fiction, fantastique, informatique… alors si la dernière fois que tu as vu le soleil c’est dans le tableau du désert de Super Mario Bros. 2, le Geek Show, c’est pour toi!

Cette année encore, on m’a offert une paire de billets, mais j’ai tellement aimé ma soirée l’an passé que j’aurais acheté moi-même mes billets. Alors vous êtes Geek? Vous ne faites rien le 21, 22, 26 ou 27 ou même les quatre soirs? Qu’attendez-vous, allez acheter votre vos billets sans plus attendre! Si vous ne le faite pas, les ninjas vous attaqueront (écoutez la vidéo de promotion ci-bas pour comprendre…).

]]> 2012-07-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-17/ If you reply to everyone on an email, please do it as if your mail client has implemented a four step process to the reply all feature:

1. Click reply all button/menu,
2. Click YES on the popup that say “Are you sure you want to reply all?”,
3. Click YES on the popup that say “Are you sure everybody in this email needs to read your reply?”,
4. And finally click yes on the last popup that say “Did you read twice what you wrote, and are sure that YES was the right button in the previous popups?”.

]]> 2012-06-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/why-i-choose-the-word-evangelist-for-my-role/

In three days, I will be in my Evangelist role at Microsoft for one year, and a half. It was, and it’s still an amazing experience: awesome job, great company, astonishing co-workers, mind-blowing ecosystem… Actually, there is some excitement about the Evangelist job in Montreal as the friend Sylvain Carle joined Twitter, and he’s moving to San Francisco. I’m really happy for him as I think he is also a born Evangelist, and as I know him, he is a perfect match for Twitter.

Since it’s really new for him, Sylvain is trying to find the right term for his role at Twitter. Like me, he seems to have the latitude to choose what fits most the role in his mind, but also with his personality. Sylvain seems to prefer something like “Developer Advocate”, as I prefer the term “Developer Evangelist”, and now “Technical Evangelist”. I totally respect his choice, but since I had the idea of starting a series of blog post around the role of an Evangelist, this Twitter discussion gave me the idea to start the first one by explaining why I prefer this word. This is, in no mean, a way to argue with Sylvain…

Let’s be clear, it’s just about the term, and perception (of ourselves, and from others), as the Developer Advocate, and the Developer Evangelist do the same thing at the end of the day: as I like to say, we give love to developers. In my case, I choose to change my title to Technical Evangelist as even if my main audience is developers, I’m not dealing only with them: I also work with integrators, designers, architects, CTO… and every user of technology.

So why do I choose the term Evangelist? First, I like this word. More seriously, it represents a big part of what I’m doing: I’m talking about technology. An Evangelist is also there to help technical people be successful with their projects, their job, and their career path. The only time people think that my job is related to religion, is when I’m talking to non IT people. I don’t care about explaining what I’m doing for a living as most of the time, I also had to explain what was my developer job. On the other side, I also need to say that I need to explain what is exactly my role as an Evangelist for IT people, but I never got the religious comment, and at the end it serves me well: it’s a good ice breaker!

Even if I had co-workers who use the term Advocate, I also choose the term Evangelist to help this term being known in Canada: the more that we are, the more the term will be known. It’s something that is well-known, or at least, better known elsewhere. We are seeing more, and more Evangelist role as these roles are critical for the adoption, and the success of your platform. They are the social piece of your company, being there to help, to communicate, to share, to guide, to mentor others. I also had to think about my audience, but like I told before, my personality was also important in the process. I’m the guy in the team who work with non-Microsoft technology enthusiast. I’m the guy who his well-dress when he put new sneakers with his t-shirt, and usual jeans. I found the term advocate boring (sorry teammates!), and as I don’t consider myself boring, it wasn’t for me. I’m extravert, and for me the Evangelist term is a synonym of extravert!

At the end, I think that both terms make sense depending on your role, your audience, your company, your values, and who you are. As for me… I am a Technical Evangelist…

]]> 2012-06-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-16/ If I need to create an account to use your Web application, you need to have an option to delete my account if I don’t want to use it anymore.

]]> 2012-06-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/we-are-now-the-owners-of-a-condo/ I’m so happy, that I wanted to share this with you: we are the new owners of a beautiful condo. Yesterday we went to the notary, and got our keys! If I didn’t get on your nerves with this on Twitter or Facebook, now you know it. So here is the first picture of Émilie, and I, in our new home with a cigar, and a port wine bottle that our real estate brokers gave us to celebrate the news!

]]> 2012-06-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/are-you-stealing-in-a-store/

No? Why not? It makes sense if you find the item too expensive? It also makes sense if you find that the company or the entire industry make too much money. No?

It’s been a while since I’m thinking about writing this blog post. I’m tired of people who tell me that I should watch movies for free because it cost me too much since I watch a lot of them. I’m tired of people who tell me that I should find a torrent file to get my hand on this expensive software that I will use only once in a while. I’m tired of people that tell me I’m stupid to buy my music as I would be able to get the albums for free on the Internet.

If I cannot afford something, I don’t buy it. If I feel that I’m spending too much because I consume a lot, I put a limit, and minimize my expenses. If you steal something, no matter the reason, you are a thief. For me, there is no different with the person who go to a physical store to steal something, and the person who downloads a movie, a song, a software or whatever that it should have bought.

So next time you suggest to someone to pirate something or do it yourself, please go to a store, and steal something physical. After this, you’ll earn the right to tell us this…

]]> 2012-06-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-15/ If you are doing a step-by-step tutorial for developers, provide the full source code.

]]> 2012-06-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/its-not-about-them-its-about-you/

Stop worrying about what others think of you. Stop caring about what people say about what you are doing. Stop being afraid to hear what people think about your clothes, the music you like, the books you read, the movies you watched… It’s not about them, it’s about you.

Too often we look at ourselves with the regard of others, but it’s not right. Why should you please other people when it doesn’t make sense for you? You need to please yourself first, it’s your life! A couple of years ago, I lost my shyness with some other stupid things that poisoned my life, like wanted to please other people all the time. I had to follow the standard, so I can be like everyone else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to help others, and be nice, but when it prevents you from being yourself, it’s not mentally healthy.

You see the picture on this blog post? It happened yesterday evening. I wanted to take a walk, but didn’t check the weather before. So I went to the Canadian Tire to buy some garbage bags, and I got caught by the rain. I took a bag, and create a one-time raincoat. Even in Verdun, I looked a bit weird with this on me. So what? My goal was to stay mostly dry, and my attempt was successful. For sure, I put a smile in the face of some people, and make others laugh, but at the end, does that killed me? No, and I can definitely say that I made the day of some people by making them smile.

Starting now, stop thinking about what others will think of you. Do whatever you want, in the way you want, with who you want… in short, you get the point! Like KK said at Make Web Not War Vancouver 2011: dance like the photo’s not being tagged, love like you’ve never been unfriended, and tweet like nobody’s following you…

]]> 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-14/ If you are a parking valet, and you need to move my car, I’m pretty sure you can do that thirty second ride without having to change my seat, mirrors, or steering wheel settings.

]]> 2012-05-31T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-13/ Time to smoke a cigarette? Awesome, the best place to do it is in front of the store’s door.

]]> 2012-05-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/windows-8-love-in-st-johns-go-beyond-pixels-conference/ In heads order: Jeremy Keith, Ethan Marcotte, Aarron Walter, Josh Clark, Jeffrey Zeldman, Thomas Lewis, Geri Coady (local designer), your truly, Suzannah Mejia (co-organizer), Isaac Mejia (co-organizer), and Levin Mejia _(founder, and organizer).It was my first time in St-John’s, Newfoundland, and it was a great experience: this is a gorgeous place, and people are so friendly. It was also the first edition of Go Beyond Pixels conference, and I had the pleasure to be there, with my colleague Thomas Lewis.

Levin Mejia, the organizer of this event, asked me to talk about Windows 8, so I created a presentation that would be appealing for Web developers, but also for designers. Here are the slides of my presentation:

Go Beyond Pixels - 2012-05-25 - Using Web tech to build for Windows 8 & Metro UI from Frédéric Harper

I must say that I had a great time, before, during, and after the conference. Levin was able to get industry leaders, but also give an opportunity to the Web people in Newfoundland to get together.

I also had the pleasure to go out for dinner with some of the most amazing Newfoundlander, and Ethan Marcotte:

It was a great success, and I hope I’ll have the chance to speak there again next year. Levin didn’t talk about a next edition, but with all the positive feedbacks he got, I’m pretty sure that he’s thinking about it, so people from elsewhere in Canada, and US, keep a closer look to the site, the travel worth the time, and the money!_

]]> 2012-05-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-12/ If you want people to answer your survey, try not to make it four pages long.

]]> 2012-05-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-11/ If you are releasing a new version of your software, the release notes are always welcome.

]]> 2012-05-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-10/ When you are in the corridor of a hotel, yelling or talking out loud doesn’t seem to be a good way to respect others tranquility, and their sleeping time.

]]> 2012-05-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-9/ If you are on a plane with turbulence, if the flight attendants don’t panic, there is no way to panic or be afraid yourself.

]]> 2012-05-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-gens-techniques-au-webcamp-a-quebec/

Voici comment la VETIQ voit les gens techniques au Webcamp à Québec. Ça explique un peu ce qu’on pense de moi des fois ;)

]]> 2012-05-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-8/ If you want to chat with the cashier or the waitress, do it when there is nobody in the lineup waiting to pay or to order something.

]]> 2012-05-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/this-is-how-im-dealing-with-a-big-computer/

The tripod was too small for my computer as behind it, we had a microphone. Duck tape can solve everything, even securing my Dellasaurus at the Windows 8 camp of the .NET Community in Montreal. Thanks to Laurent Duveau for the picture.

]]> 2012-05-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/panel-sur-lavenir-des-ti-a-la-boule-de-cristal/

Mardi prochain aura lieu la 9e édition de la boule de cristal, conférence montréalaise sur les enjeux en TI. Ce sera une première expérience pour moi en tant que participant, mais aussi en tant que panelliste.

En effet, je ferais partie d’un panel intitulé “L’avenir des Ti passe-t-il par les applications Web et mobiles ?” avec l’ami Carl Charest comme maître d’oeuvre. J’aurais le plaisir de discuter avec les amis Émile Girard et Shibl Mourad, ainsi que de rencontré pour la première fois mes autres co-panélistes, Patrick Gagné et Farid Mheir.

Je vous invite donc à venir discuter avec nous de l’avenir des TI, des applications Web et mobile. De plus, comment rater la chance d’avoir Charest et Harper sur une même scène!

]]> 2012-05-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-7/ If you are presenting in front of a crowd, and you have a microphone, please repeat the question before starting to answering it.

]]> 2012-05-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-6/ If you have a website, you need to have a search option.

]]> 2012-05-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/out-of-comfort-zone-gets-a-makeover/ It’s been a while that I’m talking about the design of this blog. Five months ago, I was looking for a designer to create a personal design for this blog. As I’m back to the blog as my primary home on the Web, and that I closed all other blogs to focus on this one, this website is really important for me: this is why I invested time, and money in it.

This is with real excitement that I’m putting online the new theme of Out of Comfort Zone. As you can see, this design represents me well: colorful and expressive! It’s a combination of work from two Montreal company: TP1 for the design, and Kindo Communication for the integration of the mock-up. I asked TP1 to have a design that would be like me, and also by giving them some keywords like simplicity, clean and typography. The two things that Kindo Communication had to keep in mind were Web standard and responsive design.

As I’m blogging for myself first, the only customer I had in mind for this design was me, and I’m so happy with the result. I hope you’ll enjoy browsing on my site as much as I like it now! For sure, I have to update the content of some of my pages, and I’ll probably have to tweak some part of the UI, but I wasn’t able to wait anymore to put it online.

For me, this is a new start of my passion about blogging…

]]> 2012-04-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-5/ If you are driving a vehicle, and you want to turn right or left, there is something special call a flasher: you can use it to tell other drivers that you want to turn.

]]> 2012-04-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/this-is-the-video-i-will-show-to-all-flight-attendants/

It’s not even about my smartphone. I’m so annoyed when they ask me to turn off my Kindle Touch for take on and take off. You know this electronic device that doesn’t make any noise, that isn’t connected and that has very low power consumption? As I’m flying a lot for work, this video makes me smile.

Stole on Nicolas Roberge’s blog.

]]> 2012-04-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-4/ If someone hold the door for you, nobody will be hurt if you say “thank you”.

]]> 2012-04-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/show-me-your-book-responsive-web-design/

If you are following this blog, you probably know that I’m a fan of the Responsive Web Design philosophy. I’m in the process of redesigning this blog, and one of the criteria for the designer and integrator was to have a responsive site.

I’m also doing presentations on the topic (I just did one at FITC Toronto two days ago), reading about it, but never took the time to read the book from the inventor of this principle, Ethan Marcotte. I got so many good feedbacks on this book, than I was suggesting it during my presentations, so I thought it could be a good idea to read it myself!

It’s a quick read, but it worth the time as with this book you will be able to understand the process behind the thinking Ethan did, learn what is Responsive Web Design, and see how you can make your site responsive. For those of you that assisted to one of my presentations on the subject, it’s also a good idea to read this book, as you will go deeper than we are able to do in a one hour presentation.

As I don’t want to give you all the information that you can get by reading this book, I’ll leave you with the abstract as seen on the product page:

From mobile browsers to netbooks and tablets, users are visiting your sites from an increasing array of devices and browsers. Are your designs ready? Learn how to think beyond the desktop and craft beautiful designs that anticipate and respond to your users’ needs. Ethan Marcotte will explore CSS techniques and design principles, including fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries, demonstrating how you can deliver a quality experience to your users no matter how large (or small) their display.

Have you read this book? Are you planning to read it? Do you like this philosophy? Are you making your website or Web application responsive? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-04-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/responsive-web-design-get-the-best-of-your-design-at-fitc-toronto/ Yesterday I did a presentation at FITC Toronto on Responsive Web Design. I had a blast with an amazing audience, and as I promised, here is the presentation:

FITC - 2012-04-23 - Responsive Web Design from Frédéric Harper

All the resources are in the slides, but it will be easier for you to have them here:

• Ethan Marcotte original article on A list Apart
• Multi-Device Layout Patterns
• Filament group Responsive Images script
• CSS3 Media Queries JavaScript polyfill
• Hardboiled CSS3 Media Queries
• Stunning CSS3 book
• Responsive Web Design book
• Smashing Magazine article on Responsive Web Design
• Media queries examples
• CSS3 Media Queries W3C standard

Somebody introduce me to what seems to be an awesome tool to test your website on different devices. I didn’t have the time to test it, but ProtoFluid is a JavaScript library that you add to your project to be able to test your Web application or website on “different devices”.

I hope you enjoyed the presentation, and if you have any comments, questions or insults, let me know in the comment section.

]]> 2012-04-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-sketch-of-me-with-a-duckface/

We have a lot of cartoonists in the old Montreal, but I never took the time to have one of them make a sketch of me. Samsung has a drawer at FITC, so between sessions he did a sketch of me, that I need to say, is just awesome. I really like it, even if he gave me a duckface!

For those of you that want to see Seth Wilks’ works, you can go to his website.

]]> 2012-04-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-3/ If you are getting out of the plane, the best place to stop is not in the aisle between the airplane and the airport.

]]> 2012-04-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people/

Since a couple of days, I saw so many things people do that doesn’t make sense, or just common sense behavior that doesn’t seem to be so common sense for everybody. OK, it’s not true, it’s been a while, that sometimes, people discourage me, but it’s been only a couple of days that I’m thinking about starting a series of blog post named “tips and tricks for people”.

The goal is simple, 1-2 simple sentences telling someone how they can do thing better I’m my opinion. I don’t have the omniscient, and it’s not an “I’m superior to you, so I’ll tell you how you can manage your life” thing, but most of them will make sense… at least for me.

Let’s see how long I’ll have fun doing this, but I already have a couple ones in head that I’ll add to this blog in the next days. So I’ll do one right after this post to start the machine! These will help me ventilate, when needed, and I hope, will get you some laugh or something like “This is so true!” feeling…

]]> 2012-04-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-2/ If you are a speaker, and your presentation is being recorded, then someone asks a question without any mic, please repeat the questions in yours before answering him.

]]> 2012-04-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tips-and-tricks-for-people-1/ If you want to cross the street while a car is coming in your way, don’t do it with your child.

]]> 2012-04-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/oasis-et-le-pouvoir-des-medias-sociaux/ Si vous avez été un tant soit peu devant votre écran hier, vous avez sûrement entendu parlé de la saga de la compagnie Lassonde, qui fait les jus Oasis, contre la petite entreprise de soins corporels, Olivia’s Oasis.

Toute la journée, une panoplie d’internautes indigné et frustré de l’attitude d’Oasis face à cette petite entreprise d’ici se sont manifestés sur Twitter et sur Facebook. Plus important encore, des centaines de gens ont mentionné leur désapprobation via la page Facebook de la marque de jus Oasis à un point tel qu’en milieu d’après-midi Oasis à tenté de s’expliquer sur sa page Facebook.

[La tentative, très maladroite, n’eut comme résultat que d’augmenter la grogne des internautes qui ont continué de manifester leur désir de boycotter la marque et tout produit provenant de Lassonde. Ce n’est que 4 heures plus tard qu’un message mentionnant qu’ils rembourseront la petite entreprise apparaitra sur leur page Facebook. Un changement arrivant un peu trop tard, car on peut encore sentir la frustration de leurs clients ou devrais-je dire, anciens clients.

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2012/04/2012-04-08_0933.png)[Je dois dire que j’ai suivi le tout avec grand intérêt. Ce n’est pas la première fois que l’on voit la puissance des médias sociaux à l’oeuvre contre une injustice, mais celle-ci ma particulièrement intéressée vu le cas juridique, ainsi que l’implication de deux entreprises d’ici.

Ce qu’on doit retenir, au niveau des médias sociaux, de toute cette histoire (pas seulement pour Lassonde):

1. Les consommateurs, vos clients, ont une voix beaucoup plus puissante et facile à utiliser maintenant: vous ne pouvez plus ne pas les écouter;
2. Les erreurs ou mauvais services/produits d’une entreprise sont plus durs à cacher: travailler avec vos clients pour améliorer votre service/produit ou réparer l’erreur au lieu de jouer à l’autruche.

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2012/04/2012-04-08_0938.png)

Toute cette saga nous aura démontré, encore une fois, la force des médias sociaux et je dois dire qu’étant un aficionado de ceux-ci, cela m’a fait grand plaisir, surtout pour Olivia’s Oasis. Par contre, il ne faut pas oublier qu’avec ce pouvoir vient les responsabilités!

Malgré l’intention de Lassonde de rembourser Mme Kudzman, leur attitude va tout de même leur coûter cher, car plusieurs consommateurs n’achèterons plus leur produit d’aussi tôt! Que pense-vous de toute cette histoire? Partagez votre opinion!

]]> 2012-04-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/keystrokes/ A couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Rozenblit did an interview with Scott Hanselman for D3, a Web show we have at Microsoft Canada. In the first episode, not online yet (Jonathan is working on it), Thomas Lewis and I discussed about the interview, but we didn’t have the time to approach one subject that I found very interesting: saving your keystrokes.

In the interview, Jonathan asked Scott where does he get the time to blog so often with everything else he has to do. He answered that he tried to save his keystroke. One of his examples was about e-mails: if someone asks you something by e-mail, that could be a blog post, why not writing the post and sending the link to that person instead. You’ll get the same result as the person who asked the question will have the answer, but you’ll share the information with more people that could have some interest in the topic.

As a personal example, I’m in the process of redesigning my blog. The company that will do the integration of the design asked me a list of the plugins that are actually active on this blog. Instead of writing them an e-mail, I should have made a blog post here to list the Wordpress plugin I’m using. Rather than reaching only the team leader, I would be able to reach a lot more people. Some of them would have found, maybe, some interesting new plugins for their blog. Would that take me more time to do it? Probably not, or not that much. It’s a simple example, but you got the point.

I found this so brilliant! We have a limited number of keystrokes, so why not use them to reach more people if that make sense? With age, I’m becoming a huge fan of improving the processes and getting more efficient with what I’m doing. This is a simple advice, but at the same time, it’s so powerful. Blogging and e-mail was one example of how we can save our keystrokes, but you can apply this to many situations. As I believe that my blog is my principal online identity, my home on the Internet, you can be sure that I’ll execute this idea with this blog!

Do you think it’s a brilliant idea? What are you doing to save your keystrokes or have them reach more people? Share your thoughts!

P.S.: As Scott talked about saving our keystrokes, I was sure I could find a blog post on his blog about the topic.

]]> 2012-04-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/show-me-your-book-read-this-before-our-next-meeting/ Every big company has a culture of meeting: anything needs a meeting. Many books get my attention in the Domino Project of Seth Godin, but I recently read one of them that talk about meetings: Read this before our next meetingWith only 80 pages, this book is a quick read. We have too many meetings, and we have too many bad meetings, so Al Pittampalli introduced us to what he calls a modern meeting. He explains us that meeting is too expensive and disruptive to justify using them for the most common types of communication, like making announcements, clarifying issues, or even gathering intelligence. Interruptions force us to start over each time, and meetings are interruptions. He even said that like war, meetings are a last resort. Even if I don’t agree with the comparison with war, I can agree with the big picture.

I highly recommend that you read it if you found you have too many meetings. Most of what is written in the book are common sense, but I really like the idea of modern meeting. Unlike of what we think, we either meet or work. We can’t do both at the same time…

Without giving you too much information about the book, let’s just say that we tend to use meeting to avoid taking a decision. Next time you want to schedule a meeting, why not use the modern meeting guide flowchart to help you:

[Did you read the book? Are you stuck in a culture of too many meetings? Share your thoughts.

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2012/04/MMS-decision-flow.png)

]]> 2012-04-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/please-someone-explain-me-twitter/ [Unfollower unfollowed

If you follow person X, it’s because you find it interesting? I know some people will follow person X, because he followed you, but at least you took the time to see who he was, read some of his past tweets and found that he had a minimum of interest to follow him back? If, for any good or bad reason, person X unfollow you, why are you unfollowing it right away? Is he less interesting because he isn’t following you anymore? Oh, and by the way who thought that it could be a good way to have the people follow you back if you make a tweet telling all your followers that he unfollowed you? Even if the goal is to have a kind of revenge? Do you really think it will hurt the person?

The race to followers #

I can understand companies, they want to reach more people, but for a personal account, is it really the goal of Twitter? Having more followers? I’m discouraged when I see tweets that ask people to retweet the fact that they need only 5 more followers to reach 1000 followers or whatever number. My goals on Twitter: get valuable information from my followers and have great discussions with people I’m following. For sure, having more followers helps reach more people with whatever you are saying, but the end goal is not to have more followers that anybody else, no?

Each time you self-promote yourself, God kills a kitten #

I often hear people saying that the other person is doing too much self-promotion on Twitter (replace Twitter by any social media). OK, and? Twitter is an awesome platform to share our success, projects, ideas… with the world. If you find someone is doing too much self-promotion, there is an easy way to stop this: unfollow that person.

Cross-posting sell your soul to the devil #

I’m doing it: all my tweets go to my Facebook account. Why? I don’t have time to manage all my social media presence with specific updates. I also prefer Twitter and it’s a way for me to give some news to my Facebook friends. If you can’t stand that someone is doing this, following this person only on one media could be a good idea.

In 1 month, it will be 4 years that I’m using Twitter and maybe there is something I didn’t understand, please, help me! What do you think about these? Am I wrong? Share your thoughts!

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2012/04/5858249526_2298a25375_b.jpg)

]]> 2012-04-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/my-fans-are-intense/ [Found on the wall of the building right after where is our apartment: a graffiti of my initials, FH. My fans are a bit intense :)

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2012/04/WP_000190.jpg)

]]> 2012-03-31T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-billets-de-42-sont-maintenant-disponibles-ici/ 42 était un blogue qui devait me servir de plateforme pour mettre en ligne mes billets techniques, mes billets s’adressant aux développeurs de tout genre. Après seulement quelques billets, je me suis aperçu que la plupart des billets technologiques étaient faits sur les différents blogues sur lesquels j’écris à Microsoft Canada. Ce blogue n’aura donc pas duré longtemps, mais j’ai toutefois tenu à transférer les billets ici. Vous pouvez les consulter en regardant les billets qui ont le tag 42.

]]> 2012-03-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/the-microsoft-shamwow/ One of my colleagues, Paul, did a funny video to promote a program we have, the developer movement. I found it so awesome, that I wanted to share with you.

And because Paul is a fan of the song “Move like Jagger” from Maroon 5, here is the Geekiest way to “sing” it:

Actually, it sounds pretty nice…

]]> 2012-03-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-billets-dun-mot-une-photo-sont-maintenant-disponible-ici/ Toujours dans l’optique de transférer mes anciennes propriétés sur celle-ci et ayant déjà fait le transfert d’À la base 2J’ai créé ce blogue lorsque je me suis acheté un appareil reflex pour tester ce dernier, pour m’amuser avec la photo d’une manière plaisante et surtout pour apprendre à maîtriser cet engin méconnu. L’idée était simple, je prenais un mot dans le dictionnaire et j’en faisais la photo. Depuis, je n’ai pas repris ce concept et je ne me suis pas amélioré en photographie, mais je compte bien aller suivre un cours sous peu. Peut-être continuerais-je mon petit jeu de photo, mais d’ici là, je continue à me servir de mon appareil pour croquer ces moments intéressants de la vie que je mets sur mon compte Flickr.

Pour ceux intéressés à voir les quelques billets que j’avais sur ce blogue, vous pouvez les lire en utilisant le tag unmotunephoto.

]]> 2012-03-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/html-css-design-book/ Two weeks ago, I received a copy of the book HTML & CSS, design and build websites. I didn’t have the time to read it yet, but at the first look it seems to be the most beautiful book I saw on this topic: really nice design and graphics. Hey, why technical book needs to be visually boring?

Thanks to Jon Duckett, the author, for the free copy

]]> 2012-03-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/your-blog-posts-are-too-long/ With that in mind, we can also say that the attention span of people just drops off: too many interesting videos, articles, applications, status updates, blog posts… So I come to a magistral conclusion: your blog posts are too long. I don’t have the time to read a long post: I have other information to grab on your blog or somewhere else. I also may read your post in front of my computer, but I may be in line to pay my groceries, waiting for someone to start a meeting or have two minutes to kill before the movie start.

Also a long post is most of the time boring. You can argue that it’s a matter of good or bad author, I will argue that’s not the problem: if you are not able to get to the point with about 500 words, maybe the topic isn’t good enough or you don’t know it well enough. If you really want to talk about all the facet of the topics, make a series of posts.

In my mind, a good blog post should be between 250 and 500 words maximum. You did a post with a lot more words: rethink it or do a series. You need to make a long blog post because it’s technical or it’s not like this easy-going no-real-value opinion blog post I just did? Bullshit! If you want to be credible, you need to create a long text? Bullshit! If I want to show your expertise, you need to put more examples or give more meat to your readers? Bullshit! Simple is the new complex!

I don’t have the innate knowledge, this is my opinion, and I don’t ask you to change your mind or tell you what to do, but take some times and try to see which blog post got more traction or is way more interesting the next time you read some. So, did you think that shorter blog posts are better? Are you a fan of long blog posts? Do you feel that you need something complex to understand easily a topic? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2012-03-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/there-is-something-wrong-with-html5/ Usually, when I’m doing a blog post, I’m searching on Flickr for a picture or image with a Creative Commons license. So last week, I was looking for one to put into my blog post around HTML5 resources and I saw this one: a sexy (sexy?) picture of Bruce Lawson, one of the two authors of a HTML5 book. One month ago, I found the picture of Remy SharpI wonder if it’s these pictures that motivated Bristowe to buy this book a couple of months ago for the team… By the way, you can buy their book Introduction to HTML5 second edition.

]]> 2012-03-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-billets-da-la-base-2-sont-maintenant-disponibles-ici/

Comme je mentionnais dans mon billet du 22 décembre dernier sur mon blogue À la base 2, je fermais les portes. Pas que j’arrête de bloguer, au contraire, mais j’ai trop de sites et je préfère me concentrer sur un seul: Out of Comfort Zone.

J’ai donc décidé de fermer mon ancien blogue et de transférer les billets ici. Le transfert fut long, car j’ai décidé de les relire avant de les remettre en ligne: toujours intéressant de voir ma façon d’écrire d’il y a quelques mois, années et de voir ma façon de penser sur certains sujets. Pour quelques mois encore, les liens pointant vers À la base 2 seront redirigé sur leur équivalent ici même. Ce sont de grands changements qui auront des conséquences certaines, mais c’est un choix que j’ai fait en toute connaissance de cause. Question d’avoir une pérennité de ces 140 billets et plus, j’ai décidé de tous les transférer ici. Vous pouvez donc lire tous les billets originaux du blogue en utilisant le tag À la base 2.

Je vais continuer la migration de mes autres sites aussi dans ce dernier. Plusieurs belles choses s’en viennent pour ce blogue, dont un design personnalisé qui devrait être en ligne d’ici quelques semaines, je l’espère.

Bonne lecture

]]> 2012-03-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/maimouna-youssef-the-girl-of-a-gypsy-woman/ One of my passion is music. Not as a player, but as someone who enjoy listening to it, discovering new artists and dream to the sound of a beautiful voice or an astonish beat. Last week, I saw a tweet from Stéphane Poirier asking if someone wants to go to the Montreal launch of Maimouna Youssef CD “The Blooming”. I had nothing planned, so why not go out with Émilie and discover a new singer (thanks for the invitation Stéphane).

So yesterday, I went to the Café Bar Verre Bouteille to listen at Maimouna. I need to say that it was my first time at Verre Bouteille and I enjoyed the venue: great beers and good little snack to eat. A perfect place for the kind of evening we had. Maybe one hour after we sit down to have a good view and drink a good beverage on this beautiful hot day, the artist goes up on stage. She was colorful, energic with a gypsy touch like she said during the show.

This artist really surprised me. I need to admit that I barely listen to the music on her site before the event and I discovered a girl with a fascinating voice. Her songs, sometimes energic, sometimes bewitching, sometimes with lyrics you can’t hum, were a mix of different styles always sing with a lot of passion. I must say that I bought the CD before the show, as I’m a compulsive music CD buyer, but I didn’t regret my investment.

Even if you are not a soul or r&b lover, you’d like Maimouna voice. I hope we’ll see her again in Montreal soon. To give you a preview of her album, I leave you on a video she did for one of the song named “I got a man”… have a good listening.

]]> 2012-03-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/oh-no-i-was-at-the-google-party/ Some people think we need to be enemies. I’m one of the kind who think we should work together to make the Web a better place. So I was there tonight, at their Montreal office grand opening. Thanks for the invitation, you have a great office.

_P.S.: The other guy on the picture is Benoit Piette, co-organizer of HTML5mtl._P.S.2: Yeah a Microsoft guy, with a Twitter t-shirt, in a Google office…

]]> 2012-03-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/responsive-web-design-in-the-prairies/ I had the pleasure to do another talk at Prairie Dev Con West in Calgary about Responsive Web Design. I need to say that this topic is one of my preferred. I’m really an HTML5 enthusiast and the principle behind this brilliant idea of Ethan Marcotte is just awesome.

As I promised to my lovely attendees, you didn’t have to take notes of the resources, here is the presentation I put on my SlideShare account:

Prairie Dev Con West - 2012-03-15 - Responsive Web Design from Frédéric Harper

If you can see it, please open this post in a browser.

During the presentation, I gave some examples, some book suggestions, some websites to play with, so here are all the resources from this presentation:

• Ethan Marcotte original article on A list Apart

• Filament group Responsive Images script

• CSS3 Media Queries JavaScript polyfill

• Hardboiled CSS3 Media Queries

• Stunning CSS3 book

• Responsive Web Design book

• Smashing Magazine article on Responsive Web Design

• Media queries examples

• CSS3 Media Queries W3C standard

If you have some questions that come to your mind only after playing a bit with Responsive Web Design, just let me know. If you want me to introduce this philosophy to your user group or in your conference, send me an e-mail. Have fun making your site responsive!

]]> 2012-03-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/prairie-dev-con-west-and-the-power-of-the-matrix/ I tend to have the bad habit of just posting my presentation on SlideShare and not doing any blog post. Even if it’s better than the speakers who don’t publish them online, it’s not so easy for attendees that wanted to use the resources. I’ll be a better speaker with my next speaking engagements, and I will do a blog post with an easy access to the resources to help you get right now to the content.

Yesterday I did a talk at Prairie Dev Con West on WebMatrix. I wanted to show how it’s easy to build awesome website and Web application with this amazing tool. Here are the slides from my presentation:

Prairie Dev Con West - 2012-03-14 - Webmatrix, see what the matrix can do for you from Frédéric Harper

If you can see it, please open the blog post in a browser.

I didn’t have a lot of resources, but the one I gave them could lead to a good number of hours of pure fun:

• Download WebMatrix

• Download the beta version of WebMatrix

• Tutorials to explore the power of WebMatrix

As usual, if you have any questions on the tool, please let me know.

]]> 2012-03-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/cours-html5-a-confoo/ Il y a deux semaines, j’ai eu le plaisir de passer la semaine à la conférence Confoo. Les deux premiers jours étant des formations, j’ai fait équipe avec de brillants développeurs (Benoit Piette, Rémy Savard, Renoir Boulanger et Laurnt Villeneuve) pour donner une formation sur HTML5: HTML, CSS et JavaScript.

Tel que promis, voici ma présentation que j’ai mis en ligne sur SlideShare:

Confoo 2012-03-01 - Building mobile experiences that don’t suck from Frédéric Harper

Ma partie du cours comprenait différentes sections, que je vous liste ci-bas avec les ressources.

1. Qu’est-ce qu’HTML5
   1. The Internet Explorer 6 countdown
   2. Cut the rope (now at CrazyGames)
   3. Illy Issimo
2. Historique
   1. W3C HTML Working Group
   2. La spécification HTML5
   3. HTML5/CSS3 cheatsheet (vieux d’un an)
   4. The Best HTML5 and CSS3 Cheat Sheets of 2011
3. Stratégies d’adoptions
   1. When can I use
   2. Haz.io
   3. Mobile HTML5
   4. Modernizr
4. Canvas
   1. Canvas Pad
   2. Speed Reading
   3. When can I use Canvas
   4. Canvas video, blow it up
   5. AI to Canvas
5. SVG
   1. Logo HTML5
   2. SVG girl
   3. When can I use SVG
   4. SVG Cheat Sheet
6. Géolocalisation
   1. Foursquare playground
   2. When can I use Geolocation
7. Audio
   1. Canvas Love
   2. When can I use Audio
   3. Plink
   4. When can I use Audio API
   5. HTML5Rocks Web Audio API Introduction
8. Frameworks
   1. jQuery
   2. Less Framework
   3. Knockout
   4. Kendo UI
   5. Backbone.js
   6. HTML5 boilerplate
9. Modernizr & poyfills
   1. Modernizr
   2. HTML5 Cross Browser Polyfills Modernizr collection
10. Outils
    1. Aptana
    2. WebMatrix
    3. NetBeans
    4. Visual Web Developer Express
    5. jsFiddle
11. Ressources supplémetaires
    1. HTML5mtl – Groupe d’utilisateurs HTML5 à Montréal
    2. Make Awesome Web
    3. Dive into HTML5
    4. HTML5 learning
    5. IE Test drive
    6. A book Apart
    7. A list Apart

Si vous avez assisté au cours et que vous avez d’autres questions, n’hésité pas à me faire signe.

]]> 2012-03-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/my-unknown-father/ Since I have joined the team at Microsoft Canada, there is a running gag about Damir being my dad: you have to admit that the resemblance is troubling. A couple of months ago, I made a t-shirt for myself saying that Damir is not my father. On the last TechDays tour, I thoughts that it could be fun to have a t-shirt for Damir too. The result was awesome as everybody that know both of us laugh a good time. As I was always looking for this picture to show both of us, I thought that a blog post would be good. Thanks to Ryan

]]> 2012-02-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/techdays-online-est-maintenant-disponible/ Quoi? On parle déjà de TechDays 2012? Non, mais ça viendra d’ici quelques semaines. Ici je parle du site de TechDays que nous avons surnommé TechDays Online ou TechDays en ligne. Vous avez vécu l’expérience TechDays en personne, à Montréal, Toronto ou Vancouver? Maintenant, vous pouvez la vivre en ligne.

Hé oui, le site de TechDays, en plus de servir à partager l’information de la conférence, devient maintenant une source d’informations et de formation en ligne. Toujours avec le but d’offrir des ressources de qualités pour vous aider dans vos projets et votre carrière, nous avons mis en ligne 3 types de ressources que voici:

Les enregistrements des présentations de TechDays

Vous n’avez pas pu assister à TechDays cette année? Vous étiez présent, mais vous avez manqué des sessions qui vous intéressaient? Que cela ne tienne, vous pouvez dès maintenant accéder aux enregistrements des présentations faites à TechDays 2010 et 2011. Plus de 100 vidéos touchant des sujets pour les IT Pro et les développeurs sont offerts gratuitement. Une bonne façon de continuer son apprentissage dans le confort de son bureau.

Des laboratoires pratiques

Les laboratoires pratiques étaient nouveaux cette année à TechDays. Une façon fort pratique de mettre ses connaissances à l’épreuve ou d’apprendre une nouvelle technologie à l’aide de manuel très détaillé. Comme nous savons que deux jours ne sont pas assez pour voir les présentations qui nous intéressent et en plus, faire des laboratoires pratiques, nous les avons mis en ligne pour vous. Pas besoin de configurer son ordinateur, une machine virtuelle se chargera et mettra à votre disposition un environnement prêt à l’apprentissage!

Des ressources supplémentaires

En plus des vidéos et des laboratoires, nous avons ajouté une section présentant des ressources telles que des balados, des whitepapers et bien d’autres. Une bonne façon de continuer de s’informer sur les technologies qui vous intéresse.

Comme dirait l’annonceur du ShamWOW, “mais ce n’est pas tout”. Bien que le site soit déjà rempli de ressources exceptionnelles, il sera mis à jour régulièrement. Que ce soit avec les prochains TechDays, de nouvelles ressources ajoutées toutes les semaines, des présentations qui seront faites spécialement pour TechDays Online avec le TechDays TV, vous ne serez pas à court de nouveau matériel!

Pour l’instant, le site est en anglais et seulement les vidéos enregistrés à Toronto sont en ligne. L’équipe derrière le site travaille actuellement pour avoir les enregistrements faits à Montréal le plus tôt possible. Alors, n’hésitez pas à aller consulter le site régulièrement. Sur ce, bon apprentissage!

Ce billet apparaît aussi sur le blogue des développeurs canadiens

]]> 2012-02-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/responsive-web-design-la-vision-du-monde-depend-des-lunettes-que-je-porte/ Hier soir, je présentais au groupe d’utilisateurs HTML5mtl. Ma présentation portait sur le principe du Responsive Web Design, une façon de concevoir nos sites pour répondre plus facilement et avec une meilleure expérience pour nos utilisateurs. Tel que promis, voici ma présentation ajoutée à mon compte Slideshare.

https://www.slideshare.net/fredericharper/html5mtl-20120222-responsive-web-design

Voici aussi la liste des différents liens dont je vous ai parlé ou sites que je vous ai montré. Vous pourrez à votre tour alors explorer, développer et vous amuser.

Article original d’Ethan Marcotte

• Dmig 5 – magasine Allemand implémentant le Responsive Web Design
• Illy Issimo
• HTML5 shelf
• Robot or Not
• Filament Group Responsive images
• Little Pea Bakery
• CSS3 Media Queries JS
• Hardboiled CSS3 Media Queries
• 320 and up framework
• Less framework
• Stunning CSS3 book
• Responsive Web Design book from A Book Apart
• Responsive Web Design article from Smashing Magazine
• Media Queries collection
• W3C CSS3 Media Queries standard

Pour ceux qui n’ont pu assister hier soir et qui aimeraient en savoir plus, j’ai fait un billet sur le sujet il y a quelques jours (en anglais). En espérant que ma présentation vous ai donné le goût d’en apprendre plus sur le sujet et de commencer à l’implémenter dans vos projets. N’hésitez pas à me faire signe si vous avez des questions sur le sujet.

]]> 2012-02-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life-challenge-7-take-a-break/

Now the real challenge of last week: take a break. The goal is really about spending time with your thoughts. Think about what to do, new ideas, priorities, new goals… Just taking some time, with yourself.

I need to say that taking time with myself was something impossible in the past. I’m a social guy: I need to be with people. I also need to do something, work on a project, make things happen. Now that my work as an Evangelist involve people, I now need some time alone (most of the time, including only my girlfriend): times for me, at home, to relax.

The other part of this challenge is really about thinking. This part gives me a hard time. I hear you, it’s not because I’m stupid (hey I’m a bitch too, so I expect that people joke on me)! I think all the time. Seriously it’s a real problem. My brain is always working. Each time I have nothing to do that really captivate my mind, I’m thinking. I even fear to wake up at night to go to the bathroom, because I will start to think about something and I will have problems to fall asleep after. It’s probably why I like being involved in many projects: that helps me occupy my brain and stop thinking. I don’t think it’s a stress thing, since I’m not a stress person. It’s just that so many ideas run into my head…So my real challenge for this one is to take a break and stop thinking. I need to find a way to help me put my brain to off and just enjoy the moment. Since I’m aware of this, I try to find some hobby that could help me relax for real. Actually movies are the best activities I found for this.

Even if I need to do the opposite, I think that this challenge is also very important. I’m glad that Fabrice put this one up. In this world, where everything goes fast, it’s great to take some time with us, just to think and not being reactive to what is happening. Did you make this challenge? Was it hard for you? Are you like me, always thinking about something? If so, did you find a way to stop the madness? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-02-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/awesome-tools-you-can-use-to-build-your-next-html5-website-or-application/ Even if the actual version of HTML as been discussed for a couple of years now, it is fairly new. We see a lot more enthusiasts around this new version of this Web standard, and trust me; it’s just a beginning. If you have already started to give a closer look to the new features and elements, you probably asked yourself where are the tools to help you build your next amazing HTML5 website or application?We are starting to see more and more IDE (Integrated Development Environment) adding HTML5 support to their existing tool. When we talked about support of HTML5, most of the time we talked about syntax helper. You don’t have to always remember all elements from a programming language so these tools will help you create your code easily. As the usage of HTML5 is growing considerably, we will see soon more IDEs that will help us create the UI without coding. Let me introduce you some of them, that you may or may not know:

WebMatrix

WebMatrix is my IDE of choice when I do HTML5. It’s a simple free tool that let you code some HTML5 magic with some IntelliSense help. The IntelliSense will help me find the right element I was trying to use, but also close the tag for me. Even if you are a HTML5 pro, sometimes your memory needs some help. What is great with this tool too is that I can easily publish, direct from the interface, to my FTP account: no need of a thirs party application.

Expression Web

If you are looking forward to use something with UI preview, Expression Web in the next tool in my Web developer weapon list. It’s a great software that also has IntelliSense for HTML5 and CSS3, but it let you preview directly in the tools your masterpiece with the SuperPreview feature. It’s not just about Internet Explorer 9; you can see the rendering of your website on other browsers like Firefox, Chrome and Safari. You can try it for free.

Visual Studio

If you are a .NET developer, you already know this tool, so it’s easier for you to use a tool you already know. You can choose between more than one version, but we also have a free version for you: Visual Web Developer 2010 Express. With this tool, you can easily build your HTML5 website or application with all the benefits of this amazing software. If you already use another Visual Studio version, you can also install the Web Standards Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1 that adds CSS3 support and updates the HTML5 IntelliSense and validation, including new JavaScript API’s.

Notepad

I’m serious. You can even use Notepad. In fact, you can use any text editor as HTML5 is a markup language, so you don’t need any compiler. The applications I showed you before are there to help you code more quickly and easily, but you have the freedom to use anything you want!

I know there are more tools available on the Web, but I wanted to introduce you to the tools we have at Microsoft. I really think that we are doing great stuff with this three IDEs, but let me tell you something that is not a secret: these tools will get better and better with their new releases, so keep on eyes on them! Did you use WebMatrix, Expression Design or Visual Studio for your HTML5 needs?  What is your IDE, Microsoft or not, of choice? Share your thoughts!

This blog post also appears in the Make Web Not War blog

]]> 2012-02-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life-challenge-4-set-a-happiness-metric/ It’s not an error in the challenge number: I told you in the challenge #5, that I totally missed the #4, so I wanted to give my opinion about this one too. I’ll make a blog post about the one from last week, the #7, later this week.

This challenge is about setting-up a happiness metric. I think that it’s a brilliant idea and without really noticing it, I was already doing it. When you think about it, the #4 is not totally about having the metric, but more about knowing if you are happy, what you can improve and what you need to do to be happier in life. So many people complain about their life: they don’t like their jobs, they are not happy with their husband, they would like to travel more… The problem with these people is that they don’t really take the time to sit down, think about it, see what they can do and, the most important of all, do it. By setting some metrics, it’s one way to do it.

I told you that I was doing this without really knowing it. For a couple of years now, I have tried to improve part of my life. For me, it’s not about changing everything, it’s really about setting a realistic goal and making it happen. My actual step was about having my own condo. For a couple of years now I have given money to others to have a roof over my head. On top of this, I don’t feel like home with an apartment. This step is nearly done since we confirmed the buy of a condo. The last step with this goal will be the notary and moving there in mid-June. After I’ll be set-up in my new condo, I’ll need to make a new goal in my life: something I want to improve. It could be about family, friends, work… anything that could be better in my life. Not that I don’t like my actual life, but I’m one of the kind who think that there is always space for improvement.

Did you do this challenge? Do you have a happiness metric? Do you have things you need to do better in your life? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2012-02-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/scary-html5-book-promotion/

I was searching some HTML5 picture for another blog post on Flickr when I saw this one. Don’t judge the book by this picture, it’s a nice book on HTML5 my old-coworker John Bristowe bought for all the team members a couple of months ago.

]]> 2012-02-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/you-too-can-become-a-make-web-not-war-warriors/

On March 8th, we will have a full day of free webinars just for you. A good way to learn new technology presented by experts. A great opportunity to learn about Web, mobile, design, cloud computing and more…

As we know that not everybody has an interest in all topics, and that it’s not always easy to take a full day of training, we give you the opportunity to register to each presentation separately. For those of you that want to maximize their days, we wanted to be sure that you have some time left between each session to go grab a coffee, read your e-mails, take a snack or tweet about the awesome session you saw!

Here is the amazing schedule we made for you:

11:00 – 11:45am - Designing Mobile Apps that Don’t Suck- Paul Laberge

Over the past 3-4 years, mobile apps have moved from a niche market for a select few developers and designers to a massive new economy across multiple platforms. Gone are the days where a mobile application is seen as an afterthought; it’s simply not enough for a mobile platform to be “good at email”. While this is true and there are apps that cover almost every imaginable task, its arguable that the majority of those apps are poorly designed and could use significant improvement to their user experience. In this session, we’ll show you what you as a mobile app developer/designer should be thinking about when building your app, regardless of the mobile platform you are targeting. We will go through a great number of topics including how to standardize the look and feel of your app to the platform, creating an effective and appealing user interface, implementing your idea for the mobile form factor and more.

Click here to register.

12:00 – 12:45pm - Take the red pill and enter the Matrix- Frédéric Harper

Don’t fear the Agents anymore. In this presentation, we’ll show you how it’s easy to build a Website with the right tools. Including a Web server, a database, a SEO reporting tool and much more, WebMatrix, a free IDE, give you anything you need to be as fast as Neo. Coding in PHP or HTML5 has never been so easy. You work with Wordpress, DotNetNuke, Joomla or Umbraco? Don’t worries, you’ll be up and running with these (and more!) in less than five minutes. If you don’t want to control the Matrix, you can always take the blue pill…

Click here to register.

1:00 – 1:45pm - Winning on Mobile Marketplaces: Strategies for your Mobile Apps to Gain Traction- Paul Laberge

If you are a modern mobile developer then you already likely already know that it’s tough to gain traction in a crowded, central Marketplace. In this session, we go through strategies for distributing your app and game both publicly and privately. You can use these strategies to help market your app or game and give you some ideas for addressing how you can convince users not only to download your app, but also to keep opening it and using it over your competition.

Click here to register.

2:00 – 2:45pm - Responsive Web Design: The View of the World Depends on the Glasses I Wear- Thomas Lewis

There is no mobile Web, there is no desktop Web, and there is no tablet Web. We view the same Web just in different ways. So how do we do it? By getting rid of our fixed-width, device-specific approaches and use Responsive Web Design techniques. This session will focus on what is Responsive Web Design and how you can use its 3-pronged approach on your current apps today which will also adapt for new devices in the future.

Click here to register.

3:00 – 3:45pm - What’s That “Cloud” Thing?– Jonathan Rozenblit

The Cloud is like the new “HD”. Everywhere you go these days, there’s something about the Cloud or someone is talking about it. So what’s hype all about? Why do your applications need it? Tune in to find out. You’ll see how your existing apps can go to a whole new level and how your new apps, whether they’re on the web, on the desktop, or on devices roaming the world, can go from being awesome to being epic.

Click here to register.

4:00 – 4:45pm - Devices, Your App, and the Cloud- Atley Hunter

There are extremely few popular device apps that do not connect to some kind of web-based or cloud service. Today’s apps are connected experiences and derive a great deal of value through the content they consume from services. See, through an end-to-end development experience, how connecting your Windows Phone, iOS, and/or Android device apps to the Cloud opens up a world of interesting possibilities.

Click here to register.

5:00 – 5:45pm - Introduction to Drawing with HTML5’s- Thomas Lewis

With the introduction of the element into the wonderful and magical world of HTML5, we now have a drawing API that can help us create experiences that we imagine and make them real on the web. In this session you will see examples of fun apps ranging from casual games to data visualization, learn the fundamentals of and how to manipulate it with JavaScript, compare with its cute sister , learn the fundamentals of game and animation mechanics and find best practices and real-world lessons in performance and how to stay away from anti-patterns.

Click here to register.Oh and don’t wait to register: the first 100 people to register for a seminar AND to attend WebCamps on March 8 will get our latest Web Not War gear! It’s super secret… but super awesome! You’ll definitely want to get one. Just sayin’.

This blog post also appears in the Make Web Not War blog

]]> 2012-02-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/what-the-heck-is-responsive-web-design/

As a Web developer, we need to think about many devices, screen sizes and orientations. It’s not enough now to build our application or website to target only desktop screens: you need to keep in mind that your visitors will come to your site with their smartphones, their netbooks, their tablets, their slates and even their living room TV. We need to give them a good experience.

Instead of creating a specific version for the most common screen resolution or for specific mobile experience, Responsive Web Design is all about creating an experience that will keep in mind the user’s needs instead of ours. Flexibility is the keyword as we adapt to various devices’ capabilities, instead of configurations.

How many times did you tried to see a website that is not mobile-friendly? Everything is too big for the size of the screen. You have to zoom-in, zoom-out, and it’s very frustrating. With a fixed-width design, the owner will have to create a version for each device that their customers use.

So what is really this Responsive Design thing? It’s base on three technical aspects:

1. Media queries

2. A flexible grid-based layout

3. Flexible images and media

Media Queries

Media queries are like having if statement in your CSS. You can define which CSS stylesheet will be loaded depending on different criteria, like the size of the screen. Everything is managed by the browser and there is no need to do like we did in the past with some JavaScript and page reloading. Here are some examples:

A flexible grid-bases layout

Everybody loves pixels. We used pixels for a long time in the Web, and Designer loves them too. The problem is that the screen representation of a pixel is different  on every device or screens. The answers in using a flexible grid-bases layout reside in percentage or em for sizing. The idea is to use relative size for text, width and margins.

Flexible images and media

The last part, but not the less important is about your media. The images and videos needs to be flexible too. It’s a basic principle that allows you to scale or shrink your media with CSS. You can also use a technique with alternate version of the media or sometimes, when it makes sense, no media at all.

If you want to see Responsive Web Design in action, you can go to https://mediaqueri.es/ that list some great examples. Use your smarthphone, your tablet or resize your desktop Web browser: you will see the magic of Responsive Web Design. This blog post is a good start to understand the idea behind it, but if you have an interest in this topic, I will be more than happy to make other blog posts to dive deeper into the subject. For those of you that can’t wait, one of the best book out there is the one from A Book Apart. Oh and if you are in Montreal, I’ll do a presentation on Responsive Web Design (in French) at HTML5mtl next week.

Do you think Responsive Web Design is the way to go? Do you already use it? Did you see amazing implementation of this technique on the Web? Share your thoughts.

This blog post also appears in the Canadian Web Developer blog

]]> 2012-02-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life-challenge-6-turn-off-your-mobile-phone/

The hack your life challenge of last week was also about disconnecting and taking time for you. It was about taking the control of your time and be able to live without your precious. Not all the time, we need to live, work and be productive, but turning off this device on the evening and during all the weekends.

Actually, I wouldn’t be able to live without my smartphone. To be honest, it’s not the phone part that I would miss as I hate the phone: it’s mostly the smart part of it. I have a cell phone since I’m 16 years old (hey young people, 14 years ago it wasn’t the case for everyone; I was one of the cool kids!) and a smart phone since my first Blackberry, I would say, 2005-2006. For me, it was a way to be always connected, and it’s even more the case today with these new awesome smartphone (like my Windows Phone, seriously). Because I’m always connected and always the kind of guy who loves to have a busy schedule, when I’m at home, most of the time I turn off or don’t watch my phone during evening and week ends. It’s already the way I think so it’ wasn’t that hard, but I cheat a little. Don’t worry, it was for a good cause: we are in the process of buying a condo (more informations on this later).

In a world where we are always connected and where the line between work and personal life is tinier than ever, this challenge is even more important.  Did you participate in this challenge? Is it hard for you to turn off your smartphone? Do you think Fabrice is a crazy guy with this challenge around take time without our electronics devices? Share your thoughts?

P.S.: I have the impression that most of my blog posts recently are around this challenge, but I want to continue to do it and share my thoughts with you. Don’t worry, I have so many ideas around other topics, and I’ll post them, as soon as I’ll have more time.

]]> 2012-02-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/imaginecup-2012-arrive-au-canada/ Vous êtes un étudiant et vous aimeriez vivre une expérience hors du commun? ImagineCup 2012 arrive au Canada. Une compétition qui vous permettra de vous démarquer des autres gens de votre promotion tout en réglant les problèmes dans le monde en utilisant la technologie. Les études sont terminées pour vous ou vous êtes professeurs? Que cela ne tienne, partagez l’information dans vos classes, au travail ou dans votre réseau: l’équipe gagnante fait peut-être partie de vos connaissances!Qu’est-ce qu’imagine Cup?

Nous sommes entourés de problèmes – faim dans le monde, maladies, changements climatiques… Une idée géniale pourrait toutefois transformer les obstacles en opportunités. Imagine Cup convie les étudiants à se regrouper en équipe et à combiner inspiration et technologie pour régler certains des enjeux les plus complexes de la planète. Chaque année, des milliers d’étudiants de partout dans le monde s’affrontent lors de cette compétition.

Compétition locale Imagine Cup

Rivalisez avec vos collègues canadiens dans le cadre de la compétition locale Imagine Cup. Mettez vos idées, votre passion pour la technologie et votre savoir-faire à l’épreuve dans les deux catégories suivantes : conception logicielle et conception de jeux pour Windows Phone 7. En vous inscrivant à l’une des deux catégories, vous serez automatiquement inscrit à la compétition locale et à la compétition internationale. De nombreux prix sont offerts : un voyage à la finale canadienne à Toronto, un voyage à la finale mondiale en Australie, un appareil Windows Phone 7, un ensemble Kinect Xbox et des occasions de carrière stimulantes.

Prêt à relever le défi? Ne tardez pas et visitez le site de la compétition locale pour plus d’informations.

Ce billet apparaît aussi sur le blogue des développeurs canadiens

]]> 2012-02-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life-challenge-5-do/

I like to call myself a doer, because when I have an idea, I’m not just talking; I’m making it reality. I started some personal or community projects like Festival Geek de Montréal (French), We are Geek (French), Portrait de blogueurs (French), FailCampMtl… Some are still alive. Some are dead. Some are been taking by other. There are other things in my life that I postpone. You know, these things we need or want to do, but we don’t feel like to, for any reasons.

Last week, the Hack your life challenge was about doing. Doing stuff you always postpone. Sometimes we fill up our todo list with stuff we are afraid to do, stuff we don’t want to do for any reasons good or bad, or even with stuff that is not important. This challenge is all about exposing yourself and don’t let the flinch get you. If you have to do something, easy or not, go for it, do it!

Actually, it was a busy week for me as I was in Seattle for an internal training during this challenge, so the week was all about conferences, hands-on  labs, team dinners and a bit of tourism in this nice city. I didn’t have much time to do other stuffs. The only thing I did, is my workout training. I want to do it 2-3 times per week, and it’s always a challenge when I’m traveling, so I think it was a little win, even if it was a baby step.

This challenge is not a challenge of only one week; it’s a lifetime one. I have a lot of things in my todo list that I didn’t take the time to do or didn’t want to do. Since I always have many ideas in mind, it’s not easy to empty my list of things to do. One thing I will do for this challenge is to empty my todo list before doing something new.Are you a doer? Did you make this challenge? Were you able to empty your todo list this week? Share your thoughts.

Update #

I missed the challenge #4, Set-up a happyness metric, so this one is really #5. I’ll do the real #4 with the #7 next week.

]]> 2012-02-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/show-me-your-book-strengths-finder-2-0/ One thing that is awesome with my job is that our team is all about learning and getting better. I’m the kind of guy who think there is things I need to learn by myself, on my own time, but other things that my employer need to pay for it in a form or in other: training, time… What is even greater in my role is that even things I would do all by myself, my manager invest time and money on!

One of the things we did to improve ourselves on a personal plan, that will also help our team work, is reading the book Strengths Finder 2.0 (version of the book, no link with Web 2.0). It’s not that our team is not playing well together, we are an amazing team, but there is always space to improvement everywhere in life. Usually books or people told you to find your weakness and try to work on them. You must admit that it’s a lot of work to being a better person. The main idea of this book is to work on your strength instead of your weakness. You have powerful aptitudes, why not taking them to the next step?

Strengthsfinder 2.0: From the Author of the Bestseller Wellbeing

The best thing about this book is actually not the book: it’s the online test you can take to find your top strengths. Knowing yourself help you in every sphere of your life, and I’m one of the kinds that knows pretty well is strengths and weakness. What was great with the test for me is that the results were exactly what I was expecting and how other are seeing me. If you want to know, here are my top five strengths/themes:Woo

People who are especially talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and

winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with

another person.

Activator

People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning

thoughts into action. They are often impatient.

Strategic

People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced

with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Connectedness

People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all

things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

Communication

People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their

thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

I highly suggest you buy this book, even if it’s only to have access to the test (you got an unique code to be able to make the test online). On your side, are you focusing on your strengths or weakness? Do you believe that working on our strengths is the way to go? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2012-02-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life-challenge-3-speak-to-a-stranger/

I’m a bit late to post my results on the challenge #3 of the Hack Your Life project from Fabrice Calando, since the 4th one just finish. The challenge was about speaking to a stranger. Not someone like the barista, the delivery boy or the bus driver, someone who you really don’t know.

No need to say that with my job, talking to a stranger is not a big deal: I do this all the time: sometimes on a 1 on 1 formula, sometimes to a couple of thousands. Even if it wasn’t a challenge for me, I think that it’s a very important one for people that aren’t comfortable with this. All your life you’ll have to talk to people you don’t know or worst, people you are afraid to talk to. It’s the first step to a better life, I can tell you.

I must say that Ia couple of years ago, maybe 12 years from now, I was a shy guy. I know it’s hard to believe when you know me, but it’s a true story. At one point, I understood that being shy wouldn’t help me in life: I was losing a lot of opportunities. Now you will say that I went too much on the other side, but trust me, it worth it. Speaking to a stranger is a good way to start to leave the shy part of yourself behind you.Did you do the challenge? If not, it is never too late. Was it easy for you or a hard one? Are you a shy person? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2012-02-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/make-web-not-war-communities-night-in-vancouver/

As you saw in this blog (Make Web Not War one), last December, we did a Make Web Not War Communities Night in Toronto. It was a real success: we had awesome presenters, delicious foods and passionate discussions with people from the industry.

We are actually in the planning process of the next one, that will be held in Vancouver. To be sure we will have the best experience for a community night, we wanted to ask you to share your thoughts. Make Web Not War Communities Nights are basically the same as the Make Web Not War Conference, but happen more often and is during an evening instead of a full day. We ask the best speakers in the place to present about a technical topic. In a formula of TED Talk, they have 15 minutes to show something awesome to you, about any technology, not just Microsoft one. With this in the head, is there any speaker you would like to see at this event or any technology we really need to find a speaker for?

Because it’s a casual night, we really want you to come to an amazing venue. We are not looking for a typical conference room, but for a funky cool place that can handle around 100 people. If you know the venue we need to use, let us know as soon as possible as we will finish the planning soon.We are so excited to prepare this awesome evening for Vancouver communities. Don’t worry, you’ll have more details soon on the venue, the date and the schedule. See you at the next MWNW event!

This blog post also appears in the Make Web Not War blog

]]> 2012-02-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/you-are-your-company-a-customer-service-story/

Last week was not a good one for me with customer services. I had a problem with valet in two parking, and I had a not so good service in a coffee shop. No need to say that these places won’t see me there soon now. At the end, even if it’s only one person among the other, and it’s not the boss fault, they lost a customer.

When you are working with customers, in a coffee shop, on the phone for tech support or anywhere else, you are representing your company. I should say, you are your company at that time. Each time you talk to someone, each time you gave a good or bad service; you represent your employer. You really have to think about it. In some cases, it won’t hurt the business, like in my three cases this week, where they will only lose one customer, but if it’s a repetitive lack of judgement or lack of good relationship, that will hurt the company for sure.

Most of the time, it’s a detail, but do I need to say that details count? In my case, the first guy in the parking I usually go when I go to the office, yell at me after I asked them to help me find a parking since I didn’t find one. Because I didn’t see him when I entered his floor, he was upset. In was not a case, of “I didn’t see him, so I was near to hurt him with my car”. It was because he wanted to ask me my keys, so he will park my car, because there is no more space available. I was concentrated to find a parking, so I didn’t notice he was trying to speak to me; it’s not a big deal. For me, it was a total lack of respect.

The second situation was in another parking the day after. I needed to try a new place since the first one was on my blacklist. I parked my car somewhere I was sure it was OK: other cars had a lot of places to get out, no no parking sign, and other cars were parked like mine. The guy came to me to tell me, like if I was an idiot, and that I was supposed to know, without any signs, that it was a place to park only cars to wash. Another lack of respect and a customer lost. It’s bad because I was going to park my car there each time I need to be in this area.

I won’t tell you the third story, since you got the point, but in the previous cases, they would have been able to avoid these really bad attitudes. Maybe it was a bad day for them, maybe I was the 10 customers to do the same, maybe… I don’t care. Even if all other employees are the best in town, it wasn’t a way to treat me, to do customer’s service. So think about it when you’ll answer a customer or help them: be sure to give a good service, or you will lose them. Do you find customer service really important? Are you giving your best so your customers have the best service in your industry? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2012-01-31T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/lady-gaga-nyan-cat-meme-combat/ Quand vous allez sur le compte Twitter de quelqu’un en utilisant l’application Web, Twitter vous suggère des comptes semblables. Je trouvais la suggestion fort intéressante.

]]> 2012-01-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/how-to-get-up-to-speed-with-a-new-technology/

You are in front of your computer, wanting to learn a new technology for your job, or because you have this awesome idea on what will be the next Angry Birds. Whether you are a professional, a student or a hobbyist, learning a technology is sometimes a challenge. Where to start? In this blog post, I will give you my tips around getting up to speed with a new technology.

Before your start

If you are not limited to a specific technology, like someone who has to learn the next programming language for their work, you may ask yourself, which one fit the best my needs. A good way to see what the industry is using or what is the thoughts about this new HTML5 thing you saw on the Web last day, online community is the best place to start. I go often to a place call Stack Overflow. It’s really a good place for technical and sometimes, more high level discussion/questions. You can also go to places like LinkedIn.

I know which programming language I want to learn

Now you know what you want to learn. Personaly, I’m still a fan of book, or in a digital world, eBook. You can buy great books on site like Amazon or directly from the publisher like O’reilly or Microsoft Press. You can also go on a site like the MSDN blog to find great resources. If you are ready to invest some money, you can use website like Lynda.com that gives you a lot of tutorial for a monthly fee. Furthermore, never underestimate good music for the learning process!

I want to go further

If you want to learn more, you can also go to conference or users group. There are so many conferences about technology that you have plenty of choices. Just in the top of my head for the next month, I can suggest you PrairieDevCon for Calgary people, Confoo for Montreal people or Le Web à Québec for French people. OK, I know more conferences from Quebec since I’m living there, but search the Web, and you will find a lot more. Don’t forget user groups: there are so many that offer top quality presentation for free or a minimal fee. Here is a list to start.

Prove your knowledge

What happening after I learn the technology? For sure, you will use it for the project or the work you had in mind, but there are more ways to test your competencies. You can take a certification exam or participate in some competitions, hackfests or even take advantage of things like the Developer Movement. A great way to build your next idea, have some fun, be creative, win some prize and for sure, validate your learning process.

It’s not a big step by step process, but these are my tricks to get up to speed with a new technology, what are yours? How do you start the learning process?

This blog post also appears in the w00t blog

]]> 2012-01-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life-challenge-2-turn-off-the-electronics/

I need to say that the challenge #2 from Fabrice Calando was a total fail for me. The goal was to shut down any electronic devices at least one hour before going to bed. I think I succeed only one night, and it’s because I was too tired to do something after I come back from a meeting.

Actually, it’s not true: this challenge was not a fail. I failed  at the main goal, but I learn a lot. I learn that I’m totally addicted to electronic devices in my life. Is it good or bad? I’m not sure. I also learn that everything I do, most of the time, are related to computer. Everything I do, for work or in my personal time, need this beautiful hardware that I love so much. I need the computer to do my work, to be on social media, to write on this blog, to do my role as a secretary for the W3Quebec (in French), to publish my podcast (in French), to start a new project… We are so used to this machine, that we do everything with it. As I said, is this bad or not, I don’t know. In my case, when I’m not in an event or in a user group for work, I’m in front of the computer. This challenge told me that I need to find hobbies that won’t use my computer as a tool. Just to have the feeling that sometimes, I am disconnected.

At the end, the best that I was able to do was to turn off my computer (read leave it alone, since I never turn it off) and go watch some TV. The big point here is that I need some times to turn my brain off and relax… Were you able to do this challenge? Do you use too many electronic devices? Do you find that it’s a problem? What do you do to turn your brain off and relax? Share your thoughts?

]]> 2012-01-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/rejoignez-le-mouvement-des-developpeurs/

Prêt à repousser les frontières? Prêt à changer les règles? Prêt à être de l’avant-garde? C’est le moment de foncer avec le mouvement des développeurs. Vous avez une idée du tonnerre pour une application Windows Phone? Le Mouvement des développeurs vous aide à la concrétiser!

Voici votre occasion d’intégrer un nouveau marché international en pleine croissance, de devenir une vedette au sein de la communauté des développeurs et d’être récompensé pour vos efforts. Vous croyez pouvoir changer le monde des applications mobiles? Lancez-vous – c’est peut-être plus facile que vous le croyez!

Publiez 1 application de qualité et sélectionnez une prime ci-dessous :

• Un capteur Kinect pour Xbox 360

• 10 000 points Microsoft

• Casque d’écoute Monster Beats

• Un disque dur externe de 1 To

Publiez 2 applications de qualité et sélectionnez un second article ci‐dessous :

• Appareil Windows Phone 7

• Un chèque-cadeau de 500$

• 35 000 points Microsoft

• Ensemble Xbox 360 avec Kinect

Publiez 3 applications de qualité et  nous ferons la promotion des meilleures applications dans les espaces suivants :

• Bulletin Xbox

• Tableau de bord Xbox LIVE

• Le site Web MSDN

• Le bulletin MSDN Flash

• Le blogue Canadian Developer

Tous ceux qui publient une application sur le Marketplace pourraient obtenir une prime, alors commencez à développer dès aujourd’hui! Pour plus d’informations, visitez le site du mouvement.

Ce billet apparaît aussi sur le blogue des développeurs canadiens

]]> 2012-01-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/geek-et-fier-de-letre/

Il y a un peu plus d’un mois, je donnais une petite entrevue à David Nathan pour la section techno de MSN. Le sujet était “C’est quoi, finalement, un Geek?”. Comme c’est un sujet que j’adore, j’ai accepté avec plaisir.

La promotion du terme, du style de vie et de la compréhension du Geek est quelque chose qui me passionne. Malgré une utilisation de plus en plus fréquente du terme Geek à bon escient, il reste encore de la sensibilisation à faire. Certaines personnes, médias ou même organisations voient le terme Geek comme quelque chose de néfaste ou de péjoratif. Comme le nouveau concours de l’AQIII, intitulé la Revanche des Geeks qui me déçoit grandement. On l’y souligne le fait que l’informatique ne serait pas une profession de Geek et le concours demande de soumettre une vidéo qui explique pourquoi être informaticien, c’est cool. On y fait vite le lien entre le fait qu’être Geek ne serait pas cool.

Avant de continuer, pour ceux qui ne le savent pas, je travaille en informatique depuis plus de 10 ans à titre de développeur et maintenant évangéliste aux développeurs. Vous l’aurez deviné, j’ai deux problèmes majeurs avec tout cela:

1. L’informatique EST une profession de Geek. Qui voudrait passer sa vie devant un ordinateur à créer des logiciels, toujours devoir se renouveler sans cesse et avoir un emploi ou l’essence même est de régler des problèmes? Un Geek bien sûr!
2. Le vrai Geek, celui qui a une passion extrême comme l’informatique, les jeux vidéos ou je ne sais trop quoi, est une personne sociable, qui aime partager sa passion et vie sa passion, voir son obsession, à fond. Pour moi, il n’y a rien de non cool ici.

Ce que je déplore surtout, c’est que le message proposé ici sera sûrement mis de l’avant dans un grand réseau. Comme quoi un événement tel que le Festival Geek de Montréal n’avait pas une mission éphémère.

Sur ce, cher ami Geek, soyons fier de ce que nous sommes!

]]> 2012-01-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/apprenez-html5-a-confoo/

Aimeriez-vous apprendre HTML5, CSS3 et JavaScript? Vous voudriez découvrir ce que vous pouvez faire avec ces technologies, mais vous ne savez pas par où commencer? Avez-vous un problème à trouver du temps pour vous assoir et commencer votre entrainement de ninja HTML5?

Si vous avez répondu oui à au moins une de ces questions, j’ai une bonne nouvelle pour vous: Confoo offre encore cette année une formation sur HTML5. La formation HTML5 Confoo est l’endroit idéal pour apprendre sur HTML5 et ses compagnons de guerre, et ce, durant une formation de deux jours complets. Le Web converge vers HTM5 pour les applications Web, les sites Web et aussi maintenant, les applications mobiles. Il est donc critique de connaître les avantages, les limitations actuelles et les possibilités qu’offre cette technologie.

La formation aura lieu le 27-28 février prochain au Hilton Bonaventure de Montréal et ce, donné par des experts de l’industrie. Le nombre de sièges est limité à 16, alors dépêchez-vous! Pour plus d’information, et pour vous, enregistrez, veuillez consulter le site de Confoo https://confoo.ca/fr/2012/session/html5.

On se voit sur place. Soyez prêt pour toute une formation!

Ce billet apparaît aussi sur le blogue des développeurs canadiens

]]> 2012-01-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/music-is-my-life/

I must say that I’m a music lover. I like music of all sorts, almost. I don’t play any instruments, but for a long-time  music was a big part of my life. For an unknown reason, last year, it wasn’t the case. I missed it.

I missed listening to it. I missed discovering it. I missed sharing it. I took some times during my vacations to get back in the world of music. This year won’t be a year without music. I will fire up Zune as often as I open TweetDeck. I will go back in stores or online website to discover new albums, new artists that I will encourage by buying their CDs (no 1990 didn’t call me back; I’m still buying CDs). I will also try to share some of my treasure with you, on this blog. Maybe a podcast will rise out of this. I have an idea of who would be a good co-host, but it’s always a matter of time when I have this kind of ideas.

Do you like music? Is music important in your life? What are the best albums you listen to in 2011? Who is your greatest group or performer of all time? Which kind of music do you enjoy? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-01-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life-challenge-1-get-rid-of-excess-clothing/

Two days ago, I wrote about the project of Fabrice Calando, Hack your life. Since I think it’s an amazing idea, I wanted to participate, and it’s what I did with the first challenge: get rid of excess clothing.

To be honest with you, it wasn’t a hard challenge for me, and it’s OK. I really think that the challenges will sometime be easy and sometimes harder depends on a lot of personal factors. Once in 2-3 months, I clean my wardrobe, and give to charity the clothes that I don’t want anymore. I must say that I had a couple of conferences, and Geek t-shirts that I was holding for memory purpose. Some of them are also real art! This clean up gave me the idea to post, on this blog, some of the t-shirts I have. People always tell me that my t-shirts are awesome, so why can I share some Geek fashion here!

I did this challenge with my fiancé, so the three big bags are not only my stuffs. We also take the time to give other things we didn’t use anymore to the local Fripe-Prix Renaissance. I encourage you to do the same with things you want to get rid off that are still usable.

Did you do this challenge? If not, will you do it? If yes, was it easy or hard for you? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2012-01-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/be-careful-you-are-the-expert/

We are all the expert of somebody. It mean that we know more on a subject than someone else, or we are perceived as someone who knows more, even if it’s not always the case.

As a blogger, a teacher, a speaker, a put-your-own-title-here, we share our knowledge, but we also share our thoughts. We share it in a blog post, on Twitter, on the front of a crowd, in a meeting with our co-workers, at the coffee shop to a stranger…… we share our knowledge and our opinions all the time. Because people see us as an expert, we need to be careful. We need to be careful as for some people what we say is the truth, the only truth.

This truth can sometimes be beneficial, sometimes not. You may lose credibility with some statements that are erroneous. I read a lot of things online that weren’t true. We want to give the informations quickly, so we don’t take the time to make some research. In that situation, instead of saying something as a fact, say it as an opinion.

I also heard a lot of false things from speakers. In the front of a crowd, we don’t want to look like someone who don’t know is subject, and we say something that makes sense and that we think was right. Let me tell you something: you will lose credibility by doing this. There is nothing wrong about saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll look at it and get back to you as soon as possible”. With this simple technic, you will keep your credibility, learn something knew and create a good relationship with people.

At the end, it’s just a matter of being careful. Careful on what we say, careful on what we share, as an expert. Are you an expert? Are you perceived as an expert? Do you think we need to be careful with what we say online or offline? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2012-01-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/things-i-want-to-achieve-in-2012/

I don’t like to call them resolutions, as this word has a negative meaning because so many people took some, and never do it during the new year. Let’s call this a list of things I want to accomplish, in no particular order, in 2012:

I want to blog more

Like I said a couple of weeks ago, I’m back to the blog as my main way to communicate my thoughts. I never had a regular schedule for blogging and this year I want to blog at least three times a week on this blog. Why? I love blogging and I have so many topic ideas. A lot of them will never be on the Web as I didn’t blog enough to write them all.

I want to eat healthier

I never had good habits when we talk about food. I’m often on the road, so that mean that I eat a lot in restaurants. I also eat, too often, in restaurants when I’m in my hometown. I didn’t cook, so I just started to learn (and try), and I’ll probably go take some courses. I want to drop my number of times in restaurants to a maximum of three times a week: two lunch and one dinner. At some points, this number could be more than 10 times…

I want to read more

I’m not a fan of fictional stories, but I like books about social media, productivity, life… These books are so motivating; they challenge me to be a better person in all spheres of my life. Last year, I think I read 1-2 book. This year, I want to read twelve books: 1 per month.

I want to make more exercise

I hate this word. I’m so lazy sometimes, and I’m not a fan of sport. It’s been five months now that I have a trainer, Dino Masson (in French), that I see once in two weeks, but I didn’t do much more than this. It’s a lot more exercise that I was doing 12 months ago, but it’s not enough. I really need to get in shape and as eating healthier will help me, doing some exercise three times a week won’t be bad.

I want to write a book

I don’t know if it’s because I read so many blog posts from Seth Godin or Chris Brogan, but I want to write one book before the end of the year. Writing a book will help me achieve something big, even if it’s just for friends and myself, but it’s not an easy task. This will also help me with my writing skills, like blogging. I’m not sure about the subject yet, but I don’t think it will be a technical one (topics I checked were already covered). As you read what I wrote and know what I’m doing in life, any suggestions on the topic?

I want to be better in my roleI really like what I’m doing for a living, but I want to be better. I don’t think I’m bad at it, but we always can be better. I want to be more consistent in my effort. I want to do more with less time. For this, I will make an actionable plan on how I can improve myself in my role, and I’ll follow this for 2012. My goal, being a Senior Technical Evangelist based on Microsoft’s rules (in the time I’ll be able to achieve this in this company).

Notice what I did? I put some general goals, but I had something quantifiable (not yet for the last one), a kind of KPI (Key Performance Indicator). For me, it’s a way to see, at mid-year or at the end of the year, if I reach my goals, if I’ll be successful. So, for this year that has just started, what is your plan? Do you have a resolution? Do you have things you want to change or achieve in 2012? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2012-01-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/hack-your-life/

You know the feeling when someone has an awesome idea, and you say to yourself “damn, it’s such a good idea, why nobody had it before…” ? I had this exact feeling when Fabrice Calando share on Twitter is idea about a project named “Hack your life”.

The concept is simple, but so powerful: one challenge per week that will help you go out of your comfort zone. That mean 52 challenges at the end of the year: sometimes easier for you, sometimes not. These challenges will help us be more comfortable with changes and will help us resist at the flinch.

Fabrice did this for himself, but as he shares his experience, and the challenges, in advance, with ourselves on his blog, everybody is invited to participate. You probably have already understood that I want to be part of the Hack your life project, so I’ll share with you my insights, and results on each challenge. If you want to participate or just see the challenges, you can check Fabrice blog.

On your side, will you participate with us? Do you find ways to hack your life? Do you go out of your comfort zone? Share your thoughts.

]]> 2011-12-31T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/take-2012-as-an-opportunity/

A year is about to finish and another one to start. For most of us, it’s the time of the year where we take new year resolutions. It’s also the time of the year, where people wish you a lot of things like money, love, health… Personally, I’ll wish you only one thing: that 2012 will be a good opportunity for you…

An opportunity to do the things you always wanted to do, but was always afraid of. An opportunity to build the project you dream of for so long. An opportunity to go out of your comfort zone and understand that it wasn’t so terrible… Take this year as an opportunity to do what you really want in life, whenever it’s around your job, your hobbies or anything else. Take the time to live and not just being alive.

On my side, I’ll continue to live with my manifesto and with the Kaizen philosophy: continuous improvement. I’ll continue to do what I love, improve some aspects of my life and kill the ones that are harmful. Finishing on that note, I wish you a Happy New Year. See you in 2012!

]]> 2011-12-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/where-fans-becomes-fanboys-and-haters/

You know, there is nothing wrong about being a fan of something or someone. I’m a fan of some music performers, some products, some people I know… everybody is a fan of something! The problem is when the fan becomes a fanboy or worst, a hater…

You probably heard about the expression “fanboys”, used, most of the time now, to describe someone who loves a product (or anything else) so much, that he is not able to see the pros and cons of it, but also of other choices. They love it so much, then they feel the need to always defend it from attacks, and sometimes, they see assailments where there is none. It’s probably something that happens in all spheres of our society, but we see this a lot in the IT industry.

Don’t get me wrong, there is no problem to like something so much that you want spread the love. The issue is that at some point, many people aren’t able anymore to see the good things about other choices. The fanboy will see what he like as the only choice for him, but also for other. Some of these fanboys, consciously or unconsciously, even become haters.

Haters are the evolution, if I can say this, of fanboys. At that point, it’s not just about not seeing the good or the bad; they systematically hate the alternatives. They also, most of the time, don’t have any arguments around why the other choice is really bad and why they don’t like it. There is nothing wrong about not loving something, but in that situation, it’s a blind love.

These two types of people worries me a lot. You can’t really have a discussion with them, and you always need to be very careful on what you say. These behaviors, contrary to what we think, don’t help the brand, the product or the artist.

What do you think about fanboys and haters? Do they help to share the love or are they negative about it? Share your thoughts.P.S.: Sorry to the Apple fan for the reference with the picture: it’s one type of fanboys we heard a lot in the industry. Don’t worry, I am a fan of some of their products too, but not a fanboy!

]]> 2011-12-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/devcamp-montreal-en-photos/ Voici quelques photos du DevCamp Montréal

[flickrset id=“72157628598007797” thumbnail=“square” photos=“” overlay=“true” size=“medium”]

]]> 2011-12-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/show-me-your-book-linchpin-by-seth-godin/ Recently, I finished the book Linchpin from Seth Godin.  It’s a book about you, me, us, who need to be indispensable in a world where there are many jobs, employees who can be replaced by computers. We need to be a linchpin, give our gift and get the job we deserve.

It was a good book. It could have been half of the size, since I think that Godin repeat himself too often, but you need to read it. It’s about creativity, learning from failure, the art…Here is one sentence from the book that can give you a good idea of what you will get from this New York Times bestseller:

Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs people kill for – those jobs don’t get filled by people e-mailing in résumés.

I suggest this book to anyone who doesn’t want to be a cog, people that want to be successful and think outside of the box… people that want to be, a linchpin.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

I have one copy of this book to give. To have a chance to win, leave a comment on this blog post. I’ll make the raffle of the book in the afternoon of the 29th, so you can participate until noon. You’ll be contacted by e-mail, so leave the good one when you’ll comment (only me can see it). You’ll have 24 hours to confirm the reception of the e-mail and give me your shipping address. Good luck!

Did you read this book? What do you think about people that are indispensable? Do you want to be artist that give the gift? Share your thoughts.

Update #

I made the raffle with random.org, and the winner is Michael Crump. Thanks to everybody who participate.

]]> 2011-12-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/books-for-2012/ I always find it hard when people ask me “What do you want for Christmas?”. First, I’m difficult, so they learn that they should ask me. Secondly, I usually like things that cost too much: I know, I’m such a luxury whore. So, this year, as I’m now the owner of a Kindle Touch (I’ll make a review on the device, since I used Kobo until the beginning of my switch from books to e-books) and I really want to read more in 2012, I suggested to my girlfriend an Amazon’s gift card.

These are some of the books I bought with it and that I’ll read in 2012:

Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want & Change the World

We Are All Weird

Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds

Steve Jobs

Tribes

Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business

Did you read one of those books? How did you find them? What are the books you plan to read next year? Share your books love here.

]]> 2011-12-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/merry-christmas-and-happy-holidays/

I’m not the best when it comes to write greetings, but I find it important. In this time of the year, where things slow down and for most of us, we have the opportunity to take some times with our families, I want to wish you a merry Christmas (or anything you celebrate).

It’s the Holidays season and most of you are probably on vacations. Take some times with your family and with your friends. Try to relax, see what 2011 was made of and what 2012 will be for you. Take some time for yourself and do things you love. Be with the ones you love!

On my side, my plans are exactly what I suggested you: take some time for me, slow down, take some quality time with my lovely girlfriend and work on some projects, like this blog. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

]]> 2011-12-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/taking-the-easy-way-is-for-weak-people-bullshit/

Sometimes, in my life, I took the easiest way. You know, the road without too many complications, that will make me successful or let me have what I wanted, easily. In most cases, a more difficult road has been available. The one that asked some sacrifices and that supposedly, is more rewarding… this is bullshit!

Life is already complicated at some point, why should I complicate it more with the difficult path? Don’t get me wrong, if the result is not what I want, I won’t take the easy way for the sake of having it easy. However, at the end, if the result is the same, I don’t see the point of going the hard way when there are no real values in it. For sure, you will maybe learn more by taking this path, but trust me, I have so many opportunities to learn in life, so if I can save time/effort/stress for another time, I’m totally good with this.

In a society that seems to have problem accepting people who succeed with the easy way, in a life where we, for most of us, are jealous of people that have something we don’t have or want, I’m more than happy to have the fastest and easiest way to achieve my goals sometimes. Do you think easy ways are for weak people? Add your thoughts on this topic.

]]> 2011-12-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-la-base-2-migre-vers-out-of-comfort-zone/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Comme vous avez pu le remarquer, je blogue de moins en moins sur À la base 2. C’est que dernièrement, j’ai parti un blogue anglophone nommé “Out of Comfort Zone”. Le temps que j’ai mis, ces dernières semaines, pour bloguer a été pris pour créer des billets, dans le genre que je créai ici, mais en anglais sur ce dernier.

Pourquoi? Deux raisons à cela: la première étant de me sortir, justement, de ma zone de comfort et la deuxième étant pour rejoindre les gens que je côtoie avec mon emploi actuel. Après mûre réflexion, j’ai décidé de rapatrier toutes mes entités Web en un seul endroit et cet endroit est Out Of Comfort Zone, aussi appelé OOCZ pour les intimes. Ce nouveau blogue contiendra dorénavant un mixte de mes billets anglophones, mais aussi, éventuellement, francophones. J’y publierais des billets à caractères réfléchis, drôle, de type trouvailles, mais aussi Geek ou plus techno. Ce sera pour moi, et pour vous, le seul endroit à retenir pour me lire.

Pour l’instant, il ne contient que des billets de réflexions sur des sujets de tous les jours en anglais, mais sous peu j’y ajouterais des billets en français et surtout, je transfèrerais le contenues des autres blogues, dont celui-ci, sur OOCZ, question de ne pas perdre mon “héritage Web”.

Mauvaise décision stratégique, me direz-vous, car je blogue ici depuis plusieurs années, mais changer de maison, j’avais besoin de (Yoda style). Alors, mettez à jour votre blogroll et votre fil RSS… on se reparle là-bas!

]]> 2011-12-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/one-year-at-the-evil-empire/

Before the end of the year, on the December 31, I’ll be an employee at Microsoft Canada for one year (no I didn’t work until the beginning of January, you fools). One year as a Developer Evangelist, working to help developers in Canada get the most out of technology. One year that changed my life, in a positive way. I learn a lot, made good friends, had great experiences and the most important of all, I enjoyed so much my life.

One year of learning

I can say that this year was a year of learning. I know now how it is to work in a big company, and I’m happy to see that I am not a number among other employees: I am a person, a human with all his qualities, but also his defects. It was a learning process around this new role: what really is an evangelist? The job description can fit in a PDF file, but at the end, this role is everything that you make it to be.

A big part of my fears was around English, and it deserves a paragraph on itself. My reading skill was good, I was barely able to write, and here I don’t talk about my speaking ability. This job was for bilingual people, and I truly wasn’t one. I salute the help here of my team and the openness of my first manager, John Oxley, that let me join the team and help me in this journey. Now, it’s not perfect, but I’m way more comfortable when we talked about the Shakespeare’s language.

I also had, and still have, the opportunity to work with brilliant people. These people, sometimes Microsoft employee, sometimes vendors, sometimes user group lead, sometimes speakers, sometimes older than me, sometimes younger, sometimes with more experience in the role or life than me, sometimes something else… I worked or meet passionate people, and it’s very challenging to be next to these awesome people that are extraordinary at doing what they are doing.

The last, but not least, were the changes in my lifestyle. When you get a new job or change your career path, it’s always a big move in your life. This one, is more than a job, it’s a way to live. Traveling, working from home, public speaking, non usual office hours… are, in fact, for some of them, big changes in my life, but also for the ones I love. I need to say that I had, and still have, an awesome support from my friends, my family and from my lovely fiancé, Émilie.

The evil empire?

At the beginning, I was anxious about the openness of Microsoft. Like I said in the announcement of my new job (in French, but Joey DeVilla made a translation in English), a couple of years ago I wasn’t a fan of this company. I was really happy to see some initiatives like Make Web Not War, but to be honest with you, I was afraid that it was some marketing bullshit. If this was the case, this would have meant that I made the wrong choice! Guess what, I made the right one. That you love my employer or not, the fact is that you have to admit we had a great mind change, and that we are more open than ever. Oh yes, it’s not perfect, we are still learning, but it goes in the right direction and damn, I’m so excited about the fact that I’m part of these changes…

• The year to come

No big changes in the next year, I love what I’m doing for a living. In fact, I rarely have the feeling that I’m really working. I feel that I have the advantages of being an employee, with the advantages of a freelancer. This is the difference of working in a place where we are trusted as responsible people and have leaders as managers, instead of autocratic bosses.

In life, like in my job, I will never stop learning. My goal is to be a better evangelist than I am now. I want to continue to meet awesome technology enthusiasts, help them with their technology challenges, go out for a beer, assist to user group meetups, share my knowledge and opinions by presenting in conferences… in short, doing my job.

The only thing that I would like to add to my job now, is to go outside of my country. Even if my role is to cover Canada with other on my team, and that I know we have evangelists in other countries, I think that this will help me do a better job here. It will also be an awesome experience for sure. Learn from other speakers, understand other cultures, see what are the other conferences does to be successful, go out of my comfort zone, build a bigger credibility… my manager knows about this, and I know he will support me in this goal.

So at the end, because it was a big self-centric blog post, the only think I can say to you is “Do what you like in life”. It’s not always easy to get there, but once you found it, don’t let this dream go away, fight for it. Your life will changes when you’ll wake up in the morning, and you will be happy to do what you are doing for a living…

]]> 2011-12-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/the-state-of-the-web-fitc-spotlight-html5/ In the beginning of December, I was the keynote speaker for FITC Spotlight HTML5. It was a full day of HTML5 presentations in one track. It was my first experience at FITC and I enjoyed it.

Many years have passed since the invention of the Web. More than ever, the Web is present in our life, and it’s a powerful tool that helps us on every part of it. Whether they use PCs, tablets, slates or smart phones, people have access everywhere, and every time they want to this continual flow of information. As a developer, we are now empowered to create a more beautiful Web with all these new technologies. You can think about this cloud thing or the latest version of HTML that are there to help us keep the pace. Let’s explore together the actual state of the Web, the challenge we are facing and the opportunity that will make us successful.

As promised, these are my slides for the presentation I did around the state of the Web and HTML5.

FITC Spotlight HTML5 - The state of the web from Frédéric Harper

Here are some of the main ideas behind the keynote I did:

The problems

There are some problems with the industry right now. It goes too fast for us, developers, but also for consumers. We have so many choices and so little time to do the right ones. We have to work with many devices like PCs, laptops, tablets, slates and smartphones. It makes our work more complex than ever.

The choices

As I said, we have many choices. We can use this new thing called Cloud Computing. We have many programming languages we can work with. All these choices can lead to the success or the failure of our products, our company and even our career.

The solution

I should write, one of the solutions. I think that one of the solutions is HTML5. This version of HTML opens a new set of opportunity. To help attendees go away with useful information and skills that they can use right now, I make an overview on some of the HTML5 features that they can use after the conference HTML5 is bigger  than this, but I highlighted the one I think would help us succeed when we make the choice of the technology we will use. Please keep in mind that when I talked about HTML5, I always include CSS3 and JavaScript inside it.

I talked about semantics tags, Web Open Font Format, CSS3 Media Queries, video tag, canvas, SVG and different ways to adopt HTML5 today. I also talk about the fact that by using these languages, you already got access to many frameworks, but also, already, many tools to help you be more productive.

So, did you assist this presentation? What did you think? Even if you didn’t see it, what do you think about HTML5? Do you think it’s one of the technologies of the future? What is your thought about the Web industry right now? Share your mind…

This blog post also appears in the Make Web Not War blog

]]> 2011-12-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/back-to-basic-the-blog/

I am a fan of blogs. I blog since the beginning of 2005, and I never felt like it was not the right thing to do. For me, it’s another good way to express myself, and it’s the online,representation of my thinking. Since the birth of other social media, like Facebook or Twitter, I blog less. I use them, mostly to share with other people about things I found interesting that don’t need a full blog post. Now I want to be back to basic: blog everything, short or long.

Since I know Joey DeVilla, I’m amazed about his blogging skills. This guy can write so many posts in a week. One of the things that Joey does, and that I love, is that he takes his blog as the primary source of his online life. Everything he wants to share, he shares it on his blog and uses other social media to share his blog post. For me, that make so much sense. This is my home, and I want only one place where people can go to read about myself, what I found interesting or what I think about this or that subject. With all these new social media that start, evolve or die, I found that it’s easier for me to have only one place to share my thoughts. This blog is my blog. Nobody can close it, and I can make it evolve like I want.

One of the other things I want to do, is to put together all my blogs content. I have a couple of blogs that focus on certain topics or use different languages. Like I said, I will make this place my primary home. That means that I will close my other blogs soon. Don’t worry, I will import the content here not to lose it. You’ll be able to see on this blog three types of contents and two languages: French and English.

Brainer

This category will contain all the blog post on which I elaborate a lot more on the subject. Even if the technical post around development or Geek stuff could enter this category, this will be all about non IT-related  stuff.

No-brainer

This category said it all. This will be things that I usually share on Twitter or Facebook. Funny pictures I took in an event. Quote from someone I found on the Web. Nice song that I just discovered…

Techno

This one will contain technical stuff or at least things related to IT. It could be a tutorial to build an application with HTML5. It could also be a post to announce the meetup of this new user group in my city. If you are not a developer or in the industry, you won’t love this one. I will also publish a copy of the blog posts I do on the Microsoft blogs I write on. It’s a way for me to keep trace of all this in one place and reach more people with my work.

So in the next days, I’ll import some of my old posts in here. They will have the same date as when I posted the original, and I’ll add a line to tell the readers that it was posted on another blog prior to this one. I will also figure the rest about RSS feed and how to please people that want to follow only some categories. Keep in mind that it’s a work in progress, but I needed to do this to evolve in my online presence…

I’m very happy to make this one my only home. On your side, are you still blogging? Is it as important for you? Do you think I’m leaving in the old way? Share your thoughts!

]]> 2011-11-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/i-need-a-good-designer/

You see this blog? I don’t like the design. It’s better since I took this theme, but I need a new one! I want a theme that will give me the envy to blog on it. I want a theme that will tell you a bit about me. I want a theme that will make me say each time I open my site “OMG this site is awesome!”.

Why do I tell you this? Because I’m sucking when we talk about UI. I need to hire a designer or a company with good designers. I will pay to have something custom. Oh but attention, I don’t want any designer. I want someone who has experience with non usual blog or site design. I don’t want a business look. I want something that represents me.

For those of you that know me, you know that I have a couple of blogs. Some in French, some in English, some for my projects, some technical, some not… I want to put all these babies in one place, and I choose this one because of his name and what it represents. With this in mind, it’s why it’s so important for me to have something more beautiful: it’s gonna be my internet home.

I’m also going back to the blog as the primary social media. Not that I didn’t blog a lot after I join Twitter or Facebook, but I want this place to be the one stop for all my sharing, ideas, blogs, pictures… I’m back to basic, but more on this on another post.

If you are a designer or a creative shop, please leave a comment on this post with a link to an online portfolio. I want to see your creativity, and I will contact you only if I think you are able to do the job. You don’t have to do the integration to Wordpress, but it’s a good point as I don’t have time to do it, and honestly, I don’t really want to do the integration. In the worst case, I can do it, or I know a company that can do it near perfection. My problem is the find the right designer that will understand my needs.

To help you understand what I want, here are some guidelines on the technical and visual part:

Creativity / UI

• Keep in mind the title of the blog: Out of comfort zone;

• Simplicity and clean is the main idea;

• Colorful and extravert to give a taste of my personality;

• Call to action:

• subscribe to RSS feed or to the e-mail updates;

• connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+;

• Importance of the category (in French or English):

• No brainer blog post;

• Reflexion blog post;

• Technical blog post;

• No text, usage of image in the design as this blog will target French and English people.

Technical

• Respect Web Standards
• Usage of HTML5 (example: WOFF, CSS3 Media Queries…)
• Responsive Web Design (for PC, tablet, phone…)
• Progressive enhancement instead of graceful degradation

Examples

• https://ma.tt/– big and colorful header and footer
• https://www.ubelly.com/– colorful design with a touch a drawing interface
• https://benthebodyguard.com/index2.php– big text
• https://www.time2project.com/– text with background color different from the page one
• https://marcobarbosa.com/– usage of the font, mouse over different color and combination of colors
• https://www.whynotblue.com/accueil/– non-traditional way to display information for a company website
• https://www.marketingmedia.ca/– usage of the font and color after the menu and before the “what we do” section
• https://www.okam.ca – font and simplicity

Keep in mind that these examples are not sites that I like from A to Z, but I commented on what I like from them. You can start from the actual theme as it’s a good beginning and the technical criteria (usage of HTML5, responsive Web design…) are already there. If you have any question, ask them in the comment section also. Remember, the big work is around creativity so don’t be afraid about my technical needs!

So, anyone in the place who can help me? Anyone is in for the challenge? Oh, and if you are not a designer, you can send this blog post to one you know, or post in the comment section some websites that could interest me, so I can add more examples up there.

]]> 2011-11-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/how-to-use-e-mail/

This post has been on my mind for a long time now. I found that a lot of people don’t really know how to communicate by e-mail. I don’t know for you, but now that I’m receiving a lot of e-mails, it seems to be worst…

I used e-mail as my primary source of communication as I found that there is a lot of advantages of doing so:

1. You can send an e-mail at any time, any day without disturbing the person;
2. In the other side, you can send me an e-mail without disturbing me from what I am doing like with a phone call;
3. You can think about your answers and send a reply whenever you want;
4. You can contact more than one people at the time;
5. …

Don’t get me wrong, I love people. It’s just that I found e-mails more convenient. For sure, some people have a problem to put in text their thoughts and e-mails are not the best way for them, but in most of the case, you can do with it.

Here are some rules I used personally. I don’t say that I have the only way to use e-mail, but with a couple of years behind the tie, I can say that these rules are efficient, at least, for me.

1. Read your e-mail twice before sending it Most of the time the e-mail is not clear or doesn’t represent well what you wanted to say. Reading it one more time after you made all the changes will prevent you for having to explain another time your thoughts.
2. Use reply all only if it’s necessary that everybody that received the first e-mail got an answer E-mails are awesome when you need to contact more than one people at the time. Maybe, not everybody needs to know your answers to the question? You will save some time to the others.
3. Use high importance e-mail only if it’s really important This one seems obvious, but trusts me. It’s not. Most of us check their e-mail minimum once a day. There are a lot of chances you got an answer for me in the 24h. If you use this too much, I won’t trust this status anymore.
4. Make it quick If it’s not a kind of report or document you put directly into the e-mail, make it quick. Reading long e-mails are boring and doesn’t help you. If you can’t explain what you want to say in less than five sentences, maybe you should call me.
5. Write a subject that makes sense Please put a subject that makes sense and that represent the e-mail that you sent me. Even if we have access all the time with our smart phone, we may not read all the e-mails all the time. The subject will help me see if I’ll read it now or later.
6. Don’t advise me that you sent me an e-mail Sometimes,  I received a message on Twitter, SMS, Facebook… from someone who tells me that he has sent me an e-mail. Let me tell you something, I know, and if I don’t know yet, I’ll see your e-mail next time I check them. It’s just a waste of time to alert me about this.
7. Write it like if the other person doesn’t see you when you create it Actually… the person won’t see your face when they will read your e-mail. So they won’t really know if you were happy, sad, angry… keep this in mind.
8. Don’t send an e-mail when there is too much emotion in the air It’s a bit like the previous advice, but at the end, never send an e-mail when you are too much angry and even when you are too much happy. Take the time to think about it. We react sometimes too much for something that don’t worth it.
9. You are not alone This one is the advice that I prefer: you are not alone. It’s not because you sent me an e-mail that I have to reply to you in the next 5 minutes. Sometime, it will take me one day, one week, two weeks or more. I received a lot of e-mails. I also have a lot to do usually, and I focus on the more important or urgent.

So this is some of my advices around using e-mails. Take it or not, but I wanted to share them with you. Do you have any advices or rules of your own for e-mails communications? Do you find that these one make sense?

]]> 2011-11-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/mysterieux-tel-un-cougar-movember-jour-19/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Folie du samedi matin, donnez généreusement. Si ce n’est pour la cause, faites-le pour ma vie sociable qui en prend un coup avec cette moustache!

]]> 2011-11-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/my-life-manifesto/

Please check the second version of this manifesto.

People often tell me that I look happy in life, that I’m lucky to have a job that I love, and that I seem to always do what I want. It’s not a secret. I try to keep in mind a list of ways to live my life. At this very moment, it’s not complicated as everything is part of my lifestyle for a long time now. Here is my life manifesto:

1. Be authentic;
2. Do what you love;
3. Have no regrets;
4. Do it;
5. Don’t care about the other;
6. Go out of your comfort zone.

Let me explain these 6 little rules:

Be authentic #

Be yourself in every situation. Every situation! People will love you for yourself, if they don’t, they don’t deserve you. Trust me, it’s not always easy to be yourself in all situations, but you’ll be happier.

Do what you love #

Also in every situation, do what you love. If you don’t love what you are doing, do something else. If you have some problems to wake up in the morning to go to work, change your job. It’s easier than you think.

Have no regrets #

If you think you’ll have regrets if you are not doing it, do it. It’s better to leave with remorse than with regrets.

Do it #

Don’t wait for the other, do it yourself. Do it, ask it, worst case it won’t work. You think that this event should be awesome if someone creates it, create it. You want to lose weight, make some exercices. As simple as this.

Don’t care about the other #

I don’t talk here about anarchism. I talk about not wearing clothes or listening to music to be accepted by other. I’m talking about going outside or your house even if you have not taken the time to put some make-up. Don’t care about what people think if you are comfortable with what you are doing, wearing, listening, watching, thinking…

Go out of your comfort zone #

Always push your limits. If you are afraid or stress to do something and want to do it, do it! After the first, second or third time, it’s gonna be something normal for you. Your limits will be bigger than the last time.

I hope this list will help you find a way, your way, of living your life. It’s simple, but so powerful. Life is short. We need to lives it as we want! Why don’t you do your own list? Do you have rules for your life?

Creative Commons image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/44442915@N00/4574733303/

]]> 2011-11-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/mon-look-dadolescent-prepubere-pour-movember/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Pour m’encourager en tant que participant à Movember, c’est ici. Pour en savoir plus long sur ma participation, c’est ici (en anglais).

]]> 2011-11-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/im-a-mo-bro-this-year-support-the-fight-against-prostate-cancer/

I’m always thinking about how I can help other in different ways. Until now, the last teen years were about volunteer with children. Since my lifestyle as I changed, I cannot commit anymore regularly, but I think Movember is a good way for myself to help an awesome cause.

What is Movember? #

Movember is an event that happens once in a year and helps getting some funds for the prostate cancer. During all the month of November, men from around the world make their moustache grow to raise money for this cause. I really think that it’s a good way for us to raise money, by doing something fun. I saw a couple of friends last year with this ugly moustache and that make me think that it’s something I can help with.

Even if we usually do something four ourselves, or because it was something that happened to someone who loves, I’m not aware of any prostate cancer in my family or with my friends. I’m really glad to be lucky like this, but as I’m getting older with my bad life habits on sports and food, I’m seeing a lot more the importance of being healthy.

How can you help Movember? #

You can help Movember in three ways:

1. Be a Mo-Bro, grow your moustache and raise some money for this cause;
2. Make a donation on my Movember profile.
3. Help me promote my participation to your contact or in any social media. Here is a status update example: Support prostate cancer by making a donation to @fharper for #Movember https://oocz.net/9

To make it a real challenge and be able to get a lot of money for the research, I’ll add one extra at the fact that is already rewarding to give for a good cause. If I get 2000$ and more in donations before the end of the month, I will make a video with my moustache that will be an imitation of the see my vest song from Mr. Burn.

By the name of all the people who had prostate cancer, thanks for your support.

]]> 2011-09-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/work-hard-play-hard/ I’m one of the kinds who thinks that we need to do the same thing with our life. It’s one thing to work for a living. It’s another to live for working. Like I said, don’t get me wrong, most of the times, I don’t feel like I’m working, but in the meantime, I do. Your job cannot replace your life: boyfriend, children, spouse, friends, hobby, family, relaxation, sport, video games, music…

I saw many people in my entourage that are workaholics. People who work days, nights, weeks, weekends… all the time. I do this, sometimes, when I have too many things on my plate, or if I really want to do something that usually I would say no, but I always have time for myself, with my friends and my familly. When you always have too much on your plate, there is a problem: you are not enough competent for the work or your employer gives you really too much stuff to do. What is wrong, is when you do this all the time. I know people who are married and have children and one of them is never, or rarely, there to help and to show some love. Let me tell you that in all the cases I saw in the past, that usually end in two ways: a radical end of this way of life or people that suffer for this way of living. The radical end is basically people that understand that it’s not a way to live and change or the end of a relationship, friendship or marriage.

I read somewhere (sorry I don’t remember where. I think it’s from a book of Seth Godin) that workaholic isn’t sometimes good at all: some people use this term as a quality to talk about themselves. Most of the times, it’s insecure people that always need to do more to be accepted and recognize by their pairs. It’s a way for them to try to be a linchpin, someone indispensable in the business, but trust me, it’s not the good way. As I always say (because I always want to find a better way to be more productive), work less [work more intelligently], do/achieve more (I stole this sentence from someone I don’t remember too, sorry).

So what I want from you today is to check your actual life, give it a closer look. Write things down on paper if it’s help you, but think about it. See if you work too much and don’t take much time for your own life, your friends, your relative… If not, think about changing things and make your life happier. Don’t worry, I’ll do this introspection too!

Create commons image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotcreations/5343267956/

]]> 2011-09-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/qui-va-commencer-a-jouer-au-golf-selon-vous/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ça doit bien faire 3 ans que j’ai le goût de jouer au Golf, mais je n’ai jamais cédé à la tentation. Dernièrement, voyant la saison se terminer tranquillement, je me suis dit que ça serait le bon moment de m’équiper. En effet, je me suis muni de bâtons et équipements divers hier, et ce, avec un rabais de 50%. Ce sera donc le bon moment pour moi d’aller pratiquer cet hiver au Golf-O-Max</a à 15 minutes de chez nous. Dire que je ne sais pas jouer du tout, ça va être beau!

]]> 2011-08-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/aubergiste-mon-cheval/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

]]> 2011-08-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/learning-from-failure-at-failcamp-montreal/ You remember the post I did about celebrating failure? In this post, I was sharing with you how I think we can learn from error or failure we had in our life. I was also talking about, maybe, doing an event where people would be able to share about failure they had and the lesson they got from it. I cannot stop myself for doing it, so I created FailCamp Montreal.What is a FailCamp? Is this an event where we will watch together images of people at Walmart or get the better fail from failblog? Not really! FailCamp is a celebration of failure. It’s about sharing your tales of epic fail and the lessons you learned from them. It’s about learning not to view failure as a defeat, but as a learning opportunity and stepping stone to success. It’s about taking away the fear of failure and learning to take a chance, think big and achieve what you thought you couldn’t.

This first edition will happen on the 21th of September starting at 19h00. It’s totally free, but you have to get your ticket at EventBrite. At this time, we have more than the half of tickets gone, and I didn’t start to make some promotion, so hurry before we go sold out. I already have two speakers confirmed.

[gallery exclude=“324” link=“file” columns=“2”]

It’s a great pleasure for me to have these two guys speak at this event, and I’m sure they’ll have awesome things to share with you. If you believe in learning from your failure, even if you cannot attend, please promote the event in your network. I hope to see you there!

]]> 2011-08-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/il-y-a-un-chat-qui-aime-vraiment-ma-voiture/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

[Aucun moyen de garder ma voiture propre, car mon stationnement est sur de la gravelle dans la ruelle, mais en plus de cela, il y a un chat en liberté qui s’amuse de temps en temps à sauter sur ma voiture. Vous voyez ses petites pattes sales?

](http://fred.dev/?attachment_id=6014)

]]> 2011-08-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/my-new-business-cards/ I am a big fan of being myself in every part of my life. So many people try to be someone else, but I think it’s a good subject for another blog post. A couple of weeks ago, I made a blog post on my French blog about changing my actual business cards. I wanted something more authentic, that really represent me and my manager understood this.

I was looking for creating some cards that are more colorful, that talk more about myself, what I do and about my passion. Here are the cards I end up with (click on them to enlarge):

These cards will evolve, and I’m always looking forward to creating new designs for the back of those cards. What is good is that I used Moo to print them, so I can have as many backgrounds that I wanted. What do you think about these cards? Do you have any ideas for the next one? Do you think it’s a good idea to have something that represents a lot more myself?

]]> 2011-08-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/justin-et-moi/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

[Hier soir était le premier soir de la 2e vente trottoir de l’année à Verdun, alors chérie et moi avons décidé d’aller se promener un peu sur Wellington. J’en ai profité pour prendre une photo avec mon ami Justin Bieber. D’autres mondes ayant aimé l’idée ont fait de même après moi…

P.S.: En passant, c’est une joke, je ne suis pas un fan, haha.

](http://fred.dev/?attachment_id=6004)

]]> 2011-08-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/invitations-google/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Question de nous donner l’impression que l’accès est encore restreint, Google nous a offert 150 invitations. Donc, pour ceux qui n’auraient pas pu mettre la main sur une invitation au tout début ou qui attendaient de voir ce que les autres en pensaient, c’est le moment.

Laissez un commentaire ici avec votre courriel Gmail (il ne sera pas affiché aux autres) et je vous enverrais une invitation dès que je le vois. Bonne discussion…

]]> 2011-08-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/etes-vous-heureux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je suis tellement d’accord avec cette image. Ça me fait penser au billet que j’ai écrit, en anglais, sur mon autre blogue.

Volé sur le blogue de Dean the Mean

]]> 2011-07-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/celebrate-failure/ I am the kind of guy who thinks that we need to celebrate failure. Not really celebrating it as in a party, but in the way that failure is not that bad. Failure is for me a chance to learn. Failure is also a way for me to get better at something. For sure, it’s not happy to fail, but I think it’s one of the ways to grow.

You need to take advantage of it. Nobody is dead from failing something (I don’t talk about dangerous things, but rather things that we are not able to finish, do correctly or errors we did in our life). Let me give you one example, among a lot, of this on my personal life.

The day I think I would be a partner #

In one of my jobs, I had discussions with my boss about being a partner in the business. We had a lot of great discussions about this, and we concluded that we could talk about this after the rush for delivering the new version of one of our software. A couple of weeks after, my boss asked me to go to his desk to talk about business. I was sure I was going to be a partner or near to be one, but he told me that I will lose my job, because we didn’t have enough contracts.

At the beginning, I was a shock. I never saw this happen. It was the first time I lose a job, but at least, it wasn’t my fault.

What I learned from this #

For me, it was certainly a fail to lose my job, but after this period of my life, I could  find the positive things, and I learn from these things:

• I learn that I really need to have some money saved for times like this. You never know when this will happen again.
• I learn that no job is really secure, even not the one I have now.
• I learn that I could  be successful by being my own boss, and that I can build my business (it’s what I did after that).
• I learn that all the time I invested in my side projects, in events where I go and with my online presences were a lot benefic on many sides.

I would be able to give you more examples of the things I learn or examples of failure in my life that was caused by me or not, but you get the point. It’s not that I couldn’t learn these things elsewhere, or that I would never have learned these if I didn’t fail, but I learn these from this failure.

FailCamp Montreal #

The last time I took a beer with my friend Joey, he talked to me about FailCamp. I was so impressed by the idea, that I thought that it could be a good event to have in Montreal. Here is a little description about what is a FailCamp:

FailCamp is a celebration of failure. It’s about sharing your tales of epic fail and the lessons you learned from them. It’s about learning not to view failure as defeat, but as a learning opportunity and stepping stone to success. It’s about taking away the fear of failure and learning to take a chance, think big and achieve what you thought you couldn’t.

Like Uncle Sam, I want you to… #

This kind of event is only as good as if people want to participate, by being there or by presenting. I don’t thing it’s gonna be a big organization, but I don’t want to make one if I’m the only one that will celebrate failure: in other words, I want to validate the idea with you guys (I don’t talk about having 100 people, but maybe 10-20 to have enough things to share and people to network with). So I’ll need you for two things:

1. If you think it’s a good idea to have a FailCamp in Montreal, please leave a comment here. That will show me that you want one.
2. If you love the idea, see number 1, and share this page with your network on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn (name it)…

Creative Commons Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nimbupani/2407313614/

]]> 2011-07-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/stop-being-a-pussy-and-take-the-control-of-your-life/ “Stop being a pussy and take the control of your life” is what I want to say each time I heard negative people talking about their life. OK, it may be sound rude, but I try not to be negative in my life and these people, don’t help me. By experience, if you want to take the control of your life, you can do it.

You are not happy with your job, change for a new one. There are plenty of companies that are looking for their next employee. Of course, it’s a chance to get, maybe the job will be worst, but maybe it will be the best one you ever had.

You are not happy with your boyfriend, spouse or common-law, quit him/her. Yes, it’s not easy. Yes you will hurt the other one, but it’s your life. You don’t have to be mad the rest of it because you don’t want to hurt others.

You are too fat and it’s not good for your health. Stop complaining about the genetic. Start eating well and make some exercises (I can make this kind of statement, since I’m fat!).

OK, you understand my point. Whenever is it, you can take the control of your life starting for this boring meeting you don’t want to attend up to your conjugal life. It’s YOUR life, not the life of the others and let me tell you a secret, you only have one (OK, in my religion. It’s only one. Yours can differ). Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as easy as it seems. It’s not always black and white. Sometimes you need to make a difficult choice to change things, and sometimes you also need to lose one thing to get another one. It’s a long road until you get used to it, but it’s always a winning situation.

Trust me, I used to live like this since a couple of years. It’s not perfect and I’m not perfect for executing it, but I complain a lot less about “my life” than before. I’m also doing what I really want, meet the people I want, do the job I want… And you, are you trying to make your life better by taking the control of it or do you think I’m a complete idiot?

]]> 2011-07-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/show-me-your-book/ I’m the kind of guy who buys a book, start reading it, do something else, buy a new book, start to read it and so on. I have a couple of books unfinished or not even started with a couple more in my wish list. I enjoy reading and I want to read more, so I was thinking about doing something related to this blog, something calls “Show me your book”.

The principle is simple. I’ll try to read one book per month, that give me something like ten pages per day, a lot more than I used to read. After the book is finished, I’ll write a blog post to share with you. Nothing complicated, just a text that will give you the big picture and my appreciation. I own a Kobo (thinking of buying the new one, the Kobo Touch), so it’s not a big deal to always have the book I’m reading with me. I don’t really read story books (except for some of my friends’ books or comics books like The Walking Dead) as I prefer the one that talks about topics like success, efficiency in the professional life, a better way of living, social media…

You want to read more? You are the kind of people that love reading books like Trust Agents, Getting Things Done or Tribes? Would you like to join me in this experience? It’s gonna be a good way for us to share nice books to read. It’s simple, just share with me your blog post about the last awesome book you read. Ready, set, read!

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cefeida/537556252/

]]> 2011-07-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/lache-ton-ordi-pour-une-soiree-au-geek-show/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

[C’est donc le 27 et 29 juillet prochain que se produiront sur scène 6 humoristes qui aborderont des thèmes Geek tels que les jeux vidéos, la technologie, les films, les bandes dessinées et bien plus. Une belle occasion pour vous d’aller rire de gags à propos de notre culture ou d’initier votre belle-mère au rudiment de celle-ci.

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2011/07/253796_206218679423340_204313939613814_611942_4129014_n.jpg)

Une belle initiative que je tenais à soutenir avec plaisir lorsque le coordinateur de l’événement, Pierre Mancini, m’a contacté. Pour plus d’informations, consultez la page d’information du ZooFest et dépêchez-vous d’acheter vos billets, je parie qu’ils vont s’envoler comme des petits pains chaud. De plus, que vous puissiez y aller ou non, montrer votre support aux humoristes en suivant les nouvelles du Geek Show sur Facebook.

Ayant manqué la première édition, j’ai bien hâte d’y assister la semaine prochaine. Les organisateurs m’ont offert une paire de billets lorsque je leur ai dit que j’allais propager leur spectacle dans mon réseau. Très gentil de leur part! Je vous laisse sur leur vidéo de promotion, très bien faite d’ailleurs, où vous y verrez sûrement plusieurs personnages connus…

]]> 2011-07-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/i-am-a-blogger-not-cheap-labor/ It has been a couple of times that people asked me about my rules for sponsored blogging. You know, when someone gives you something and wants you to blog about it. I think it would be good to expose my thought about this into a blog post.</p

First, I will give the marketing/PR people, one trick, for free. Do at least a bit of research on the blogger you want to reach. It could be only to look at the Twitter bio, or read one or two blog posts to get an idea of what he likes. It’s not a lot of effort, and that will ensure you that you connect with the right target. If you contact me about your new product for hair, you fail! If you contact me for Geek stuffs, gadget, computers, music, movies… you have the right target and a lot more chances that I’ll say yes. That’s been said, let’s check the prerequisites and the rules (read here "If you want to contact me about your product, company, project… read this before) that I have:

THE prerequisites

1. It needs to be a win-win situation. If you only want me to promote your product, it’s gonna be no. I am a blogger, not some kind of cheap labor!
2. If you are a new company or a non-profit organization, and you are doing awesome stuff, forget the prerequisites #1.

THE rules

1. I’m the kind of guy who loves to get free stuff (huh, who don’t like this!?), so I won’t be upset if you approach me for a sponsored blog post.
2. I will tell my readers, in the blog post about your stuff, that you gave me something. It’s not something that will change what I’ll write, but I want people to know it, so they won’t think that I’m saying that you are so awesome because you secretly gave me something.
3. I have the right to tell what I want and this includes that your product, movie or gadget sucks. Oh and don’t avoid any bloggers because of this: you want people to say the truth, but I could write a blog post just on this subject.

Conclusion

Target the right people and you’ll probably succeed. I’m the first one to say that it’s really important to include the bloggers in your strategy, but like anything else in life, there is nothing free (or not too much). That doesn’t mean I want a paycheck, it’s just that I need to benefit from our relationship. I hope this will help people understand the basic and help other bloggers to create your own rules and prerequisites. Do you accept sponsored blog post? Do you have some rules that you follow? What do you think about this?

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wcouch/2268610556/

]]> 2011-07-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/take-vacations-or-change-job/ Last week I was in vacations. I only took one week as I’ll take another one in August and one for Christmas time. I mostly take it easy. The only plan I had was to buy a new car, meet some friends and relax. It was an awesome week as I did what I want without any pressure.

Vacations are really important. For me, it’s been ten years that I’m in the IT industry, and it was my first real vacations. It’s not that I never had one, but I didn’t take some when I was a freelancer, I volunteer in most of them, work in the others, and I don’t count Christmas for real vacations as you always have too many family things. Yes you read correctly. I worked some of my vacations. As far as I enjoyed the job I had at this time, having to work when you are in vacations, for any reasons, good or bad, is very frustrating. As for the volunteer part, I enjoy all the one I did, but even, if it’s mentally relaxing, it was physically exhausting.

Why do I tell you this? Simply, because you need vacations, real one. I’m not talking about visiting Europe or drinking alcohol at a Cuba’s beach. I’m not also talking about having more than the minimal vacations that the government asks to companies. I’m simply talking about taking time for you to do what you want without having to work. Like I said, I really love the job I had and definitely love the one I have now (in fact I don’t feel like working with this one), but I need time to disconnect. You need time to disconnect!

It’s not just important for you, it is also for the company you work for. You’ll be more productive, way more relax, less stress and ready to do awesome stuffs. For those of you that have their own company or are a freelancer, vacations are also very important and trust me, you are able to take some. I know that for a workaholic, it’s hard to disconnect, even more today with the smartphone, laptop and e-mail, but you can do it, I believe in you! Even if you probably work a lot more the week before and the week after your vacations to get back things to normal, the time you pass far from your day-to-day occupation is only positive for you, your body, and as I said, positive for the company you work for.

Personally, I took mine in the worst possible time, our next fiscal year planning, but when I did it, I didn’t know about this planification and my manager at this time, didn’t think about it when he approved these dates. My actual manager had the possibility to ask me to move elsewhere my first vacation week, but he didn’t do this. At the opposite, he told me that I need to take it. He only asked me to be sure that I’ll do my part to don’t leave an additional workload to my coworkers when I won’t be there. For me, it’s was a proof that he really cares about his team, and he granted all my respect for that.

So if your company, your manager or your boss don’t understand this, think to change your job, it’s a lack of respect. Did you take vacations last year? Did you think to take one this summer? Did you have any situations like mine? By the way, have great vacations, take the time to relax and disconnect, even from the Internet!

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/4848319217/

]]> 2011-07-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/stop-crying-in-your-shower-change-is-a-new-opportunity/

Did you see this video? It has been on the Internet for more than two months now, but my manager, Ryan Storgaard, just sent us yesterday. That make me think of the reaction I had two years ago when I found an application that helped non-programmers create their mobile applications by themselves. I think it was for the iPhone, did not quite remember, but it’s not the point of this post.

My first thought at this time, even if it was in an early stage, was “Oh my God, in a couple of years, I’ll lose my job”. To be honest, I wasn’t so worried, but that make me think a little more about my job and the future. It was a change in the industry, not yet there, but that was touching my livelihood. How my job will evolve with this? I remember some of my friends and I, had very good discussions on this.

We had the same interrogations when CMS comes up. What will happen with our job? We’ll have less and less contracts about website development. We were right, but not completely. These applications helped people that didn’t have the skills to code one or to create a website, but it was targeting people with limited needs. What really happens? Our job just changed a little: we were able to offer configurations, customizations and features development that wasn’t available for them. At the same time, we were still able to provide complete website development for people that wanted something really custom that suit theirs needs.

Even if my examples aren’t drastic, my point here, is that we need to take a change like a new opportunity. Don’t go in your bath in a foetus position under the shower with hot water to cry all night long (I love this example…) about things that change without you decide it. You need to face what you can’t change and take it at your advantage. It’s the way I think since a couple of years, and that helped me be happier, less anxious and live my life like nobody else can do it.

Do you already do this? Did you think it’s the way to go? I think so, so please stop cry in your shower and take the opportunity in every change you cannot control in your life! Find the advantage in it, and take it…

]]> 2011-07-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-new-blog-is-born/

Another blog on the Internet, I know. Another blog from me, I know. I wanted to start writing in English, and I love making blog posts, so it’s the good way to go for me. Even if the goal of this blog is not to practice my writing skill, I must say that I’m still doing a lot of errors when I write (and speak) even if a big part of my actual role is in English: co-workers, meetings, e-mails, events… It will be a good way for me to practice, and please, don’t be shy to correct me, it’s one of the ways to learn.

My previous life was only in French: family, friends, jobs, conferences… Everywhere I went, or everyone I talked to most of the time was only speaking French. I read some computer books in English or listen to some music, but it wasn’t a big part of my life. Now, my new life goes in both languages. I travel a lot everywhere in Canada and sometimes in the US, so I meet a lot of people that don’t speak French. It’s gonna be a way for me to stay in touch with these people and as “collateral damages”, reach more people. I really love French, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t love English too.

This blog will be like the one I have in French À la base 2](blog not available anymore — all content has been moved here)): a place with no pretentiousness where I’ll write everything that I’ll want to share with you. It will be a site where I’ll write about day to day thoughts that are related or not to computer. At the end, it will be a country where freedom is the king and myself is… myself!

Like all my projects, I give myself a probation time. Life is too short, so I’m always looking to do only stuffs that I enjoy. It’s the same for this blog: it could be a long-term relationship or just a site that will last as long as I’ll have fun to write on it! For those of you that know me, you know that I’m always unhappy with the theme I use, so it’s currently a work-in-progress. For now, I’m happy with the result…

As for the title of the blog, I think it worth another blog post to explain it. So, what do you think of this idea? If you think this blog will be worth reading, please subscribe to the RSS feed or by e-mail. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

P.S.: By the way, as this blog is born, it doesn’t mean that my French one will die for now.

Image Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gullevek/155604654/

]]> 2011-06-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/bonne-st-jean/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ne me méprenez pas, je suis aussi de ceux qui croit que nous devrions fêter le Québec à longueur d’année et non seulement une journée. Fêter cette nation que j’aime tant avec ses qualités, mais aussi ses défauts. Fêter cette chance que nous avons de vivre dans un endroit où nous sommes choyés ou la qualité de vie y est présente.

Pour moi, depuis des années, malgré la connotation politique de cette fête, c’est un moment où je me retrouve avec des amies, pour célébrer l’amitié et ce bout de terre que j’aime tant. C’est donc pourquoi je vous souhaite une bonne journée cher Québécois et Québécoise!

]]> 2011-06-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/manifeste-des-medias-sociaux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Un peu tanné de voir le monde crier haut et fort que “ce n’est pas comme ça qu’on doit utiliser les médias sociaux”, j’en suis venu à cette conclusion: vous avez le droit de les utiliser comme vous voulez point à la ligne. Bien sûr, je n’ai aucun problème contre ceux qui font des suggestions à ceux qui débutent et il est clair (je ne suis pas assez fou) qu’il y a une façon de les utiliser pour maximiser leur potentiel, mais, il reste que vous avez le droit, oui oui, le droit, de faire comme il vous plaira. Surtout que dans la plupart des cas, ce n’est pas la fin du monde. À ce point, c’est à vous de voir ce que vous voulez en faire.

Là où j’ai un problème, c’est contre ceux qui s’opposent totalement à une certaine pratique en mentionnant que ce n’est pas LA façon de le faire. Alors voici un petit manifeste sur les médias sociaux…

Manifeste #

Les comptes que vous créez sur les médias sociaux vous appartiennent. De ce fait, vous avez le droit d’en faire ce qu’il vous plait tout en étant conscient des conséquences positives ou négatives de vos actes. Par la présente, je déclare que:

1. Vous avez le droit de ne pas accepter tout le monde comme ami sur Facebook;
2. Vous avez le droit de répondre 2 jours après à un Tweet vous mentionnant;
3. Vous avez le droit de bloguer sur des produits pour lesquels vous avez obtenu de quoi de son fabricant;
4. Vous avez le droit de publier 70 photos de suites de votre chat sur Instagram;
5. Vous pouvez ne pas complètement remplir votre profil sur LinkedIn;
6. Vous n’êtes pas obligé de suivre systématiquement toute personne qui vous suit sur Twitter;
7. Vous avez le droit de continuer d’aller sur MySpace;
8. Vous pouvez faire de la promotion de votre produit à répétition sur votre page Facebook;
9. Vous pouvez mettre des photos de vous soul dans un party sur votre compte Flickr;
10. Vous avez le droit de faire la promotion plus d’une fois du dernier billet que vous avez écrit;
11. Vous avez le droit de m’envoyer un message automatique par DM sur Twitter lorsque je vous suit;
12. Vous avez le droit de mettre votre dernier achat de lingerie sur Buyosphère;
13. Vous avez le droit de bloguer sur un sujet qui n’est plus le sujet du jour;
14. Vous pouvez ne mettre aucune biographie ou aucune information sur vous dans la partie profil de votre compte Twitter;
15. …

Ici vous comprendrez que c’est un pied de nez à toutes ces personnes qui vous interdise formellement de ne pas, au grand jamais, faire le contraire de ce qu’eux pensent être LA meilleure pratique. Encore là, ne me faites pas dire ce que je n’ai pas dit: il y a des façons plus efficaces de les utiliser, mais je crois fortement qu’il y a une liberté sur le Web qu’on doit préserver. Lorsque je faisais des présentations/formations sur les médias sociaux, je présentais moi-même ce que je considérais comme de bonnes pratiques, mais jamais, je n’ai interdit qui que ce soit de faire ce qu’il désirait. Si quelqu’un fait quelque chose que vous n’aimez pas, libre à vous de ne pas le suivre sur Twitter, de ne pas l’ajouter comme ami sur Facebook, de ne pas regarder ses photos sur Flickr… Moi-même, si quelqu’un n’a pas d’informations sur lui dans son compte Twitter, j’ai tendance à ne pas la suivre vu que je ne sais pas qui je suis réellement. Chacun sa façon de faire!

Si comme moi, vous êtes un peu tanné de ces prétendus experts (ici je ne parle pas des vrais experts, seuls ceux qui se prétendent l’être seront offusqués par ce billet), je vous invite à faire deux choses:

1. Ajoutez votre ligne dans le manifeste, en commentaire sur ce billet, en y proposant une action sur un média social quelconque qui habituellement est banni des experts, mais dont vous croyez que la personne qui fait ainsi à totalement le droit de le faire;
2. Partagez ce billet dans votre réseau.

Des fois, ça fait du bien de brasser la cage un peu…

Source de l’image: https://www.oneyearbibleblog.com

]]> 2011-06-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/un-site-pour-les-travailleurs-mobiles-ca-vous-dirait/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Après réflexion, je me suis dit que ça serait intéressant d’avoir aussi les trucs et astuces d’autres personnes, qui comme moi, n’ont pas de bureau fixe. Bien sûr, j’ai un petit bureau à la maison ou je peux réquisitionner un espace de temps en temps à nos bureaux de Montréal (ou dans la ville où je suis), mais je n’ai pas de “domicile” fixe pour le travail. De cette idée a découlé l’idée de créer un site francophone pour les travailleurs mobiles. Un endroit commun, où on partagerait des trucs sur différents éléments de notre travail, et ce, sous forme de billets, de critiques ou je ne sais trop quoi encore.

Bien sûr, c’est une idée et je ne sais pas si je la mettrais en branle encore vu le temps de libre que j’ai, mais quelque chose de collaboratif comme un blogue/site à cet effet, serait plus facile. Pensez-vous que c’est une  bonne idée? Seriez-vous intéressé à le consulter? Seriez-vous intéressé à y participer?

Source de l’image: https://www.ucityhomes.com/

]]> 2011-06-09T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/concours-vip-au-party-de-la-f1-du-light-ultra-club/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

J’ai cinq (5) paires de billets (en réalité c’est des bracelets) à faire tirer pour une entrée gratuite dans le club, ce qui vous donne aussi un accès VIP lors de l’événement. Vous devez donc avoir 18 ans pour participer, être libre samedi soir à partir de 22h00 et pouvoir aller chercher les billets au bureau de High Road Communication (3575 St-Laurent #200) avant demain soir 18h00.

Comment courir la chance de gagner? Vous devez simplement tweeter le message suivant “Concours je veux rocker avec Windows pour le party de la F1 http://fred.dev/concours-vip-au-party-de-la-f1-du-light-ultra-club/ #alabase2 #RockAvecWindows” avant 11h00 demain. Les gagnants seront contactés par Twitter et leur nom complet sera donné à une représentante de High Road pour que vous puissiez passer chercher vos billets.

Malheureusement, je ne pourrais être des vôtres, car je serais au Nova Scotia Day of DotNetNuke, mais vous m’en direz des nouvelles. Bonne chance

Mise à jour 1 #

J’oubliais de vous dire qu’en plus, ceux qui seront présents au party et qui utiliseront le hashtag #RockAvecWindows durant la soirée entreront dans un tirage pour avoir la chance de repartir avec une Xbox 360. C’est “ti pas” génial ça!

Mise à jour 2 #

Merci à tout ceux qui ont participé et félicitations aux gagnants:

• Audrée St-Amant (@Staaud)
• Laurent Duveau (@RunAtServer)
• Valeria Landivar (@valerialandivar)
• Vanessa Pilon (@vanessa_pilon)
• Yves Haché (@yveshache)

]]> 2011-06-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/humour-de-programmeur/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Programmer always try to make software idiotproof, but God always making better idiot. - Inconnu

]]> 2011-06-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/des-fois-vous-devez-clarifier-certaines-choses/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Le tweet de l’ami Guy Barrette m’a fait penser à cette photo que j’avais prise de Damir et moi. Damir est un collègue de travail avec, disons-le, des ressemblances…

]]> 2011-06-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/une-presentation-techno-ca-vous-dirait/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Après une discussion avec quelqu’un cette semaine, je me suis dit que ça serait une bonne idée de faire une page sur mon site pour offrir mes services en tant que présentateurs, toujours bien sûr, dans le cadre de mon emploi. Un peu dans le genre à ce que Chris Brogan et bien d’autres ont sur leur site. J’ai donc ajouté une page “Présentations” sur mon site qui vous donne une petite introduction sur le sujet, vous présente quelques exemples et surtout, vous invite à me contacter si vous aimeriez que je vienne parler d’un sujet en particulier dans votre conférence, votre groupe d’utilisateurs ou dans un 5 à 7 par exemple.

Bien sûr, cette page sera appelée à évoluer et contenir plus d’informations avec le temps, mais elle vous donne un bon aperçu de ce que je peux faire. Alors, n’hésitez pas à me contacter si vous avez une idée (je me réserve bien sûr le droit d’accepter ou de refuser dépendant du sujet et de mon horaire). J’essaie de rester à l’affût des événements où je peux venir partager sur différentes technologies avec vous, mais c’est une façon pour moi de vous dire “ne vous gênez pas pour me suggérer des sujets ou événements”. Au plaisir de venir présenter chez vous!

]]> 2011-05-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/facebook-devient-sentimental/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

]]> 2011-05-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-temps/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted. - John Lennon

]]> 2011-05-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/html5-un-francais-et-moi/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Laurent Maisonnave et moi au Webcamp de Québec. Nous aurions pu faire une chicane de style “tu as mis la même robe que moi”, mais nous avons plutôt été fiert de tous deux faire la promotion de HTML5. Merci à la photographe Kim Auclair.P.-S. Oui, dans la première photo, on dirait qu’on a des petits foulards coquins…

]]> 2011-05-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/soyez-vous-meme-en-toute-circonstance/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

I’d rather lose my job than be someone else - Joey DeVilla

Un jour, dans une discussion à propos de ma personnalité versus celle de Joey (on se qualifiait de “English/French version”, car on est et pense pareil à plusieurs niveaux), il me dit cette phrase qui résonna longtemps dans ma tête. Pourquoi? Je pense totalement pareil… Je pense que ça sent le billet un peu plus long sur le sujet sous peu!

]]> 2011-05-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/revoir-le-terme-amis-sur-facebook/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Plus le temps passe, plus j’ai le goût de revoir mon utilisation du terme amis à sa définition réelle et même plus. Je forme plusieurs amitiés dans les évènements, au travail, dans les soirées, par l’entremise de connaissances, mais souvent, ce ne sont justement, que des connaissances. Là où j’embarque le terme “même plus” c’est que je pense y aller d’amis très proche, comme dans, on soupe de temps en temps un chez l’autre.

Même si je suis quelqu’un de très transparent dans ce que je dis et ce que je fais, je ressens un besoin, surtout depuis que mon emploi m’amène à devenir plus une “personnalité publique”, d’avoir une garde rapprochée pour certaines pensées, propos ou discussion que je veux engagé.

Cela implique toutefois de garder un canal ouvert pour que les gens sur Facebook puissent continuer de communiquer avec moi, d’échanger, de commenter sur mes statuts… Dans ce cas, même si je trouve ceci un peu prétentieux, une page publique s’imposerait où je ferais probablement la même chose qu’actuellement, envoyé mes tweets sur cette dernière (nous pourrons discuter de la pertinence de faire ainsi, mais pour moi, c’est une façon facile d’être présent sur ces deux réseaux sans que cela ne me consomme trop de temps).

Cela voudrait aussi dire de retirer de ma liste d’ami(e)s énormément de monde qui risque de s’en offusquer. Ne me prenez pas en défaut, j’ai une bonne relation avec la plupart du monde dans ma liste, mais je voudrais restreindre celle-ci à quelques personnes très proches. Je pourrais donc renvoyer le monde sur mon compte Twitter, mon éventuelle page publique de Facebook ou même mon compte LinkedIn.

Je suis encore en réflexion sur le sujet et j’ai un penchant pour partagé mes réflexions avec vous et obtenir votre opinion je dois dire. Cela ne devrait toutefois par tarder à ce faire si c’est la voie choisie… Que pensez-vous de séparer vie privée (très dans mon cas) et vie publique? Est-ce une fantaisie de ma part? Pensez-vous que c’est une bonne ou une mauvaise idée? Seriez-vous offusqué si je vous retire de ma liste d’ami(e)s pour vous suggérer de devenir fan de ma page publique?

Source de l’image: https://www.opposingviews.com

]]> 2011-05-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/cartes-daffaires-plus-authentiques/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Dans le coin droit de ce billet, ma carte d’affaires actuelle. J’ai l’intention de me faire faire des cartes de types MooEt non, les cartes professionnelles ne sont pas mortes. C’est encore un bon moyen de transmettre nos coordonnées. Je pense à des images reliées à l’informatique, mon titre, la culture Geek, le Web, nos technologies, les technologies Open Source, moi, ma personnalité… Avez-vous des suggestions? Des images en exemple? Des idées?

]]> 2011-05-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/webcom-live-mai-2011-la-transparence/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Voici une entrevue que j’ai donné à Mathieu Chartier dans le cadre du Webcom Live d’hier abordant le sujet de la transparence.

]]> 2011-05-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-festival-geek-de-montreal-ne-verra-pas-de-3e-edition/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

C’est avec tristesse que je vous annonce aujourd’hui que le [Festival Geek de MontréalEn effet, j’ai pris la décision de ne pas continuer le festival. Avant de crier à la dictature, lisez la suite. Voici un texte qui explique en partie ma décision.

Le plan initial

En débutant le festival, mon plan à moyen terme se divisait en deux parties:

1. Les deux premières années serviraient à créer le festival, monter une équipe, prendre de l’expérience dans l’organisation, tester l’idée et avoir un support de la communauté;

2. La troisième année servirait à mettre sur papier (si je peux dire ainsi, on n’utilisait pas vraiment de papier) la structure que nous avions monté en équipe et s’assurer de pouvoir continuer le festival pendant aussi longtemps que la communauté serait partante tout en s’assurant un roulement de membre du comité principal (Core Geek Team) sans affaiblir l’organisation.

Ce qui s’est passé

Nous avons eu deux superbes années et deux éditions dont je suis très fier. Ce que nous avions mal jugé est la charge de travail pour faire une telle activité. Lorsque nous avons fait notre retour sur la dernière édition, une grande partie de l’équipe, pour des raisons personnelles telles que la famille (certains venaient d’avoir des enfants et d’autres allaient en avoir sous peu) et leur vie professionnelle (quelques-uns ont voulu focaliser sur leur carrière pour accéder à d’autres niveaux ou se perfectionner). De plus, certaines personnes se sont rendu compte qu’ils n’étaient pas totalement à leur place dans le monde Geek, mais aussi dans leur poste.

Tout ceci mis ensemble, je me suis ramassé avec une équipe de 1-2 personnes, contrairement à 10, ce qui est un minimum pour rouler le tout.

Pourquoi ne pas continuer

Présentement, la prochaine étape serait de former une nouvelle équipe et revenir plus au moins au tout début sans toutefois pouvoir réellement y revenir. Je devrais reformer une équipe presque complète, possiblement sans expérience dans la gestion d’évènement, sans expérience dans la gestion de ce festival et surtout, sans expérience à travailler ensemble. De plus, après cette deuxième édition qui fut superbe à plusieurs niveaux (plus d’espaces, plus d’exposants, plus d’activités, plus de types de Geek, plus de bénévoles, plus de visiteurs…) on ne peut revenir en faisant une troisième édition plus petite.

Bien sûr, j’ai plus d’expérience, je sais où je vais, mais le festival n’est pas l’affaire d’une personne. C’est beaucoup de travail bénévole. Plusieurs heures pour préparer plusieurs choses: la logistique, les finances, les activités, les communications… C’est de loin plus complexe que d’autres conférences ou évènements que j’ai mis sur pied. De plus, quand je m’engage, je ne suis pas du genre à donner le minimum…

On parle donc ici d’une charge de travaille assez élevé, surtout pour moi et je dois dire que je m’alignais pour faire seulement de la gestion pour la 3e édition. Vu mon train de vie depuis janvier: plusieurs évènements et voyages pour le travail. Cela m’empêchais et m’empêchera d’être souvent présent pour mon équipe et malgré que pour la 2e édition j’avais une superbe équipe (pour la 1ère aussi, mais après 2 ans l’équipe était plus rodée), j’ai remarqué et surtout, certains membres de mon équipe m’ont fait remarqué, que mon rôle, ainsi que ma présence, était essentielle.

Alors, qu’arrive-t-il au festival?

Pour l’instant, ça sent la fin de cet évènement, désolé. Je n’ai plus le temps de repartir l’organisation du début comme je l’ai fait il y a plus de 2 ans. J’aurais bien sûr aimé que l’équipe reste une dernière année, mais je n’ai retenu personne, car le tout était bénévole et ils ont tous donné énormément de temps et d’énergie…

Un des avenirs possibles serait que quelqu’un reprenne le principe pour continuer le festival, mais je dois admettre que ce sera encore plus de travail que ce que j’aurais… Une autre piste de solution pour continuer la promotion de la communauté Geek est que le festival se transforme en semaine du Geek où la communauté montréalaise pourrait réaliser plusieurs petites ou grandes activités pendant cette semaine.

Je suis bien sûr ouvert aux suggestions, mais malgré toute la bonne volonté que vous aurez, je ne suis pas sûr que la continuité, avec moi à la tête, soit la bonne voie avec mon style de vie actuel.

Conclusion

Tel que mentionné, je suis triste, très triste d’annoncé cette nouvelle aujourd’hui, car je dois l’avouer, je n’ai rien venu venir. Pour moi, nous étions parties encore pour 2-3 ans avec la même équipe. Écrire ce billet ne fut pas évidant, car j’ai pris cette décision il y a plus d’un mois, mais je n’étais pas capable de l’officialiser par un billet. Pour moi, cela signifie la mort d’un super projet que j’ai chéri énormément…

Merci à tous les bénévoles, à tous les commanditaires, à tous les exposants, à tous les artistes, à tous les membres du Core Geek Team, à tous les visiteurs et surtout, à toute la communauté et tout ceux qui ont cru en un tel évènement. Longue vie aux Geeks!P.-S. Cela ne met pas fin à ma vie Geek, je vais continuer à aller m’amuser avec les Geeks dans d’autres évènements tel que](https://geekfestmtl.com) Con*Cept.

]]> 2011-05-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/jai-encourage-layton/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

]]> 2011-04-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/9-raisons-de-ne-pas-acheter-un-iphone-5/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Volé sur le Twitter de Christian Heilmann

]]> 2011-04-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/une-soiree-duno/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Sérieusement, à force de jouer à UNO sur mon [Windows Phone 7Quand j’étais plus jeune, on faisait souvent des soirées de cartes chez mes parents. Pas qu’on n’aimait pas sortir, au contraire, c’est justement parce qu’on sortait trop qu’on aimait de temps en temps faire une petite soirée tranquille. Bières, cartes, jeux de table et ami(e)s faisaient bon ménage. On faisait tellement bien ça (lire on était tranquille, mais il y avait de la vie dans la maison), que ma mère, même après être parti de chez mes parents, me demandait d’en faire d’autres, chez eux!

Ouais, je pense que je vais relancer ces petites soirées là…

](https://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/fr-ca/default.aspx “Windows Phone 7”)

]]> 2011-04-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/quebec-aller-retour/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Demain matin je pars pour Québec question d’aller au CloudCamp QuébecSi vous êtes libres et ça vous dit de venir parler technologie ou refaire le monde derrière un verre, envoyez-moi un courriel à fredh@microsoft.com. Je présume qu’il y aura un 5@7 ou une soirée qui suivra l’événement, alors on pourra se joindre au groupe ou sinon aller ailleurs.

Source de l’image: https://cloudcamp-quebec-2010-rss.eventbrite.com/

]]> 2011-04-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/bixi-le-premier-point-de-mon-plan-de-remise-en-forme/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Après avoir essayé un abonnement, voire même deux, au gym, et ce sans succès, je m’aperçois que ce n’est pas pour moi, pas pour mon mode de vie. Personnellement, cela me prend environ 2h pour une séance de gym: 10 minutes me rendre au gym, 5 minutes me changer, 1h15 mon entrainement, 15 minutes me doucher/changer et 10 minutes pour revenir chez nous. Ce qui veut dire que ma soirée est presque prise, car après on soupe et on fait les trucs à la maison, puis voilà, ma soirée a été le gym. De plus, maintenant je voyage pas mal et j’assiste toujours à plein de trucs même quand je suis ici, alors je n’ai pas souvent de soirée de libre, donc celles qui le sont me servent à relaxer et passer du temps avec ma conjointe. Certains diront qu’il y a toujours moyen d’intégrer le tout, mais je pense juste que le gym n’est peut-être pas pour moi, ou pas à ce moment de ma vie.

Le BIXI va me permettre de faire plus de bicyclette en joignant l’utile à l’agréable. Dans le pire des cas, je perdrais un 80$, mais pensons positif. Je crois réellement qu’en y allant par petit changement, j’y arriverais plus lentement, mais plus sûrement et sans me faire détester le processus. Une prochaine étape serait possiblement de manger de plus petite portion ou de manger plus souvent chez nous (ou avoir un lunch quand je suis à l’extérieur).

Des fois il faut attaquer les choses différemment et connaître ses forces, ainsi que ses faiblesses. Je suis donc un nouvel abonné au BIXI et je devrais recevoir ma clé d’ici la fin de la semaine. Je suis aussi partant pour les conseils des pros de BIXI! Sur ce, trouvez vos forces et faiblesses, puis remettez-vous en forme (ou changez ce que vous n’aimez pas dans votre vie)…

Source de l’image: https://www.demarrageentreprise.com/

]]> 2011-04-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/tumblr-style/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

J’ai donc décidé de ramener mon contenu ici. Présentement, j’ai une photo particulière à partager, je la mets sur Flickr. J’ai une pensée où je cherche une réponse de mon réseau, je le publie sur Facebook ou Twitter… Malgré le fait que ses plateformes soient toutes très intéressantes et risquent de vivre encore longtemps, j’ai l’impression de m’éparpiller. Je vais donc tenter d’utiliser ce blogue un peu à la tumblr et utiliser mes réseaux pour promouvoir le contenu, comme on le fait souvent avec nos billets sur nos blogues.

Vous verrez donc ici des entrées de type billet comme avant, mais aussi audio si je veux partager une chanson que j’aime, de type photo si je veux partager un moment capturé avec vous et d’autres types plus particuliers. Cela ne veut toutefois pas dire que je délaisse Twitter ou Flickr par exemple, mais je risque de les utiliser d’une autre manière. Pour ceux qui voudraient suivre seulement mes entrées de type billet, j’ajouterais sous peu plusieurs fils RSS pour vous faciliter la vie. Au plaisir de partager mon contenu avec vous!

]]> 2011-04-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/avant-apres/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

[Pour vous le présenter, j’ai usé de la bonne vieille technique des photos avant et après: sur la première je suis flou, triste de perdre ma barbe, pas réveillé tandis que sur la seconde, la vie s’ouvre à moi, la photo est de meilleure qualité et je parais mieux.

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2011/04/Fred201104081.png)

]]> 2011-03-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/une-soiree-dans-la-belle-province/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

J’en ai vaguement parlé sur Twitter, mais je vais à Québec pour le travail demain, et ce, jusqu’à vendredi soir. J’aimerais donc profiter du fait que je sois dans la belle province pour aller prendre un verre jeudi soir avec les développeurs de tout acabit: PHP, .NET, Python, C++…Je serais donc au restaurant Cosmos, situé au 2813 boulevard Laurier, pour 18h00 ce jeudi. Je souperais sur place et resterais par la suite pour prendre quelques verres en votre compagnie. Si vous désirez vous joindre à moi, laissez-moi une note en commentaire de ce billet, question de savoir pour combien de personnes je dois réserver. Passer le mot, on se voit jeudi soir!

Mise à jour #

On vient de me dire que c’est le Twestival à Québec ce soir-là, alors mes plans changent. Venez prendre un verre avec moi, pour une bonne cause, au Twestival de Québec. Plus d’informations ici.

Mise à jour 2 #

Je me suis trompé en parlant de Québec comme de la belle province dans ce cas-ci, mais bon, c’est fait,et vous comprenez ce que je veux dire.

Source de l’image: charlesmagnan.net

]]> 2011-03-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-reseau-des-femmes-daffaires-du-quebec-sinteresse-aux-medias-sociaux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ce fut donc une soirée devant plus d’une 15e de femmes d’un des chapitres du Réseau des femmes d’affaires du Québec. Quelle belle gang ce fut et j’ai eu bien du plaisir à parler médias sociaux avec elles (non ce n’est pas parce que c’était un groupe de femmes!). Nous avons discuté des sujets habituels: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube et j’en passe.

J’avais promis de mettre ma présentation en ligne, alors avec beaucoup de retard, là voilà enfin:

Réseau des femmes d’affaires du Québec - Introduction aux médias sociaux from Frédéric Harper

]]> 2011-03-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/festival-geek-de-montreal-mon-bebe-grandit/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je sais, cela fait quelque temps que je ne vous ai pas donné de nouvelles, mais avec le Festival Geek de Montréal et mon nouvel emploiQuelle belle aventure que je vis avec cet événement. Un rassemblement de Geeks pendant une fin de semaine, quel beau cadeau de fête. Même si de l’idée à la confirmation du projet, c’était un truc d’un “one man army”, depuis que je ne suis plus seul dans cette aventure, je dois dire que j’ai une équipe du tonnerre qui se donne à 200% (des Geeks quoi!) pour faire de ce festival une expérience encore plus intéressante pour les visiteurs et offrir une meilleure visibilité à nos exposants, ainsi qu’à nos commanditaires. Un gros merci à Debbie Rouleau, Émilie Plante, Bruno-Pierre Campeau, Carine Janelle-Thibodeau, Patrick Pilon, Renaud Lepage, Sonia Desruisseaux, Sarah Dagenais, Pierre-Luc Paquin et Brigitte Quesnel qui m’épaule au jour le jour. Un gros merci aussi à tout nos bénévoles qui se donnent aussi à 200% pour préparer les activités, faire la logistique sur place… Un autre merci a tout nos partisans et médias: tous ces gens qui partage nos messages Twitter, qui aime nos articles sur Facebook et qui parle à leurs amis de l’événement. Un dernier merci, à tous les visiteurs du festival: sans vous, ce rassemblement de Geeks et cette promotion de cette culture qui nous est chère, n’aurait pas lieu d’être.

Je vous attends donc en fin de semaine pour venir célébrer la culture Geek et surtout… s’amuser! Pour plus d’informations, visitez le site Web. Même si je risque de courir à droite et à gauche pendant la fin de semaine, n’hésitez pas à m’accrocher pour me jaser (ah bête sociale que je suis…)! Au plaisir de vous y voir.

]]> 2011-02-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/html5-internet-explorer-9-est-ce-reellement-compatible/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Tels sont les grandes lignes de la présentation que je vais faire lundi prochain (soit le 21 février) à 18h30 à la salle la Chaufferie au Coeur des Sciences de l’UQAM (situé au  175 avenue du Président-Kennedy) lors de la soirée-conférence du W3Québec. Pour ceux qui ne pourraient pas venir, la soirée sera diffusée en direct (et par la suite disponible sur le Web) sur la page HTML5 du W3QC.

Ce n’est pas tout, en plus d’avoir la chance d’en apprendre plus sur le sujet et de bénéficier d’une belle occasion de réseauter avec les gens du milieu du Web, le W3Québec fera tirer un billet pour la conférence Confoo!!! Pour réserver votre place, il vous suffit d’écrire à inscription@w3qc.org. Au plaisir de discuter standard ouvert avec vous…

]]> 2011-01-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/on-a-besoin-de-vous-pour-creer-une-liste-dassociations-de-developpeurs-au-quebec/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue 42

Le W3Québec m’a récemment demandé si je voulais devenir collaborateur spécial pour un de leurs projets, soit celui de créer une liste des groupes d’utilisateurs et associations de développeurs Web au Québec. J’ai trouvé l’idée fort intéressante et j’ai voulu y ajouter mon grain de sel: élargir la liste à tout type de développeurs.

Bien que le W3Québec fasse, entre autres choses, la promotion des standards Web au Québec et que de ce fait, ils touchent les développeurs Web seulement, ils m’ont tout de même accordé ce point. À notre connaissance, ce genre de liste n’existe pas et nous pensons qu’elle pourrait être utile à plusieurs niveaux:

• Aider les développeurs à trouver un groupe d’utilisateur pour un langage qu’ils utilisent ou aimeraient utiliser;

• Aider les entreprises à trouver des ressources pour un langage ou une méthodologie en particulier;

• Avoir une image globale des regroupements à travers le Québec;

• …

Pour se faire, nous vous demandons un petit coup de main. Nous avons commencé une liste que vous pouvez voir ici et que nous allons bonifier au fur et à mesure, mais nous sollicitons votre aide pour nous aider à la rendre la plus exhaustive possible.

**Vous être membre d’un groupe d’utilisateur ou vous en connaissez au Québec? Que ce soit un groupe de fervent du HTML, de tripeux de Scrum, de développeurs ASP.NET ou de maniaque de COBOL, nous voulons vous avoir dans la liste. Il vous suffit de remplir le petit formulaire ici.**Que vous ayez contribué ou non à la liste, je vous invite à transférer ce billet dans votre réseau et sur les médias sociaux. Merci de votre aide.

Source de l’image : https://www.multi-logo.com

]]> 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/vous-avez-une-idee-dapplication-pour-windows-phone-7-je-la-realise/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue 42

Dans le cadre de mon rôle chez Microsoft, on m’a demandé de faire une application mobile sous Windows Phone 7 qui serait francophone et de préférence utile pour les Québécois. Je dois dire que ça tombe bien, car je voulais apprendre comment cette plateforme fonctionne depuis longtemps, entre autre car à mon compte j’offrais un service de développement mobile et qu’il manquait ce système d’exploitation à mon offre.

Cela va donc me permettre de faire le tour des différents aspects du développement sous Windows Phone 7 dont deux points qui m’intéressent particulièrement:

• La courbe d’apprentissage à comparer aux autres langages: j’ai développé des applications pour iPhone, Windows Mobile 5/6 et BlackBerry.
• La mise en marché sur le du MarketPlace.

Pour se faire, je pensais vous demander votre avis. Quelle application trouvez-vous qu’il manque sur le MarketPlace présentement pour le Québec? Quelle serait l’idée géniale que vous aimeriez voir réalisé? Bien sûr, pas besoin de téléphone pour voir si ça existe, simplement à utiliser le MarketPlace. De plus, je ne pourrais mettre trop de temps sur cette application, donc un projet de petit envergure, de préférence utilisant un API quelconque pour aller chercher des données serait bien.

On m’a déjà suggéré une application pour le transport en commun de la STM ou une application pour consulter la base de données d’alcool de la SAQ. Et vous, qu’aimeriez-vous que je développe?

Source de l’image : https://www.mobilephone.co.in (dead link)

]]> 2011-01-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/devlab-montreal-la-soiree-du-hockey-pour-geeks/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue 42

Qu’est-ce que devLAB Montréal? Une initiative d’EvocatioCe soir dès 18h30 dans les bureaux d’Evocatio situé au 388 rue Saint-Jacques Ouest (3e étage) une gang de Geek se rencontreront pour discuter informatique et tester les technologies du moment. Ce sera le premier événement officiel d’une longue série je l’espère bien (la semaine dernière la version beta, soit la rencontre #0 a eu lieu, sûrement pour valider le concept). Je serais de la partie et je vous invite fortement à vous joindre à nous. Pour signaler votre intérêt, allez faire un tour sur la page Facebook de l’événement et si vous ne pouvez y être ce soir, que cela ne tienne, joignez-vous au groupe pour vous tenir informé pour les prochaines soirées.

]]> 2011-01-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/cusec-2011/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue 42

Vous étudiez en génie logiciel et vous aimeriez rencontrer d’autre passionnée comme vous? CUSECPourquoi y assister? C’est une occasion sans précédent d’apprentissage pour les étudiants en génie logiciel et une grande chance de rencontrer d’autres personnes qui partagent votre passion pour les logiciels. Si vous souhaitez tirer le meilleur, être inspiré, rencontrer d’autres gens brillants et motivés, relancer votre carrière et faire la fête avec d’autres étudiants, c’est l’endroit rêvé.

Bien sûr, je serais sur place pour représenter Microsoft avec Joey et Will (si vous êtes un étudiant, ingénieur ou pas, c’est le gars qu’il faut connaître), car je ne suis pas ingénieur. Je serais aussi de la partie pour le party, alors venez discuter techno avec moi ou prendre un verre le vendredi soir!

]]> 2011-01-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/web-camp-en-debut-fevrier-y-serez-vous/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue 42

Le premier Web Camp à Montréal, organisé par Microsoft en collaboration avec la Communauté .NET Montréal, prendra place à nos bureaux (Microsoft Montréal - 2000 avenue McGill CollegePour faire partie de cette journée, il suffit de vous inscrire ici, c’est gratuit! Vous pouvez aussi télécharger gratuitement le kit d’apprentissage pour le Web Camp (ce n’est pas obligatoire). En passant, le repas sera inclus, alors si vous vous inscrivez, assurez-vous de pouvoir venir. Je serais bien sûr de la partie, alors au plaisir de vous y voir!

]]> 2011-01-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/combattez-les-bons-demons/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Il y a quelques minutes, je me suis fait aborder par une personne visiblement outrée par mon t-shirt “Vino, les gouines” de [NasteeCe type ne combat pas les bons démons, croyez-moi. Quand j’étais plus jeune, j’étais mal à l’aise en compagnie d’homme guay, mais je crois que c’était plus par incompréhension qu’autre chose. Aujourd’hui, j’ai des ami(e)s homosexuels, hétérosexuels et bisexuels. Est-ce que ça fait de moi un homophobe? Je ne pense pas. De plus, j’ose m’exprimer à la place de Nastee qui je ne pense pas voulait véhiculer des propos homophobes, mais soulignez un des bons clips de Labrèche. Est-ce Labrèche serait homophobe? J’ose croire que non, mais il est certainement un humoriste qui se permet de faire des blagues sur les choses de la vie.

](https://www.nastee.ca “Site Web de Nastee”)

L’ami mon’oncle Ti-Guy que j’ai rencontré au lancement de la Fondation Jasmin Roy (oui oui, une fondation qui combat l’intimidation à l’école et qui avait comme focus cette année l’homophobie) soulignait la même chose dernièrement dans son billet sur un faux scandale.

En passant, voici la vidéo de l’imitation de Labrèche:

Avant de combattre un ennemi qui n’en est pas un, pensez-y. Souvent trop d’énergie est mise sur le mauvais moulin à vent. Combattez les bons démons!

Source de l’image: https://www.nastee.ca

]]> 2011-01-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/bonne-annee-2011/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Malgré que nous soyons déjà le 2 janvier de cette nouvelle année, je prends tout de même le temps de vous souhaiter une Bonne Année 2011. Je ne suis pas bon pour faire des voeux alors je vais tout simplement vous souhaiter que 2011 soit à votre image, qu’elle soit remplie de tout ce que vous voudrez. Croyez-moi, [vous êtes maître de votre destiné si vous le voulezPour moi, 2010 fut une très bonne année et je compte bien avoir un 2011 tout aussi magnifique. Je pense bien faire un petit récapitulatif de cette dernière année sous peu ici, pour partager ce que je retire des 365 derniers jours d’avant hier.

Au plaisir de continuer de partager avec vous!

](https://fred.dev/demandez-et-vous-recevrez-peut-etre/ “Demandez et vous recevrez… peut-être!”)

Source de l’image: https://www.zastavki.com

]]> 2010-12-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/on-juge-comme-des-idiots/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Avec mon nouvel emploi, je dois dire que je suis exposé à ce genre de propos envers mon employeur et ses produits, ainsi que ses technologies: on n’aime pas et ce n’est pas bon avant même de l’avoir essayé dans la plupart des cas. On aime détester les gros joueurs comme Google, Microsoft ou Apple. C’est le genre de retour que j’ai quelques fois lorsque je me prononce sur nos produits, alors ça m’a inspiré ce billet, je ne m’en cache pas! Je suis toutefois très zen avec ça, sinon je n’aurais jamais pris cet emploi, ça fait partie du fait de travailler chez Microsoft. Je dois dire qu’il y a quelques années j’étais pareil…

Alors pour les jours qui suivent, je vous propose une chose: essayez, goûtez, testez… avant de vous prononcer. Je parie que vous allez aimer ça… Je tenterais d’en faire autant lorsque je m’apprêterais à juger comme un idiot!

P.S.: Toute ressemblance avec des discussions sur mes derniers statuts n’est que fortuite…

Source de l’image: https://www.tendanceparisienne.com

]]> 2010-12-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/techno-tu-ne-seras-point/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je parle bien sûr de ce blogue… Certains d’entre vous l’ont possiblement vu passé sur les réseaux sociaux, mais je me pars un deuxième blogue nommé 42. C’est le résultat d’une réflexion que j’avais faite iciQu’est-ce que ça veut dire pour ce dernier? Pas grand-chose, il ne fermera pas, au contraire, je vais continuer à y écrire mes pensées, mes opinions, mes idées sur divers sujets sans tomber dans les billets qui entrerait dans le cadre de l’autre blogue. Je ne sais pas encore totalement comment mon nouvel emploi va fonctionner, car je commence la semaine prochaine officiellement, alors je ne sais pas si je vais tenter d’écrire plus de billets à deux blogues ou simplement gardé la même constance, mais divisé sur deux blogues.

Je vous invite donc à aller y faire un tour pour vous inscrire au fil RSS. Pour l’instant, il n’y a que le billet d’introduction qui pourra vous en dire plus, mais sous peu d’autres billets verront le jour.

]]> 2010-12-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/42-encore-un-autre-blogue/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue 42

Hé oui, un autre blogue  vient de voir le jour, 42. Lors d’une réflexionPourquoi 42 ?

Parce que c’est la réponse à tout (à la grande question sur l’univers tiré du livre de Douglas Adams). Je trouvais ce nom de domaine Geek à souhait.

Auras-tu réponse à tout ?

Absolument pas! L’idée est plus d’en faire un lieu commun où petit à petit on y trouvera réponse à nos questions.

Pourquoi ne pas avoir écrit tes billets plus techniques sur À la base 2 ?

Pour diverses raisons, mais je dois dire que je voulais surtout offrir un espace unique pour chacun de mes types de visiteurs: [À la base 2 (ce site n’existe plus)) pour ceux qui aiment mes billets plus personnels et 42 pour ceux qui aiment mes billets reliés au développement ou plus techniques. Pour plus d’informations, lisez le billet à cet effet.

**À quoi peut-on s’attendre avec ce blogue ?**À un pêle-mêle de billets reliés aux technologies, mais sous un angle généralement plus technique ou du moins qui pourront intéressés les développeurs: bout de code à partager, opinion sur une technologie émergente, retour sur des événements technos, présentation de nouveautés que j’utilise, information sur les événements auxquels je vais participer… Malgré le fait que je risque d’avoir plusieurs billets sur des technologies ou événements reliés à mon employeur, ce blogue n’est pas conçu que pour discuter de Microsoft.Est-ce la version finale de ce dont il aura l’air ?

Je ne pense pas. J’ai un problème lorsque vient le temps de mettre un thème sur mes sites, je suis difficile. Le logo était simplement pour m’amuser et rien ne dit qu’il ne disparaîtra pas sous peu et que le thème ne sera pas modifié. Je suis toujours intéressé par vos commentaires d’ailleurs. Soyez donc prêt à une possible évolution de ce site.

Pourquoi devrais-je m’abonner au fil RSS ?

Pour voir mes nouveaux billets avant tout le monde. Pour venir commenter mes opinions, mes bons et moins coups technologiques. Parce qu’il sera toujours possible de retirer mon fil RSS de votre agrégateur si mes billets vous emmerdent trop!

En espérant que ça vous donne une bonne idée de la vocation de ce blogue et surtout que je vous ai donné le goût de vous y abonner!

]]> 2010-12-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/joyeux-nowel/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Profitez de ce temps, qui malheureusement n’est pas si de repos que ça, pour essayer tout de même de relaxer un peu, car la nouvelle année arrivera rapidement et si la vôtre est comme la mienne, elle sera merveilleuse, mais je devrais la débuter en pleine forme!

Je sais qu’on ne devrait pas attendre à un moment de l’année pour être avec ses proches, mais profitez aussi de ce moment pour le faire. Puis étant dans une société matérialiste et l’étant moi-même je l’avoue, j’espère que vous recevrez les cadeaux que vous attendiez!

Encore une fois, bon temps des fêtes et profitez-en de la manière qu’il vous plait!

Source de l’image : https://xkcd.com

]]> 2010-12-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/follow-friday-laurent-lasalle/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Cette semaine, mon Follow Friday va à Laurent LaSalle aka LaurentLaSalle Il faut dire que Laurent est quelqu’un qui nous transmet du contenu de qualité. Outre les trouvailles qu’il partage, il écrit depuis peu du très bon contenu sur le blogue techno de Radio-Canada nommé Triplex. Honte sur moi si je ne soulignais pas le côté musical de Laurent: il produit deux podcasts dont Mes paroles s’envolent (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) qui est maintenant plus une émission d’entrevue avec des personnalités du Web, mais qui renferment des perles musicales et son ancien nouveau podcast anglophones nommé Headphones Required qui lui, est entièrement dédié aux goûts musicaux de Laurent, ainsi que pour ses découvertes. Toutes fois, même avec deux podcasts, Laurent nous envoient quelques bons titres de temps en temps sur nos fils Twitter. Amoureux de la musique de la bonne musique, je vous conseille d’y jeter un coup d’oeil: il est responsable de quelques achats de disques chez nous (oui mon côté 1990, j’achète encore des CDs).

Donc si vous voulez suivre quelqu’un de drôle, de vrai, de techno et qui deviendra votre pusher musical, suivez Laurent sur Twitter.

]]> 2010-12-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/foursquare-ne-sert-a-rien/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Bien sûr, il y a l’utilisation intensive que j’en faisais: signaler sa présence partout où l’on est incluant des trucs aussi insignifiants que le dépanneur ou mon institution financière. Ça avait seulement le mérite de m’aider pour l’aspect jeu qui est de devenir maire d’un endroit (et de ne pas se le faire voler) et d’accumuler des points. Chose dont je me suis vite lassé et je pense que plusieurs aussi.

Il reste donc l’aspect de signaler sa présence, qui est tout de même la base de ce système de géolocalisation avant même d’être un jeu. À quoi cela peut-il bien servir? On aura lu toute sorte de bêtise sur le fait que ça aide seulement à ce que le monde sache que je ne suis pas chez nous pour venir me voler. Je ne m’attarderais pas sur ça, mais sachez qu’à chaque chose que l’humain invente, il y a au moins une personne pour l’utiliser innocemment. Dans mon cas, il sert à signaler à mes ami(e)s, mais aussi les personnes que je ne connais pas, que je suis à un endroit X où je n’a aucun problème à ce qu’on vienne me dire salut, qu’on vienne prendre un café ou un verre avec moi.

Pour mes ami(e)s #

Dans le cas de personne que je connais dans la vraie vie, il est clair que j’ai pleins d’autres moyens de le leur signaler: Twitter, appel, courriel… mais Foursquare me permet de le faire plus facilement avec le GPS et aussi avec sa base de données d’endroit qui est maintenant très bien rempli. Je n’ai donc pas besoin de donner des renseignements souvent plus ou moins précis sur l’endroit et non plus de faire le tour de ma liste d’ami(e)s pour avertir tout le monde. C’est donc à eux, lorsque nous n’avons rien de planifier, de voir si je suis à l’extérieur et s’ils ont le goût de venir me voir. De plus, la plupart de mes ami(e)s sont assez technos, donc ce n’est pas une limitation pour moi.

Pour les autres #

Je suis quelqu’un qui a la base est assez sociable. Rencontrer du nouveau monde, ça ne me dérange pas, au contraire. C’est pourquoi j’accepte n’importe qui sur Foursquare. Ces gens auront donc le loisir de venir me dire salut sachant où je suis. Pas plus compliqué. Dans ce cas, on s’entend que j’utilise aussi un peu différemment Foursquare pour rejoindre plus de gens que je n’ai pas eu le plaisir de rencontrer en personne. Lorsque je suis dans un événement ouvert à tous, je partage mon “check-in” avec mes gens sur Twitter. Ça sera donc une façon de mentionner à plus de gens ma présence à cet événement et le fait que je suis apte à rencontrer du nouveau monde. Il est donc rare que je publie le tout sur Twitter, car je n’aime pas trop polluer le fil Twitter des gens, mais je me le permets dans ces cas là.

Quelques précisions #

Il est clair que je ne “check-in” pas dans un endroit où je ne veux pas qu’on me dérange: soirée en amoureux, soirée de famille, trop débordé… De plus, je le fais seulement dans des endroits dignes d’intérêt et je respecte le désir des personnes avec qui je suis: s’ils ne désirent pas avoir d’autres personnes avec nous, je ne signalerais pas ma présence.

Pour terminer, vous pouvez remplacer Foursquare par Gowalla ou Facebook Places dans ce texte, mais je dois dire que je n’ai pas vraiment utilisé ces deux derniers et que je reste avec Foursquare pour l’instant. De votre côté, utilisez-vous Foursquare ou un service de géolocalisation quelconque? Si oui, comment vous en servez-vous? Sinon, quelle en est la raison?

]]> 2010-12-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/testez-azure-et-aider-votre-groupe-dutilisateur/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

page (en anglais seulement), permettra à votre groupe d’utilisateur et ainsi qu’à vous d’obtenir chacun 25$. Il vous suffira d’envoyer un courriel à cdnazure@microsoft.com avec une capture d’écran d’une application déployé sur la plateforme Azure, en incluant le nom complet de votre groupe d’utilisateur et leur l’adresse postale. Pas plus compliqué! De plus, si vous ne voulez pas être chargé pour l’application en ligne par la suite, il vous suffira de la mettre hors-ligne.Donc en gros, testez gratuitement Azure, obtenez 25$ (en carte cadeau je crois) et donnez 25$ à votre groupe d’utilisateur (toujours bon pour aider aux différentes soirées, à payer le site Web ou la bière leur de vos réunions!). Si vous avez des questions, je vous suggère de les envoyer à cdnazure@microsoft.com pour l’instant, car je vais tester Azure en même temps que vous!

]]> 2010-12-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/modifier-la-vocation-de-ce-blogue-ou/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je parle beaucoup de divers changement ces jours-ci et ce blogue n’y échappe pas. Au tout début lorsque j’ai parti ce blogue, je le voyais vraiment comme un blogue plus technique, d’où le nom À la base 2, qui fait référence au système binaire que comprennent les ordinateurs. Presque 3 ans plus tard, je m’aperçois qu’il a plutôt été un blogue aux allures semi-professionnelles, semi-personnelles. En réalité, je pense n’avoir fait qu’un seul billet réellement technique et c’était pour partager une façon de configurer une souris Logitech sous UbuntuCe n’est pas que je n’aime pas parler technique ou partager mes bons et moins bons coups au niveau du développement, mais je dois dire que mon besoin de donner mon opinion sur plusieurs autres sujets, moins technique, est probablement plus criant. Par contre, avec mon nouveau rôle d’évangéliste, il est certain que je serais de plus en plus appelé à faire des billets plus techniques ou des billets visant les développeurs. Je pense toutefois que vu la teneur moins technique de mes billets ces dernières années, mes lecteurs ne sont probablement pas tous des développeurs. Il est clair que ce blogue reste un endroit où je vais étaler mes opinions sur les médias sociaux, sur l’actualité ou sur la communauté montréalaise, mais il me faut un moyen de continuer à bien le faire tout en ayant l’opportunité de faire des billets plus techniques. Dans ce cas, quelques choix s’imposent:

1. Modifier la vocation de ce blogue pour garder son utilisation actuelle en y ajoutant un aspect technique. Les deux types de billets cohabiteraient.
2. Garder ce blogue intact et en partir un autre qui lui, ne serait que technique.
3. Garder ce blogue intact et n’écrire que mes billets techniques sur le site de Microsoft. Un des premiers mandats que je me donne chez Microsoft est de voir à avoir un côté francophone au blogue pour les développeurs.

Il est certain que le premier choix s’avère le plus facile côté gestion, mais est-ce le meilleur choix? J’ai pris comme habitude de séparer mes projets sur leur propre site, même s’ils viennent tous de moi vu qu’ils ne touchaient pas nécessairement le même public. Les billets techniques emmerderaient une bonne partie de mes lecteurs actuels et les billets personnels emmerderaient cette fois les personnes qui ne viennent que pour l’aspect technique.

Partir un nouveau blogue? Un peu plus de gestion et même si je le fais pour mes projets, je suis moins partant pour un blogue. J’ai déjà un peu de misère à ce que ce blogue soit mon point d’attache quand on parle de moi sur le Web, alors d’avoir un deuxième blogue… Par contre, cela permet d’éviter tous les inconvénients de la première solution. Il me faudrait un nom encore plus technique que celui-ci et qui possède un nom de domaine libre, des idées?

Le dernier se veut aussi une solution très facile qui comporte une bonne partie des avantages des deux premières solutions: simplicité et séparation des types de billets. Par contre, il n’est pas dit que je ne voudrais pas parler d’autres technologies intéressantes et malgré la grande ouverture de mon employeur, ça n’aurait pas sa place. Rien ne m’empêche de faire comme fait l’ami Joey DeVilla qui a opté pour la deuxième solution avec Global Nerdy, mais qui écrit ses billets techniques sur celui de Microsoft et en met une copie sur son blogue (ou l’inverse). Cela fait deux fois plus de visibilité, ça lui permet d’écrire pour son emploi, mais aussi pour lui, ainsi que d’avoir la liberté d’avoir son propre site.

Il est clair que lorsque j’écris ce genre de billet où je me questionne sur tel ou tel truc, c’est souvent pour avoir votre opinion. Pas que je ne sache ne pas prendre de décision par moi-même, mais j’aime bien avoir une idée de ce que pense la communauté. De plus, dans certains cas, c’est aussi pour confirmer mes choix ou lancer un petit débat sur la question, comme présentement où ma réponse est déjà trouvée!

En effet, je pense y aller pour l’ouverture d’un autre blogue, celui-ci aux allures plus technos. C’est un peu plus de travail, mais cela me donnera tous les avantages voulus et je pense que je ferais comme Joey pour les billets communs sur mon blogue et celui de Microsoft. Au moment d’écrire ces lignes, je n’ai aucune idée du nom que ce nouveau site devrait avoir, des idées? Ça doit être un truc techno bien sûr et il sera francophone.

Source de l’image: https://www.glassdoor.com

]]> 2010-12-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/paul-laurendeau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Né en 1958, l’auteur du CARNET D’YSENGRIMUS, Paul Laurendeau a été vingt ans professeur de linguistique au Département d’Études françaises de l’Université York (1988-2008). Docteur ès Lettres de l’Université Denis Diderot (Paris VII), il est l’auteur d’une cinquantaine d’articles et de chapitres d’ouvrages en linguistique et en philosophie du langage. Il fut aussi un des collaborateurs-fondateurs du site de pastiche littéraire Dialogus, où des correspondants de tous les pays francophones entrent en interaction épistolaire avec les grandes personnalités du passé. À ce titre, il a collaboré à l’ouvrage collectif Entretien avec quatre philosophes, paru en 2005 aux Éditions Hurtubise HMH (Montréal), y pastichant les rôles de Karl Marx et de Socrate. Paul Laurendeau a publié un roman intitulé L’assimilande (2007) et deux recueil de nouvelles, l’un intitulé Femmes fantastiques (2008), l’autre intitulé Contes factuels, érotiques, sardoniques (2008), aux Éditions Jets d’encre (Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France). Il a aussi fait paraître, dans la revue franco-ontarienne Virages, huit nouvelles: Les trois passes d’arme de Mademoiselle Ibsen (numéro 27), On m’a donné une odeur (numéro 31), Amour, veuvage et racontars – Une lettre de Madame Émilie Teste (numéro 34), Ce garçon effacé dont le pianoforte jouait des notes si claires! (numéro 37), Quand les frusques et les verroteries faisaient éclater de rire (numéro 39), Bertrande Girandole (numéro 42 – dont il a aussi coordonné l’édition), Pourboire exponentiel (numéro 46) et Un pont ultime entre le roman et le film (numéro 49). Le site littéraire Écouter, lire, penser donne aussi accès à ses poèmes, à ses traductions, à ses critiques livresques et cinématographiques et à ses textes de chansons. Paul Laurendeau vient de terminer une trilogie romanesque intitulée Le cycle domanial, dont le premier tome, intitulé Le thaumaturge et le comédien, est paru aux Éditions Les Écrits francs. (Montréal) en 2008. On lui doit aussi un recueil de poèmes, intitulé Poésie d’outre-ville, paru chez ÉLP en 2009, et un roman intitulé Adultophobie paru chez ÉLP en 2010. Les récits de Paul Laurendeau sont du genre réalisme insolite. Les personnages féminins y ont une importance décisive. Ce sont des aventures étranges et complexes dans des mondes fictifs mais possibles, traversés par des crises sociales biscornues mais plausibles. Le style mobilise toutes les ressources de la langue française sauf une: l’anglicisme. Les réalités inventées sont souvent désignées par des mots inventés.

]]> 2010-12-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/comment-me-definissez-vous/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Par contre, il est toutefois intéressant de voir comment les autres nous perçoivent si nous sommes capables de vivre avec le bon, comme avec le moins bon. Des fois, c’est différent de ce que l’on est, comme je l’écrivais dans mon billet intitulé, une question de perception, dans lequel j’ai vécu cette situation. Des fois, c’est plus proche de la réalité, j’en faisais un billet avec les listes Twitter. Dans mon Follow Friday de la semaine passée, en commentaire, l’amie Debbie Rouleau semblait surprise de voir comment je la définissais, elle qui ne se voyait pas ainsi. Cela m’a donc donné une idée: voir comment les gens me définissent. Pour participer à mon petit test de psychologie, vous devez écrire en commentaire de ce billet:

1. Si l’on se connait en personne ou seulement sur Internet;
2. Comment vous me définissez avec des qualités, des perceptions, mais aussi des défauts.

Je demanderais donc aux gens d’être honnête avec leur propos, je suis capable d’en prendre… De plus, tentons de faire l’exercice sérieusement, donc, pas de EEMS, sauf si vous pensez que réellement j’en suis un! Je vous invite donc à me définir en commentaire si vous avez un petit deux minutes de libres. Du même coup, je vous invite à faire le même exercice que moi, vous aurez peut-être des surprises!

Source de l’image: https://www.raptorface.com

]]> 2010-12-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/nouveau-theme-en-construction/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je vous ai dit que j’allais changer de thème pour mon blogue et bien c’est en cours. Je ne sais pas encore si le thème nommé Standard, que j’ai installé présentement, sera la version finale, mais bon, ça viendra.Disons que présentement je cherche à temps perdu et ce thème était celui qui me plaisait le plus à ce jour. Bien sûr, il n’est pas fini de configuré et il me reste quelques trucs à faire:

• Traduire en français;
• Peaufiner le graphique de la page principale;
• Refaire ma section contact;
• Refaire ma section à propos;
• Ajouter la notion de tag aux billets;
• Remplacer le TweetMeme par le RT de Twitter;
• Remplacer le share de Facebook par le J’aime de ce dernier;
• Des petits trucs à droite et à gauche.

Je dois dire que je savais que j’étais difficile pour les thèmes de blogue, mais autant c’est quelque chose que j’aime chercher, autant ça me fatigue. Plus je regarde celui que j’ai mis présentement, moins je l’aime. Je crois vraiment que la solution ultime sera d’en faire faire un sur mesure, mais encore là, haha…

Donc en gros, n’ayez pas peur si le thème n’est pas super ou s’il change de temps en temps, retournons en 1990 et disons que le site est en construction… ou mieux, en constante évolution!

Source de l’image: https://cdn.wpbeginner.com

]]> 2010-12-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/follow-friday-debbie-rouleau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Pour mon premier Follow Friday, j’avais commencé par celle qui partage ma vie. Pourquoi ne pas y aller en deuxième avec celle dont le monde pense qu’elle partage ma vie. Bien oui, j’ai entendu dire dernièrement qu’on pensait qu’elle et moi on sortait ensemble! Aujourd’hui, j’aimerais vous présenter Debbie Rouleau connue sous le surnom de SekhmetDesignJe pense que mon deuxième choix ne pouvait aller à personne d’autre. Outre le fait qu’il y a plusieurs personnes que j’affectionne particulièrement sur Twitter, Debbie et moi sommes souvent ensemble sur différents projets et dans différents événements à un point tel que c’est devenue une très bonne amie malgré nos innombrables taquineries un envers l’autre. Elle est embarqué dans mes projets sans aucune retenue et avec l’énergie qu’on lui connait: Directrice des activités pour le Festival Geek de Montréal, beta-testeuse pour mes Portraits de blogueurs, podcastrice (elle se déclare elle-même ainsi) permanente dans mon autre podcast audio We are Geeks… Outre sa participation dans mes folies, car ce n’est pas une raison pour la suivre sur Twitter je vous le concède, Debbie est une Geek et une femme en TI qui est bien active. Une grande présence sur les médias sociaux, une présence constante dans les événements à Montréal à un point-elle qu’il y a des semaines où je la vois plus que ma conjointe et où elle me voit plus souvent que son mari! C’est une femme, et une future maman, pleines de ressource qui vient tout juste de joindre le CA du W3Québec, un bel atout pour cet organisme.

Outre sa présence et ses implications, Debbie est un personnage en soi: c’est Debbie presque au “day to day” sur cette photo. Vous aurez peut-être peur de lui parler en lisant son fil Twitter, car elle grogne fort! Elle n’aimera pas que je dise ça, mais sous ses allures de chien de garde, se cache une gentille et douce personne avec qui tous devraient être amis (c’est la partie après chien de garde qui va me coûter cher, haha).

Si vous aimez quelqu’un qui a une tête sur les épaules, qui a du caractères, qui sait ce qu’elle veut, qui s’implique à fond dans sa communauté, qui est une des plus grande Geek que je connaisse, qui a quelque chose à dire et qui le dit tout haut que ça vous plaise ou pas, suivez la sur Twitter…

]]> 2010-12-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-la-recherche-dun-nouveau-theme/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Comme vous le savez probablement, ce site va redevenir un simple blogue vu ma [transition professionnellePourquoi je vous en parle ici? Pour trois raisons:

](https://fred.dev/le-roi-est-mort-vive-le-roi/ “Le roi est mort, vive le roi”)

- Pour que vous n’ayez pas de surprise si vous arrivez sur ce site un jour et que l’esthétique a été complètement revue puis que l’aspect entreprise est disparu.2. Cela va m’aider à établir un profil de ce que je veux comme je l’avais fait pour mon billet de recherche sur un outil comptable. 3. Parce que je crois en la force du réseau et que je me dis que vous auriez peut-être trouvé des perles rares correspondant à mes besoins que vous voudriez partager avec moi.

Bien sûr, je ne cherche pas à faire faire le travail par autrui au niveau de la recherche: j’ai déjà effectué quelques recherches et je continuerais à en faire, mais on ne sait jamais!

Ce que je recherche est assez vague: habituellement c’est avec certains critères que je cherche un thème, mais je fonctionne surtout par coup de coeur. Essayons tout de même de lister quelques éléments:

• Un thème simple: je suis revenu à la simplicité depuis quelque temps, pour moi les sites ou blogues avec trop de contenu dans une seule page me font aller voir ailleurs.
• Une présence des médias sociaux: pour moi le thème doit avoir déjà une place de choix pour ces médias que j’affectionne ou permettre de bien les présenter sans trop alourdir le tout.
• De préférence valide selon les normes du W3C: dans le pire des cas, je ferais les corrections moi-même, mais c’est moins pratique si à un moment quelconque je le mets à jour.
• Vous avez dû deviner avec l’image de ce billet, mais je cherche un thème fonctionnant sous Wordpress bien sûr.
• Un thème qui ne date pas d’il y a 5 ans question que les widgets y soient intégrés. Aussi curieux que cela puisse paraître, quand j’utilise Wordpress c’est pour ne pas avoir à coder.
• Quelque chose de gros me plairait bien au niveau des fonts, mais qui met toutefois le contenu en valeur.
• Je ne sais pas si c’est une bonne idée, mais j’aimerais possiblement revenir avec de quoi qui permettrait d’avoir un header en image rotatif, pas de quoi de relier aux billets, mais plus pour présenter des images qui me représente ou qui se mêlent bien avec mon blogue. Ça fait 2000 je sais, mais bon, ça m’est passé par la tête hier. Dans tous les cas, même si la rotation n’y est pas, des extensions le font sans problème.
• Pas nécessairement besoin d’un thème francophone, je pourrais faire la traduction moi-même.
• Un thème sur des tons pâles. Ma passe de blogue foncé, noir est terminée, retour à la pureté, haha.
• Pas de façon spéciale de devoir créer un billet. Exemple, souvent les thèmes, pour avoir des types d’affichages spéciaux sur la page principale, demande de créer un champ avec un nom spécifique et y ajouter le lien d’une image de la bonne taille. Trop long et ça m’emmerde.
• Pas de Flash dans le thème.
• Utilisation des menus de Wordpress 3.0 pour plus de faciliter à les gérer.

Comme vous voyez, c’est un peu flou comme descriptions, mais comme je disais, je fonctionne surtout par intuition, par coup de foudre! Des exemples aideraient peut-être:

• Headphones Required de Laurent LaSalle (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus)
• Thème Open
• Thème Big Feature

Pour l’instant, je n’ai pas grand exemples, mais je vais tenter de bonifier la liste de ce que je veux ou de ce que je ne veux pas ainsi que la liste des exemples. En ce qui concerne les exemples, ce sont soient des thèmes où il y a un petit quelque chose qui ne fonctionne pas ou des sites qui ne possède pas de thème à acheter.

De votre côté, avez-vous autant de misère que moi à trouver des thèmes pour vos sites ou vous êtes moins difficile? Pensez-vous que ma solution serait d’en faire faire un sur mesure (je pensais passer une commande à Laurent après les fêtes, mais je ne suis pas patient, je veux le changer maintenant) ? Avez-vous des suggestions de thèmes pour moi? Des suggestions de site où regarder (j’utilise pas mal ThemeForest) ?

Source de l’image: https://www.blogohblog.com

]]> 2010-12-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/vous-representez-une-entreprise-ne-loubliez-pas/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

La semaine passée, et ça risque d’arriver souvent en 2011 avec [mon nouveau statut de travailleur mobileLa morale de cette histoire? Mon premier réflexe a été de tweeter ceci: ¨Déménagement La Capitale vient de se faire barrer de ma liste: viens de voir un de leur dude avoir la rage au volant en poussant qqn!!¨. Peu importe ce que l’un ou l’autre avait dit, peu importe la raison pour laquelle le conducteur de la camionnette bloquait un côté de la route (on a vu après qu’il attendait que la voiture qui partait libère un espace de stationnement), cette violence n’avait pas lieu d’être. L’entreprise compte peut-être 300 excellents employés et offre possiblement un service numéro un, mais il a suffi d’un seul type pour entacher leur réputation à mes yeux. Résultat? Je pensais faire affaire avec eux lors d’un éventuel prochain déménagement, mais il est clair qu’après ceci, je n’opterais jamais pour leur service et pire, je risque de relater ce fait lorsque du monde me parleront d’eux. J’exagère? Je ne pense pas, pour moi ce sont des actes inacceptables peu importe de qui cela provient et cette fois-ci, c’est l’entreprise qui en mange un coup.

Souvent en entreprise on oublie que nos actes touchent notre employeur. Que nous soyons une personnalité publique de celle-ci ou une personne qui ne verra peut-être jamais un potentiel client en personne, ce que nous faisons en ligne et hors-ligne a inévitablement un effet sur la perception de l’entreprise. On dit souvent que l’on est ce que l’on mange, je pense qu’une entreprise est la somme de ses employés!](https://fred.dev/le-roi-est-mort-vive-le-roi/ “Le roi est mort, vive le roi”)

Source de l’image : https://www.flash24.ca

]]> 2010-12-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/desjardins-une-ecoute-active-des-medias-sociaux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Hier soir, j’étais convoqué par Desjardins pour participer à un groupe de discussion sur [leur application mobile iPhoneBien sûr, Desjardins aurait pu fermer les yeux devant les commentaires plus ou moins positifs et continuer dans une démarche d’entreprise focusser sur l’interne, mais ils ont eu une ouverture d’esprit, celle de tâter le pouls directement dans sa communauté Web. Je crois qu’il y avait un autre groupe avant nous, mais pour le nôtre, ils avaient sélectionné des types bien précis de personnes: des développeurs, dont des développeurs mobiles, des utilisateurs d’iPhone, des personnes actives sur les médias sociaux, des clients, des clients d’autres institutions et de vrais connaisseurs des technologies Apple.

Lors de cette soirée, il nous a été permis de donner nos commentaires positifs, mais bien sûr nos commentaires négatifs ainsi que nos suggestions. Je dois dire que j’étais accompagné de gens que je connaissais déjà et de personnes qui furent fort sympathiques. Nous nous en sommes donnés à coeur joie toujours dans le respect de l’effort qu’il y avait été mis. Tout cela pour dire que Desjardins a été à l’écoute de nos commentaires sur Twitter et nous a permit de nous exprimer plus longuement sur le sujet. J’espère qu’ils auront bien pris note de nos propos et qu’ils nous concocteront une prochaine version qui répond mieux à nos besoins.

](https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/services-mobiles-desjardins/id386636953?mt=8 “Application iPhone de Desjardins”)

Sur un même ordre d’idée, je dois dire que la personne qui gère le compte Twitter de Desjardins fait un très bon travail. Vous exposez un problème que vous avez eu et elle se fera un plaisir de vous aider, puis elle le fait bien. Elle n’est pas non plus là seulement pour résoudre les problèmes que nous rencontrons ou pour faire de la publicité sur tel ou tel nouveau service, elle y est aussi pour discuter et s’intégrer à la communauté Web. C’est comme cela que plusieurs comptes d’entreprise devraient fonctionner, chapeau!

J’ai quelques exemples en tête d’entreprise qui se démarquent dans leur façon de gérer leur compte Twitter, tel que Z Télé, mais toujours dans le plaisir de souligner les bons coups de ces derniers, en connaissez-vous d’autres? Pensez-vous que les entreprises devraient être à l’écoute de leurs utilisateurs comme Desjardins l’a fait?

Source de l’image: https://festivalmusique.wordpress.com

]]> 2010-12-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/follow-friday-emilie-plante/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

La semaine dernière je faisais un billet sur les Follow Friday et la méthode que j’allais employer pour faire les miens. Voici donc mon premier Twitter Follow Friday sous forme de billet.

Le tout premier va à l’amour de ma vie (quoi, le monopole des preuves d’amour en ligne n’est pas seulement pour l’ami Carl Charest), Émilie Plante, qui est connu sous le compte Twitter EmilieJoliePourquoi la suivre? Elle est quelqu’un de sociable, qui se fera un plaisir de discuter avec vous, la plupart du temps sur des sujets plus féminins tels les chaussures, le linge, le maquillage… mais bon, il n’y a pas que ça! C’est une femme intelligente, très bien articulée, qui se tient informer sur le milieu des arts et qui possède un sens de l’humour hors du commun. Vous aurez souvent quelques fous rires lorsqu’elle vous sortira un de ses fameux tweets sarcastiques finissant par ¨Love, moi xxx¨. En plus de cela, vous pourrez lire de nombreuse taquinerie sur mon oncle Harper et sans oublier ses critiques artistiques pour le site Pieuvre.ca.

Je pourrais continuer longtemps à énumérer les raisons de la suivre, mais je préfère que vous ayez le plaisir de la découvrir un peu plus par vous même. C’est quelqu’un de fantastique, pas pour rien que je l’ai fiancée et que je vis avec elle (vous pourrez me traiter de téteux si vous voulez, haha). Bon Follow Friday!

]]> 2010-12-09T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/quest-ce-que-ca-mange-en-hiver-un-evangeliste/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Du café? Plus sérieusement j’ai eu ma première expérience à titre d’évangéliste ces quatre derniers jours pendant la conférence Tech Days à Winnipeg. Cela m’a donné la chance de voir l’envers du décor, de mieux connaître mon équipe, de pratiquer mon anglais et surtout d’avoir un avant-goût de ma nouvelle vie qui débutera en 2011. Décrire le tout en un seul mot? AWESOME! Je n’ai vu qu’une petite partie de ce que sera mon emploi et je dois dire que je ne me suis pas trompé…

Qu’est-ce que j’ai fait à Winnipeg :

• Aider à préparer l’aspect technique de la conférence: préparer les laptops pour les conférences, pour les démonstrations…
• Socialiser avec les présentateurs, les membres de Microsoft et bien sûr, les développeurs sur place.
• Faire des démonstrations et répondent à des questions de développeurs sur nos produits tel que le Windows Phone 7, Microsoft Intune et Windows Live Photo Gallery. Je dois dire que sur ce point, j’en ai pas mal à apprendre, car il y a plusieurs produits et technologies. Par contre, mon focus étant le Web, je serais surtout le gars “Open Source” avec Joey “and like he said, we’ll be the Bon Cop, Bad Cop team”.
• Donner des “goodies”… je sais, je sais, c’est dur de jouer au Père Noël.
• Faire le party avec les développeurs… oui oui, ça fait partie de mon travail.
• Mettre le monde en relation et trouver réponse aux questions que je ne pouvais répondre.
• Aider à démonter les salles pour l’aspect technologique comme les laptops et trucs du genre.
• Écrire ce billet dans un café en compagnie de Joey DeVilla et John Bristowe pour le Coffee & Code de Winnipeg.

Qu’est-ce que j’aurais de plus comme tâche ensuite:

• Être responsable d’une “track” lors de Tech Days.
• Aider à préparer certains événements tels le Make Web Not War.
• Présenter lors de divers événements.
• Être présent lors de divers événements aussi.
• Trouver des personnes clés pour présenter.
• Créer du contenu en ligne.
• Faire le lien entre la communauté et Microsoft.
• Être le “french guy” de l’équipe des DPE (Developper Platform Evangelist).

Bien sûr, cette liste n’est pas complète et elle représente seulement ce que je connais à ce point de mon processus. Je vous invite donc déjà à commencé à discuter avec moi technologie Web et sur divers sujets. Bien sûr, je n’aurais réponse à tout, mais je pourrais vous mettre en relation avec qui sera répondre à vos questionnements.

Source de l’image : https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbristowe

]]> 2010-12-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-follow-friday-un-concept-qui-perd-de-sa-valeur/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je pense qu’il y a trois problèmes à la base:

1. Dans 99% des cas, il n’y a aucune raison pourquoi, on me suggère de suivre quelqu’un dans un “Follow Friday”. Ce n’est souvent qu’une liste de nom dénudé d’informations. Je pense qu’il serait bien de mettre une note sur le pourquoi je devrais suivre telle ou telle personne, exemple, “#FF pour @laurentlasalle qui chiale pas mal, mais est une ressource inestimable de bonne musique”.
2. Twitter est une source d’information très volatile: si je ne suis pas devant l’ordinateur lorsque quelqu’un fait un “Follow Friday”, il y a peu de chance que je le vois plus tard.
3. Les outils de “Follow Friday” automatique, malgré le fait que je ne sache pas sur quoi ils se basent, enlève encore plus l’aspect personnel de la chose. Pourquoi me proposes-tu? Car je suis drôle, car je publie de bonnes nouvelles, car je suis une bonne référence dans tel ou tel truc… non, parce qu’un outil a fait des calculs du genre tu as plus interagi avec moi durant la semaine!

Il y a un peu plus d’un mois, j’ai reçu un “Follow Friday” qui sortait de l’ordinaire provenant de François Bernard. En effet, il a fait un billet expliquant plus longuement pourquoi il conseillait à son monde sur Twitter de me suivre. D’un seul coup, il venait de régler les petits problèmes que je voyais dans cette pratique qui peut être très intéressante si bien exécutés. Je me propose donc de lui voler son concept et d’essayer de faire un “Follow Friday” sous forme de billet pour les vendredis à venir. J’en profite donc pour ajouter la section “Follow Friday” où vous pourrez voir en un seul coup tous ceux et celles que j’aurais proposés.

Et vous, pensez-vous que ce concept est bon? Faites-vous des “Follow Friday”? Pensez-vous qu’il manque un petit quelque chose à cette pratique comme je le mentionne ci-haut?

Source de l’image : https://techchunks.com

]]> 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/mobilecamp-montreal/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Il y a quelques mois, je me suis dit qu’au nombre d’événement au format camp que nous avons à Montréal, il en manquait un très important: un mobile camp. À titre d’acheteur de nom de domaine compulsif, j’ai acheté https://mobilecampmontreal.org en me disant que j’allais partir de quoi lorsque le temps me le permettrait. D’ailleurs, parlant de nom de domaine, je compte fonder le regroupement des Acheteurs de Nom de Domaine Compulsifs Anonymes, le ANDCA, pour aider ces pauvres acheteurs de .com et autres, puis aussi, sans négliger un support pour ces veuves ou veufs du Web! Pour en revenir au sujet principal de ce billet, quelle ne fut pas ma surprise lorsque l’ami Pierre-Luc PetitclercComme vous savez sûrement si vous lisez ce blogue, je suis un amateur des formules camps et malgré leurs multiplications, je crois encore et toujours que cela est un bon moyen de faire quelque chose d’intéressant sur un sujet précis. Vu le nom de ce camp, le sujet sera axé sur la mobilité et nous sommes bien servis en 2010 avec toutes ces nouvelles plateformes, téléphones intelligents, tablettes et autres. Aucune date ne semble avoir été mise de l’avant, mais Pierre-Luc recherche activement des bénévoles pour l’aider à mettre le tout sur pied.

Même si je reviens un peu à mes sources, soit le Web, mon intérêt pour le mobile n’est pas mis de côté et je compte être parmi les participants, si ce n’est pas parmi les conférenciers si la formule se veut plus à la Podcamp Montréal qu’à la Webcamp Montréal. Je vous invite donc à suivre les nouvelles par le biais du fil RSS, à donner votre nom comme bénévole et à aider cet événement à se faire connaître.

]]> 2010-11-30T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/un-podcast-audio-nest-pas-une-emission-de-radio/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ce qui fait la joie de la balado est selon moi une des bases du blogue: la liberté d’expression sans être régit par qui ou quoi que ce soit. Voici donc les points qui selon moi se différencient de la radio et qui vous permettraient de partir une balado audio ou même vidéo sans être un expert en la matière:

1. Vous êtes votre propre patron: personne au dessus de vous quant à ce que vous voulez faire, comment vous voulez le faire et où vous voulez le faire. Bien sûr, avec toute liberté d’expression viennent les responsabilités de ce qu’on dit ou fait.
2. Pas besoin d’avoir une structure de fou pour votre émission: à la radio, de ce que j’ai compris, chaque minute ou presque est comptée. Avec une balado, vous pouvez faire comme vous le voulez, que ça soit décousu ou structuré.
3. La longueur vous appartient: que vous vouliez faire une émission de 15 minutes ou 3 heures, cela ne tient qu’à vous.
4. La période de publication d’une nouvelle émission vous regarde. Vous voulez faire une émission par semaine, super, vos auditeurs n’en seront que plus ravis. Une fois par mois vous suffit, cela est aussi bien, vous vous faites désirer. Même si une rigueur dans la publication est un facteur positif dans l’adoption de votre balado, rien n’y est obligatoire…
5. Bref vous comprenez le principe!

Bien sûr, il vous faut offrir une certaine qualité de contenue ou d’audio pour augmenter son nombre d’auditeur, si c’est ce que vous voulez, mais encore là… À titre d’exemple, je fais le podcast We are Geeks qui est une discussion pas du tout structurée sur un sujet précis à chaque épisode, environ aux 3 semaines avec une qualité audio très médiocre et pourtant, on a plein de bons commentaires et pas mal d’auditeur! Bien sûr, on cherche éventuellement à avoir un meilleur équipement pour améliorer l’écoute, mais c’est seulement pas pur plaisir.

En gros, gâtez-vous, partez votre balado avec l’idée géniale que vous avez même si quelqu’un le fait déjà! Il y a assez de personnes sur le Web pour un concept, même s’il existe déjà… Pour terminer, comme on me l’avait déjà demandé et de toute manière je trouve intéressant de partager mes trouvailles, voici une liste des balados (les liens pointent directement vers les fils RSS) auxquels je suis abonné actuellement (je suis terriblement en retard dans mes écoutes et j’ai une liste de balado audio/vidéo ajouté, mais pas écouté, donc je ne les liste pas encore ici, désolé) :

• 104 histoires de France
• Analyse des Geeks
• Christianne Charette
• Dilbert Animated Cartoons
• Headphones Required
• Lada et Georges
• Le Québec en baladodiffusion
• Les balados de Passeport Santé
• Media Hacks
• Mes paroles s’envolent
• SuperNews
• Vague Podcasts
• Wine Library TV

De votre côté, que pensez-vous de la balado vs la radio, suis-je dans le champ? Quel podcast devrais-je découvrir?

]]> 2010-11-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-roi-est-mort-vive-le-roi/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Le changement

Les “ptits vites” auront déjà compris ce qui se passe en voyant l’image contenue dans ce billet. En effet, un changement de cap professionnel arrive à nouveau dans ma vie : j’ai accepté une offre pour un emploi fait sur mesure pour moi, soit Évangéliste pour les développeurs chez Microsoft. Vous aurez donc compris que cela amène du même coup la fermeture de mon entreprise À la base 2, car avec tous les beaux défis qui m’attendent, je ne pourrais plus accepter de mandat une fois rendu dans les rangs de la firme de Redmond (je ne déménage pas, je reste à Montréal).

Ce ne fut pas une décision facile que de mettre de côté ces derniers mois d’effort pour démarrer mon entreprise, surtout que celle-ci se portait bien, mais c’est une chance qui n’arrive qu’une seule fois dans une vie! J’ai toutefois grandi au travers de cette expérience et malgré le fait que je ne serais plus apte à offrir mes services, il me fera plaisir de vous mettre en relation avec les bonnes personnes pour combler vos besoins, si possible, selon mon réseau.

D’ici fin décembre, je termine un mandat sur lequel je suis actuellement et à partir du 3 janvier, j’occuperais officiellement ce nouveau poste. Je tiens toutefois à remercier toutes les personnes qui ont cru en moi et qui m’ont fait confiance! Pour les personnes qui m’ont offert un emploi et que j’ai refusées sans même m’y attarder, sachez qu’au démarrage de mon entreprise, je m’étais dit qu’Évangéliste, était le seul type d’emploi qui pourrait me faire questionner sur mon avenir professionnel. J’en avais même parlé dans un billet présentant ce que je voulais mettre de l’avant pour 2010…

Un évangéliste, tu vas prêcher la bonne parole ? #

En quelque sorte, mais comme vous vous en doutez, pas pour une religion quelconque, mais bien pour les produits et technologies Microsoft. Je reviens à mon ancien créneau, que je n’avais pas réellement quitté, soit le développement Web, car tel sera ma spécialité. Pourquoi je disais plus haut que cet emploi était fait sur mesure pour moi ?

1. Mon côté social = présence dans les groupes d’utilisateurs, dans les conférences, dans les événements Microsoft…
2. Mon côté technique comme développeur = discussions avec d’autres développeurs, création d’application pour des exemples/présentation…
3. Mon côté passionné de techno =  tester les nouveaux gadgets, produits et technologies de l’entreprise…
4. Mon côté “grande yeule” = parler au monde, faire des présentations…
5. Mon côté qui aime apprendre = mes premiers jours seront d’apprendre à connaître, au moins en surface, la panoplie de produits, services et technologies que ce géant offre…
6. Mon côté grand frère = aider les développeurs à faire évoluer leur carrière, à faire avancer leur projet, à les aider dans leurs choix technologies…
7. Mon côté qui aime être “challenger” = j’ai rencontré mon équipe et quelques personnes de Microsoft et ce sont des gens fort sympathique, mais aussi fort brillant. Je ne manquerais pas de défi avec eux, surtout que je serais le petit nouveau de l’équipe, que je remplace Christian Beauclair qui a grandement fait sa marque et que malgré mon expérience, j’ai une multitude de choses encore à apprendre…

Bref tellement de points en commun avec moi. C’est à ce point que les quelques personnes avec qui j’en ai discuté lorsque j’étais en réflexion, tous, peu importe si on me connaissait depuis peu ou depuis longtemps, avant même que je dise que c’était mon emploi de rêve, m’ont dit que j’étais fait pour ça! En plus, ça va me faire pratiquer mon anglais et me faire voyager dans le Canada. Que demander de mieux? Pour moi, c’est réellement une “job de rêve”…

Réellement chez Microsoft, toi ? #

Sérieusement oui! Puis je ne dis pas ça pour le salaire ou faire plaisir à qui que ce soit. J’ai été franc dans tout le processus: on m’aurait offert cet emploi il y a 4 ans et j’aurais dit non, jamais, pas pour l’empire du mal! On se plait bien à taquiner Microsoft, mais souvent c’est parce qu’on ne le connait pas. Il y a 4 ans, je n’avais plus ou moins joué avec les technologies Microsoft si ce n’était de Windows et d’Internet Explorer. Grâce à mon passage chez IBI Solutions inc., j’ai appris à voir les côtés positifs de l’entreprise et de leurs produits. Je dois dire que mon coup de grâce a été lors de Make Web Not War l’an passé où j’ai pu voir un changement de mentalité sincère et une écoute non négligeable de la part de cette grosse entreprise. Alors oui, je veux faire partie de ce changement!

Ce n’est que le début! #

Ce n’est effectivement que le début! Le début d’une nouvelle aventure pour moi. Le début de plusieurs beaux défis qui se présenteront à moi. Le début d’un premier emploi dans une grande entreprise. Puis bien sûr le retour de ce site Web à un simple blogue comme il en était ainsi au départ.

D’ici mon début chez Microsoft en 2011, je serais moins bavard sur ce sujet, car mon focus sera sur mon projet actuel, mais je vous tiendrais au courant de mes réflexions et expériences sur ce changement le temps venu. Ah bien sûr, vous entendrez plus souvent parler de Microsoft, mais vous aurez droit au même Fred qu’avant… ils m’ont engagé en pleine connaissance de cause les pauvres!!!

Mise à jour #

For those of you who speak English, you can read Joey translation on his blog here or on Canadian Developer Connection’s one.

]]> 2010-11-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/limportance-du-reseautage/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Vous cherchez un nouveau contrat? Vous cherchez un emploi? Vous avez besoin de X, Y ou Z? Ce n’est plus le temps de commencer à réseauter, il fallait le faire avant. Maintenant vous être possiblement pressé, vous vous y prendrez peut-être plus maladroitement, vous voudrez peut-être trop vendre vos services… Voici donc quelques conseils basés sur mon humble expérience de réseauter:

faite en une fois par mois #

Je n’ai pas le temps d’aller à toutes ces rencontres de professionnels, c’est 5 à 7 ou ces conférences, me direz-vous, que faire? Mettez-vous une période de temps comme une fois par mois. C’est donc généralement un soir de 5 heures a peut-être 9 heures, si la soirée va bien, par mois à consacrer au réseautage. Quatre heures de votre vie qui vous permettra de rencontrer plusieurs personnes intéressantes. Qui sait qui vous rencontrerez: un futur employeur, un prospect, un futur client, une connaissance qui aura une personne dans son réseau qui aura besoin de vos services? Dites-vous que si votre réseau peut vous aider, il peut rarement vous nuire, sauf si vous courrez après le trouble bien sûr!

Faites-le avec des personnes différentes #

Vous réseauter souvent, mais toujours avec le même groupe qui se renouvelle peu ? Vous aurez vite fait de faire le tour! Sortez un peu de votre zone de confort, essayez de nouveaux regroupements, un nouveau cercle d’affaire qui sort du vôtre. Dépendant de votre offre de service, vous pourrez trouver un client en chaque personne que vous rencontrez, mais il n’y a pas que ça. Vous pourrez aussi y découvrir de potentiel partenaire ou des personnes qui deviendront vos ami(e)s. Plus vous diversifiez vos soirées ou journée de rencontre, plus votre réseau à des chances d’être grand et diversifié.

Mettez-vous un but pour chaque rencontre #

Ce but peut être le même pour chaque rencontre. Ne mettez pas le but de vendre vos services ou votre produit, le monde n’aime pas ça. Croyez-moi que je ne vends jamais et je ne suis pas une machine distributrice automatique de carte d’affaires et on fait tout de même appel à mes services. Vous êtes là pour rencontrer du monde point. Si on vous demande plus d’information sur ce que vous faites après en avoir glissé mot, parfait, partez la machine. Ici je parle en terme de nombre de nouvelles personnes à rencontrer. Vous n’êtes pas une machine sociale comme moi (j’adore les gens, je ne suis pas gêné et je parle beaucoup, des fois trop) ? Pas grave, mettez-vous comme défi de discuter avec une, oui une seule personne, que vous ne connaissez pas. Avec le temps et l’expérience, vous pourrez augmenter le nombre, mais d’ici là, dites-vous que c’est une personne de plus dans votre réseau que si vous n’aviez rien fait.

Faites-le en ligne et hors-ligne #

Il ne suffit pas que de connaître la personne après un 5 à 7, gardez contact. Que ce soit par échange de carte d’affaires, par un bump avec votre téléphone intelligent ou par l’ajout sur votre compte LinkedIn, gardez contact. Vous n’avez pas besoin d’un peintre dans votre réseau, car vous venez de peinturer? Que cela ne tienne, on ne sait jamais. Peut-être en aurez-vous besoin sous peu? Sinon, un ami vous demandera peut-être si vous en connaissez un et vous serez apte à l’aider. En plus cela solidifiera votre relation avec le peintre en question pour lui avoir fourni un contrat. Je parlais surtout de réseautage en personne, mais faite le aussi en ligne: par Twitter, par LinkedIn, par Facebook… Un réseau en ligne n’en est pas moins fort ou intéressant pour autant.

Rien de plus simple et pour moi, c’est une des choses les plus importantes! De votre côté, réseauter vous régulièrement? Quels sont les endroits ou événements auxquels vous participez? Pensez-vous que ça soit si important que je le dise?

Source de l’image : https://www.vicsport.asn.au/

]]> 2010-11-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/ma-presentation-a-lecole-du-show-business/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Hier j’ai fait une présentation sur les médias sociaux à L’École du Show Business dans le cours d’organisation d’événement d’une 15e d’étudiantes et étudiants. Je dois dire que j’ai bien apprécié mon expérience, car j’ai cru déceler un intérêt de la majorité de ceux-ci en voyant leurs réactions et leur questionnement sur le sujet. De plus, que de joie ce matin, car j’avais une demande de relation LinkedIn d’une des étudiantes qui avait vraisemblablement ouvert un compte après leur avoir donné les avantages d’être présent sur ce réseau. Pour moi, ce fut une grande satisfaction que d’avoir pu prendre cette passion que j’ai pour les nouveaux médias pour la transmettre à d’autres personnes. Pour ceux qui seraient intéressés, même si ce ne sont que des lignes directrices et que cela ne remplace pas la présentation elle-même, voici mon PowerPoint (j’ai essayé une nouvelle façon, soit de faire une diapositive par sujet, ça fait moins remplit et plus dynamique) :

École du show business - Les médias sociaux et les événements from Frédéric Harper

]]> 2010-11-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-ecoles-prennent-le-virage-des-medias-sociaux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Depuis que j’ai commencé à partager ma passion des médias sociaux en donnant des conférences, j’ai quelques demandes à mon grand plaisir. Comme vous savez, j’aime parler et le faire en public devant plusieurs personnes n’est pas quelque chose qui m’intimide vraiment. Malgré mon style des fois un peu extraverti, je passe tout de même le test pour des publics souvent jugés plus sérieux tel que les ingénieurs. Le mois de novembre étant particulièrement actif, cette semaine je donnerais une présentation à une classe d’étudiant à l’[École du Show-BusinessPourquoi je vous en parle puisse que vous ne pourrez vraisemblablement pas venir y assister? Simplement, encore une fois, pour souligner les efforts d’une organisation à vouloir prendre un virage plus 2.0 et surtout former ses étudiants en conséquence. Bien sûr, ce n’est pas en une présentation d’une heure qu’il en sortira des grands utilisateurs des médias sociaux, mais il est certain que cela sera une bonne introduction et que, je l’espère, cela piquera la curiosité des jeunes et moins jeunes qui devront m’écouter en parler avec passion!

Nous le voyons de plus en plus, les entreprises et les organisations commencent à y voir un grand intérêt, mais il y a encore une grande place pour instruire le monde sur ces nouveaux outils de communications. Si cela n’est déjà fait, pensez-vous que des cours sur la communication Web plus 2.0 seront éventuellement intégrées dans les écoles, les cégeps et les universités?

](https://www.ecoledushowbusiness.com/ “Site Web de l’École du Show-Business”)

]]> 2010-11-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/helene-la-coquette/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

J’ai 30 ans, une enfant des 80’s

J’ai toujours adoré tout ce qui touchait au maquillage, en fait tout ce qui touche à l’industrie de la beauté.

Petite, ma coquette grand-mère me gardait et me prêtait son maquillage. Elle dessinait des visages sur des rouleaux de papier de toilette vides, et moi je passais ensuite avec le maquillage pour les rendre coquets! Il y avait même une dame sur l’étage qui venait porter ses rouleaux chez ma mamie! Tu parles, le mot s’était passé!

Un peu plus vieille, et adolescente, lorsque j’allais à la pharmacie avec ma mère, elle devait chaque me retenir d’aller dans la section maquillage car je pouvais y rester des heures, et honnêtement ça ne lui disait rien car elle n’est pas très makeup et produits de beauté. Je crois retenir ça de ma grand-mère coquette (paternelle).

L’ironie dans tout ça c’est que je ne suis pas très féminine, j’ai un côté ‘‘garçon’’ plutôt élevé, puisque j’ai été élevée qu’avec des garçons. Les deux seules filles de la famille sont moi et ma soeur, mon cobaye

Par chance aujourd’hui elle accepte avec grand coeur de jouer le jeu! Plus jeune, ça finissait souvent en barbouillage!

Alors les années ont passées, et ce n’est que depuis environ les 7 dernières années, en fait depuis que j’habite directement Montréal, (je viens de Boucherville), que mon côté makeup s’est plus développé. Probablement parce que c’est plus facile pour moi d’aller dans les boutiques que dans le temps puisqu’on allait magasiner seulement chez Sears… hehehe Quoique même à ce moment là, ma mamie chérie m’offrait souvent un parfum ou une babiole aux comptoirs maquillage.

Alors à force de magasiner downtown, je me suis faite copine avec des maquilleuses, et au fil du temps elles m’ont formée, et je me suis mise à les aider au comptoir en temps de débordement. Ensuite bien, il est important de savoir que je suis autodidacte, et que je n’ai aucun problème à mentionner aux gens que l’industrie de la beauté est une passion pour moi, et que le diplôme ne ferait que le prouver encore plus. Je ne ressens pas le besoin d’étudier dans le domaine, puisque je pourrais ET leur vendre du maquillage, et en former certaines qui sortent de l’école et qui ont peur d’aller en dehors du cadre d’apprentissage… dommage de dépenser 4000$ et terminer esthéticienne dans un salon de sous-sol peu fréquenté…

En plus du maquillage, je me suis découvert une passion pour les soins des mains et pose d’ongles.

Je compte bien un jour avoir ma propre entreprise, probablement un salon nouveau genre, soit ici, dans les Antilles ou à New York…

En attendant, je pratique lorsque mes copines ont besoin de moi, mon nom commence à se passer.

Je fais des mariages, bals, soirées, etc.

J’offre aussi un service d’accompagnement en boutique afin de refaire les trousses maquillage de mes clientes.

Voilà!

]]> 2010-11-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/la-webteles-de-v/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Bon cela fait déjà un mois que j’ai été invité au lancement de la programmation 2010 de la Webtélé de V- Le fait d’avoir un vrai lancement avec invités en personne, breuvages et grignotines prouve que la télévision sur le Web est prise au sérieux et non juste une façon d’avoir l’air de suivre le courant. Je ne suis pas un gros consommateur de télévision pour la simple et bonne raison que le fait d’avoir un horaire à suivre et d’être disponible pour regarder une émission me pu un peu au nez et ne rivalise pas avec mon horaire souvent chargé. De plus, je n’aime pas assez la télévision pour réserver une plage horaire pour regarder une émission. Bien sûr je pourrais me munir d’un enregistreur numérique, mais de pouvoir regarder l’émission quand je veux, où je veux sur mon ordinateur muni d’Internet me plait grandement. Ce qui fut une mode aux impressions passagères se faite ressentir de plus en plus comme un futur indéniable avec les Tou.tv et les Illico Web, qui ne sont pas encore parfait (et surtout que c’est du contenu classique télévisuel disponible en ligne et non des séries justes Web, à moins que je me trompe), mais bon, c’est un début!

• Même si le focus premier de l’entreprise est la télévision comme on la connait actuellement, étant un aspect Web de leur vision d’avenir, ils ont pris la peine d’inviter des blogueurs et certains acteurs du Web. Je les en félicite grandement!
• Puis tout simplement, car si on prend le temps de m’inviter, le minimum est de partager les bons coups et les moins bons coups sur mon réseau. Je ne suis pas rendu au point de croire que ces invitations aux divers lancements me sont dues et j’espère ne jamais me rendre là.  C’est toujours un plaisir pour moi de voir que ma contribution en ligne et hors-ligne est appréciée au point de me considérer comme invité pour ce genre de trucs!

De plus, je dois plaider coupable de ne pas avoir prit le temps d’en écouter encore, même si je m’étais dit que j’écouterais sûrement leur série Web nommée “11 règles”. La beauté de la chose, c’est que je pourrais le faire et écouter tous les épisodes depuis le début d’un coup quand bon me semble! En terminant, j’aurais aimé y voir un fil RSS qui rendrait le tout en podcast, question que mon iTunes le télécharge quand un nouvel épisode arrive et que je puisse l’écouter sur mes appareils mobiles lorsque je suis en déplacement ou sans Internet.

Et vous, croyez-vous à l’avenir de la télévision Web?

]]> 2010-11-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/improvisation-dun-party-de-bureau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je ne garantis toutefois rien quant à cette soirée, car on est un peu tard pour réserver, mais si j’ai un minimum de personne, ça ne devrait pas être trop d’organisation que de réserver un endroit et de choisir une date. Suite à ça, je vous contacterais par courriel pour savoir si vous êtes disponible le soir choisi et si le restaurant n’est pas un obstacle pour vous.

Vous êtes à votre compte ou votre entreprise ne planifie rien pour souligner ce temps festif? Vous aimeriez passer une soirée en bonne compagnie peu importe que vous connaissiez les personnes ou non et peu importe leur profession? Il vous suffit de laisser votre vrai nom en commentaire de ce billet, ainsi que votre courriel et je verrais si je ne peux pas organiser de quoi!

Mise à jour #

Je viens d’atteindre le chiffre magique de 10, alors je vais voir d’ici jeudi ou vendredi à planifier un souper dans un restaurant. Vous pouvez continuer à vous inscrire.

Mise à jour 2 #

C’est confirmé nous aurons notre souper de noël vendredi soir le 10 décembre à 18h00 (je serais présent dès 17h45) au restaurant les 3 Brasseurs situé au 732 Ste-Catherine Ouest. La réservation est au nom de Frédéric Harper. Il est important de confirmer votre place, ainsi que le nombre de personnes si vous venez accompagné, car je devrais modifier la réservation. S’il y a quoi que ce soit, veuillez m’en faire part. Si vous n’aviez pas donné votre nom, il est encore temps…

Pourquoi ce restaurant? Simplement, car la liste de personne contient des gens que je ne connais pas, alors je ne savais pas pour quel type de budget je devais réserver et la facture ne revient pas très élevée si on ne consomme pas trop d’alcool. De plus, généralement le 3 Brasseurs est un endroit apprécié de bien du monde vu sa variété de plats et de boissons. C’est aussi un endroit festif pour avoir une soirée agréable tous ensemble. Au plaisir de vous souhaiter joyeux Noël!

Source de l’image : https://www.muffslap.com

]]> 2010-11-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/la-nourriture-et-les-medias-sociaux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

C’est donc avec plaisir que j’ai accepté il y a quelques semaines une offre de Kindo Communications pour venir donner, avec un de leurs membres, une formation d’initiation aux médias sociaux aux cadres québécois de l’entreprise Sodexo. L’entreprise qui sert plus de 9 millions de repas par jour à travers le monde amorce un virage 2.0. Cela donne donc le ton à plusieurs entreprises de divers milieux et de diverses tailles, par exemple Boutique Point G qui est une petite boutique fort agréable à Montréal qui font une bonne utilisation des médias sociaux.

Selon moi, chaque entreprise, petite ou grande, Web ou non, jeune ou moins jeune peut tirer profit de ces nouveaux outils de communication, bien sûr, en sachant les utiliser comme il se faut. De votre côté, pensez-vous que plusieurs types d’entreprises peuvent bénéficier des nouveaux médias?

]]> 2010-11-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/roger-ravager/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

RogerRavager.com c’est un peu comme le mini-wheats de la musique.

D’abord on a le côté Roger, qui évoque l’idée d’un monocle de la famille musicale qui vous raconte toujours 56 000 histoires tant au présent qu’au passé à propos de groupes, d’ albums ou de shows.

De l’autre, c’est le côté Ravager, qui lui fait plus référence au côté minimaliste du blog par rapport à des géants muni de caméra plus HD que HD, des salles de montage, des contacts établis et une surtout une équipe. Ravager aussi parce que j’aime bien les bands de pouail, le rock garage et évidemment être un bon vivant 2.0.

De mon côté, RogerRavager.com c’est une passion, parce que ça traite du seul sujet que je pourrais parler du matin au soir. J’espère rencontré des artistes qui sauront vous intéressez, réussir à vous faire découvrir des bands, sans oublier de vous faire vivre les shows comme si vous y étiez. C’est tout ça RogerRavager.com

]]> 2010-11-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/combat-de-gros/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Quel en était le principe? Simplement d’offrir une plateforme Web pour que des participants puissent, un peu à la “Qui perd gagne” sans tout l’aspect médiatique sur les participants, se stimuler en groupe, se lancer des défis pour perdre du poids en améliorant son mode de vie alimentaire et surtout l’agrémenter d’exercice ou de sport. Cette plateforme agrémentée de photo, de vidéo, de chronique d’une animatrice, d’un nutritionniste et d’un kinésiologue aurait pu devenir un endroit de rencontre pour toutes personnes voulant améliorer sa santé.

Pourquoi un titre aux allures un peu grossier pour ce projet? Vous connaissez un peu ma nature de personne directe, simple et extravertie, bien pour moi, je me disais que la première étape pour perdre du poids est de reconnaître qu’on en possède un surplus. Je trouvais le nom tout a fait opportun pour ce genre de défi pour les personnes ayant une même mentalité sur le sujet. Croyez-moi, j’ai accepté que je doive perdre quelques livres et certaines personnes qui se sont intéressées au projet ont dû y réfléchir plus longuement pour en arriver à la même conclusion et je les en félicite.

Pourquoi je vous parle de ce projet aujourd’hui? Comme la plupart des choses qui me trottent dans la tête, je ne peux y consacrer du temps et je cherche les personnes clefs pouvant mener à bien un tel projet lorsqu’il y a une demande. Présentement, le problème est qu’il y a plusieurs personnes intéressées à y participer en tant que combattant ou en tant que chroniqueur, animateur ou autre, mais comme tout bon projet, il faut une personne ou une équipe qui prenne le taureau par les cornes et mettent le tout en branle.

La réflexion a été déjà été faite suite à une première rencontre sur les différents aspects tels que les règlements et le principe de base. De plus, je suis apte à aider les gens à “brainstormer” et à mettre certaines personnes en relation, mais le seul point pour lequel je serais apte à mettre les mains à la pâte sera bien sûr pour promouvoir ce projet dans mon réseau et être un combattant! Que vous soyez une personne voulant y participer, une entreprise telle un gym, ou quelqu’un en bonne santé qui veulent prendre les rênes de ce projet, faite moi signe. Tout commentaire constructif sur l’idée est aussi le bienvenu.

Source de l’image : https://iphonecruncher.com

]]> 2010-11-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/radio-highway-plus-quune-radio/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Par le biais des médias sociaux, j’ai eu le plaisir de connaître Jacques Plante qui anime une radio Web nommée Radio Highwayici ou ici pour l’ouvrir directement dans iTunes. Cette application, qui a priori est une vitrine pour le site actuel et le compte Twitter est aussi un bon moyen d’écouter la radio de Jacques. Bien sûr, il s’agit de la première version et déjà quelques correctifs et ajouts sont en train de se faire. De plus, croyez-moi que les idées de fonctionnalités débordent de la tête de M. Plante à toute allure, alors il y aura sûrement plusieurs ajouts fort intéressants si vous êtes souvent amené à voyager en voiture ou si vous êtes camionneur.Je vous invite donc à aller la télécharger que ce soit parce que vous êtes déjà un auditeur de la radio, pour la découvrir, pour la partager à vos ami(e)s ou tout simplement pour encourager des gens d’ici.

]]> 2010-11-09T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-ingenieurs-et-les-tic/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Le Carrefour Plein-Sud de l’Ordre des ingénieurs du QuébecJ’y présenterais une conférence: Les médias sociaux, futiles ou utiles? Souvent sous-estimés, les médias sociaux sont des outils fort utiles lorsque vient le temps d’augmenter sa visibilité, d’agrandir son réseau de contacts et de faire la promotion de ses services ou produits. Il faut toutefois savoir bien les utiliser pour en tirer profit au maximum. Un survol des principaux services en ligne, des avantages et des points à surveiller seront à l’agenda de cette présentation.

J’y serais présent toute la journée pour assister aux différentes conférences et moment de réseautage, alors je vous invite à venir y faire un tour pour en profiter aussi. Pour plus d’informations, veuillez consulter la page d’information de l’événement.

]]> 2010-11-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/un-tablettecamp-a-montreal/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Cette année Alliance Numérique lance une conférence intitulée [Web InLors de cette journée du 10 novembre prochain (oui dans 6 jours, ça arrive vite) qui aura lieu au Hilton Bonaventure, un TabletteCamp aura lieu. Qu’est-ce qu’un TabletteCamp? Simplement un camp qui aura pour sujet de base, les tablettes numériques, pour être en lien direct avec la conférence elle-même. Bien que la journée soit payante, le camp est ouvert à tous et gratuit. Il vous donnera la possibilité de venir discuter des sujets qui vous intéresse avec des gens passionnés et intéressés pas ces appareils aux allures de grand téléphone!

Outre le fait que le sujet m’intéresse réellement (ça rendre dans les technologies mobiles) et que j’y serais sûrement allé, on m’a demandé d’être le chef d’orchestre des discussions qui auront lieu pendant le camp. C’est donc avec plaisir que j’ai accepté l’offre et rassurez-vous, je ne parlerais pas trop, car mon but sera d’engendrer les discussions avec vous tous…

On se donne donc rendez-vous mercredi prochain. Pour plus d’informations sur les événements de type camp, voici](https://www.alliancenumerique.com/fr-ca/agenda/20101017-webin.html “Billet d’Alliance Internet traitant du Web In”) l’article sur Wikipédia et pour signaler votre intérêt pour avoir plus d’informations sur le TabletteCamp, voici l’événement Facebook.

]]> 2010-10-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/trop-techno-pour-vos-clients/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

- Il n’est plus nécessaire d’avoir des cartes d’affaires, c’est tellement facile aujourd’hui avec un téléphone intelligent de partager nos informations de contact;

• Il n’est pas nécessaire de mettre son numéro de téléphone comme façon de se faire contacter, il y a tellement d’autres moyens plus modernes et efficaces pour se faire rejoindre;
• Il n’est plus nécessaire d’appliquer des méthodes de promotions plus conventionnelles telles que les brochures ou publicité dans les médias traditionnels, on peut tout faire sur le Web et les médias sociaux.

Bien que je suis un homme technologique, que j’ai une bonne présence Web et que je préfère de loin le courriel au téléphone (j’oserais dire que je déteste le téléphone même), quelque chose me chicote! On a beau être rendu à un certain stade d’utilisation des technologies, mais si votre entourage ou vos clients ne sont pas rendus là, vous avez un problème. Êtes-vous peut-être trop technologique pour vos clients?

Les cartes d’affaires #

Pour ma part, mes clients sont des PME de différentes industries et bien que certains proviennent des TI, je me dois d’avoir des cartes d’affaires sur moi. Souvent plus rapide que de tout rentrer à la main dans son téléphone ou d’expliquer un logiciel comme bump, elles me servent grandement dans plusieurs événements. Que ce soit dans une conférence, dans un dîner d’affaires ou dans un 5 à 7, elles sont souvent requises pour honorer une demande ou tout simplement pour donner mon contact. Bien sûr, il ne faut pas être la mitraillette des cartes d’affaires qui les distribuent à qui croise son regard et à une vitesse époustouflante, mais ça c’est un autre sujet.

Le téléphone #

Je l’ai dit plus haut, je n’aime pas le téléphone. Peut-être est-ce parce que j’en traine un sur moi en permanence depuis plusieurs années, mais bref, j’en touchais mot ici. Je préfère le courriel ou les outils en ligne pour diverses raisons, mais en voici deux principales: je peux répondre lorsque je veux/peux et cela garde une trace. J’utilise même des outils comme Basecamp pour m’assurer un suivi de projet en ligne. Malgré tout ceci, certaines personnes ne sont pas à l’aise pour bien mettre en mot leurs pensées et préfèrent de loin le vive voix. De plus, même à l’air du Web, plusieurs contrats ne sont pas octroyés sans que le client et le sous-traitant se soit rencontré en personne ou du moins parlé au téléphone, question d’avoir un aperçu et pour se faire une idée de la personne. Du côté personnel, il y a du monde avec qui je ne pourrais même pas communiquer, car ils n’ont pas de courriels, donc encore moins de compte Facebook ou autre.

Les médias sociaux #

Je suis un grand utilisateur des médias sociaux, j’en suis un passionné, je les utilise autant au niveau personnel que professionnel et je donne même des conférences sur le sujet, sauf que je dois vous avouer une chose terrible… ce n’est pas magique! Sans rentrer dans les détails, à priori il faut du temps et de l’effort pour se bâtir un réseau. Ce réseau vous sera fort utile pour augmenter votre réseau de contacts, trouver des prospects, avoir des contrats, mais encore faut-il que vos clients cibles s’y trouvent. Faire de la promotion sur les médias sociaux c’est une superbe expérience, lorsque bien faite. Pour ma part, je vais y chercher la majorité de mes contrats actuellement, mais le bouche-à-bouche, les conférences et les 5 à 7 sont aussi une bonne source de prospect. De ce fait, je n’oublie pas mes autres outils de promotion, même si je suis un type Web qui offre des services technos: mes cartes d’affaires, ma présence dans les événements en personne (donc moi, je suis un outil de promotion, haha), des pamphlets… Encore là, tout est une question de savoir où se situe votre clientèle. Cela changera certainement d’ici quelques années, mais plusieurs chefs d’entreprise ne sont pas sur Twitter ou LinkedIn. Il faut donc s’adapter à cette réalité et chevaucher les deux mondes.

Conclusion #

Ce ne sont que trois exemples de choses qu’il ne faut pas totalement mettre de côté encore selon moi, mais il y a bien sûr plusieurs autres outils utiles dans la vie de tous les jours, peut-être un moins techno que ce qu’on voudrait. Il faut bien sûr faire l’éducation technologique des gens, mais il faut aussi aller à leur rythme et respecter leur niveau de connaissance ou d’adaptation.

Avez-vous d’autres exemples de ce genre pour lesquels vous devez vous adapter ou garder un item moins technologique dont vous voudriez vous séparer? Pensez-vous, qu’il faut passer tout de suite au niveau supérieur et ceux qui pourront suivre, le feront? Bref, êtes-vous en accord ou non avec ma philosophie sur le sujet?

Source de l’image : https://www.obsessedwithfilm.com

]]> 2010-10-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/pierre-luc-gagnon/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Rédacteur pigiste, diplômé de la presse écrite et programmeur autodidacte, Pierre-Luc Gagnon a fondé DimancheMatin.com en 2006 et lancé son blogue personnel, ilblogue.com, en 2008. Avant ça, il a collaboré à plusieurs publications sur le plan culturel (Info-Culture, Le Chinook…) et humoristique (Safarir, Humour Québec, Spagati…). Toujours en quête de perfectionnement, il flirte actuellement avec la Création littéraire.

]]> 2010-10-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/portrait-de-podcasteurs-un-concept-a-reprendre/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Le Podcamp Montréal étant derrière nous pour cette année, ça met fin aussi aux Portraits de podcasteurs. Pour ceux qui se demandent de quoi je parle, comme je l’expliquais ici, les Portraits de podcasteurs sont des vidéos reprenant le concept des [Portraits de blogueursJe n’ai malheureusement pas eu le plaisir de faire autant de vidéos que j’aurais aimé, mais j’ai tout de même eu le plaisir d’en sortir quelques-uns. Comme c’est un projet intéressant, je lance l’invitation à qui voudrait le reprendre. Pour se faire, il vous suffit d’un peu de temps par semaine (vous pourriez aussi revoir la période entre chaque publication) pour aller filmer le ou les podcasteurs en question et d’une petite caméra vidéo aussi simple qu’une Flip. Ensuite très peu de montage est utile et je peux même fournir le gabarit que j’utilise dans iMovie. Je crois que dans tout ça, il faut tenir compte du fait que le but était de promouvoir les concepteurs de balado, mais aussi d’avoir le plaisir de se déplacer dans sa ville pour découvrir de nouveaux endroits et surtout, découvrir de nouvelles personnes.

](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1F7D712040EC8DEA “Site Web des portraits de blogueurs”)

Si jamais le projet ne trouve pas preneur, il y a toutefois une alternative pour découvrir de nouveau podcast. En effet, Marc Cruz a parti un blogue nommé "PodQuébec : Les Podcasts du Québec et leurs auteurs" pour lequel j’ai eu le plaisir de faire une entrevue. De plus, je vous rappelle que je mets fin seulement à ce portrait et que le projet Portrait de blogueurs est toujours en action, même si je n’ai pas publié de vidéo depuis quelques jours.

Donc si vous êtes intéressés, faites-moi signe et je vous mettrais en contact avec les responsables du Podcamp.

]]> 2010-10-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/laurent-lasalle/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Designer, blogueur et baladodiffuseur, Laurent LaSalle adore tout ce qui touche à la techno, au web et aux nouveaux médias. En 2005, il lance son premier blogue, Mes paroles s’envolent (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus), qui traite de web, de médias sociaux et de technologie. L’année suivante, le podcast du même titre, axé sur la blogosphère québécoise, entre en ondes. Parallèlement, Laurent anime un podcast musical anglophone, Headphones required. En 2008, il coorganise le premier PodCamp Montréal, un événement annuel qui regroupe tous les mordus de médias sociaux. Il alimente aujourd’hui Triplex, le nouveau blogue techno de Radio-Canada, en collaboration avec Gina Desjardins et Philippe Marcoux.

]]> 2010-09-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/trop-de-contrats-un-beau-probleme/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Pas que ça soit si plaisant que ça, mais c’est tout de même mieux que de devoir courir après ceux-ci. Comme le développement des affaires se passe bien, j’aimerais m’entourer de partenaire professionnel qui offre la même qualité que moi. Bien sûr, j’ai déjà un bon réseau de contacts, mais je me suis aperçu que ceux avec mon expertise sont tout aussi débordés que moi.

Dans le but de ne pas perdre ces clients, je recherche donc des consultants à leur compte (pas d’entreprise, pour une question de tarif) dans le développement mobile et Web : principalement pour la plateforme de Apple (iPhone, iPod Touch et iPad) et pour l’open source (PHP/MySQL surtout). Je ne suis pas prêt à prendre des employés, car je viens tout juste de démarrer, mais de m’entourer de personne compétente pour m’aider avec ma charge de travail sera un atout indéniable. De plus, cela n’aura pas d’effet néfaste pour la clientèle, car soyez assuré que la qualité sera au rendez-vous et que ce ne sera pas le premier venu qui travaillera avec moi sur mes projets!

Je cherche donc du monde avec les compétences mentionnées ci-haut qui voudrait m’envoyer à fharper@alabase2.com leur CV et/ou portfolio, ainsi que leur tarif horaire actuel. Je confirmerais réception du courriel, mais je vous contacterais au besoin. Je vous invite aussi à passer le mot dans votre entourage.

Source de l’image : https://www.ottsworld.com

]]> 2010-09-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/un-musee-de-linformatique-au-quebec/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Depuis une semaine, l’iMusée, premier musée Québécois dédié à l’informatique a ouvert ses portes. J’ai eu le plaisir d’aller au lancement officiel et laissez-moi vous dire que c’est impressionnant. Comme un enfant dans une bonbonnerie, le professionnel de l’informatique que je suis à vu de vieilles machines qu’il a utilisées et d’encore plus vieille que je ne connaissais même pas. De plus, j’ai eu le plaisir de discuter avec Philippe Nieuwbourg, directeur du musée de l’informatique à Paris, qui était venu spécialement pour l’événement: c’est un homme simple et fort sympathique qui était tout aussi enthousiaste pour ce projet que les organisateurs eux-mêmes. Situé dans Hochelaga Maisonneuve, ce musée vaut le détour. Lors de la première édition du Festival Geek de Montréal, ils étaient venus sur place avec l’ordinateur que vous voyez sur la photo de ce billet et tous ont été très enthousiastes face au projet. Je ne soupçonnais pas que l’équipe derrière ce musée avait déjà amassé tant d’artéfacts!

Je vous invite donc à aller visiter le site Web pour plus d’informations et surtout de prendre le temps d’aller y faire un tour pour découvrir l’informatique d’aujourd’hui à hier: du plaisir et de l’étonnement garanti!

Source de l’image : https://www.flickr.com/photos/museeinformatique

]]> 2010-09-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/star-wars-the-clones-wars/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ceux qui me connaissent savent que je suis un fan de Star Wars et que j’ai gardé mon côté plus jeune, entre autres, avec les bandes dessinées et les dessins animés. Un des dessins animés que j’écoute est en lien directe avec Star Wars, soit Star Wars : The Clone Wars. Cette série est rendue à sa 3e saison, dont le premier épisode sera diffusé en français sur les ondes de TélétoonPourquoi je vous en parle ici? Parce que j’ai été invité hier soir à l’avant-première faite par Télétoon à leur bureau. J’ai eu l’honneur de pouvoir écouter les deux premiers épisodes en primeur, déguster une bonne pizza et manger du pop corn pendant la diffusion sur projecteur avec un système de son et une salle de présentation forte agréable! En compagnie d’amis tels que Benoît des Mystérieux Étonnants, Nicolas Dion et Jimmy Suzan, nous avons eu une bien belle soirée qui se termina avec la remise d’un sac contenant une affiche de la série, ainsi qu’une clé USB Star Wars.

Comme vous savez, dernièrement j’ai fait un billet sur l’intégration des blogueurs dans les promotions. Même si je n’avais aucune obligation de faire un billet, il me fait plaisir d’en faire une pour faire la promotion d’une émission que j’aime réellement et pour saluer l’initiative de Télétoon et Zip Communications qui ont bien voulu me donner deux entrées à cette soirée. Je vous parlais aussi dernièrement de Samsung qui en a fait autant à plus grande échelle (un billet donnant plus de détails sera fait sous peu, mais je voulais prioriser celui-ci vu le lancement de vendredi soir), mais avec cette expérience, il est clair que vous n’avez pas besoin de gros budgets pour faire une soirée qui implique les blogueurs qui partagent une passion pour votre produit ou service.

On se donne donc rendez-vous vendredi soir devant nos téléviseurs!

Source de l’image: https://www.comicbox.com

]]> 2010-09-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/mon-retour-sur-podcamp-montreal-2010/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

En fin de semaine avait lieu la 3e édition de Podcamp Montréal. C’était la première année où je pouvais y aller toute la fin de semaine. Personnellement, j’adore l’aspect socialisation (comme toujours) et j’ai été agréablement servi sur cet aspect! Plusieurs présentations intéressantes et plusieurs personnes que j’ai eu le plaisir de revoir ou de tout simplement connaître en personne.

Comme vous savez, je présentais une conférence intitulée “Préparer un événement à l’aide des médias sociaux”. Malheureusement, ma session n’a pas été enregistrée, donc il ne vous est pas possible de la regarder si vous l’avez manqué (“shame on you!”). À défaut de l’enregistrement, je vous mets ici ma présentation :

Podcamp Montréal 2010 - Préparer un événement à l’aide des médias sociaux from Frédéric Harper

Bien sûr, celle-ci n’est pas complète et ne sera possiblement pas si pertinente sans la partie où je parle, car c’est seulement un support visuel pour les personnes qui sont venus m’écouter. Par contre, je suis partant pour la reprendre pour votre organisation ou événement, ainsi que de l’adapter pour votre entreprise.  Malgré que mon offre initiale se situe au niveau du développement d’applications mobiles, j’aime bien faire des formations et présentations sur la mobilité ou sur les médias sociaux.

J’espère que vous avez apprécié cette dernière et que vous avez aussi apprécié cette belle fin de semaine. Si vous voulez, je vous invite à continuer nos discussions sur mon sujet de présentation, que nous avons dû couper vu la courte période de dîner!

Crédit pour la photo : Eva Blue

]]> 2010-09-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/soyez-consequent-avec-vous-meme/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Dans cet ordre d’idée, dernièrement j’ai fait un billet sur ma vision du bénévolat selon mon expérience à ce sujet. J’y disais entre autres que si on est pas capable de respecter ses engagements, il est préférable de laisser sa place à d’autre et même s’il n’y a pas de relève, des fois il est mieux de quitter tout de même. Un de mes mentors dans le mouvement scout m’a dit un jour qu’il est mieux d’avoir personne que d’avoir quelqu’un qui ne fait pas bien son travail. C’est donc pourquoi je n’ai pas renouvelé un mandat comme formateur-conseiller dans un groupe qui fut longtemps le mien. Dure décision, puisque j’aimais ce mandat, mais j’ai dû me rendre à la réalité: l’an passé je n’ai pas mené à bien ce dernier! C’était donc le moment de passer de la parole (mon billet à ce sujet) à l’acte et donc être conséquent entre ma façon d’agir et ce que je pensais sur le sujet.

Toujours dans la notion de bénévolat, je dois vous dire que je me suis retiré de la conférence Confoo. Encore une fois, rien de personnel, car c’est un projet que j’avais proposé et dont je vous avais parlé ici. C’était une idée que je chérissais et surtout qui avait eu un retour très positif des membres du comité et du monde du mobile. Après différentes réflexions et mon entreprise qui est en pleine expansion, je ne peux plus me permettre d’être présent à droite et à gauche. Je dois maintenant focaliser sur mes projets actuels et surtout sur À la base 2. Je me suis donc dit qu’il était préférable de me retirer avant que cela ne soit problématique et pour éviter que par manque de temps, je ne fasse du bon travail!

Ce fut donc deux décisions difficiles, mais je dois maintenant focaliser et je me devais d’agir pour le bien de ces deux organisations tout en étant en respect avec moi-même ainsi qu’avec mes propos. Que pensez-vous de tout ceci?

Source de l’image : https://openmountain.files.wordpress.com

]]> 2010-09-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/podcamp-montreal-2010-preparer-un-evenement-a-laide-des-mediaux-sociaux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Le 11 et 12 septembre prochains aura lieu l’anticonférence Podcamp Montréal. Podcamp se veut, malgré son nom parfois trompeur, un camp sur les médias sociaux. L’événement qui en est à sa troisième année si je ne me trompe pas, m’accueillera pour la deuxième fois. La première année j’en avais malheureusement entendu parler après l’événement, mais j’ai pu l’an passé y aller le samedi. À priori j’y vu un événement parfait pour moi: on y parle de médias sociaux, c’est un environnement décontracté (bref de camp</a), c’est rempli de monde intéressant et sociable, les présentations sont habituellement plus des appels à la discussion que des présentations pure et dure… Bref plein d’éléments que j’aime!

Je profite donc de cette nouvelle édition pour y retourner, mais cette fois en y ajoutant mon grain de sel. Bien sûr je créé des Portrait de podcasteurs pour avant l’événement, mais j’y présenterais aussi une conférence. Comme j’aime bien les médias sociaux et que je m’en suis servis énormément l’an passé pour promouvoir mon ancien nouveau bébé, le Festival Geek de Montréal, j’ai trouvé qu’il serait intéressant de venir parler de mon expérience et surtout, échanger avec vous sur le sujet! J’ai donc décidé de faire une présentation qui s’intitule “Préparer un événement à l’aide des médiaux sociaux”. Ce sera l’occasion de partager avec vous tous et, sans aucune prétention, venir partager avec vous mes bons et moins bons coups. Dans l’aire des événements qui naissent par dizaine, je pense que cela pourrait être bénéfique pour certains. De plus, je mentionne événement, mais c’est une stratégie et une expérience qui s’adapte à différents niveaux!

Je vous invite donc à mentionner votre intérêt sur Facebook à venir à ma présentation (il y a un coût de 30$ pour la fin de semaine) qui aura lieu le samedi matin à 11h30 (horaire complet ici).

P.-S. Si quelqu’un a une caméra vidéo de bonne qualité à me passer ou qui pourrait venir enregistrer ma présentation, j’apprécierais. Faite moi signe dans ce billet.

Mise à jour #

J’avais complètement oublié, mais je fais tirer un billet pour le Podcamp Montréal (d’une valeur de 30$). On ne m’a pas fixé de règle, mais il est clair que j’aimerais que la personne qui gagne le billet puisse en profiter au maximum, donc pouvoir être présent le samedi (11 septembre) et le dimanche (12 septembre). Je pigerais au hasard un nom dans les personnes qui auront laissés un commentaire à ce billet avant jeudi soir 23h59. Bonne chance à tous!

Mise à jour 2 #

Comme prévu, ce matin j’ai effectué le tirage au sort entre les participants. Heureusement pour eux, j’avais oublié de mentionner le billet gratuit dans la publication originale de ce billet, ce qui leur laissa plus de chance vu le nombre de participants! Pour effectuer le tirage, je me suis servi du site Random.org en attribuant un numéro à chaque participant débutant à 1 en ordre de publication (exemple: Yan avait 1, Chantal 2 et ainsi de suite). J’ai donc pris le premier numéro sorti aléatoirement. La gagnante d’une entrée gratuite au Podcamp Montréal est donc Chantal Goulet. Merci à tous d’avoir participé et je vous invite à venir tout de même à l’événement, car des billets seront disponibles sur place au coût de 30$ pour la fin de semaine.

]]> 2010-09-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/samsung-mobilers/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Depuis quelque temps Samsung se sert des influenceurs pour faire de la promotion de leurs produits, chose que je trouve sensationnelle et qui va dans l’optique de mon billet sur l’intégration des blogueurs dans les promotionsQu’est-ce que c’est ça me direz-vous? Grossièrement, c’est un concours qui regroupe 6 équipes de 5 personnes réparties en 3 villes: Montréal, Toronto et Vancouver. À l’aide de notre nouveau téléphone, le Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, nous devons faire quelques missions qui nous seront dévoilés au fur et à mesure. C’est une opportunité pour Samsung Canada d’utiliser les utilisateurs, consommateurs, bibite sociale et grande yeule que nous sommes! De plus, ce n’est pas le genre de concours où on doit marteler nos ami(e)s, connaissances Web pour qu’ils viennent voter et surtout, nous avons le choix, que dis-je, le droit de rester soi-même et d’être honnête sur le produit! Je dois dire que ce sont deux règles minimum que je mentionne quand on m’approche pour ce genre de choses: je veux avoir le droit de dire que c’est mauvais si c’est le cas et je ne veux pas polluer mon monde avec des invitations à aller voter sur ci ou sur ça des dizaines de fois…

Alors pourquoi je vous en parle? Premièrement, car je tiens à saluer l’initiative de Samsung. Deuxièmement, car il y aura un billet sur les détails de l’événement question de vous donner une idée de quoi Samsung est capable et pour je l’espère, donner des idées à des entreprises d’ici (oui oui, je sais que Samsung est mondial avec un budget énorme, mais on peut faire bien à notre niveau!!!). Puis troisièmement, même si je développe sous Android, ce sera la première fois que j’aurais un téléphone pour utilisation et non juste pour test, et comme je suis un propriétaire d’iPhone, j’ai quelques idées de billets comparatifs tant au niveau de l’appareil que des systèmes d’exploitation. J’allais presque oublier, je vous ferais part aussi sur Twitter et Facebook des photos et vidéos de nos missions (le reste de mon équipe que vous pouvez voir ici est assez flyer aussi, haha).

Selon vous (oh que je pars une guerre moi là), pensez-vous que je serai tenté de rester avec un iPhone ou de me lancer sous Android?

]]> 2010-08-31T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/michelle-sullivan/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Michelle Sullivan, directrice des Médias sociaux et des communications numériques chez HKDP, œuvre dans le domaine des relations publiques depuis neuf ans déjà. Parfaitement bilingue, elle a mené à bien toute une gamme de mandats pancanadiens pour des clients dans les secteurs des télécommunications, de la technologie, des multimédias, de la santé, des services financiers, de l’exploitation minière, de la construction, de l’automobile et des organismes sans but lucratif.

Michelle Sullivan se spécialise en stratégie et en application des médias sociaux (blogues, baladodiffusion, réseaux sociaux). Elle est à l’origine de la toute première campagne de médias sociaux du Québec, en 2006, et elle a lancé le premier blogue d’entreprise multimédias du Québec. Ce blogue, consulté dans tous les pays de la francophonie, était en lice pour le Prix Intrablog 2.0 2008 à Paris, et il a été présenté, à Bordeaux, à Alain Juppé, ancien premier ministre de France.

Elle rédige un blogue professionnel à www.michellesullivan.ca depuis janvier 2007, et elle est active sur diverses plateformes de médias sociaux dont Twitter, LinkedIn et Facebook.

Michelle Sullivan est l’initiatrice de la série 3e mardi | Third Tuesday Montréal qui réunit des professionnels en relations publiques et en marketing intéressés par les médias sociaux pour traiter des dernières tendances et assurer l’application des meilleures pratiques. Elle est aussi membre fondateur de PodCamp Montreal, un événement annuel qui attire les passionnés des médias sociaux du Canada et des États-Unis.

]]> 2010-08-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/guest-blogging/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Pourquoi un titre en anglais? Parce que j’ai eu le plaisir d’être invité à faire un billet sur les médias sociaux en anglais par l’ami Fabrice Calando sur son blogue. Son blogue est en anglais et je désirais faire un billet dans cette langue pour me pratiquer un peu plus. Fabrice m’a soumis quelques idées de billet qu’il aimerait me voir traiter sur son blogue et j’ai choisi celui-ci : “How social media helped my business”. Vous pouvez donc aller le lire ici et je vous invite à laisser les commentaires directement sur son blogue (même si en français si vous vous sentez plus à l’aise, FabriceSource de l’image : https://www.pr2020.com

]]> 2010-08-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/sophie-labelle/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Sophie Labelle est une fille de communication geek aux 1001 passions. Curieuse et épicurienne, elle aime notamment la techno, la psycho, la photo, l’architecture, les arts, la danse, les voyages, l’environnement et l’écotourisme. Sur son blogue intitulé SOlstice en RP (https://sophielabelle.blogspot.com) qu’elle anime depuis plus de 2 ans, Sophie partage son quotidien en agence à titre de conseillère en médias sociaux chez Optimum relations publiques (Cossette) et sa passion pour les relations publiques. Le monde des médias y est décortiqué, des coups de coeur publicitaires présentés, des stratégies de comunications analysées sans oublier des découvertes intéressantes côté lecture, événements et acteurs marquants de l’industrie. Se disant humaniste, Sophie accorde une grande importance aux relations qu’elle entretient avec les gens, que ce soit avec ses proches, les internautes ou ses clients. Pour Sophie, il n’y a pas assez de 24 heures dans une journée, ni de 100 ans dans une vie !

]]> 2010-08-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/demandez-et-vous-recevrez-peut-etre/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Arrêtons d’attendre que quelque chose se produise, que quelqu’un nous propose de quoi d’intéressant et d’espérer que ci ou ça se passe… agissons! Bien sûr cela demande un peu de confiance en soi, mais que peut-il arrivé de pire? Un refus? Que rien ne se passe? C’est exactement ce qui arrive si vous ne faites rien, alors pourquoi ne pas mettre toutes les chances de votre côté en prenant justement une chance. Facile à dire me direz-vous? Oui, mais aussi facile à faire une fois qu’on a passé le stade d’avoir peur d’avoir peur! Laissez-moi vous donner deux exemples concrets:

1. Lorsque j’ai perdu mon emploi, je m’étais mis à la recherche de l’emploi parfait : celui qui me permettrait de continuer à vivre de ma passion pour les téléphones intelligents, qui serait bien situé, avec un bon patron, où je serais assez libre… Bref un emploi de rêve pour moi. Au lieu de continuer à chercher, de me morfondre que je ne trouve rien ou d’attendre qu’on me contacte suite à mon annonce, j’ai créé ma chance: je suis parti à mon compte et j’ai créé l’emploi parfait pour moi!
2. Je donne de la formation dans un domaine autre que mon domaine d’affaires et j’aime présenter, partager, alors je me suis dit que j’aimerais commencer à amener cette passion dans d’autres domaines, soit mon domaine d’expertise et une passion, les médias sociaux. Pour me donner les outils nécessaires pour montrer ma facilité à parler en public, je me suis inscrit comme présentateur dans des anticonférences, comme partenaire dans des formations sur les médias sociaux et ainsi de suite. Je n’attends pas que les gens me contactent, mais je fonce par moi-même pour me monter un porte-folio dans ce domaine.

Ce sont deux exemples plus ou moins reliés au monde professionnel, mais ce principe s’applique dans tout les aspects de notre vie. Par exemple, vous trouvez une demoiselle charmante et vous aimeriez l’invité à sortir. Pourquoi ne pas le faire? Elle a peut-être un conjoint? Elle ne me trouve peut-être pas de son goût? … Tous des questionnements valables, mais qui ne devraient pas vous arrêter! Si vous ne faites rien, vous ne le serez jamais. Le pire qui pourra vous arriver, c’est que vous en soyez au même point que lors de vos questionnements et même mieux, vous serez à quoi vous en tenir et ne regretterez rien!

De votre côté, créez-vous votre propre chance? Êtes-vous maître de votre destinée? Croyez-vous que c’est une mentalité d’enfants unique et gâté pourri? Ou pensez-vous que cette façon de voir les choses peut nous aider dans la vie de tous les jours? J’aimerais bien entendre vos opinions sur ce sujet.

Source de l’image : https://www.baccarat.fr

]]> 2010-08-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/limiter-les-intermediaires-un-avantage-pour-tous/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Coût

Parlons tout de suite de la notion qui motive plusieurs personnes, l’argent. Dans la majorité des cas, sous-traitance égale part du magot. Habituellement, ça se traduit en coût supplémentaire, car l’entreprise avec laquelle vous faites affaire se paiera un peu pour la gestion de tout ceci. En faisant affaire directement avec la personne, il y a des chances que vous réduisiez les coûts.

Compréhension #

Plus il y a d’intermédiaires, plus il y a de personnes qui travailleront sur le dossier. Vous connaissez le jeu du téléphone arabe? C’est souvent une conséquence de tout ceci. Dans quelques cas, vous traiterez quand même directement avec le sous-traitant, ce qui ne causera pas trop de problèmes, mais dans plusieurs autres cas, vous continuerait de faire affaire avec votre contact principal. Vous lui transmettrez une idée que vous avez sur une fonctionnalité X que vous voulez, qui peut ne pas être totalement compris de ce dernier, qui devra transmettre le tout à son sous-traitant selon sa compréhension et ce dernier, le comprendra comme votre contact le lui à dit. Il y a des chances pour que le message initial ne soit pas tout à fait pareil une fois rendue à port.

Expertise #

Ça chevauche grandement la notion de compréhension, mais à un autre niveau. Si vous ne discutez pas directement avec la personne qui fera le travaille, mais avec un intermédiaire, soit l’entreprise avec laquelle vous faite affaire, il y a de fortes chances que celle-ci ne possède pas l’expertise nécessaire pour bien comprendre vos besoins, pour bien vous conseiller, pour savoir ce qui est facilement possible ou non. Comme c’est lui qui gère le tout, c’est donc avec lui que vous risquez de faire affaire.

Conclusion #

Je n’énonce que quelques cas, qui disons-le n’arrive pas toujours. Dans certains cas, il y aura une totale transparence et l’entreprise avec laquelle vous faites affaire fera ça dans le but de vous aider sans même tenter d’aller chercher des coûts supplémentaires. Sauf que soyons honnête, dans la plupart des cas cela ne vous avantage pas! Puis je ne parle pas ici que du domaine de l’informatique. De votre côté, pensez-vous qu’il soit souvent plus avantageux de limiter les intermédiaires pour un service quelconque?

Source de l’image : https://www.behaviortherapyassociates.com/

]]> 2010-08-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/cindylou/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Avant d’être rédactrice Art de vivre pour SweetspotQC.ca, Cindy a été designer de mode pendant plus de dix ans. Avide de partager ses trouvailles, elle aussi fondé un blogue où elle se défini candidement comme fashion victim assumée, fashionista délurée, acheteuse compulsive éhontée, toujours fauchée. Ses dadas : la mode (of course!), les petits pots, le maquillage, les restos, les jujubes, la musique et les cocktails sucrés.

]]> 2010-08-09T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-benevolat-un-emploi-sans-remuneration-monetaire/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Au cours de ces 10 années de bénévolat, j’ai eu le plaisir d’avoir des mandats dans lesquels je devais gérer une ou plusieurs équipes de personnes. Ça m’a permis de vivre plusieurs expériences et de gagner en maturité. Ça m’a appris aussi plusieurs choses sur la gestion de bénévoles ainsi que sur la gestion d’employé. Au bout du compte, comme je le dis dans le titre, pour moi, du bénévolat, ça revient un peu à un emploi. Je suis fou de penser ça, me direz-vous? Pas certains! Dans une organisation X, si je vous donne un mandat Y que vous acceptez, c’est que vous avez estimé que vous aviez le temps et à ce point, je compte sur vous. Si ce mandat n’est pas mené à terme, cela peut causer d’autres problèmes au sein de l’organisation. C’est donc un pensez-y-bien quand vous acceptez de quoi, payer ou non! Si je prends exemple sur le Festival Geek de Montréal, lorsque j’ai rencontré pour la première fois les membres initiaux du Core Geek Team, j’ai bien été clair : “Si vous acceptez le mandat ici présent, soyez sûre que vous serez apte à le faire. Si jamais, pour quelque raison que ce soit, vous ne pouvez plus remplir votre mandat ou que vous n’avez plus d’intérêt, aucun problème, on ne viendra pas fou, car ce n’est pas le bénévolat qui amènera le pain sur votre table, mais s’il vous plait, faites-nous-en part dans les plus brefs délais et si possible aider nous à trouver une solution”.

J’ai toujours cru, malgré le fait qu’on est souvent tenté de m’en dissuader, que de donner du temps dans un organisme quelconque ou pour une cause noble était quelque chose d’important : redonnez à la société d’une manière quelconque! C’est un peu pour ça que je voulais parler de ce sujet ici, pour mettre sur table ma façon de penser à ce sujet!

De votre côté, faites-vous du bénévolat? Si oui pour quelle organisation ou quelle cause? Pensez-vous que je suis un peu strict dans ma façon de voir les choses?

Source de l’image : https://www.mediabistro.com/

]]> 2010-08-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/ile-sans-fil-du-wifi-gratuit-a-montreal/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ceux qui me connaissent savent que je parle de l’organisme à but non lucratif Île Sans Fil dès que l’occasion en est possible. Qu’est-ce que ISF? Comme le nom le dit assez bien, c’est un regroupement de bénévoles qui travaillent d’arrache-pied à créer, maintenir et promouvoir des points d’accès sans fil à Montréal, et ce, depuis 2003. Pourquoi? Bien sûr pour offrir le plus d’accès sans fil possibles gratuitement à la société, mais dans le but de permettre à la technologie de continuer de briser l’isolement des citoyens à l’échelle locale (plus d’informations sur l’organisme et leur mission iciPourquoi je décide de vous en parler tout bonnement aujourd’hui? Voyez-vous avec cette mission de grande envergure, vient une grande responsabilité : tenir le réseau fonctionnel. Cela demande donc pas mal de bénévoles et ISF recrute constamment à cet effet. Demain a lieu le camp d’entrainement des Ninjas d’ISF. Vous avez bien compris, des ninjas pour du wifi! Ce sont ces hommes et ces femmes qui jour après jour bravent les plus grands dangers (ok, ok, pas tant de danger que ça) pour s’assurer que les 200 points d’accès fonctionnent sans problème. C’est donc le moment parfait pour vous impliquer dans un organisme dynamique qui nous permet, entre autres, d’aller sur Facebook en buvant un bon café dans le bistro du coin! Pour plus d’informations, allez lire le billet à cet effet sur leur blogue ici.

Vous n’êtes pas libre samedi? Que cela ne tienne, vous ne vous en sauverais pas si facilement! Allez tout de même voir le billet mentionné ci-haut et envoyez un courriel au responsable des bénévoles, Alexis Cornellier. Il se fera un plaisir de vous donner plus d’informations et de vous aiguiller vers l’aide et le temps que vous pourrez apporter!

On se voit donc demain!

]]> 2010-08-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/prendre-le-temps-de-trouver-les-bons-outils/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ce cas typique, qui croyez-moi arrive souvent en entreprise est au bout du compte un problème grave : on perd de l’argent, on perd du temps, on perd en efficacité… Lorsque nous sommes au point de choisir une application qui nous aidera à améliorer un processus d’affaire, il faut prendre le temps de bien le faire et surtout de mettre les besoins de façon clair. Cela est tout aussi valide, sinon plus, pour un logiciel qu’on fait faire sur mesure.

Par exemple, je suis présentement en recherche d’un logiciel pour faire ma comptabilité, je me suis donc fait une liste de besoin en précisant lesquels sont obligatoires et lesquels sont un “plus value” :

1. Obligatoires
   1. Fonctionnait sur le Web (de préférence), sinon sous MAC (un avantage) et dans le pire des cas sous Windows (presque a évité, car mon but est de rendre ma comptabilité plus plaisante et si je suis obligé de redémarrer sous Windows à chaque fois [je n’ai pas de VM pour diverses raisons], cela ne m’aidera pas)
   2. Simple d’utilisation avec possibilité que le logiciel “grandisse” avec mon entreprise : je suis seul pour l’instant, donc aucune gestion complexe et je veux garder le tout plaisant, mais je compte grandir.
   3. Gestion de compte manuellement : je ne veux pas être obligé d’importé le fichier provenant de mon institution financière pour y ajouter des éléments.
   4. Catégories de dépenses.
   5. Rapport financier ou mieux exportation dans les fichiers au format habituel pour le comptable.
   6. Encore développé et supporté : un logiciel qui répondrait à mes besoins, mais avec lequel je ne pourrais avoir aucun support en cas de problème, ne me plairait pas (c’est tout de même mes finances d’entreprise, on ne rigole plus).
2. Intéressants
   1. Consolidation des comptes : je peux le faire de façon manuelle en vérifiant à la fin de mois, mais si je peux importer le fichier de mon institution bancaire pour valider, ça me sauverait du temps.
   2. Application iPhone.
   3. Beau (ce n’est pas obligatoire, mais me semble qu’un logiciel plus joli, mieux fait, rendrait l’expérience plus intéressante).
   4. De préférence pas trop cher, car je pars à mon compte, donc les dépenses sont nombreuses.

Bien sûr créer cette petite liste m’a pris du temps, car il a fallu que je pense bien à mes besoins, que je regarde à droit et gauche ce qui se faisait pour me faire une idée. Je dois dire aussi que j’ai pris plus d’une simple heure pour faire mes recherches : j’ai fait des recherches, créées des comptes, installées, fait des tests plus que 2 minutes, noté des éléments… Présentement je n’ai pas fini mes recherches, mais il ne peut qu’y avoir deux fins possibles avec cette démarche :

1. J’aurais trouvé un outil qui répondra très bien à mes besoins;
2. Je vais continuer de faire ma comptabilité dans un fichier style Excel, car je n’aurais pas trouvé de logiciel à mes besoins.

Vous me direz qu’avec la deuxième option je ne serais pas bien avancé, mais je vous dirais que oui. Non je n’aurais pas le logiciel qui m’aidera à avoir une comptabilité plus sûre et plus agréable, mais je n’aurais pas perdu de temps à utiliser un logiciel qui me causera plus de tord que de bien.

De votre côté, pensez-vous qu’il faut prendre le temps de chercher les bons outils adaptés à nos besoins? Pensez-vous plutôt qu’en entreprise nous n’avons pas de temps à perdre pour des recherches et que le premier outil qui semble correct fait l’affaire? Ce n’est pas le but de ce billet, mais j’accepte aussi des suggestions d’outils comptables qui répondraient à mes besoins!

Source de l’image : https://www.futura-sciences.com

]]> 2010-08-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/oeuvre-dart-avec-de-vieux-telephonessmartphones/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ce qui n’amène à la raison de ce billet. Suite à cette visite, je me suis demandé ce qui caractérisait mon bureau. Quand quelqu’un y entre, on ne peut distinguer en un coup d’oeil ce que je fais. Vous me direz que si quelqu’un entre dans mon bureau, il y a de fortes chances qu’on nous ayons rendez-vous et que de ce fait, il sait que je travaille dans le développement mobile, mais tout de même. Dans cette optique, je me suis dit que je pourrais soit décorer un des murs avec de vieux appareils ou soit faire un genre de sculpture contemporaine toujours avec de vieux téléphones. Est-ce vraiment professionnel, pas réellement. Est-ce que ce sera plaisant si ça fonctionne, j’en suis certain.

C’est donc exactement à ce moment que vous entrez tous en jeu. Pourquoi? Parce que je n’ai pas de vieux appareils, ceux-ci étant toujours défectueux lors de mon changement, ils se rendirent tous à la poubelle. Je lance donc un appel à tous en vous invitant à me donner vos vieux téléphones mobiles, qu’ils soient intelligents (Blackberry, iPhone…) ou non. Vous n’en avez pas? Pas de trouble, vous pouvez m’aider à passant le mot dans vos réseaux sociaux, mais aussi en personne.

Si vous voulez m’aider avec ma folie du moment, envoyez-moi un courriel à fharper@alabase2.com.

Source de l’image : https://www.webmairie.fr

Mise à jour 1 #

J’ai reçu la semaine passé 4 téléphones d’un coup. Merci à Natacha Beauséjour (Tachana sur Twitter). J’en ai encore besoin de bien d’autres!

Mise à jour 2

J’ai reçu un téléphone de la part de Patrick Pilon (_RedHerring sur Twitter). On ne lâche pas, merci à tous ceux qui passent le message dans leur réseau!

Mise à jour 3

Question de faire vivre le projet, car il me manque encore plusieurs téléphones et il y en a encore 4-5 qui devraient arriver sous peu, j’ai décidé d’ajouter mon vieux iPod. Ce n’est pas un téléphone cellulaire et encore moins un téléphone intelligent, mais disons qu’on peut le considérer comme l’ancêtre du iPhone!

Mise à jour 4

On se rapproche tranquillement d’un nombre de téléphones potables pour commencer à penser à une oeuvre d’art. Émilie Plante (EmilieJolie sur Twitter), ma conjointe, vient de retrouver son vieux cellulaire CleanNet (c’est avant Telus). Je vous invite à continuer de m’envoyer des téléphones.

Mise à jour 5

Merci à Mélanie Duclos (Meloyul sur Twitter) de m’avoir donné un vieux LG qui fonctionnait chez Telus. Je ne sais pas encore exactement ce que je ferais comme oeuvre, mais il m’en faut plus, ne lâchez pas!

Mise à jour 6

Patrick Pilon (_RedHerring sur Twitter) se lance pour essayer de battre le record de 4 téléphones par la même personne: il vient de me donner deux autres vieux téléphones. Je suis maintenant rendu à 9 (10 avec mon vieux iPod), mais je dois dire que même si je n’ai pas encore pensé à ce que j’allais faire, il m’en faudra plus…

Mise à jour 7

Un autre Sony Ericsson vient de se joindre à mon cimetière de vieux téléphones/smartphones grâce à l’ami Alexis Cornellier (alexcornellier sur Twitter). Je commence à me rapprocher d’un nombre de téléphones intéressant, mais j’ai encore besoin de vous! Si vous êtes intéressés à m’en donner un ou plusieurs, vous n’avez qu’à me faire signe.

Mise à jour 8 #

On y arrive tranquillement. Je ne m’étais pas fixé de nombre de téléphones à ramasser, mais selon moi, encore quelques’uns et j’en aurais assez pour réfléchir à l’oeuvre d’art que je ferais. Un gros merci à Julie Caouette (MissKawet sur Twitter) pour ces deux téléphones.

[Mise à jour 9

Ce n’est pas un téléphone, mais ça tout de même un certain rapport, alors merci à Philippe Peloquin pour cette carte vieille AirCard.

](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2010/08/photo6.jpg)Mise à jour 10

Un autre téléphone qui ne date pas d’hier. Merci à Caroline Cloutier (carocloutier sur Twitter).

Mise à jour 11

Un autre téléphone provenant de Patrick Pilon (_RedHerring sur Twitter) et qui met fin à ma recherche d’appareil. En effet avec celui-ci, je trouve que je suis rendu à un nombre intéressant de téléphone et je vais regarder, justement avec Patrick qui est très imaginatif lorsque vient le temps de créé des oeuvres d’art avec des matériaux non habituels. Je ne pense pas prendre le temps avant les fêtes, alors je devrais vous donner des nouvelles en janvier sur le résultat. Merci à tous!

]]> 2010-08-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/lanalyse-des-geeks-et-moi/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Connaissez-vous l’analyse des Geeks? C’est un podcast audio hebdomadaire qui parle de l’actualité Geek mettant en vedette Benoît Gagnon et François Lapierre-Messier (alias Frank the Tank). Vous me direz que j’ai un parti pris, car j’étais l’invité de la semaine passé et que je côtoie à quelques reprises ces joyeux lurons, mais en toute franchise, j’aime bien ce podcast (même si je suis en retard dans l’écoute de celui-ci). L’actualité techno y est présentée de manière à ce que tous comprennent le jargon technique et surtout avec humour.

Je vous invite donc à aller les écouter (surtout le dernier épisode, il parait que l’invité est encore meilleur que les deux animateurs)!

Personnellement j’écoute plusieurs autres balados et j’en ferais peut-être un billet à cet effet éventuellement, mais vous, écoutez-vous des pocasts? Qu’ils soient francophones, anglophones, parlés, musicaux ou autres, quels sont-ils?

]]> 2010-08-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/relation-web-futile-ou-non/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Avec mon style de vie et mon travail, je me trouve a être constamment en relation sur le Web avec d’autres personnes. Que ce soit par Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, dans les blogues… Dans la majorité des cas, ce sont de vraies personnes qui écrivent, qui discutent, qui répliquent. Il arrive que ce soient des personnes que nous connaissions dans la vraie vie, soit d’avant ou soit après par divers moyens : Yulbiz, YulblogPour ma part, une personne sur le Web mérite le même respect qu’une personne que je rencontrerais dans la vie, en personne. Pourquoi? Parce que c’est justement une vraie personne qui se trouve derrière un surnom, un compte de médias sociaux ou toute autre présence Web. Dans certains cas, on dépasse même le stade de la distance de nos écrans et je ne parle pas ici de relations amoureuses sur le Web. J’ai un exemple plutôt frappant qui m’est arrivé il y a quelques mois. Dans un de mes billets, je disais que j’étais du genre assez transparent sur le Web ce qu’effectivement je fais. J’ai donc mis sur Twitter comme quoi on avait trouvé quelques problèmes de santé lors de ma visite chez le médecin. Durant toute cette période d’incertitude face à ma condition, une personne, que je ne connaissais pas avant (maintenant on se connait en personne et on est devenu ami dans la vraie vie si je peux dire), s’est continuellement inquiétée et informée de ma condition. Cette personne, au nom d’Aurélie Alaume, qui n’avait aucun lien direct avec moi m’a profondément touché avec ses actions et ses paroles. Ce fut donc une preuve supplémentaire pour moi que les liens Web ne sont pas toujours futiles, loin de là.

J’ai plusieurs ami(e)s dans la vraie vie avec lesquels ma relation a débuté par Internet et ce sont des personnes très importantes pour moi maintenant. Pensez-vous que des relations avec des personnes sur Internet soient des choses totalement futiles? Avez-vous vécus des cas semblables à mon amitié avec Aurélie? Pensez-vous que je suis un peu niai de m’attacher à certaine personne que je ne connais pas réellement et qui pourrait être une tout autre personne que celle présentée sur le Web? Bref, partagez-moi vos pensées à ce sujet!

Source de l’image : https://www.concepteur-redacteur-blog.com

]]> 2010-08-01T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/devenez-fan-sur-facebook/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

À la base 2 a maintenant sa page fan sur Facebook. Il était temps me direz-vous ? Je crois que oui…

Prétentieux d’avoir une page de fan? Pas réellement! À la base 2 était au tout début un blogue plutôt personnel même si je parlais des fois de sujets reliés à mes centres d’intérêt dans le milieu des affaires. Au fil des temps, il est devenu une entité distincte de Frédéric Harper même si au bout du compte, À la base 2 = Frédéric Harper. C’est devenu ma raison sociale, mon site d’entreprise et mon blogue d’affaires, même si j’y raconte encore des sujets sortant de mon domaine ou que j’y mets de surcroit mes opinions qu’elles plaisent ou non.

Comme cela change, je fais tranquillement une séparation entre À la base 2 et moi. Pourquoi? Au bout du compte, comme je mentionne ci-haut, ça reste moi et seulement moi me direz-vous. Effectivement, pour l’instant c’est vrai! De plus, je mentionnais dans un de mes billets dernièrement comme quoi je devais rester moi-même sur Twitter même si je suis rendu à mon compte. Disons que même si c’est vrai et que cela ne changera pas, je pense aussi à long terme. À long terme, À la base 2 ne sera plus que Frédéric Harper, mais une entité qui engagera du monde. Voyez-vous, je suis très heureux de ma situation actuelle, mais j’aspire à redonner un peu à la société en créant des emplois et éventuellement créer une dynamique de travail hors pair dans le milieu du mobile! De plus, si on revient au moment présent, il est fort possible que même si mes ami(e)s me supportent dans ma démarche, ils n’aient pas toujours envie de lire mes nouvelles reliées à mon entreprise ou dans la situation inverse, que des contacts d’affaires ne s’intéressent pas à ma vie personnelle!

Alors, je vous invite donc à devenir fan de notre page Facebook et bien sûr de propager la nouvelle…

]]> 2010-07-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/etre-serieux-sans-se-prendre-au-serieux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Êtres sérieux, sans se prendre au sérieux, tel est une de mes devises. J’ai eu l’idée d’un billet sur ce sujet il y a quelques jours suite à une discussion avec l’ami Sébastien Provencher sur mon compte Twitter vs le fait que je partais à mon compte. Hier soir, durant l’enregistrement du 4e épisode de We are GeekSur les médias sociaux, je suis Frédéric Harper, le même que dans la vraie vie. Je ne me cache pas derrière un personnage et je ne me censure pas sur ce que je dis ou sur ce que je montre. Le plus bel exemple est celui de l’amie Michelle Blanc qui en fait autant et qui est reconnue dans son milieu quand même. Je suis capable d’être sérieux et professionnel, mais je suis capable d’être fou et de party. Tout dépend de la situation, sauf que je ne cache pas mon côté givré sous prétexte que certains clients pourraient me lire et décider de ne plus faire affaire avec moi. Comme je reste moi-même je ne pense pas nuire à mon image, vue que si nous sommes appelés à travailler ensemble, vous aurez le même Fred que celui sur Twitter ou que sur les photos dans mon compte Flickr. Comme disait l’ami Laurent LaSalle (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) hier soir, il préfère que ses futurs clients voient comment il est, car ils auront à travailler ensemble. Je pense exactement pareil! Si un client veut avoir un avant-goût sur ma personne, il peut faire un tour sur mon compte Twitter, venir lire mes opinions ici et déjà avoir une bonne idée à qui il a affaire! Est-ce que parce que je peux faire le fou lors d’une sortie au cirque comme ici ou que je suis en train de prendre un verre comme ici, m’empêche d’être professionnel dans ce que je fais?

C’est en partie mon opinion, mais je comprends en partie l’autre envers de la médaille pour du monde qui sont en entreprise. Comme disait l’ami Carl Charest hier, si son attitude déplait à un potentiel client, c’est Branchez-vous qui écope et non juste lui. Dans mon cas et celui de Laurent, cela ne nous implique que nous…

Pensez-vous qu’on peut être sérieux sans se prendre au sérieux en affaire? Montrez-vous votre côté givré sur le Web? Jusqu’à quel point vous vous exposé ou vous vous censuré? Bref, j’aimerais connaître vos opinions sur le sujet!

Source de l’image : https://www.mischiefmydear.com/dramatispersonae/

]]> 2010-07-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/si-les-docteurs-etaient-traites-comme-des-developpeurs/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

[Sous estimation de l’expertise À titre de développeur d’applications mobiles et Web, on oeuvre dans un monde où très peu de gens s’y connaissent réellement et je veux dire par ici être capable d’ouvrir un environnement de développement et créer le logiciel demandé. Par contre, c’est un domaine où plusieurs personnes pensent s’y connaître. Combien de fois ais-je entendu quelque chose du genre “C’est juste 2-3 fois fenêtres, ça ne sera pas compliqué!” ou “Quoi 4 heures pour créer une page qui permet de faire une réservation? C’est juste une petite page avec 2-3 champs qui envoient de quoi par courriel…”. Ah oui? Avez-vous réellement pensé à tout ce que ça implique ou les possibles difficultés techniques qui se dressent devant nous ? Je crois ici qu’on doit juger selon la réelle capacité de nos connaissances et faire confiance à la personne qualifiée.

Quand un plombier vient chez nous pour réparer un bris sur un tuyau et qu’il me dit que ça me coutera 4h + 1h de déplacement + le matériel, je trouve possiblement ça excessif, car je m’attendais à payer quelque chose comme 2h + le matériel, mais qui suis-je pour en juger réellement? Je n’ai aucune notion dans le domaine et je ne suis pas qualifié pour le travail. Cela serait toute autre chose si j’avais quelques qualifications que ce soit ou si je m’aperçois qu’il a pris moins d’heures ou qu’il soit fainéant et me charge ce temps…

Dans la vie, il n’y a rien de gratuit #

Encore une fois dans mon métier, on essaie souvent de réduire mon tarif horaire, d’aller chercher un forfait ou de me faire créer 1 nouvelle fonctionnalité de plus qui n’était pas dans l’estimation initiale sans coût supplémentaire. À certains moments, c’est justifiable, mais dans la plupart des cas, non!

Loin de moi l’idée de mettre les développeurs ou les travailleurs en TI comme des martyres, car cela se fait dans tous les domaines ou presque. Seriez-vous prêt à me payer 20 heures pour un travail qui m’en prendra 10 ? Non ? Pourquoi donc ? Probablement pour les mêmes raisons que je ne serais prêt à travailleur 20 heures pour un projet pour lequel je serais payé 10! Rien de bien sorcier ici : mon travaille et mon expérience aussi valent un coût et doivent être rémunéré si je veux mettre du pain sur ma table.

Suis-je borné de mettre ceci en perspective? Ressentez-vous ce même traitement dans votre milieu? Est-ce quelque chose de justifiable comme façon d’agir? Avez-vous des expériences à partager à ce sujet? Bref, qu’en pensez-vous?](http://fred.dev/content/uploads/2010/07/comic-strip-web-developers-550x531.jpg)

Source de l’image : https://www.ufunk.net/photoblog/

]]> 2010-07-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/et-si-on-integrait-les-blogueurs-dans-nos-promotions/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Il y a environ 3 semaines, j’avais une discussion fort intéressante avec l’ami Fabrice Calando sur la place des blogueurs dans la promotion Web. Ça semblait être un sujet du moment, car l’amie Josiane Massé en parlait sur Branchez-VousEn quoi consistait cette discussion? Je me demandais pourquoi ici, les blogueurs n’ont pas encore totalement la cote pour les entreprises qui veulent faire parler de leurs produits, de leurs services. On commence à voir un peu plus d’initiative de ce genre, avec exemple l’ami Patrick Dion qui fut invité à un spa ou votre humble serviteur qui fut invité au Cirque du Soleil par Geekbecois et Rogers pour voir Totem. Je parle ici d’inviter des blogueurs à des événements, de leur passer un appareil électronique pour évaluation, de leur donner un livre pour une lecture… Bien sûr, vous me direz que cela m’intéresse, car je suis un blogueur et que j’aime les «freebies» (choses gratuites) ? OK! Je suis d’accord pour ce point, mais croyez-moi, cela ne me touche pas totalement, car je suis loin d’avoir une visibilité aussi grande que les Michelle Blanc de ce monde!

Je parle ici, surtout, de public cible. Je ne suis pas dans le domaine des communications ou du marketing, mais ce que j’ai appris avec le temps, c’est que mon réseau virtuel (blogue, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn…) est majoritairement rempli de personne qui se rapproche de mon domaine d’affaires ou qui ont des passions touchant les miennes. Ce qui se traduit en public cible comme je le dis ci-haut. En d’autres termes, si je me prends en exemple, un éditeur voulant faire connaître son livre sur la cuisine végétarienne ne devrait pas m’envoyer ce livre, car je ne cuisine pas vraiment et je suis loin du végétarisme. Par contre, un livre sur les médias sociaux ou un nouveau téléphone à tester, voilà le genre de publicité qui toucherait mon réseau!

Attention par contre, que ce soit imposé par soit-même comme le dit Josianne dans son billet ou que ce soit une question d’éthique, je préconise deux choses :

1. Je préfère dire que je fais ce billet parce qu’on m’a donné quelque chose ou bref, suite à un contact de X ou Y personne (question d’être transparent);
2. Je veux être libre de dire que cela ne m’a pas plus si c’est le cas.

Je parle au “Je”, car cela vient de ma façon de penser, mais dans ce genre d’entente, je vous conseillerais ces deux règles.

Alors selon vous, pensez-vous que ce soit répandu à plus grande échelle que je le pense ici ? Pensez-vous que mes deux règles sont frivoles ? Est-ce que l’appuie de blogueurs d’influences tels les Laurent Maisonnave, les Benoît Descary ou les Julien Smith de ce monde peuvent réellement aider à faire la promotion de vos produits ou services?

Photo prise par Le Technophile : https://www.letechnophile.net/

]]> 2010-07-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/catherine-gisele-nathalie-marcoux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Catherine G.N. Marcoux est une grande passionnée de l’architecture écologique, du développement durable et des 3R (réduire, réutiliser, recycler). Avec de bons outils et un peu de créativité, il est possible de réduire notre impact sur l’environnement. Le domaine de la construction et de l’architecture, dans lequel les impacts sur l’environnement sont parmi les plus importants, ne fait pas exception à cette règle.

Elle a étudié brièvement à l’École Polytechnique de Montréal en génie chimique (2005-2007) avant de commencer ses études en architecture (Bacc. en design architectural, 2009). Elle commença sa Maîtrise en architecte en septembre 2010 à l’Université de Montréal. Son intérêt pour la construction écologique s’est développé au fil de ses études, avec un déclic lors de ses cours à l’École Polytechnique. Trouvant les techniques de construction trop complexes, elle se demande si il n’y avait pas de techniques plus simples tout en étant efficace. C’est ainsi qu’un intérêt envers des matériaux plus naturel s’est développé. À l’hiver 2009, elle a conçut le design d’une première maison en ballots de paille, présentement en construction, son seul projet construit jusqu’à ce jour.

Les méthodes de construction en ballots de paille et de construction naturelle sont des méthodes de construction qui l’intéresse, de part leurs sensibilités à l’environnement naturel et bâti.

]]> 2010-07-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/et-si-je-bloguais-en-anglais/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Mettons quelques éléments en perspectives

1. Je blogue en français, car c’est ma langue natale et j’en suis fier;
2. Je blogue en français même si je fais quelques fautes;
3. Je blogue en français, parce que je suis plus à l’aise qu’en anglais.

Pourquoi je me pose la question maintenant ? #

1. Je comprend bien l’anglais, le lis bien, l’écris correctement dans des situations simples et le parle très peu : cela serait donc une bonne façon de me pratiquer;
2. Mon lieu est Montréal et je ne veux pas seulement limiter mes actions que dans les sphères francophones : autant dans le domaine des affaires (développement mobile) que dans les organismes/événements possibles;
3. Parce que dans la plupart des cas (cela n’engage que ma perception des choses suite à un constat dans mon entourage), je suis tenté de dire que les francophones lisent pas mal de site en anglais, mais que les anglophones lisent moins les sites en français. Ce qui au bout du compte à pour but, simplement à Montréal d’augmenter la visibilité de ce blogue. Ne parlons pas ici de la possibilité de sortir de la frontière Québec francophone ou Européenne…
4. Parce que comme depuis le début, je blogue pour moi, je blogue pour le plaisir, je blogue pour partager, maintenant j’y ajoute un élément : je blogue pour faire connaître Frédéric Harper/À la base 2. J’ai bien sûr quelques réflexions et réorientation à faire pour que le Frédéric Harper expert en solution mobile prenne un peu le dessus sur le Frédéric Harper instigateur du Festival Geek de Montréal/Créateur des portraits de blogueurs/Gars hyper social qui est dans tous les événements… mais ça, c’est un autre sujet!

Qu’en dites-vous? Bloguez-vous en français ou en anglais? Pour quelle raison avez-vous choisi cette langue? Est-ce que ma réflexion sur le sujet est plutôt anodine à vos yeux? Est-ce que je nuirais à mon lectorat/client/prospect francophone?

Source de l’image : https://www.influx.com.br

]]> 2010-07-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/everybody-was-confoo-fighting/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Those kids were fast as lighting… OK, excusez-moi, lorsque j’étais plus jeune j’ai travaillé dans un salon de quilles où les soirées disco étaient à la mode, alors des chansons disco j’en connais! Vous vous doutez bien que je n’allais pas faire un billet sur la chanson vu mon douteux jeux de mot dans le titre de celui-ci : Everybody was ConfooVous connaissez la conférence sur les technologies Web nommé Confoo ? En gros c’est une conférence qui a officiellement vu le jour l’an passé et qui est l’évolution de la conférence PHP Québec. Pourquoi l’évolution ? Non pas parce que la conférence de PHP Québec n’était pas bien, au contraire, mais plutôt, car il y a eu une ouverture de cette organisation, comme je le mentionnais dans mon billet intitulé “Services, services et services”. Une ouverture sur l’organisation, qui s’allia avec d’autres acteurs importants du milieu du Web, tel que W3Québec, Python Montréal et bien d’autres. Une ouverture aussi sur la technologie : on n’y parlait plus seulement de PHP, mais de Java, des standards Web, .NET, sécurité, Ruby… Bref une belle mentalité qui donna une conférence technique de niveau internationale!

Cette année, moi et ma grande yeule mon côté social, nous nous sommes immiscés dans le comité organisateur. Hé oui, voyant qu’il manquait un élément essentiel à cette conférence montréalaise, je me suis proposé pour organiser une “track”. Quelle “track” ? Celle sur la mobilité. En effet, l’aspect développement mobile n’était pas très présent et toujours dans le but de rendre la mobilité encore plus vivante au sein de la communauté montréalaise, je me suis dévoué à la tâche. C’est donc avec plaisir que je deviens responsable de cette nouvelle branche de technologies présentes lors de la prochaine édition.

Je n’ai pas encore défini exactement quelle tangente cette “track” prendra, ni sur combien de jours elle s’étalera, mais je m’affaire à la tâche. Qu’est-ce que ça veut dire concrètement? Que les sessions sur la mobilité pourront durer entre 1 ou 3 jours. Que ces dites sessions pourront parler de iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry ou autre. Seule chose c’est que pour gardé l’axe de la conférence, toutes les présentations seront techniques.

Alors, passionnés du monde du mobile, qu’aimeriez-vous avoir comme type de conférence ? Seulement du iPhone? Un mixte des technologies ? De plus, vous avez des noms de personnes dans le milieu que ce soit de Montréal ou d’ailleurs dans le monde que vous aimeriez entendre à Confoo? Vous avez des contacts dans le milieu? C’est le moment de me donner vos idées! Prenez note que je tenterais le possible pour mettre certaines choses en branle, mais que je ne peux rien garantir vu les nombreux facteurs. J’attends donc vos idées sur le sujet…

Puis pour bien finir et terminer mon délire du début, voici une petite vidéo pour continuer votre journée sur un bon pied…

]]> 2010-07-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/services-services-et-services/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Dans la folie du Web Empire Avenue, je m’y suis aussi abonnéDepuis quelques années, la mode est à la précision du contenu, à la niche. On ne veut plus aller à l’épicerie du coin pour faire son épicerie. On veut plutôt aller à la boulangerie acheter son pain, à la fruiterie acheter ses fruits, au café du coin acheter son café… Bref, on se spécialise et on veut des spécialistes, ce que je comprends et j’en suis moi-même un ardent défenseur. Cette tendance se vit aussi au niveau du Web. Facebook permet de faire du microblogage, d’avoir un album photo, de planifier des événements… On se tourne toutefois encore vers des services très spécifiques : on met nos photos sur Flickr, on fait des statuts sur Twitter, on créé même des événements sur Plancast! À ce niveau aussi, on cherche à se détacher d’un seul service qui offre tout : cela nous évite de tout perdre si ce dernier ferme. Là où je me questionne, c’est au niveau du nombre… est-ce trop?

Personnellement, je commence à trouver gourmand tout le temps que je passe sur ces différents services. Est-ce le fait d’en utiliser un seul, comme Facebook par exemple, qui regroupe plusieurs de leurs fonctionnalités serait préférable? Je crois que si on met de côté l’aspect réseau ciblé (je n’ai peut-être pas tout mon monde sur Facebook, par exemple), je pense que oui. Avec le temps, je commence à voir un besoin de ramener certaines choses sous un même toit au lieu de se spécialiser. J’en ai fait l’expérience personnelle avec le Festival Geek de Montréal qui rassemblait sous le même toit différents types de Geek plutôt que de faire plusieurs festivals. On voit aussi des exemples très clairs qui fonctionnent bien comme la conférence Confoo qui rassemble plusieurs technologies Web dans la même conférence ou bien Podcamp Montréal qui malgré le nom, ne parle pas que de balado, mais bien des nouveaux médias en général. Ce sont tous des exemples qui focus tout de même sur un aspect (Geek pour l’un, technologies Web pour l’autre et médias sociaux pour le dernier), mais qui rassemble pareil plusieurs éléments plutôt que de subdiviser.

De mon côté, je pense que l’effet inverse de la niche va se produire dans plusieurs domaines d’ici quelques années. Qu’en dites-vous? Pensez-vous que ce phénomène de niche va continuer? Pensez-vous l’inverse?

Source de l’image : https://trinidarlin.blogspot.com/

]]> 2010-07-19T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/pourquoi-choisir-un-consultant/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Dans le premier cas, je n’accepte pas de contrat à plein temps à l’extérieur, car je dois être au minimum libre pour mes autres clients et mon entreprise. Je vais jusqu’à accepter des contrats à 75% de mon temps, mais j’ai besoin d’un minimum pour répondre aux courriels, répondre au téléphone, régler des urgences, fixer des problèmes… Travailler de mes bureaux est toute autre chose, car je suis maître de mon horaire. Malgré le fait que je sois clair sur le sujet, je soupçonne le monde de s’essayer pareil. Peut-être aussi est-ce seulement par politesse et que je ne réponds pas au besoin. Je peux toutefois comprendre que le nombre d’heures que je peux faire n’est pas acceptable pour un projet, mais je le mets clair au tout début!

Dans le deuxième cas, on fini par m’offrir un emploi. De deux choses l’une : soit c’est une tentative comme dans le premier cas malgré le fait que je précise que je ne cherche pas d’emploi, soit c’est dû à ma façon de me vendre qui porte un retour, dois-je dire, assez flatteur.

Ce qui m’amène, enfin, au sujet lui-même : quel est l’avantage pour l’entreprise de me prendre moi, consultant, plutôt que de prendre un employé ? Bien sûr, si on base une semaine de production à 40h00 et que j’en donne 75%, donc 30h00 (ce qui est généralement beaucoup pour une personne à son compte qui doit aussi gérer tout le reste : prospect, réunion, support technique, comptabilité, développement personnel, développement d’affaires…) semaine, je ne deviens donc pas intéressant si on se base que sur cette variable versus un employé (et encore là…). Prenons toutefois d’autres variables pour l’équation :

1. Niveau de production : comme le prochain projet chez vous n’est pas nécessairement dans sa poche, le consultant doit se démarquer des autres, doit être professionnel, doit livrer à 200% et continuellement se dépasser. Au bout du compte, c’est sa réputation qui est en jeu!
2. Engagement : dans la plupart des contrats, la personne à son compte doit vous fournir un estimé de ses travaux, voir un cahier de charge. Avec ce dernier, sauf si une entente autre est faite, ce dernier s’engage à faire un travail X pour un nombre d’heures Y ou un montant Z. Ce qui veut dire que s’il dépasse le temps qu’il avait estimé, c’est en grande partie son problème.
3. Flexibilité : j’ai déjà fait un billet sur le sujet, mais je crois fortement qu’il est impossible d’être productif de 08h00 à 17h00 tous les jours de la semaine. Un des avantages pour la personne à son compte est de pouvoir travailler quand bon lui semble, sans, pour la plupart du temps, être restreint de travailler ou du moins produire, de 08h00 à 17h00. Cela fait en sorte qu’il peut faire vos travaux lorsqu’il se sent d’attaque à 200% et ne pas vous charger pour des heures non productives.
4. Jetable : un consultant ou contractuel, c’est jetable. Qu’est-ce que je veux dire par là ? C’est qu’après un projet, un contrat, si vous n’êtes pas satisfait, vous n’avez aucune obligation (sauf si vous avez signé un contrat qui vous engage à lui fournir du travaille pour 10 ans!!!) de lui fournir d’autres contrats. De plus, même s’il y a eu satisfaction, dans les temps morts l’argent ne sort pas de vos poches.

Bien sûr, ça ne s’applique pas à tout les personnes à leur compte ou à tout les consultants. Ce n’est pas non plus une attaque pour les employés et ni un reproche envers ceux-ci, mais plutôt une mise en valeur des avantages des consultants à leur compte tel que moi.

Avez-vous d’autres points positifs à mettre de l’avant pour vendre vos mérites lorsqu’on vous propose plutôt un emploi? Pensez-vous que je dise n’importe quoi sur le sujet? Pensez-vous qu’il y a plus d’avantages à recruter un employé plutôt qu’un consultant? Bref, j’aimerais entendre vos opinions! Ça pourrait faire une belle page d’informations sur mon site, non!?

Source de l’image : https://www.buschini.fr/junior/

]]> 2010-07-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/kim-auclair/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Kim Auclair se spécialise dans la création et animation de communautés Web. En 2005 elle a fondé MacQuébec, une communauté d’utilisateurs de produits Apple au Québec.

C’est grâce au mentorat d’affaires que son goût pour l’entrepreneuriat s’est développé alors qu’elle était jeune. Elle partage aujourd’hui son expérience sur son blogue www.kimauclair.ca tout en continuant de bâtir de nouveaux projets/entreprises Web dont Entrepreneur-internet.com qui vise à promouvoir l’entrepreneuriat sur le Web.

Kim Auclair est récipiendaire de quelques prix et distinctions honorifiques dont le Top30 des entrepreneurs à surveiller du Journal de Montréal / ARGENT en 2008. Elle fait aussi partie du CA de Mentorat Québec.

]]> 2010-07-09T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/fabrice-calando/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Fabrice Calando est consultant en médias sociaux et internet, spécialisé dans le développement et en mise en œuvre de stratégies. Après avoir œuvré, chez Cossette et Astral Média, dans ces deux activités, il développe et mets en place des stratégies pour les entreprises chez Adviso et pour les membres de Linked Québec. Il est aussi modérateur pour Linked Québec sur LinkedIn et Twitter, la plus grande communauté d’affaires du Québec et le plus important groupe francophone sur LinkedIn.

Vous pouvez suivre son blogue fabricecalando.ca et échanger avec lui sur LinkedIn, Twitter et Facebook.

]]> 2010-06-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/diane-massicotte/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Diane Massicotte oeuvre depuis trente ans dans le monde des communications. Journalisme, production radio et télévision, relations de presse et relations publiques, l’ont amenée à côtoyer tous les intervenants du domaine des arts et de la culture francophone. Son intérêt pour les gens de l’édition a toujours fait partie de son parcours professionnel.

Aujourd’hui c’est une blogueuse passionnée et elle prend plaisir à être branchée sur les médias sociaux.

Elle publiera cet automne une biographie qui devrait faire du bruit…

]]> 2010-06-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/thoma-daneau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Finissant à la maîtrise en commerce électronique de l’HEC, Thoma se fera toujours un plaisir de vous parler médias sociaux, que ce soit Twitter, Facebook ou même Wordpress. Souvent présent dans les événements médias sociaux “offline”, il aime être avec du monde, pour contrer le fait de travailler devant un ordinateur toute la journée. Il croît en la paix dans la monde. Pour en savoir plus sur lui, dites-lui salut à un événement web !

]]> 2010-06-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/peut-on-devenir-une-star-du-web-au-quebec/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Depuis que j’ai rencontré Guiz dans le cadre du Festival Geek de Montréal, j’ai découvert un artiste plein de talent et d’imagination. Ce qu’il fait en vidéoTantôt, je suis tombé sur une vidéo d’une fille surnommée AppleGirl qui a fait une chanson de Lady Gaga avec plusieurs iPhone. Au moment d’écrire ces lignes, en seulement trois mois elle a eu 2 741 758 visionnements de son clip, ce qui est excellent. Au Québec, 7 mois avant, l’ami Guiz faisait une vidéo des Beatles avec presque le même principe, mais en quatre fois plus de temps, il a eu au moment d’écrire ceci 33 818 visionnements! Presque 100 fois moins en 4 fois plus de temps, incroyable! Quelle est la différence entre les deux ? AppleGirl a fait une chanson plus jeune que celle de Guiz (Lady Gaga vs Beatles) ? Elle s’est filmée live tandis que ce dernier lui, a fait un montage vidéo (ce qui est beaucoup plus de travaille) ? OK, je l’admets, elle est bien plus sexy que Guiz (aucune rancune mec!), mais tout de même! Guiz a même fait une chanson des Beatles, qui disons-le, sont un groupe un tantinet connu à travers le monde et avec laquelle la barrière de la langue n’a pas lieu d’être…

Je me questionne donc sur ces vidéos. Je ne cherche pas à savoir si le vidéo d’AppleGirl est meilleure que celle de Guiz, car selon moi, les deux sont excellentes, mais plutôt sur le pourquoi cette grande différence de visionnement entre les deux! Peut-on devenir une star du Web au Québec ou plutôt, si on vient du Québec? Est-ce le retard en TI et du côté d’Internet au Québec, voir au Canada, qui fait en sorte que nous ne franchissons pas les limites du territoire? Sommes-nous plus fan des vidéos fascinants qui proviennent d’ailleurs que de nos artistes locaux ? Je suis peut-être un Québécois frustré ou jaloux, mais aidez-moi à comprendre!

MAJ

Suite à une partie des retours que j’ai eu sur ce billet dans Twitter et Facebook, je dois faire une précision sur ma pensée question de bien me faire comprendre. Je sais très bien qu’il y a des “success story” au Québec tel que le LIPDUB de l’UQAM ou Patrick Boivin qui fait des vidéos hallucinantes, mais le sous-entendu de ma question était plutôt si cela est plus difficile? Combien de vedettes naissent sur le Web ailleurs comparativement à ici si on garde le ratio des trucs spectaculaires? Si, comme disait l’amie Debbie Rouleau, une bonne masse de gens d’ici ne snobe pas notre contenu local, comme si on n’était pas aussi bon qu’ailleurs au Québec? Par cette mise à jour, je vous invite aussi à commenter à la source, soit sur ce blogue comme le disait l’ami Nicolas Roberge.

Source de l’image : https://www.fabriqueauquebec.qc.ca

]]> 2010-06-17T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/decouvrir-des-podcasteurs-pour-le-podcamp-montreal/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

On m’a offert il y a une dizaine de jours de jumelé deux passions en une seule : mon projet de capsule vidéo Portrait de blogueurs et les podcasts. Plus je fais de nouvelle capsule, à raison d’environ une par semaine, plus j’aime ce projet et plus j’adore découvrir de nouveaux blogues et blogueurs. De plus, je suis un consommateur de podcast et la demande a été faite pour une conférence (anticonférence) que j’aime bien, soit le [Podcamp MontréalCes capsules seront diffusées sur le site Web de l’événement à raison d’une par semaine (cela dépendra de plusieurs facteurs). Ce projet devrait débuter sous peu, le temps de préparer le thème du vidéo (image, son…) et de se faire une petite liste de podcasteurs. Nul ne va sans dire que j’aurais donc besoin de vous! À la base, le principe est simple : une petite vidéo dans laquelle vous répondrez à trois questions :

1. De quoi parle votre podcast ? Bref qu’est-ce que c’est !
2. Pourquoi produisez-vous un podcast ?
3. Que faites-vous dans la vie ?

Êtes-vous un podcasteur ou une podcastrice ? Si oui, que ce soit audio ou vidéo, seriez-vous intéressé à faire un petit vidéo pour faire la promotion de votre podcast et de vous même par la même occasion ? Si vous ne produisez pas de podcast, n’ayez crainte, j’ai tout de même une mission pour vous : il s’agit de me suggérer des noms ou même de montrer ce billet au podcasteurs que vous écoutez. Plus nous aurons de capsules, plus intéressant le concept sera et plus de chance nous aurons tous de trouver de nouveaux podcasts a écouté!](https://podcampmontreal.org/ “Site Web de Podcamp Montréal”)

Source de l’image : https://www.martinveronneau.com

]]> 2010-06-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/marie-annick-boisvert/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Après avoir œuvré en agence, Marie-Annick Boisvert lance sa propre entreprise en 2000, donnant ainsi libre cours à sa grande passion : l’organisation d’événements. La marque de commerce d’Événements Marianik? Le talent, l’originalité et la démesure. Pendant une décennie, elle fait vibrer la métropole avec des événements audacieux, réalisant des mandats pour des organisations aussi prestigieuses que le Cirque du Soleil, Air Transat, TVA Films, Cascades, Ubisoft, Oakley et Reebok. Elle entame ensuite un virage 2.0 avec son tout nouveau service de stratégie médias sociaux en événement. Ses premiers clients? Le Festival mode et design de Montréal, les soirées Alsace au Menu et la Semaine de mode Montréal. Précurseure de l’événementiel il y a 10 ans, elle n’en innove pas moins aujourd’hui en devenant l’une des premières organisatrices d’événements à offrir un tel service.

]]> 2010-06-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/pierre-luc/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Pierre-Luc est un jeune professionnel de 26 ans débordant peut être trop d’imagination, d’humour et de folie pour être exclusivement confiné dans un cubicule. Il entretient donc son blogue dans ses temps libres afin de pouvoir partager ses monologues. Il a aussi complété un cours du soir à l’École Nationale de l’Humour en écriture et s’est dit en voyant le vidéo qu’il devrait se couper les cheveux plus souvent!

]]> 2010-06-10T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/we-are-geek-une-idee-qui-devient-projet/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Certains d’entres vous le savent déjà, mais je viens de partir une balado audio nommé We are Geek. Vous me direz que j’utilise pas mal le terme Geek (exemple : le [Festival Geek de MontréalL’idée est simple : une balado audio où quelques ami(e)s se retrouvent devant un café, un thé, une bière dans un endroit public tel un café ou un bistro pour discuter, sans prétention, de divers sujets tels les médias sociaux, la culture montréalaise, l’informatique et tous les sujets qui nous intéressent. Pas de réelle ligne directrice si ce n’est qu’on donne notre point de vue, on argumente, on discute et surtout on s’amuse! L’émission se termine lorsque nous n’avons plus rien (d’intéressant) à dire.

](https://geekfestmtl.com/ “Site Web du Festival Geek de Montréal”)

Pour ce faire, je me suis entouré d’ami(e)s avec qui je sais que j’aurais un plaisir à faire ces émissions aux 2-3 semaines et qui auraient eux aussi le plaisir de se joindre à moi : Carl Charest, Cyril Robert, Debbie Rouleau et Sébastien Provencher ont relevé le défi. Malheureusement, je n’ai pu inclure toutes les personnes qui étaient intéressées au projet pour réduire le nombre de personnes alentour de la table et avoir des discussions plus aisément.

Le premier épisode est déjà en ligne. Soyez certains que le concept évoluera avec nous et que je vais m’améliorer dans la conception de balado audio, chose qui n’est pas de première nature chez moi.

Je vous invite donc à aller consulter sous peu le site qui est en pleine mise à jour par l’amie Debbie. Je vous invite, bien sûr, à aller écouter notre premier épisode (vous pouvez aussi vous y abonner sur iTunes)! J’espère que vous aurez autant de plaisir à l’écouter que nous en avons eu à le faire.

Bonne écoute

]]> 2010-06-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-la-base-2-arrive-au-centre-ville/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Depuis lundi, nous sommes rendus dans nos nouveaux bureaux. Sans tambour ni trompette nous avons amené À la base 2 à un autre niveau : nous sommes maintenant situés dans le centre-ville au coin de la rue St-Hubert et Ste-Catherine Est (plus d’informations dans la section contact).Après moins d’une semaine, nous sommes bien heureux de la situation géographique de notre nouvel espace créatif. Situés à 2 minutes à pied de la station de métro Berri-UQAM, les adeptes du transport en commun sont bien servit. De plus la vie qui se dégage de cet espace montréalais est très plaisante : nous aimons l’action et nous sommes servis! Juste hier avec la fenêtre grande ouverte, nous entendions une reprise des Colocs pour une fête qui avait lieu dans le parc Émilie-Gamelin. Quelle ambiance! En plus de rendre nos dîners plus variés, nos emplettes plus faciles, et nos déplacements plus rapides, cela veut aussi dire que nos clients profiteront d’un bureau plus facilement accessible.

Avec ce déménagement est née une collaboration fleurissante : À la base 2 s’associe à un partenaire d’affaires nommé Kindoweb.com. Ce dernier se positionne comme un expert en conception et stratégie Web, deux éléments qui ne font pas partie de notre offre de service. Comme nous sommes convaincus que chaque entreprise doit focaliser sur son domaine d’expertise, nous nous associons avec cette entreprise qui oeuvre depuis quelques années dans le milieu tout en possédant un porte-folio très impressionnant. Nous pourrons donc vous offrir un éventail de service plus grand, tout en ne négligeant pas la qualité!

Une nouvelle aire commence ici, joignez-vous à nous…

Source de l’image : https://www.extanet.com/blog/

]]> 2010-05-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/benoit-mercier/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Biographie à venir.

]]> 2010-05-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/renart-leveille/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Artiste multidisciplinaire (écriture, caricature, musique, art visuel, etc.), Pascal « Renart » Léveillé est devenu créateur de contenu web en démarrant son blogue au début de 2007 où il s’est rapidement fait remarquer par la communauté par ses textes principalement éditoriaux. Rapidement devenu un blogueur d’opinion influent, il n’est pas rare de le retrouver dans les blogolistes de blogueurs renommés. Jusqu’à ce jour, il s’est joint à plusieurs blogues politiques et a été rédacteur pour un site d’information important. Renart s’investit énormément sur la plateforme Twitter, où il se fait suivre par des milliers d’abonnés. Tout cela lui a donné l’expérience et l’expertise nécessaire pour s’occuper des médias sociaux pour l’Edgar Hypertaverne, bar où il travaille comme DJ. Il est aussi illustrateur pigiste et ses caricatures se sont retrouvées sur le site de l’émission Infoman, entre autres.

]]> 2010-05-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-courriels-moins-importants-que-le-telephone/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je ne cache pas le fait que je préfère de loin communiquer par courriel que par téléphone. Ce n’est toutefois pas une question de timidité ou un aspect antisocial, mais bien un côté pratique. En effet, le courriel permet deux choses :

1. Prendre le temps de bien penser au contenu et pouvoir faire l’envoi quand bon nous semble;
2. Permettre aux destinataires de répondre quand il pourra, voudra.

Pour moi, c’est deux avantages, peut-être anodin pour certains, valent leur pensant d’or. Tout ça pour dire que pour moi, c’est un outil de communication de premier plan. Par contre, cela n’est pas pareil pour tout le monde. Souvent, je peux envoyer un courriel à quelqu’un, qui je sais très bien peut me répondre dans un délai raisonnable, me retourne une réponse 1-4 semaines après. Ces mêmes personnes me donnent souvent la même réponse de manière instantanée par téléphone ou dans un délai qui passe de semaines à heures! Pourquoi? Est-ce que ma requête est moins importante par courriel que lorsque je la formule par téléphone? Bien sûr, dans mon questionnement je n’inclus pas nécessairement les personnes qui ne sont pas totalement à l’aise avec les technologies.

Alors, voici quelques conseils qui proviennent de mon utilisation et de ma façon de gérer mes courriels lorsque j’en reçois un :

• Je réponds à tous les courriels dans un délai maximum de 5-7 jours;
• Si ma réponse ne demande pas plus que 5 minutes, je le fais immédiatement;
• Si je n’ai pas les informations pour répondre et que cela peut être long, j’envoie un courriel mentionnant la réception de ce dernier et que la réponse suivra dès que possible;
• Si ce n’est pas dans mes dossiers actuellement prioritaire, je les range dans un dossier selon la priorité : ASAP (As Soon As Possible - Dès que j’ai le temps de répondre), Cette semaine (au plus tard dimanche) et Wait (En attente - j’attends une information ou quelqu’un pour pouvoir répondre);

Rien de bien compliqué et je ne prétends pas avoir la science absolue, mais c’est une méthode qui fonctionne bien pour moi. De votre côté, comment gérez-vous vos courriels? Êtes-vous plus du type téléphone ou courriel? Croyez-vous que le courriel devrait être traité avec la même importance que les appels téléphoniques?

]]> 2010-05-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/une-question-de-perception/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Dans la vie, tout est une question de perception. Comment on perçoit les choses. Comment le monde nous perçoit. Il faut toutefois faire attention. Je ne dis pas ici de cacher sa vraie nature pour plaire à tout le monde, loin de là, mais il faut faire attention à ce que nous ne soyons pas mal-jugé, mal interprété.Un petit exemple anodin pour vous expliquer un peu ce que j’ai en tête. Hier, j’avais un dîner d’affaires avec deux personnes que je connais un peu et une personne totalement inconnue. Le dîner fut très plaisant, mais je n’ai pas parlé énormément. Était-ce parce que ce dernier était en anglais, langue avec laquelle je dois l’avouer, je ne suis pas le plus à l’aise ? Non, car avant l’arrivée des deux autres personnes, j’ai pas mal discuté avec une des personnes qui parlaient anglais. Était-ce parce que le repas, les personnes ou les discussions étaient ennuyeux? Pas du tout, j’ai eu le plaisir de connaître une nouvelle personne et d’en connaître deux autres plus au niveau des affaires. Était-ce parce que j’étais gêné, timide? Quelle question, toute personne qui me connait sait que je suis probablement la dernière personne gênée ou timide sur cette terre! C’était simplement, car je n’avais pas beaucoup de choses à ajouter et professionnellement parlant, je ne parle jamais pour rien dire. De plus, j’écoutais attentivement, j’analysais l’information et je réfléchissais à différentes possibilités d’aider ou de m’impliquer dans le projet. Pourtant, je ne sais pas pour les autres, mais une des personnes sur place à perçu trois choses de moi: Fred est un gars timide et/ou qui n’ose pas s’exprimer vu son niveau d’anglais et/ou le projet ne l’intéresse pas. Était-ce que je voulais qu’on perçoive de moi? Bien sûr que non!

Heureusement, pour cet exemple, cela ne me causera pas préjudice. Est-ce que cela aurait pu me faire perdre un partenaire? Un client? Des contrats? Possible! Alors malheureusement, dans la vie, ce n’est pas toujours ce qu’on pense dégager comme personnalité qui gagne, mais plutôt ce qu’on perçoit de nous!

Et vous, que pensez-vous de la perception des autres? Pensez-vous que cela peut vous porter préjudice? Avez-vous des situations semblables qui vous sont arrivées?

P.-S. En cherchant une image pour agrémenter ce billet, je suis tombé sur la pyramide de la perception : très intéressant! Ça illustre assez bien ce que j’avais en tête…

Source de l’image : https://darmano.typepad.com/

]]> 2010-05-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/savoir-sadapter-une-question-de-bon-sens/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ce matin, j’ai reçu un courriel de la Communauté .NET Montréal qui avait comme sujet “Hockey ou .NET? Pourquoi pas les deux!”. Ce courriel contenait une note toute spéciale en rouge mentionnant que la partie de hockey de ce soir serait présenté en arrière-plan pendant la présentation du groupe d’utilisateur. N’est-ce pas s’adapter? En effet, les responsables auraient pu décider d’annuler la soirée sous prétexte que plusieurs participants ne viendraient pas vu que les Canadiens disputent une partie ce soir. Ils auraient aussi pu se dire qu’ils allaient la tenir pareille, peu importe ce qu’il arrive. Le premier scénario aurait embêté ceux qui ne sont pas partisans du glorieux ou causer problème à ceux qui auraient voulu venir, mais qui n’auraient pas pu céduler un autre soir cette conférence. Le deuxième cas aurait pu empêcher les vrais «fans» de profiter de cette soirée. Alors que faire? S’adapter! Faire une soirée mixant l’utile à l’agréable. Bien sûr, la présentation sera dérangée par la partie, mais je crois que dans ce cas, cela sera bénéfique pour la communauté. Hé pourtant, peut-être que les administrateurs du groupe ne sont même pas partisans!

Pourquoi je parle de ceci? Simplement parce que cela me frappe depuis quelque temps comment certaines personnes, certaines entreprises ne s’adaptent pas. Elles ne s’adaptent pas, soit à leur entourage, à leur client, à la société actuelle… Prenons le bistro en bas de mon bureau, un autre exemple, mais celui-ci un peu moins positif selon moi. Mettons ce dernier encore en relation avec le hockey (non, je ne suis pas fan, je préfère de loin le football) : dans leur cas, ils ne veulent pas mettre sur écran les parties, car ils ne sont pas fans et ne sont pas “du genre à mettre la partie pour avoir des clients”. Cette petite coop est pleine la plupart du temps, sauf les soirs de parties. Pourquoi? Le monde cherche un endroit pour aller prendre un verre, ou casser la croûte en écoutant la partie et ils ne peuvent le faire là. Un restaurant, coop ou non, existe pour faire de l’argent, alors devons-nous s’adapter au besoin de nos clients ou rester sur place en regardant l’argent se perdre? Les montréalais vive au rythme du hockey, alors pourquoi se battre contre ça?

J’aurais pu développer plus longuement sur le sujet, mais je pense que ces deux exemples expriment chacune des mentalités. Alors dans la vie, que ce soit au niveau personnel ou professionnel, doit-on s’adapter? S’adapter au besoin de notre compagne, de nos enfants, de nos voisins, de nos clients, de nos employés… ? Est-ce que dans certains cas la faim justifie les moyens? Devons-nous être rigide? Jusqu’où devons-nous nous adapter?

]]> 2010-05-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/sebastien-provencher/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Sébastien Provencher est cofondateur de Praized Média, une compagnie montréalaise développant des outils sociaux conçus pour les médias traditionnels. Possédant plus de 12 années d’expérience en recherche locale, médias en ligne et divertissement interactif, Sébastien a joué, entre 1999 et 2007, un rôle important en formulant la stratégie des activités en ligne de Groupe Pages Jaunes. Il a notamment développé le produit publicitaire Web le plus populaire (Annuaire

Unique) de l’entreprise, réalisé un partenariat stratégique avec Google et créé une vision stratégique orientée vers la recherche locale. Sébastien a fondé Praized Média (www.praizedmedia.com) en 2007 pour aider les éditeurs médias locaux (annuaires, journaux, etc.) à mieux utiliser le potentiel des médias sociaux et la publicité bouche à oreille en-ligne. Leur plus récent produit est Needium (www.needium.com), un outil pour générer des opportunités d’affaires dans les médias sociaux. Il écrit sur les médias traditionnels, la recherche locale et les médias sociaux dans son blogue à blogs.praized.com/seb et gazouille à @sebprovencher.

]]> 2010-05-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/attention-ce-site-change-de-vocation/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Suite à mon dernier billet “Je redeviens un agent libre sous peu, professionnellement parlant!” plusieurs réflexions se sont imposées. Pour ceux qui me suivent sur Twitter ou son dans mon FacebookSuite à cette décision, je revois aussi la vocation de ce site. Blogue semi-personnel, semi-professionnel depuis plus de 2 ans, ce site deviendra celui de mon entreprise. Pourquoi faire ce changement qui est à la fois peu orthodoxe et déplaisant pour mes lecteurs actuels ? Simplement, car lorsque j’ai débuté ce blogue, je cherchais un nom original, de quoi qui sonnait informatique et je me suis toujours dit que de partir à mon compte, j’utiliserais ce nom. Ce qui sera chose faite très rapidement!

N’ayez crainte, le fil RSS restera le même. Les modifications seront plutôt au niveau de la présentation pour en devenir un site informationnel contenant un blogue. Pour l’instant, les billets seront laissés sur place, mais je devrais y faire un tri. Les billets à titre plus personnels seront possiblement déplacés dans un autre site qui pourra me servir de blogue personnel ou tout simplement laissé sur place aussi. Dans le deuxième cas, cela ne changera pas grand-chose pour vous tous et dans le premier cas, vous aurez la possibilité de choisir de suivre mes billets plus personnel ou plus professionnel et même les deux!

Beaucoup de pain sur la planche pour moi ces prochains jours, mais que voulez-vous, je viens du Web et j’offrirais aussi des services Web, alors pour moi, un bon site est primordial: cordonnier mal chaussé je ne serais point!

Source de l’image: https://pix-fire.skyrock.com/

]]> 2010-04-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/je-redeviens-un-agent-libre-sous-peu-professionnellement-parlant/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

On ne sait jamais quand cela va arriver, mais d’ici peu je vais me retrouver sans emplois. Par chance, voyons le côté positif, ce n’est pas dû à ma personne que cela arrive, mais bien à un événement au sein de l’entreprise qui m’emploie présentement et avec lequel je ne peux malheureusement rien faire. Suite à cette situation, je dois prendre une décision très rapidement: trouver un autre emploi ou partir à mon compte!

Cela fait plusieurs fois que je pense au deuxième choix, mais je suis quelqu’un de très loyal envers une entreprise et j’aimais beaucoup ce que je faisais chez mon employeur actuel au même titre que j’aimais bien l’entreprise. Bien sûr, cela implique plusieurs choses, dont d’avoir un certain coussin pour s’aider à démarrer, chose que je dois avouer, je n’ai pas présentement. Par contre, pour l’instant je n’écarte aucune possibilité et je regarde ce qui s’offre à moi.

D’un autre côté, même si la stabilité n’y est pas toujours, je regarde aussi pour un nouvel emploi. Le problème en vieillissant et en gagnant en expérience personnelle et professionnel, c’est qu’on sait encore plus ce qu’on veut et surtout ce qu’on ne veut pas/plus. De plus, j’ai tout de même un parcours (CV en format PDF) assez diversifié dans le milieu des technologies :

• Programmeur analyste;
• Développeur Java Senior;
• Chef d’équipe;
• Chef de projet;
• Architecte logiciel / Développeur mobile.

Sans compter que tout ceci s’est autant fait dans les milieux des technologies à sources ouvertes (Open Source tel que Java, Perl, PostgreSQL…) que dans des milieux plus propriétaires (tel que Microsoft avec C#, SQL Server…). J’ai eu le plaisir de travailler du côté du développement d’applications Web, de l’intégration d’application, des applications mobiles que de me dépasser au niveau de la gestion de projet ou d’équipe. C’est donc un parcours très motivant et rempli de défis auxquels j’ai fait face c’est dernières années.

Comme je le mentionnais ci-haut, je n’écarte rien comme possibilité, car je me questionne aussi sur ce que je pourrais faire à d’autres niveaux, tel qu’avec les médias sociaux ou comme je l’avais déjà mentionné à titre d’emplois de rêve dans mes résolutions pour 2010, évangéliste pour une technologie en laquelle je crois! Je suis sûr que mon côté social, mon professionnalisme reconnu me donneront un bon coup de main. Disons que c’est ici que je pourrais constater si les nombreux contacts que j’ai pu faire sur le Web, dans des conférences, par le biais du Festival Geek Montréal ou toutes ces activités du genre Yulbiz pourront m’aider à passer cette étape de ma vie, qui disons-le, ne me rendra que plus fort!

Je vous invite donc à passer le mot dans votre réseau ou à me contacter à fharper@alabase2.com.

Source de l’image: https://jemblog.com

]]> 2010-04-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/fabien-major/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Biographie à venir.

]]> 2010-04-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/bruno-pierre-campeau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Biographie à venir.

]]> 2010-04-20T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/cyril-robert/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Cyril Robert, developeur Python/Django pour Le Site, et co-fondateur de Pantherific est une developeur logiciel orienté vers l’architecture et l’optimisation. Son experience inclut la conception et la mise en place d’un des plus gros systemes d’hebergement d’IVR au Canada, la conception de systèmes de stockage hautement efficaces, et la conception d’un service de partage d’information simpliste pour une agence multinationale. Il est aussi un membre actif du comité d’organisation de Montréal Python, et a été le maitre de cérémonie pour quelques événements mensuels depuis avril 2010. Il a étudié à l’Université de Montréal, ou il a obtenu un Baccalauréat en informatique en 2007.

]]> 2010-04-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/maxime-debleu/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Maxime DeBleu est traqué. Ils l’espionnent et le suivent. Ils lui tendent des embuscades, placent des pièges sur sa route, tentent de le capturer ou de l’éliminer. Ils sont partout.

Mais Maxime DeBleu est futé et agile. Il déjoue leurs attaques, perce leurs déguisements et échappe à leurs manigances. Son journal est un recueil de ces péripéties. En partageant ses expériences, il souhaite enseigner aux vrais humains comment résister à ces mutantosaures, robotroniques, hybrides radioactifs et Martiens carnivores.

Pour la survie de l’humanité.

]]> 2010-04-09T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/camille-dg/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

J’ai commencé ma carrière en croyant que je deviendrais une nageuse olympique, puis une actrice oscarisée, puis j’ai cru que je prendrais la place de Bernard Derome, mais Céline Galipeau m’a doublé. Alors, je me suis rappelé que dès le primaire, je rêvais d’être écrivaine. Depuis, j’ai produit deux pièces de théâtre que j’ai écrites, j’ai travaillé à Radio-Canada pour les Jeux Olympiques de Pékin, j’ai été lectrice de nouvelles à CIBL, animatrice à Bombe.tv et Aquavideo.tv. J’ai occupée le poste de coordonnatrice de contenus réseaux sociaux et média numérique chez Canoë.ca. Puis, j’ai joint les rangs des agence de publicité en travaillant en tant que gestionnaire des médias sociaux pour le compte de Cloudraker. Je me suis occupée de marques comme RBC, Shue Uemura, Lancôme, Public Mobile et plus. Vous l’avez deviné, du web, j’en mange! Mon mode de vie? Le surf. Je ne peux pas vivre sans le sport dans mon quotidien. Ne me cherchez pas en voiture, je serai probablement en vélo!

Je suis maintenant chroniqueur à l’émission M.Net avec Denis Talbot sur les ondes de MusiquePlus pour parler de technologies, médias sociaux et de jeux. Je tiens aussi une chronique téléphone mobile à l’émissione LeLab à Vox avec Philippe Fehmiu. En plus, je continue d’animer à Bombe.tv.

Afin de m’assurer d’avoir un horaire bien chargé, je blogue pour le site LesBachelières que j’ai cofondé avec huit autres jeunes femmes inspirantes du monde des communications. Je suis aussi chroniqueuse pour SweetSpotQC.ca, Magazine Urbain, Canoe.ca et autres sites. Je ne peux pas vivre sans écrire!

Je suis aussi stratège et gestionnaire de communauté à mon compte tout en travaillant en association avec Marianik pour créer un buzz médias sociaux pour divers événements montréalais comme Igloofest, Festival Mode et Design, Semaine de la Mode de Montréal, les soirées Alsace au Menu et plus.

]]> 2010-04-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/fanie-gregoire/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Fanie Grégoire est illustratrice et maquilleuse de la région de Montréal.

Sur ses blogues elle y publie ses derniers travaux en illustrations, BD, maquillage, alouette!

On y retrouve également des tutoriels très utiles, des freebies, des critiques de publications artistiques et elle tente d’inspirer les gens autant que possible!

Dans ses temps libres, Fanie aime bien siroter une tasse de thé avec son chat noir sur les genoux.

Blogue Anglo: www.thecraftylife.com

Blogue Franco: www.fanie.ca

]]> 2010-04-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/michelle-blanc/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Michelle Blanc est l’une des premières titulaires de la M.Sc. Commerce électronique, avec une spécialisation en gestion, au Canada.Elle a de nombreuses publications scientifiques, de recherches, didactiques et de vulgarisation en plus d’animer le blogue michelleblanc.com qui est l’un des coups de cœur de la revue de marketing française Strategies.fr et est classé comme l’un des plus influents blogue francophone mondial selon plusieurs sources et indices différents. Elle est récipiendaire de nombreux honneurs, est auteure de Les médias sociaux 101 et coauteure de Pourquoi Bloguer dans un contexte d’affaires, a été impliquée dans de nombreux mandats d’analyses, de stratégies et de conseil de gestion et de marketing Internet dans un grand éventail de secteurs industriels. Elle fait d’ailleurs partie du groupe des 50 experts canadiens consultés par Industrie Canada afin de déterminer les objectifs et politiques du gouvernement du Canada en matière d’économie numérique pour le marché intérieur ou pour la position canadienne aux forums internationaux comme l’OCDE. À titre de conférencière, madame Blanc a débuté son parcours au Council on e-business innovation du Conference Board of Canada et as par la suite fait de nombreuses conférences ici et ailleurs.

Madame Blanc est aussi cofondatrice et présidente de Yulbiz.org, mouvement international regroupant les gens d’affaires intéressés par les blogues et les blogueurs intéressés par les affaires. Après quatre ans d’existence, Yulbiz est maintenant dans dix villes de sept pays.

]]> 2010-04-02T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/menage-de-printemps-en-140-caracteres/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Aujourd’hui, j’ai perdu un peu de plaisir à y être. Pas que je n’aime plus tweeter, au contraire, juste que présentement je ne fais que ça, écrire. Je ne prends plus le temps de lire les tweets qui passent! Voyez-vous, c’est que j’ai mal géré mes abonnés. Pas que certains ne soient pas digne d’intérêt, au contraire, juste qu’il y a tellement d’information sur Internet qu’entre mon Google Reader, mes podcasts sur iTunes et toutes les autres sources d’informations, présentement mon fil Twitter contient trop d’informations hors de mon champ d’expertise. Je m’en suis réellement aperçu en utilisant un outil que l’ami Sébastien Provencher m’a conseillé : Twitter Times. Pour quelqu’un comme lui qui prend le soin de sélectionner ses abonnés selon son domaine (il ne me suit même pas - vieux “running gag” entre lui et moi), c’est une ressource très intéressante. Par contre pour moi, ce ne fut pas aussi révélateur que pour Sébastien.

Bien sûr, je ne blâme pas Twitter. Twitter n’a aucune valeur à lui seul : c’est les gens que vous suivez qui lui donnent de la valeur ou non. Au départ, j’ai été pris par le fait de vouloir suivre le plus de monde possible pour avoir le plus d’informations possible ainsi que le plus d’interactions possible. Mon seul critère était de choisir du monde qui venait du Québec, ce que vous avouerez, laisse passer bien du monde.

Donc aujourd’hui, à plus de 1000 abonnés, je commence un ménage drastique de mon compte. Oui, je pourrais faire des listes dans des outils comme Tweetdeck ou faire comme l’amie Michelle Blanc et s’abreuver à la rivière, mais je préfère revenir aux sources (jeu de mots). Bien sûr, certains seront offusqués, mais que voulez-vous… c’est la vie! Je vais donc focusser sur des gens que je connais en personne, sur du monde actif dans la communauté informatique et des médias sociaux du Québec ainsi que sur mon expertise, le monde des applications mobiles.

Et vous, de quelle manière gérez-vous votre liste d’abonnés? Préférez-vous avoir plus de monde ou sélectionner vos abonnés?

Source de l’image: https://leblog.vendeesign.com

]]> 2010-03-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/portrait-de-blogueurs-vole-de-ses-propres-ailes/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Hé oui, mon petit vole de [ses propres ailesL’idée de faire des portraits de blogueurs est rendue à sa deuxième capsules et ce n’est qu’un début. J’ai déjà quelques personnes en attentes alors vous aurez déjà droit à quelques capsules supplémentaires sous peu.

Donc pour éviter de surcharger ce blogue de vidéo qui pourrait ou ne pourrait pas vous intéresser, j’ai décidé de séparer le tout. Pour ceux intéressés par mes billets, vous pourrez continuer à me lire sans soucis. Pour ceux qui aiment bien les petites capsules vidéo de blogueurs et blogueuses, vous pourrez aussi le faire sans vous encombrer de mes billets. Pis pour les deux, bien, vous n’aurez qu’à aller sur les deux sites, haha. Le site se veut simple, très simple: l’idée était que l’attention se porte sur les blogueurs et blogueuses plutôt que surs le site en tant que tel. En espérant que vous découvrirez de nouveaux blogues sensationnels!

P.-S. Le logo sort mieux avec le noir et blanc inversés sur un fond noir.

](https://portraitdeblogueurs.com/ “Site Web des portraits de blogueurs”)

]]> 2010-03-26T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/portrait-de-blogueurs-002-stephanie-marcoux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Voici le deuxième portrait de blogueur. Je suis content de voir que le concept plait et que certains blogueurs et blogueuses m’approchent par eux-mêmes maintenant. Cela ne prend que 15 petites minutes, alors ne soyez pas gênez et proposez-vous! J’ai bien du plaisir à ces petits vidéos et pour l’instant, ceux qui ont passé sous la caméra ont eu bien du plaisir aussi…

P.-S.: Je mijote sur le fait de faire un site complètement distinct pour séparer mon blogue des portraits.

]]> 2010-03-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/stephanie-marcoux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Blogueuse et podcasteuse montréalaise, chanteuse et peintre-dessinatrice qui niaise, bijoutière et enseignante bien à l’aise.

]]> 2010-03-16T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/plusieurs-idees-pour-en-avoir-une-bonne/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Traduction libre de “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”

C’est une phrase avec laquelle je vis pas mal ces temps-ci. Je ne sais pas totalement ce qui s’est passé dans ma vie, mais il y a eu un changement. Mon cerveau est en ébullition à temps plein. Pas qu’il était mort avant, quoi qu’en dise mes supposés ami(e)s tout aussi baveux les uns que les autres! Plusieurs idées surgissent, que ce soit pour le travaille, pour Internet, sur les médias sociaux, pour le plaisir, dans ma vie personnelle…

Bien évidemment, je manque de temps pour tout mettre en branle. De plus, certaines idées qui m’apparaissent très intéressantes au début, perdre de leur intérêt avec le temps ou après mûre réflexion. Toujours dans une optique de partage, j’ai pensé faire des billets avec les grandes lignes des idées que je lègue à qui voudra bien les prendre.

Pas que je crois que mes idées soient si géniales que quelqu’un doit absolument les faire, mais si une de mes idées peut intéresser quelqu’un d’autre et se concrétiser, pourquoi pas! Dans le cas où je manquais de temps, mais que l’idée m’intéressait, cela m’apporterait beaucoup. Puis dans le cas où l’idée n’était juste plus dans mes cordes, bien si celle-ci peut être reprise par quelqu’un qui y voit un intérêt, super!

Qu’en dites-vous? Ça fait prétentieux? Est-ce que je pousse le partage un peu trop loin?

P.-S. J’essaie de faire des billets plus courts, pas évidents!

Source de l’image: https://the99percent.com/

]]> 2010-03-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/portrait-de-blogueurs-001-debbie-rouleau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Pour ceux qui suivent mon blogue, vous vous rappellerez que je vous avais parlé d’un petit projet vidéo dans ce billet. Sans aucune prétention, je vous présenterais des portraits de blogueurs francophones (et possiblement un jour anglophones) dans un milieu urbain (pas toujours propice à la vidéo avec un équipement rudimentaire, mais tout de même très plaisant). Muni de ma Flip MinoHD, je vous présente un petit vidéo de 2 à 5 minutes qui vous fera connaître certains blogueurs qui répondront à 3 questions bien simples :

1. De quoi votre blogue parle-t-il?
2. Pourquoi bloguez-vous?
3. Que faites-vous dans la vie?

Bien sûr, surtout au début, plusieurs visages vous seront familiers, car les personnes qui ont accepté de se prêter à ce jeu sont des blogueurs souvent habitués des soirées tel les Yulblog et Yulbiz. Je vous invite donc à soumettre votre nom si vous voulez passer devant la caméra.

Armé de ma Flip et d’une expérience plus qu’absente en production de vidéo je vous offre donc la première victime du portrait de blogueur, Debbie Rouleau.

P.-S. Je sais que j’ai délaissé ce blogue ces dernières semaines, mais j’étais débordé avec la première édition du Festival Geek de Montréal. Je suis bien content de recommencer à publier des billets ici.

]]> 2010-03-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/debbie-rouleau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Portrait de blogueurs

Geek dans l’âme, fan de Sci-fi, de fantasy, d’ordinateurs et de jeux de rôle, qui aime lire, dessiner, sortir entre amis, discourir et vivre sa vie à fond, Debbie  Rouleau (ou SekhmetDesign sur le Web) s’amuse également à développer de meilleurs (et plus beaux) site web, à remplir son cerveau de dates d’événements et de grands personnages de l’histoire à l’université, et à s’impliquer au sein de plusieurs événements à Montréal (GeekFest Montreal, W3Qc, We are Geeks, etc).

Elle rêve un jour de dominer le monde, et la promotion de la culture Geek est un premier pas vers cet objectif ultime!

Blogue: https://sekhmetdesign.thegeekcartel.com

Twitter : https://twitter.com/SekhmetDesign

Courriel : sekhmetdesign@thegeekcartel.com

]]> 2010-01-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/productif-de-08h00-a-17h00-est-ce-possible/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

J’ai souvent discuté de ce sujet avec diverses personnes et j’en suis nous en sommes toujours arrivés à la même conclusion : non. Je parle ici d’un emploi créatif, qui demande à penser, à réfléchir, à se questionner. Si je prends exemple sur le travail que je faisais lorsque j’étais étudiant, c’était un emploi plus machinal, plus détendu. Pas que je n’avais pas de tâche ou de responsabilité, mais quand même, c’était des trucs plutôt simple et pas nécessairement créatif. Je pouvais facilement sortir le soir, dormir juste un peu et m’en sortir sans problème, et ce, même si je devais courir comme un forcené pendant 6-7 heures pour donner des souliers, démêler les allées et faire payer les clients. Pour ceux qui se demandent, je travaillais dans un salon de quilles.

Aujourd’hui, je travaille en informatique. Je fais l’analyse pour les clients, l’analyse pour le développement d’applications, le développement logiciel… Ce sont, pour la plupart, des tâches qui demandent à réflexion. Je me plais, un peu comme Wordpress le fait avec son mantra “Code is poetry” (le code est de la poésie), à nommer les développeurs comme des artistes. Principalement, nous partons d’un problème (ex.: une solution papier à informatiser, un processus qui prend trop de temps à s’exécuter…) pour créer la solution. J’aime mon domaine, mais comme je mentionne plus haut, il est demandant au niveau de la réflexion, de la logique et des questionnements. Pour faire le parallèle avec l’emploi de mon adolescence, lorsque je suis trop fatigué présentement, j’ai peine à être productif comme je pouvais l’être au salon de quilles à état égale.

Dans le cas d’une journée normale, je suis bien sûr productif la plupart du temps, mais le suis-je durant toute ma journée? Puis-je rester concentré sur une tâche pendant 7-8 heures sans réellement déconnecté? Pire, dois-je être toujours capable de créer de 8h00 à 17h00 (j’ai des horaires semi-flexibles, mais c’est pour la forme)? Toutes ces questions méritent un non et pourtant je ne suis pas un mauvais employé. Il y a des moments de focus bien sûr, mais des fois je dois lâcher prise un peu. Comment? Je tweet, je lis un article, je vais me préparer un café, je regarde mes courriels… Il peut s’agir de 2 minutes dans une heure ou deux ou même trois, mais il me faut ces petits moments. Pour être franc, cela m’aide à rester concentré pour la suite. Est-ce que mon patron devrait me mettre à la porte? Sûrement pas, car je livre mes choses dans les temps avec le professionnalisme qu’on me connait. Souvent, ces quelques instants par jour sont liés à ma profession: lire un article sur la nouvelle technologie qui vient de sortir, mettre à jour mon profil sur LinkedIn, détailer des idées de produits, mettre en place des idées pour développer le monde du mobile à Montréal… Donc la plupart du temps, c’est même profitable pour l’entreprise!

Dans un monde où les directions d’entreprises nous demandent de toujours en faire plus avec moins, qu’en pensez-vous? Croyez-vous que vous pouvez être productif durant une journée complète sans même faire ou penser à autre chose que le travail? Suis-je une cause perdue?

P.-S. : J’ai déjà eu cette discussion avec mon patron actuel et il sait que je dois prendre de petit moment dans ma journée pour, aussi bizarre que cela puisse paraître aux yeux de plusieurs personnes, que je puisse rester focaliser sur mes principales tâches à accomplir.

P.-S. 2 : Si vous trouvez mon opinion valable, de grâce n’allez pas faire ça dans votre entreprise sans en parler franchement, si possible, avec votre supérieur. Ne m’utilisez pas non plus comme argument :)

P.-S. 3 : En passant, cela n’a aucun coût pour le client, car je prends la peine de le déduire de mes heures de travaille ou des heures associées à un projet.

Source de l’image: https://www.uwlax.edu

]]> 2010-01-03T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/les-listes-twitter-ou-comment-les-autres-me-voient/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Mais les listes ne s’arrêtent pas là. Je me souviens d’un billet (en anglais) de Chris Brogan qui disait que les listes allaient possiblement blesser quelques personnes qui pourraient être exclues de certaines listes. J’étais en partis d’accord, mais en réalité, les listes Twitter permettent aussi de savoir ce que les autres pensent de nous ou comment ils nous voient. Si on exclut les listes dans lesquelles je suis qui sont des listes strictement de localisation comme la liste des gens de Montréal de Ara Pehlivanian, je peux voir comment on me définit d’après mes Tweets ou ma présence en ligne. Voici les thèmes de quelques listes qui ressortent:

Blogueurs

@Emergent007/mtl-blogcommunity

@Emergent007/mygeek-blog-web20list

Connaissances et ami(e)s

@extrema/reality

@Minissa/friends

@VallierLapierre/francophones-interessants

@JeromeParadis/people-i-met

@Sincever/en-personne

Technologies / Multimédias / Médias sociaux

@JeromeParadis/montreal-tech

@ztele/accro-de-techno

@samuelsirois/prog

@cyberlou33/technologies

@DanyPaquin/techno

@francisperron/quebec-web-techno-affaire

@DanyPaquin/supertwitter

@jdesrosiers/g33ks

@jpmartineau/iphone

@benoitpiette/webdev

@hexenmaster/tech

@ISF/ilesansfil-friends

@SamyJo23/social-medias

@AlphonseHa/geek-franco

@analysedugeek/geeks-francos

@Waskaquebec/montreal-web2-0

@agilenature/agile

@lucdupuy/webtechno

Webcom Montréal

@Emergent007/webcom-montreal

Yulbiz / Yulblog

@Emergent007/yulbizzeurs

@nggauthier/yulbiz

@Panthere_rousse/yulbiz-et-yulblog

Que puis-je en déduire ou que peuvent en déduire les personnes qui visitent mon profil?

1. Je suis un technophile, amateur du Web 2.0 qui vient de Montréal vu le nombre de liste dans lesquels je suis qui ont un lien avec ces sujets;
2. J’ai participé au Webcom Montréal, aux Yulbiz et aux Yulblog;
3. Je suis un blogueur;
4. Je suis quelqu’un de sociable.

Est-ce bien? Est-ce que c’est comme ça que je veux que les utilisateurs de Twitter me définissent? En grande partie oui. Je n’ai aucun problème à être lié à des regroupements auxquels je participe tel que Yulbiz, Yulblog ou Webcom Montréal. Je me présente toujours comme quelqu’un de sociable et qui travaille dans le domaine de l’informatique. L’aspect blogue y est moins présent, mais je n’y mettais pas trop de temps non plus, mais cela fait partis de mes résolutions de 2010. On peut aussi dire que mon compte me sert professionnellement, mais aussi personnellement, ce qui est le cas et est bien ainsi. Un des aspects de ma vie professionnelle qui ne s’y retrouvent pas est mon aspect développement d’applications mobiles : c’est quelque chose que je n’aborde pas souvent en ligne et que je vais mettre plus de l’avant en 2010.

En gros, mes abonnées (le terme francophone pour “followers”) me définissent assez bien. Il ne me reste plus qu’à finalement créer les miennes pour des regroupements que j’aimerais voir sur Twitter…

Et vous, utilisez-vous les listes? Est-ce que vos abonnées vous perçoivent comme vous le voudriez? Pensez-vous que ça soit une bonne façon de vérifier l’effet de sa présence en ligne sur ce média?

Source de l’image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bioxid

]]> 2009-12-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/bonne-annee-2010/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

L’an passé je vous ais souhaité une bonne année 2009 et je réitère mes souhaits pour cette année. Je ne vous souhaiterais rien de particulier comme la santé, l’amour ou je ne sais trop. Je crois que cela vous appartient que de définir ce que vous souhaitez pour 2010! Pour ma part, je me souhaite une année 2010 tout aussi remplie de bonnes choses comme l’année qui se termine sous peu. J’ai eu le plaisir d’amener ma relation avec chérie à un autre stade, de continuer de me dépasser professionnellement dans une entreprise en pleine expansion et de rencontrer plusieurs nouvelles personnes que je peux facilement qualifier d’ami(e)s présentement. Bref, ce fut une belle année pour moi.

L’an passé, j’ai osé faire ce que plusieurs personnes font et ce que plusieurs blogueurs affichent publiquement sur leur blogue : des résolutions. J’avais choisi quelque chose de très vague, mais qui se veut très gros du même coup : mieux vivre! Ce n’est pas ce à quoi tout le monde aspire me direz-vous? Effectivement, mais je l’ai abordé d’un angle plutôt réaliste, sans pression et de manière quantifiable. Je crois bien avoir réussi mon coup. Bien sûr, j’aurais pu faire mieux, mais on peut toujours faire mieux, car je ne crois pas en la perfection.

L’année 2010 ne sera pas différente et je vais tenter de me lancer quelques petits défis (autrement dit, des résolutions) sous différents aspects de ma vie. Un à deux défis par “sphère de vie” que je considère importante (elles ne sont pas en ordre d’importance, mais en ordre alphabétique): nouvelle année, nouvelle approche.

Familiale : présentement ma vie familiale me comble: des parents super, une belle-famille que j’adore, une fiancée magnifique et trois petits chats. J’aimerais toutefois leurs consacrer plus de temps : souper de famille plus réguliers, sortie de couple (j’ai tendance a souvent être entouré de monde et ici c’est surtout l’aspect 1 à 1) plus diversifiés. Est-ce réellement un défi ou un effort? Absolument pas.Personnelle : j’aime lire. J’ai même plusieurs livres à la maison qui n’attend que d’être lu. J’en ai encore plus dans ma liste de souhaits sur Amazon. J’aime surtout lire des livres sur mon domaine, sur les médias sociaux, sur la science, sur la politique, sur la religion… Je ne suis pas trop livre d’histoire. Souvent avant de me coucher j’aimerais lire un peu, mais frapper par la fatigue, je suis trop “brain dead” pour lire des livres qui demandent réflexions. Ce qui fait que je me retrouve souvent à ne pas lire beaucoup ou très peu. J’aimerais donc prendre plus de temps pour lire.

J’aimerais aussi prendre plus de temps pour écrire sur ce blogue. J’ai une tonne d’idée en banque et j’aime écrire sur ces sujets. Je ne prends pas assez le temps de m’asseoir et mettre ces idées en billet.

Professionnelle : j’aime ce que je fais et j’aime l’entreprise où je suis présentement, mais je disais dernièrement que mon emploi de rêve serait de devenir évangéliste dans le domaine des TI. Je n’étalerais pas les raisons, la description de cet emploi pas toujours bien connu et mes questionnements à ce sujet ici, car il y en a assez pour en faire un billet (dont j’aimerais prendre le temps d’écrire durant les “vacances” du temps des fêtes). Est-ce quelque chose de réalisable durant 2010? Je crois que oui!Santé : j’ai préféré en faire une catégorie à part de personnelle, car je la vois bien distincte quoi que pareil aussi. En réalité, toutes ces sphères entreraient dans personnelle.

Celle-ci ma causée bien de petits problèmes en 2009 et je ne crois pas cette galère terminée. Toutefois, je n’ai pas à me plaindre si je me compare à d’autres. Chose sûr, je dois travailler mon alimentation ainsi que l’exercice. Deux gros items à prendre en compte, alors 2010 sera l’année de la remise en forme. Je ne suis pas un grand sportif et pourtant le peu de temps que j’ai été au gym l’an passé m’a procuré un plus grand bien : moins fatigué, plus en forme, plaisir de m’entrainer… Il faut juste que je règle mon agenda en conséquence et que je me donne le petit coup de pied au fesse pour reprendre le rythme.

Ça fait gros comme résolution vous ne trouvez pas? J’ai toujours eu comme idée que de n’en prendre qu’une seule et non trop grosse serait plus facile à tenir. D’un autre côté, la vie est courte et c’est en étant encore jeune que je peux améliorer certains aspects de ma vie. Pourquoi reporter à plus tard les plaisirs de la vie?De votre côté, prenez-vous des résolutions? Si oui, quelles sont-elles? Sinon, pourquoi n’en prenez-vous pas?

Source de l’image: https://senly.fr.nf

]]> 2009-12-18T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/portraits-de-blogueurs-et-blogueuses/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Depuis que j’écoute des baladodiffusions (OK, OK, des podcasts), j’ai le goût de moi-même devenir podcasteur. J’ai donc eu plusieurs idées que j’aimerais concrétisées, soit seules, soit avec des ami(e)s ou même avec ma conjointe. Certaines idées ont pris le bord pour diverses raisons: concept trop gros pour le temps que j’ai à y consacrer, les personnes à qui je proposais l’idée manquait de temps ou n’était pas très axés podcast, manque d’intérêt en développant l’idée… Bref, rien n’a réellement abouti!

La plupart étaient des podcasts audio. Par contre, avec chérie, nous avions eu l’idée de partir un podcast vidéo, bref une Web TV avec un fil RSS. C’est un projet encore d’actualité, mais il ne verra pas le jour d’ici quelque temps selon moi. Pour mener à bien notre idée, je m’étais muni d’une Flip MinoHD qui pour l’instant n’a servi qu’à participer à faire une vidéo de “folie amateur” pour un concours (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) sur le Web. Depuis ce temps, je cherchais une façon de m’en servir un peu plus tout en essayant d’exploiter le désir de faire du podcasting à mon tour.

Une des idées que j’ai eu et que je trouvais assez intéressante était de faire des portraits de blogueurs ou blogueuses. Quelque chose de très court (environ 10 minutes) qui exploiterait les même 4-5 questions par blogueurs rencontrés. De quoi du genre “Que fais-tu dans la vie?”, “Quel est ton blogue et de quoi parle-t-il?”, “Pourquoi blogues-tu”… Ce que je trouvais intéressant dans ce concept est qu’il permettrait de faire découvrir des blogues qui ne sont pas toujours connus par tous tout en ne me limitant pas à ceux technologiques. De plus, cela me permettrait de prendre en considération mon côté sociable en rencontrant des personnes que je connais, mais aussi avoir le plaisir de rencontrer de nouvelles personnes.

Le tout se ferait sans prétention, donc aussi sans grand montage, juste pour le plaisir. L’idée étant de faire un podcast pour m’amuser bien sûr, mais qui ne me demanderait pas une grande quantité de temps! Je pourrais même y ajouter une petite touche musicale (c’est une grande passion chez moi, je viens de finir de mettre nos CDs en MP3 et on compte plus de 550 albums!) en y ajoutant 2-3 questions du style “Quel est ta chanson préférée du moment?”, “Quel est ta meilleure chanson à vie?”, “Quel est la chanson que tu détestes le plus?”… Je pourrais donc faire un interlude entre les questions en présentant les vidéoclips des choix des personnes interviewés. Le but n’étant pas d’être devant la caméra, je pensais plutôt à une capsule où la personne répond en parlant à la caméra: les questions seraient affichés en texte dans la vidéo avant la réponse de la personne, donc on ne m’y verrait et entendrait pas.

Le concept n’est pas terminé et les idées se bousculent encore dans ma tête, mais en cherchant je suis tombé sur la chaîne DailyMotion de Philippe Martin (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) qui a déjà produit des capsules semblables. Je dois avouer que plusieurs personnes dans ceux rencontrés étaient dans ma liste de blogueurs et blogueuses à filmer. Comme Philippe n’a plus le temps de continuer ces vidéos et que plus personne n’est passé devant la caméra depuis 2 ans, il m’a gentiment offert de reprendre le flambeau.

Donc en gros, un petit projet de podcast vidéo pour mon plaisir, pour faire découvrir des blogueurs et blogueuses, pour découvrir et partager des choix musicaux tout en ajoutant du contenu vidéo à ce blogue… Malgré tout ceci, même si je le fais pour moi, il est bien sûr intéressant sur Internet que le contenu qu’on l’y créé intéresse aussi d’autres personnes…

Alors qu’en dites-vous? Seriez-vous intéressé à venir voir les blogueurs et blogueuses qui se seraient mis à nu devant la caméra (façon de parler!) ? Auriez-vous des idées pour le concept tout en gardant les grandes lignes?

Source de l’image: https://www.nwolf.org

]]> 2009-12-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/invitations-google-wave/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Cela fait quelques temps que les invitations de Google Wave se promène un peu partout, alors une bonne partie du monde doivent avoir leur accès. Je prend tout de même le temps de vous offrir un accès à ce nouvel outil collaboratif de Google.

Il me reste 8 invitations que je donnerais aux 8 premières personnes qui laisseront un commentaire sur ce billet avec un courriel valide. J’invite ceux qui ont déjà accès à partir des waves avec moi, harper.frederic @ googlewave.com. J’ai manqué de temps pour réellement tester cette nouvelle plateforme de communication, alors ça sera l’occasion de le faire.

En espérant que cela puisse aide quelques personnes à continuer la Wave…

Source de l’image: https://pisani.blog.lemonde.fr

]]> 2009-11-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/linkedin-un-c-v-2-0/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Depuis quelque temps, je mets à jour mon profil LinkedIn pour plusieurs raisons : je veux m’en servir à titre de référence pour les clients, aussi pour tenir à jour mon réseau professionnel, mais aussi pour en faire mon curriculum vitae 2.0… Mais est-ce que LinkedIn est prêt à servir de c.v. pour les plus technologiques d’entre nous?

Personnellement, je ne crois pas pour l’instant. Bien qu’il soit très intéressant pour les raisons que je vous mentionnais ci-haut, il ne semble pas encore au point pour servir de feuille de route professionnelle. Par contre, je peux vous rassurer en vous disant qu’il n’en manque pas gros. Pour démontrer ce que j’avance, je vais débuter en vous présentant ce qui se retrouve dans mon curriculum plus traditionnel :

1. Objectifs : une section contenant quelques lignes qui présentent mes objectifs professionnels;
2. Profil : en gros, ce sont les grandes lignes et points forts du curriculum;
3. Emplois : celle-ci se définit par elle-même, une liste des anciens emplois;
4. Connaissances informatiques : quoique cette section soit plutôt spécifique pour mon domaine, elle liste chaque technologie, système d’exploitation et logiciel que je connais et maîtrise;
5. Activités connexes : pour celle-ci, j’y liste des activités complémentaires à ma profession comme être membre d’une organisation quelconque;
6. Formations : cette partie aussi se définit par elle-même, on y trouve une liste des formations, certifications, diplômes obtenus ou en-cours d’obtention;
7. Autres expériences pertinentes : celle-ci reste un peu large. J’en profite pour mettre de l’avant des formations qui n’ont pas de lien avec l’informatique, mais qui peuvent aider dans le milieu de travail. Je me permets aussi d’y mettre du bénévolat qui apporte une certaine expérience pour une compétence qui peut se rattacher à différents postes dans mon domaine.

Bien sûr, le format d’un C.V. varie d’une personne à l’autre, mais ces sections sont plus ou moins présentes pour la plupart d’entre nous.

Maintenant, prenons LinkedIn et regardons ce qu’il m’est possible ou impossible de faire :

1. Objectifs : l’équivalent serait la section “Expérience professionnelle et objectifs”, mais cette boîte de texte est limitée à 858 caractères. Bien sûr, cela suffit, car habituellement nos objectifs doivent se définir en tout au plus 3 lignes de texte. Par contre une fois sur le profil, cette section se nomme “Résumé” ce qui pourrait porter à confusion et que j’utiliserais alors pour ma section profil.
2. Profil : comme mentionnée ci-haut, une section à cet effet se trouve dans LinkedIn (lorsqu’on visionne le profil). Nous pourrions donc combiner ceci avec les objectifs vu que le tout se rapproche plus ou moins. Il faut toutefois prendre en note la limite de 858 caractères qui se remplissent rapidement. Cela pourrait être assez, car le profil ne devrait pas, théoriquement, prendre bien plus que 4-5 lignes de texte. C’est donc dans la mesure du possible.
3. Emplois : cette section du même nom dans LinkedIn est assez bien pour un contenu généraliste. Elle offre une capacité de 2178 caractères ce qui est suffisant pour la plupart des emplois. Si LinkedIn peut servir de C.V. traditionnel où l’on y inscrit les grandes lignes, il serait intéressant aussi de servir de C.V. plus détaillés pour une offre de service. Dans ce cas, j’aimerais lister tous les projets sur lesquels j’ai travaillé et c’est là que la taille pourrait me causer des problèmes. En écrivant ces quelques lignes, je me dis que je pourrais aussi y faire comme dans mon éternel document Word (en réalité RTF, je suis de la vieille école) en ajoutant sur ce site les différents projets et tâches que j’ai eu à réaliser au cours d’un emploi, mais aussi le plus intéressant dans mon domaine, les technologies utilisées pour chacun.
4. Connaissances informatiques : Bien que j’ai listé des technologies dans la description de chaque emploi, cette liste n’est pas exhaustive : il y a des technologies ou logiciels ou même systèmes d’exploitation que je n’ai eu la chance d’utiliser au bureau, mais que j’ai pu utiliser chez moi ou dans des projets autres. Cela donne aussi, sans avoir à parcourir la liste entière de mes emplois à un futur client ou employeur, de voir la portée de mes connaissances. Plusieurs domaines de travail se divisent en spécialité et dans le cas de l’informatique, c’est une panoplie de langages, de logiciels, de système d’exploitation, de framework, de méthodologie et j’en passe. C’est aussi, en passant, pourquoi il y a plusieurs ressources en informatique, mais que c’est dur de trouver du monde pour combler certains postes. Pour en revenir à cette section, il y a un équivalent dans LinkedIn avec laquelle je pourrais faire avec, soit la section “Compétences” qui se trouve dans “Résumé”, mais malheureusement elle se limite à 908 caractères ce qui est totalement insuffisant pour mon domaine avec quelques années d’expériences.
5. Activités connexes : le service de réseautage professionnel compte une section à cet effet. Elle a toutefois une particularité : elle y liste ce que vous inscrivez, par exemple que j’étais membre de la Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de l’Est de l’ïle de Montréal (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) et celle qui liste les groupes auxquels je me suis abonné dans LinkedIn. Le premier, présente les groupes ou associations auxquels je suis membre qui ont un lien direct avec mon domaine, du moins, c’est comme ça que je m’en sers. C’est aussi comme ça que je remplis cette section dans mon curriculum vitae, disons-le, 1.0… Pour la deuxième, bien sûr je suis membre de groupe auquel je fais parties dans la vraie vie, telle que le groupe du W3Québec, duquel je suis membre actuellement, mais elle comporte aussi des groupes d’intérêts ou groupe que je supporte tel que Utilisabilité Québec (le site précédamment référencé n’existe plus) Pour ce dernier, en réalité, je ne suis pas membre, alors comment quelqu’un peut-il réellement faire la différence. De plus, cette section est présentée comme un tout ce qui peut laisser perplexes certaines personnes.
6. Formations: pour cette section, rien à dire. LinkedIn en possède une du même nom, qui pour moi, fait office de remplacement à merveille.
7. Autres expériences pertinentes : ce dernier grand titre, qui pour moi se trouve à être important ne trouve aucune place dans LinkedIn. Bien sûr, je pourrais mixer le tout dans les autres sections, tel que formation et emplois, mais cela fausserait la compréhension ou l’interprétation de mon profil selon moi. Prenons par exemple du bénévolat que je fais dans le mouvement scout. J’ai occupé ou j’occupe des postes qui permettent d’amener une valeur supplémentaire dans mon domaine. Que ce soit des postes de responsabilité qui me mène à gérer des équipes d’adultes, ou à titre de formateur ou conseillé. Ce ne sont pas des expériences reliées directement à l’informatique, mais qui amène un atout! C’est le genre d’information que je n’ajouterais pas dans la section “Emplois”. Dans ma section “Autres expériences pertinentes”, j’y ajouterais aussi des formations que j’ai suivies à l’extérieur de la profession sur le mentorat ou pour devenir formateur breveté. Encore là, ce sont des informations pertinentes pour qui consultera mon profil, mais tout de même peut faciles à bien insérer dans la section “Formation”.

Il me reste un dernier point. Malgré le fait que nous soyons à l’aire du 2.0, du Web et de l’Internet, certaines personnes ne sont pas rendues au même point. C’est pourquoi si on ne veut écarter aucune possibilité, on se doit d’avoir encore un fameux document au format PDF ou autre, mais qui peut s’envoyer par courriel ou s’imprimer facilement. Quoi qu’on en dise, je serais porté à refuser cette approche et ne m’en tenir qu’à mon C.V. 2.0, ce qui serait possible pour un emploi ou des chercheurs de têtes, mais que dire des futurs clients? Offrant des services de développement logiciels, on ne fait pas toujours affaire avec des technophiles, alors malgré que 2010 s’approche, pour toucher le plus de monde possible, on se doit de garder cette porte ouverte. LinkedIn offre une option pour imprimer ou mieux, sortir une version PDF, mais le visuel est absolument affreux. De plus, il ne comprend pas toutes les sections telles que les groupes ou la description des postes! Alors que faire? Tenir deux versions de mon curriculum? Non merci!

Méprenez-vous, je ne suis pas contre LinkedIn, au contraire je trouve que cet outil est formidable pour le réseautage et donne un bon avant-goût d’un curriculum plus complet et mieux ordonné. De plus, la section recommandations est vraiment un atout supplémentaire et le fait d’associer son réseau ainsi permet de rapidement voir l’étendue de ce dernier. Alors rien de dramatique, mais quelques irritants qui personnellement, me freine à utiliser seulement LinkedIn pour présenter mon parcours professionnel.

Et vous, utilisez-vous toujours un fichier au format RTF/DOC/DOCX/PDF pour votre C.V.? Avez-vous une alternative à LinkedIn pour une version 2.0? Comment procédez-vous pour étaler votre parcours professionnel de manière efficace?

Source de l’image: store.sencomm2.com (le site précédamment référencé n’existe plus)

]]> 2009-11-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/en-renovation/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ne pensez pas que je délaisse ce blogue, au contraire le nombre de brouillon que j’ai commencé et d’idée de billet que j’ai noté… ça n’a aucun sens! Bien sûr, j’ai plusieurs projets qui m’occupent et je ne prends pas toujours le temps de m’asseoir, relaxer et écrire ici un peu. Ce n’est pas une situation unique : j’aimerais aussi prendre plus de temps pour lire, pour aller au gym, pour partir d’autres projets que j’ai en tête… Malheureusement, mes journées n’ont que 24 heures!!!

Entre temps, je prends quelques instants ici et là pour mettre à jour le thème de ce blogue. Je voulais quelque chose d’encore plus “clean” et “minimalist”. J’ai donc opté pour le thème qui porte bien son nom, Minimalist. Quelques trucs ne fonctionnaient pas bien et j’ai tenté d’y apporter ma touche, mais c’est une amélioration continue. Rapidement, il me reste ces quelques modifications de base à faire :

• Traduire les termes anglophones restants;
• M’assurer que les couleurs respectent mon logo;
• Rendre le code valide par rapport au W3C;
• Remettre certaines pages sur le site;
• Ajouter des informations dans les pages en construction telle que “À propos”;
• Améliorer la section commentaire.

Vous êtes bien sûr invité à donner vos suggestions. J’avais déjà commencé à tâter le pouls sur Twitter et j’ai eu de bons commentaires, comme ceux de Samuel Lavoie et d’autres Twitteux. Pour l’instant, je mijote encore sur le principe du permalien, alors si vous cherchez la place pour les commentaires, c’est en dessous du titre.

Source de l’image: https://www.canadianfeedthechildren.ca

]]> 2009-08-27T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/instruire-une-entreprise-aux-medias-sociaux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je navigue dans les médias sociaux depuis assez longtemps pour bien en cerner les possibilités, mais j’ai encore de la misère à le mettre de l’avant pour une entreprise dont leur champ d’affaire ne se situe pas dans les médias sociaux (Expert en médias sociaux [si ça existe vraiment], podcasteur professionnel…).Si je prend le cas d’une petite entreprise dans le domaine informatique qui offre des services de développement de logiciel Web ou local. Cette PME a seulement un site Web, qui de plus, est assez statique. Elle ne s’aventure pas trop dans l’univers des médias sociaux (aucun profil FaceBook, aucun compte Twitter…). Ce qui revient lors de certaines discussions sont des points que plusieurs doivent entendre ailleurs:

• Les médias sociaux sont une mode, on ne peut s’investir dans quelque chose qui va passer rapidement;
• Nous sommes une petite entreprise, on ne peut prendre des ressources pour gérer tout cela;
• Il y a un gros pourcentage de “garbage” versus du contenu intéressant en prenant exemple sur Twitter;
• C’est surtout pour un passe-temps personnel, pas pour une entreprise;
• …

Le problème c’est que j’y vois pleins d’avantages à mon niveau, mais j’ai de la manière à les transposer au niveau d’une entreprise auquel je suggère de faire le grand saut (mais surtout de la misère à justifier les avantages vs la question de coût en terme d’heure/employé pour gérer le tout):

1. Cela me permet d’agrandir mon cercle de connaissance et même d’ami(e)s;
2. Mon nom circule bien et positivement: le fameux “fame”. Dans mon cas, je ne cherche pas ça, mais ça un effet positif sur d’autres choses (exemple: si je cherchais un emploi). Par contre, pour une entreprise c’est un gros plus;
3. J’ai eu des offres d’emplois, des offres contractuelles, des offres de partenariats pour une entreprise existante ou en processus de démarrage…;
4. J’ai une présence et vie virtuelle, ce qui pour certaines entreprises est un pré-requis pour engager une personne en informatique dans leur équipe;
5. Mon côté social est comblé, car j’aime le monde et j’aime connaître de nouvelle personne;
6. Mon côté exhibitionniste (que j’assume) et “grande boîte” (pour ne pas dire grande yeule) est comblé avec mes statuts Twitter et FaceBook;
7. Comme je reste fidèle à ma personne, cela permet aux autres de mieux me connaître;
8. Lorsque j’ai besoin d’un service, d’une réponse à des questions ou je ne sais quoi d’autre, j’ai un retour beaucoup plus rapide et qui me permet aussi de valider sur plusieurs fronts que si je m’adressais simplement à mon réseau d’ami très proche;
9. …

Bref, j’en passe. Il y a certain points qui sont transposables, mais d’autres avec lesquels je ne suis pas à l’aise. Soyons honnête, gérer ses différentes présences Web demande du temps et de l’énergie (pour bien le faire) et dans un contexte d’une petite entreprise, cela devient un point négatif (pensons toujours au retour sur investissement).

Bien sûr, il y a possibilité de présenter son expertise d’entreprise, d’avoir de nouveaux clients, de nouveaux partenaires, de recruter du personnel possiblement plus qualifié, de présenter un côté plus humain, mais c’est beaucoup de peut-être qui ne sont pas facile à justifier présentement. C’est pourtant quelque chose de très facile à vendre aux adeptes et utilisateurs actuels…

Comment vendriez-vous l’idée? Ais-je mal compris l’essence des médias sociaux? Quel points puis-je apporter pour souligner l’importance en 2009 d’avoir une présence plus active sur le Web?

Source de l’image: https://mobasoft.com

]]> 2009-08-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/nuage/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Un mot… Une photo!

Ensemble de particules d’eau très fines, liquides ou solides, maintenues en suspension dans l’atmosphère par les mouvements verticaux de l’air.

Notes

Cette photo a été prise lors d’un pique-nique avec chérie au Parc Jean-Drapeau.

]]> 2009-08-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/geekfest-montreal/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Un festival de Geek à Montréal? Tel est l’idée que j’ai lancée tout bonnement il y a à peine 4 semaines! Ce festival qui a, entre autres, pour but de rassembler différents types de GeekQue dire sur le sujet qui n’a pas encore été dit sur le site de l’événement. Que la force des médias sociaux est épatante? En peu de temps, cette idée a provoqué un engouement que je n’espérais pas. Le monde s’est passé le mot sur FaceBook, sur Twitter et ailleurs pour propager l’idée. J’ai eu plusieurs retours positifs et propositions d’activités. On a pu rapidement monter une équipe de choc, nommé le Core Geek Team (équipe principale), mais aussi de réunir plus de 20 personnes qui seront bénévoles pour le festival. Tout cela sans même avoir confirmé le lieu (c’est une question de temps) et les dates, c’est peu dire.

Beaucoup de travail reste à faire, mais le projet est tellement motivant! Je suis aussi entouré d’une superbe équipe qui m’épaule grandement pour que ce festival soit une réussite. Je vous invite donc à suivre le site pour plus de nouvelles, car je risque d’en parler peu ici, question de ne pas me répéter!

Geek de Montréal, unissez-vous!

]]> 2009-05-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/retour-sur-le-webcom-2009/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Vous pensiez que je ne ferais pas le billet que je vous avais promis sur le Webcom? Vous avez même douté de mon implication en tant que blogueur officiel? Je ne vous en veux pas, même les organisateurs en ont douté! Mais je vous arrête, ce billet qui peut sembler tardif est tout simplement une idée magistrale de marketing de ma part! Oui oui… je me recycle dans le domaine! Il y a eu tous ces tweets ce jour-là, ainsi que les photos mises en ligne, les billets le lendemain voir le soir même… mais… que dit-on sur le Webcom 1 semaine après? Plus rien! Alors, je me suis dit, pourquoi ne pas publier mon billet environ 1 semaine plus tard. Comme ça on pourra faire renaître la flamme encore quelques instants!

Comme vous le savez, mercredi le 13 avait lieu la conférence Webcom Montréal. Je faisais parties d’un groupe de 5 blogueurs officiels pour l’événement. Voici donc mon retour sur ce qui fut une très belle journée.

Le Webcom c’est plusieurs conférences de plusieurs conférenciers de renommées internationales. Dans l’équipe de blogueur, j’ai eu le plaisir, comme disait l’ami Claude Malaison, d’être un atome libre. Certains d’entre nous avaient des conférences attitrés questions de couvrir entièrement le Webcom, mais moi, je pouvais aller où bon me semble. Notre mission, relatée sur Twitter le jour même ainsi que sur nos blogues respectifs par la suite, les faits saillants et nos impressions sur cet événement.

Il y avait 3 axes de conférences principales la plupart du temps, soit “Communications et Innovation”, “Marketing et Identité” ainsi que “Technologies et Affaires”. Ce fut donc extrêmement dur de choisir lesquels je couvrirais, mais voici ma liste agrémentée de quelques notes sur ces présentations:

Savez-vous comment bâtir un «Open Mesh»? de Marc Canter (le début seulement, malheureusement il y avait un problème chez un client que j’ai du régler).

• Open est le “buzzword” du jour.
• L’industrie de la santé est la moins efficace côté gestion des données: il donnait comme exemple que si on consulte un docteur X, si on veut aller voir le docteur Y, il n’a pas nécessairement accès à notre dossier et on doit répondre encore et encore aux mêmes questions. <- Assez d’accord sur la gestion des données, sauf qu’arrêté de chialer après notre système de santé, au moins ont en a un qui nous coûte peu cher à comparé à ailleurs!
• Voici les "slides " de sa conférence.

Investir moins, convertir plus de Simon Lamarche (ici seulement la fin à cause du problème au bureau)

• Laissez votre équipe parler… c’est vos clients qui décideront.<- Pas totalement tord quand on y pense, mais il ne faut pas laisser son équipe parler pour rien, prenez en compte ce qu’ils disent!

Connais-toi toi-même: Socrate à l’ère des médias sociaux de Caroline Allard.Je n’avais pas le choix, Caroline m’a presque démoli l’épaule la veille pour que je couvre sa conférence… Ok, j’exagère un tantinet, c’est la conférence que j’aurais choisie même sans les menaces :)

• Généralement les conversations sur une marque ou un individu dans les médias sociaux sont non sollicités.
• Utiliser les médias sociaux pour orienter son identité.
• Étude de cas de sur Tim Hortons
  • Les mots clés francophones sont surprenants. Ceux qui reviennent plus souvent sont: voiture, ouest, voyage…
  • Au niveau anglophone c’est la proximité qui revient dans les mots clés pris sur des blogues.
  • Il y a là une différence de conception et des discussions.
• En investiguant les médias sociaux, les blogues en particulier, on peut comparer le message qu’on veut passer versus ce qu’on en dit.
• Il faut varier son message dépendant du public visé (exemple: anglophone vs francophone).
• Deuxième étude de cas sur Inter Pares
  • Ils ont misé sur des mots clés qui étaient reliés au temps des fêtes pour améliorer leur campagne sans nier leur identité.
  • Les concepts utilisés révélaient les valeurs chrétiennes sans jamais y faire référence vu le côté non religieux de l’organisation.
• L’orientation: comment utiliser notre public pour analyser notre cheminement.
• Exvisu génère une carte de mots clés qui permet de savoir aussi qui parlent de nous ou de notre marque/produit.
• Twitter est une bonne source pour l’opinion et est plus facile a analyser.

Des outils intranet concrets pour communiquer et innover dans l’entreprise de Claude Malaison.

• Graçe à un petit jeu sur la présence en ligne des personnes présentent à la conférence, ont a pu conclure que la salle était assez active sur le Web.
• Présentation des générations immigrants ou natifs numérique.
• À partir de 2000 les changements se font trop rapidement pour que la génération transmette l’expertise à la prochaine.
• Le e-mail c’est pour les vieux. <- J’avais une blague ici, mais bon… la prochaine fois!
• C’est maintenant la génération plus jeune qui montre à la génération d’avant… changement important!!! <- ça, j’avoue que ça été ma révélation de la journée!
• World of Warcraft (WOW) en parralèle avec une entreprise: autorité, projet, objectifs, expertises… La collaboration se fait très horizontalement dans WOW… une autorité distribuée.
• Il faut créer une mémoire d’entreprise.
• L’entreprise 2.0 se base sur 3 pilliers: collaboration, mémocréation et innovation.
• Entreprise 1.0: hiérarchique, axée compagnie fonctionnement en silos, top-down, centralisé, équipe en 1 seul endroit,propriétaire, contrôle de l’info, technos dictés par les TI…
• Entreprise 2.0: organisation aplatie, axée utilisateur, agilité, fonctionnement collaboratif, “bottom-up”, distribué…
• La majorité des entreprises n’ont pas de politiques sur les réseaux sociaux <- peuvent causer des problèmes, car les employés y vont de toute manière.
• Exemple entreprise 2.0: IBM a 27k blogues, 20k Wiki, le code de conduite a été construit par les employés à l’aide d’un wiki…
• Ideagora: des sites où les gens suggèrent/discutent des choses pour l’amélioration de produits (fait par la communauté)

Étude de cas : Crowdsourcing: mettre la foule à profit de Martin Lessard (un peu en retard sur celle-ci dû à Claude qui a étiré son temps).

• Question à se poser pour le crowdsourcing: comment faire en sorte qu’ils ajoutent du data au projet? Est-ce que les utilisateurs peuvent ajouter de la valeur?
• Une idée sur 100 devient une bonne idée d’affaires.
• La durabilité est l’avenir.

Savoir, savoir faire et faire savoir: Bon dosage des TIC et du potentiel humain dans les organisations de Éric Blot, Éric Mellet et Philippe Pierre.C’est type sont très sympathique. J’ai eu le plaisir de discuter avec eux la veille de l’événement devant une bière (bien eux du vin voyons).

• Comment construire la confiance avec des gens qu’on ne voit pas?
• Donner une conférence en buvant du vin, mangeant du pain et en mangeant du fromage… <- on cultive les stéréotypes français!
• La conférence prend comme exemple leurs expériences dans une grande entreprise comme L’Oréal
• On se donne le droit à l’erreur… <— QOTD!
• Si tu n’es pas sur Internet, tu es mort… <— pas pire celle là aussi, c’est comme ça que je me sens quand je pars loin de mon ordinateur.
• Pour que ça fonctionne: il faut des dirigeants qui s’engagent, des personnes qui y croient…

Le panel La portabilité des données, Ça vous dit quelque chose ? de Sylvain Carle, Carl Charest, Dominique-Sébastien Forest et Evan Prodromou

• L’échange d’information fluide permettrait une personnalisation d’un futur plus technologique.
• Belle présentation d’un scénario futur, mais pas très lointain de Dominique-Sébastien Forest. <- J’ai hâte de revoir le PowerPoint.
• Tout le monde va être connecté en même temps en 2020.
• Evan twittait durant le panel, ça montre le niveau de geekness lors de cette conférence.
• Si tout le monde travaille ensemble, on pourrait devenir expert/leader au Québec dans la portabilité des données
• Utilisation de RSS pour connecter les contenus de différents sites/plateforme ensemble (Branchez-vous)
• Branchez-vous va avec Wordpress pour les prochains projets <— good shoot monsieur Charest (j’aime tellement dire ça comme ça)
• Un fait notoir: Carl était sans son fidèle chapeau… (on m’a demandé de noter les faits importants bon)
• Pour un vol d’identité, on doit faire affaire avec l’endroit du site hote. <— bon à savoir.
• Les pages jaunes canadienne utilise l’API de Praized
• À l’air du Web 2.0, on ne fait plus un site… on fait des sites inter-connecté
• Premier syndrome chez tout les technologues: tout inventer!
• Praized = recherche local + social
• Pandora est un peu un reflet du futur… du contenu adapté, toujours avec des choix
• Si on est sur Internet, la compétition c’est le monde. <— Effectivement.

Le principe de divergence de Hervé Fischer (je suis arrivé pas mal à la fin, car je prenais des photos des lieux et de différentes personnes vu qu’il n’y avait pas de photographe officiel… Je prend la job pour l’an prochain si je ne peux bloguer [message subtil ici])

• On a besoin d’une éthique planétaire pour notre évolution.

La Charte Numérique : Comment encourager la transparence à travers toute l’entreprise de Jessica Lipnack

• On ne peut régler des problèmes du 21e siècle avec des organisations du 19e siècle. <- Oh qu’il y a du monde qui gagnerait à comprendre ça.
• Les organisations ont une hiérarchie en forme de diamant et non de pyramide.
• Le mot de la fin était super: s.v.p. réseauté.

Gérer son I-dentité numérique jusqu’à l’E-mortalité Web de Gabe McIntyre

• Dans plusieurs années il y aura des archéologues du numérique
• Bonnes questions, même si comique, présenté par McIntyre
• J’adore le fait que son icône au lieu d’être un drapeau de son pays, c’est un logo d’Internet
• https://virtualimmortality.org
• The Internet is me… The Internet is you… The Internet is us… we share… we communicate… we connect… we are a node
• What about your web presence after your death ?
• Interesting questions on Web immortality from
• Do you think there should be a dead or alive sign attatched to your name (on the web)?

Réseaux sociaux : voulez-vous être mon ami (ou follower, fan, listener, etc.) ? de Cyrille de Lasteyrie alias Vinvin

• Dans Facebook, la vie commence dans Facebook. <— C’est plus que même si tu as vécu 20 ans avant, tes ami(e)s FaceBook ne voit qu’à partir du moment que tu y es. Bon ok, c’était mieux dans le contexte de la présentation.
• Le choix que nous avons maintenant est de confirmer ou ignorer. <— C’est terrible, ignorer… On se sauve un peu de ses responsabilités avec ça.
• Facebook est pour retrouver ses ex… <— Je confirme!
• J’ai trouvé ce type vraiment drôle.
• Nous sommes tous des paparazis 2.0 <— J’adore cette expression.

Panel : Open Web. Vraiment ouvert à tous les usagers ? de Marc Canter, Patrick Chanezon, Evan Prodromou et Allen Tom_Sérieusement pour avoir pris un verre avec Marc Canter je peux dire qu’il est vraiment dynamique. Puis j’ai jasé beaucoup avec Patrick Chanezon que j’ai trouvé très sympathique. Première discussion avec un type de Google!_

• J’adore Marc Canter… il dansait sur la scène avant son panel!
• C’était la conférence la plus geek, mais encore là j’ai écouté que des brides, car on m’a demandé de prendre des photos de la salle.

Webcamp

Je ne suis pas resté longtemps pour profiter des conférences. Par contre, c’est le genre d’événement qui me plait du au fait qu’il y a une réelle discussion. L’an prochain, j’irais y faire un tour plus longtemps.

• Comment être invitant? Le monde réel réussi mieux que le monde numérique à concevoir une notion d’accueil.

En résumé, en tant que participant au Webcom, ce fut une journée totalement bien investit. Même sachant que je dois rattraper mes heures que j’ai pris mercredi, non pas par médiocrité de mon employeur, mais bien par professionnalisme vu que nous sommes sur la fin d’un projet, je ne regrette rien. D’autant plus qu’à titre de blogueur officiel, mon expérience est d’auatant plus enrichissante. J’ose même relancer la production pour m’offrir pour la prochaine édition!

En résumé, des sujets intéressants, d’actualités et ce avec des experts du milieu… que demander de mieux? Et vous, comment avez-vous trouvé votre Webcom? Serez-vous présent au prochain?

Quelques sources d’informations autres sur le Webcom

• Les photos que j’ai prises au Webcom et au Yulbiz spécial Webcom.
• Les tweets qui avaient le tag officiel, soit #webcom2009.
• Le billet de Philippe Bonneau.
• Le billet de Bertrand Duperrin.
• Les commentaires (la page web précédament référencée n’existe plus) en direct de Jerome Paradis.
• Les commentaires en direct de Kim Vallee.
• Éventuellement le billet de Claude Malaison soit ici ou ici (faut lui laisser le temps de se remettre de cet événement).
• Puis bien sûr, pleins d’autres endroits…

]]> 2009-05-13T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/webcom-2009-je-blogue-tu-blogue/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Aujourd’hui a lieu le Webcom Montréal 2009 au siège social de l’organisation de l’aviation civile internationale (OACI). Le Webcom est selon moi LA conférence majoritaire francophone sur le marketing, la communication et les technologies la plus importante au Québec, voire au Canada. C’est donc un rendez-vous à ne pas manquer.

J’ai le plaisir d’être un des cinq blogueurs officiels pour l’événement. En compagnie de Kim Vallee, Jerome Paradis, Philippe Bonneau et Bertrand Duperrin, je vous livrerais mes impressions sur cette journée remplie de conférences très intéressantes et surtout de conférenciers de renommées internationales. Bien sûr, n’oublions pas l’ami Claude Malaison qui nous livrera sûrement 1-2 bons billets sur le sujet, une fois la poussière retombée.

J’ai déjà eu le plaisir de rencontrer quelques-uns de ces sommités lors d’un 7@9 au Santos organisé hier pour les blogueurs/conférenciers de cette cuvée mai 2009.

Durant la journée, vous aurez surtout de l’information via Twitter en suivant le hashtag #webcom2009. Le soir ou le lendemain venu, vous aurez la possibilité de consulter des billets plus élaboré sur nos blogues respectifs.

P.-S.: La photo n’est pas représentative, car elle a été prise avant même l’ouverture officielle des portes.

]]> 2009-05-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/marecage/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Un mot… Une photo!

Terrain humide et bourbeux; marais.

Notes

Prise dans le parc de la Pointe-aux-Prairies. Je me promets d’aller y faire un tour avec mon appareil une fois où j’aurais le temps de prendre plus de photos.

]]> 2009-05-08T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/lucy-in-the-sky/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Non je ne parlerais pas d’une des chansons des Beatles, mais bien d’un projet nommé Lucy présenté dans le cadre du festival Elektra.

Elektra est un festival d’art numérique créé en 1999. J’avoue ne jamais y être allé, mais travaillant dans le domaine des TI, étant fiancé avec une artiste et aimant l’art moi-même, je compte bien trouver un trou à l’horaire pour y faire un tour. Quoique je ne connaisse pas le programme des années précédentes, une particularité cette année a piqué grandement ma curiosité. Après avoir entendu parler du projet de l’agence de publicité numérique Provokat (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) par le biais de Nathalie Goulevant, qui est agente d’information pour cette boîte, j’ai eu le goût de le partager avec vous.

Lucy, la cobaye, portera tout au long du festival une foule de gadgets qui capteront ses émotions et qui seront retransmis sur le site web. Le pouls et le rythme respiratoire de Lucy seront mesurés grâce à des dispositifs qui retransmettent, par le biais d’une connexion Bluetooth, les données biométriques au téléphone cellulaire. Grâce à une connexion cellulaire, les données seront ensuite acheminées via Internet directement sur le site web. Le cellulaire retransmettra aussi une vidéo en continu de ce que voit Lucy et les coordonnées de celle-ci (à l’aide d’un GPS intégré).

Mais à quoi cela servira-t-il me direz-vous? C’est là que les choses deviennent intéressantes. En tout premier lieu, sa position ainsi que les images captées seront retransmises sur le Web, mais aussi à des endroits stratégiques du festival. Internautes comme public pourront bénéficier de ce qu’elle voit. Encore là rien de bien excitant. C’est à ce point que l’art, le numérique, les technologies et l’humain se rassemblent. Tout ce qui affectera son pouls et sa respiration aura un effet sur l’image. C’est directement sur celle-ci que le public pourra ressentir les émotions de Lucy provoquées par l’art numérique.

Nous sommes donc invités à vivre l’art par le biais des battements de son coeur. Du pur voyeurisme, car sans entrer dans sa tête, vous, moi, les autres pourront voir ce qu’elle voit et ressentir ce qu’elle ressent par le biais de l’image. N’est-ce pas un concept totalement intéressant?

Au début, je voulais nommer le titre de ce billet “Mon nom est Bond, James Bond” pour le simple fait que c’est quelque chose qui sort un peu du quotidien. De plus, j’y vois des utilités de style “agent 007”. J’avoue ne pas trop me documenter sur le sujet, alors je ne sais pas si cela existe, mais ne serait-il pas bien d’avoir de super soldat équipé de ces dispositifs. Ainsi, le centre de commandement pourrait savoir en tout temps ce que voit le soldat, mais surtout comment il se sent. Un pouls ou une respiration élevée voudrait dire que le soldat est dans une situation de stress. Ça serait donc le moment de rassurer nos troupes ou de leur envoyer du renfort! Bon je divague un peu… mais plus terre-à-terre, que serait cette expérience dans un spectacle de musique? Ne serait-ce pas une bonne mesure pour connaître les moments forts, les moments touchants, les moments époustouflants… Une façon originale que de permettre aux “fans” et même aux organisateurs de voir ce que ressent en temps réel quelques élus dans la salle ? Ici, j’y vois plein de possibilités.

Je venais d’écrire que malheureusement je n’avais pas eu la chance de vivre l’expérience, car malgré mes nombreuses tentatives de la journée, je tombais continuellement sur un site qui me disait que Lucy se reposait! Le hasard faisant bien les choses au moment de publier ce billet, j’ai tenté une dernière fois d’aller sur le site du festival. Comble de bonheur, Lucy était bel et bien vivante. Deux cases dans le coin inférieur gauche permettent de voir concrètement la respiration de Lucy et par le nombre de battements minute, le pouls de celle-ci. À ce moment, on se croirait dans un hôpital! Par contre, toujours pas d’image si ce n’est un flou rouge qui représente certainement le flou qui sera appliqué au visuel de notre cobaye. Après quelques petits problèmes techniques, j’ai enfin pu admirer le tout dans sa splendeur. Un peu bizarre comme sensation au début surtout avec le son du battement de coeur, mais à la longue le sentiment y est. C’est exactement à ce moment qu’on ressent toute la folie de ce projet. Je n’ai qu’un mot à la bouche, WOW! Je vous invite à aller y jeter un coup d’oeil (aucun horaire étant affiché, je crois que Lucy est surtout en action en fin de soirée), ce qui vous permettra de voir l’art différemment. Bravo aux membres de l’équipe de Provokat et Elektra, c’est le genre de projet que je salue bien haut.

Et vous, allez-vous suivre Lucy dans ce festival? Si vous aviez la chance, aimeriez-vous tenter l’expérience comme cobaye? Est-ce que l’interprétation de l’art est trop personnelle pour bénéficier d’un tel projet?

P.-S. La prochaine fois que vous avez des idées tripantes de ce genre, j’embarque!

]]> 2009-05-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/lhabit-fait-il-vraiment-le-moine/ Vous connaissez la fameuse expression l’habit ne fait pas le moine, qui dit grossièrement que l’apparence peut être trompeuse? On l’entend souvent et elle est souvent appliquée à plusieurs sauces, mais est-elle véridique?

Dans le poste que j’occupe actuellement, j’ai le plaisir de jouer plusieurs rôles outre le fait d’être architecte logiciel. Étant dans une petite entreprise de développement logiciel (qui se spécialise en intelligence d’affaire [BI] et intégration d’application soit dit en passant) et ayant toujours aimé diversifié mes activités, je fais aussi du développement, de l’analyse, de l’analyse d’affaires, des tests… La plupart des rôles en informatique demandent de travailler dans un bureau où le client ne vous verra pratiquement jamais. Dans le cas de l’analyse (affaire et logiciel), on doit travailler étroitement avec le client pour bien définir son processus d’affaires ainsi que ses besoins au niveau applicatif. Il faut donc quitter le monde de l’ombre pour sortir au grand jour!

Dans le cas d’un programmeur qui travaille seulement devant son ordinateur, même si certaines entreprises exigent un code vestimentaire, que celui-ci programme en jean et t-shirt, cela ne cause pas de problème. Dans le cas d’un analyste qui rencontre des clients, que ce passe-t-il?

Au tout début, je m’habillais propre (pantalon et chemise) tous les jours, client pas client. Pour diverses raisons, j’ai changé mon habillement pour revenir au jean avec un t-shirt/polo. Pour l’instant, je ne travaille qu’avec des clients de longues dates qui connaissent mes capacités et qui ne me jugent pas par mon habillement ou mon apparence. Qu’en sera-t-il avec de nouveaux clients? Trouveront-il du premier coup d’oeil que je ne dois pas être bon ou professionnel vu que je suis en jeans?

Encore là, je me déplace souvent avec mon patron qui lui est toujours habillé propre. Je fais aussi partie d’une entreprise, un tout. J’ai donc une certaine crédibilité de groupe si je peux dire. Qu’en est-il des personnes à leur compte? Oseriez-vous rencontrer un client pour la première fois avec un chandail et une paire de jeans? Votre entreprise, c’est vous… vous êtes son image.

Puis si je parle des activités en technologies. Pour une activité tel un Yulblog qui est plus détendu, je ne dis pas, mais dans une activité telle un Yulbiz? Serais-je pris au sérieux par les personnes avec qui je réseauterais lors de cette soirée sachant que je n’ai pas une réputation telle les Claude Malaison ou Philippe Martin (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) de ce monde ? Encore mieux, la semaine prochaine je suis blogueur officiel au Webcom Montréal, qui se veut, selon moi, la plus grande conférence au Québec dans le domaine des technologies, du marketing et des communications. Bien sûr je n’ai pas le statut de conférencier ou d’expert pour cette conférence, mais comment les gens vont-ils me percevoir?

Évidemment, nous serons d’accord pour dire qu’en habit ou en jeans, je reste la même personne avec ses qualités et ses défauts. Je reste toujours aussi compétent ou incompétent dans ce que je fais! Par contre, est-ce que cela peut vraiment influencer l’opinion des autres?

Je me questionne sur ce sujet tout en connaissant vaguement la réponse. Je remarque un changement d’attitude avec les personnes qui ne me connaissent pas :

• On est passé du vouvoiement au tutoiement.
• On ne semble plus me donner autant d’importance dans un magasin où il se vend des items plus ou moins cher : bijouterie, magasin d’électronique…
• On vérifie même plus souvent ma signature ou on me demande plus souvent une carte d’identité lorsque je paie avec ma carte de crédit.
• …

Tous ces petits signes qui m’apparaissent évidents depuis que j’ai changé de style vestimentaire. Serait-ce seulement une mauvaise interprétation ou mon imaginaire qui se laisse aller à penser de cette façon? Puis je fais souvent allusions à jeans et t-shirt, mais nous pouvons parler aussi de tatouage, de couleur de cheveux ou tout autre élément moins conventionnel dans le domaine des affaires.

Et vous, comment vous habillez-vous pour travailler? Pensez-vous que l’habit fait le moine? Comment réagit votre patron, vos clients ou votre entourage à votre habillement? Est-ce vous confieriez un gros contrat à une personne dont l’apparence ne cadre pas dans vos valeurs?

]]> 2009-04-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/le-grand-menage-des-404/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Au tout début de ce blogue, j’ai eu la merveilleuse idée l’idée d’utiliser une extension qui créait un billet avec chaque gazouillis que je faisais sur Twitter. Le but de cette manœuvre? Avoir mes statut de Twitter disponible sur mon blogue et alimenter mon fil RSS un peu plus que mes peu nombreux billets. Je savais lorsque j’ai démarré ce blogue, que ça serait impossible pour l’instant d’écrire régulièrement comme je l’ai déjà fait dans un autre blogue, alors comme j’utilisais plus régulièrement Twitter, 1 + 1 faisait 2.

Bon toute personne qui connait la façon dont les moteurs de recherche fonctionnent auraient pu me dire que l’idée n’était pas très bonne si je ne voulais pas avoir du trafic peu révélant sur mon blogue, mais sur le coup je n’y avais pas pensé (je connaissais peu les rouage du SEO). Effectivement, comme Twitter me sert beaucoup plus à un niveau personnel, j’avais souvent des personnes qui atterrissaient ici avec des recherches dans Google auquel je ne désirais pas nécessairement être associé. Pas que je ne cautionne pas ce que je dis sur Twitter, au contraire, mais je ne voulais pas nécessairement que quelqu’un arrive ici en cherchant “panne STM”, parce que j’ai du faire un gazouillis 1 fois par 2 semaine sur ça!

J’ai donc décidé de mettre fin à ça en effaçant tous les billets provenant de Twitter. Hé bien, ce petit ménage m’a donné plus de 2000 erreurs dans l’outil de Google Webmaster Tools. C’est bien normal, j’avais plusieurs liens qui n’existaient plus. Pour régler le tout, j’avais deux choix:

1. Entrer les liens un par un dans l’outil de suppression de Google Webmaster Tools.
2. Créer un robots.txt avec les liens qui ne doivent pas être indexer par le Google Bot.

La solution #1 était trop fastidieuse vu qu’il n’est possible que d’entrer un lien à la fois. Oui je pouvais simplement prendre les racines communces, mais de 2000 erreurs je passais à peut-être 1500 que je devais de toute manière entrer une par une. La deuxième solution était donc la meilleure. Toujours en utilisant le Google Webmaster Tools je pouvais utiliser l’option “Download all errors for this site” qui me donnait un fichier avec la liste de tous les liens causant problèmes. Bien sûr dans cette liste, il y avait beaucoup d’informations inutiles tel le type d’erreur, la date, le nombre de pages…

J’ai donc utilisé un programme comme Notepad++ (pour Windows) qui permet de faire un remplacement à l’aide d’une expression régulière. Combien de fois ais-je louangé cette invention que sont les expressions régulières… Encore une fois, cela m’a sauvé beaucoup de temps. Voici, si le format ne change pas, l’expression à utiliser:

,404 [0-9a-zA-Z,() /]+

que vous remplacé par rien (champ vide). Ensuite, pour enlever votre racine et ajouter l’instruction pour le bot, utilisez une expression de ce genre:

^https://votresite.com

que vous remplacé par

Disallow:

Il ne vous reste plus qu’à copier le contenu de ce fichier dans votre robots.txt.

Voilà! Vous aurez donc fait un ménage de géant en quelques minutes…

Depuis que j’ai ajouté ces éléments à mon robots.txt, Google enlève mes liens à coup de 100 à 200 par jour. D’ici 1 semaine, toutes les erreurs devraient avoir disparues. Rendu à ce point, je pourrais nettoyer mon fichier robots.txt!

]]> 2009-04-15T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/equipement/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Un mot… Une photo!

Pour ceux qui voudraient savoir ce que j’ai comme matériel pour la photographie…

Boîtier : Nikon D60 (09-04-10)Chargeur : Nikon EN-EL9 (09-04-10)Filtre : 2 Filtres neutres NC 52 mm (1 pour chacun des objectifs) (09-04-10)Flash : Nikon SB-600 (09-05-01)Objectifs : AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G VR  (09-04-10) et AF-S DX Nikkor 55-200mm f4-5.6G VR (09-04-10)Sac : LOWEPRO Classified 160 AW Noir (09-04-10) et LOWEPRO Flipside 200 Noir (09-05-01) _P.-S. J’ai mis la date à laquelle je me suis procuré chacun des éléments, question que vous pussiez voir mon parcours en photographie vs les équipements que je possédais._P.-S.2 La photo est représentative de mon premier achat d’équipements, mais ne sera pas mise à jour au fur et à mesure.

]]> 2009-04-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/un-mot-une-photo/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Un mot… Une photo!

Bonjour à tous,

Bienvenue sur mon photoblogue nommé “Un mot… Une photo!”. Tout d’abord, je me présente: mon nom est Frédéric Harper. Je travaille dans le domaine de l’informatique depuis quelques années et la photographie n’est qu’une passion. Une passion très récente et avec laquelle je ne me prétends même pas photographe.

Ce site est une idée de projet de divertissement que j’ai eue il y a quelques semaines. Ça faisait longtemps que je voulais me lancer dans la photo avec un appareil de type reflex. Je suis donc nouvellement le propriétaire d’un appareil Nokia D60. Je me suis muni de quelques éléments de base pour un photographe en herbe qui désire débuter sans trop se compliquer la vie. Je verrais bien où cela me mènera ou combien ma passion me coûtera!!!

Pour faire simple, car vous aurez sûrement dû comprendre les grandes lignes de ce photoblogue avec son titre. Un mot… une photo! À l’aide de mon vieux dictionnaire Le petit Larousse Illustratré 1995, auquel je ne trouvais plus d’usage depuis mon utilisation excessive d’Internet à titre de référence sur la langue française, je pigerais de temps en temps, avec le plus de hasard possible (ou selon des photos que je prendrais) un mot. J’en écrirais la définition et je prendrais une photo qui le représente. Pour l’instant, je vais me limiter à une photo par mot, sans jamais en utiliser un déjà fait… Certes, certains mots seront plus faciles que d’autres, mais seul l’avenir me le dira!

En gros, sans aucune prétention, ni sans me mettre une cible d’un nombre de mots définis par période, vous y verrez, selon mon horaire et mon bon plaisir, de nouveaux mots apparaître de façon visuelle.

Je vous invite donc à suivre ce blogue et d’y laisser vos commentaires…

]]> 2009-04-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/chat/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue Un mot… Une photo!

Mammifère carnivore au museau court et arrondi, aux griffes rétractiles, dont il existe des espèces domestiques et des espèces sauvages.

Notes

Je vous avouerais, en toute honnêteté, que le premier mot ne fut pas prit au hasard. Comme je le mentionnais, des fois ça sera au hasard, des fois ça sera selon les photos que j’aurais prises. Dans ce cas-ci, je testais mon nouvel appareil avec nos chats à la maison et  je venais de prendre une superbe photo de notre chatte Belle, alors je me disais que ça pourrait être mon premier mot. Le destin ne faisant pas les choses à moitié, en allant faire des emplettes avec chérie, nous sommes passés devant ce graffiti. Je n’ai pas hésité un instant à en prendre la photo et l’utiliser pour mon premier mot…

]]> 2009-04-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/leuthanasie-ca-tue/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Loin de moi l’idée de faire un jeu de mots désagréable, mais c’est la première chose à laquelle j’ai pensé. Pas que je vous prenne, cher lectorat, pour des incultes, mais poussons plus loin ce mortel mot… Ces quelques lettres ont une trèsComme certains doivent savoir, vendredi dernier nous avons dû faire euthanasier notre gros chat Merlin. Plusieurs personnes n’ont sûrement pas compris ou ne comprendront pas l’état de désarrois dans lequel cette soirée nous a laissées chérie et moi. Je crois qu’il faut aimer les animaux, en avoir soi-même et je dirais, en avoir “perdu” pour réellement comprendre que c’est un dur moment.

Sans rentré dans les détails, nous avons du faire face à un choix la semaine dernière: tentez par divers tests et opérations de garder un chat qui souffre en vie quelque temps de plus (s’il passe à travers les opérations, si les opérations réussissent et si le problème ne refait pas surface après) ou de mettre fin au jour de celui-ci, mais surtout fin à ses souffrances. Vu sa taille et les chances que ses problèmes resurgissent ainsi que les chances mineures de réussite des opérations, nous avions à faire le choix entre notre égoïsme de vouloir garder un être aimé (oui! un être aimé en parlant d’un animal) le plus longtemps possible avec nous ou d’agir avec sagesse et de prendre la bonne décision pour lui! En plus, nous ne parlons même pas des arnaqueuses sommes qu’on avait déjà dû payer pour tenter tant bien que mal de trouver une solution et celles que nous allions devoir encourir.

Certains me diront (vous n’aurez pas lu la note ci-haut) que ce n’est qu’un chat et que j’exagère. Oui, ce n’est qu’un chat, mais c’était notre chat. Croyez-moi, ce fut à ce jour, la plus dure décision que j’ai eu à prendre. Voir chérie qui l’aimait comme si c’était son enfant et qui le chérissait depuis plus de 5 ans (de mon côté, je ne le connaissais que depuis 1 an et demi, mais vivait avec depuis plus de 6 mois… assez pour s’attacher à ce gros balourd mâle au miaule d’une petite chatte) être démolit par ces tristes nouvelles (elle venait en plus d’en perdre un autre il y a à peine 6 mois) et savoir que nous devions prendre cette cruelle décision… Savoir que le lendemain, ce gros minet ne viendrait plus m’achaler pour de l’eau venant du frigidaire même si son bol d’eau (qui est électrique pour rafraichir et refroidir l’eau) était plein. De penser que malgré le fait que nous avions 4 chats, de se faire dire “au moins il t’en reste 3” ne changerait rien à notre tristesse.

Oh l’euthanasie ça tue… ça tue l’être aimé… et ça tues ceux qui prennent cette lourde décision!

Au revoir mon gros…

]]> 2009-03-21T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/twitter-me-rend-paresseux/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Je me considère un juste milieu entre un natif numérique et un immigrant de celui-ci. En réalité, je connais peu ces termes, car je l’ai est appris lors de la conférence de Marc Prensky (anglais) au Webcom de mai 2008 (je me promets de lire un peu plus sur le sujet lorsque le temps me le permettra). Étant situé, encore la, dans le milieu de la Génération Y</a, je ne suis pas né avec les technologies, mais dès l’âge de 11-12 ans elles furent totalement intégrées à ma vie.

Comme toute personne qui vie avec la merveilleuse invention qu’est Internet, j’utilise grandement Google comme moteur de recherche. Bien sûr il y a eu plusieurs autres moteurs que j’ai utilisés avant l’apparition et la montée en force de ce dernier. Soyons honnête, maintenant lorsqu’on parle moteur de recherche, on parle de Google que cela n’en déplaise à Yahoo ou à Microsoft.

Pour moi Google sert à toutes les sauces: recherche d’une définition d’un mot, recherche du site web d’une compagnie ou d’un individu, recherche d’une adresse, recherche pour documenter une formation, recherche d’un type d’entreprise X (quoi que maintenant le service Praized (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) de Praized Media (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) a prit sa place), recherche pour m’aider dans mon travail, recherche d’image, recherche du meilleur produit pour telle ou telle chose… Je pourrais continuer cette liste longtemps et je crois que c’est comme ça pour plusieurs d’entre nous. Je mentionne Praized ci-haut qui a remplacé Google, non pas parce que la machine de Praized Media est plus grande, mais parce que le service en ligne qu’ils offrent est axé autour d’une communauté (je pense en faire un billet éventuellement).

Ce qui m’amène au point principal de ce billet: je crois que Twitter est en train de devenir un petit Google axé autour d’une communauté. Pour ceux qui ne connaîtraient pas Twitter, je vous suggère d’aller lire l’article sur celui-ci dans Wikipédia. Non pas que je prédis comme plusieurs personnes que Twitter va complètement remplacer Google, il ne faut pas virer fou, mais présentement il me sert beaucoup pour mes recherches.

Exemple: j’ai décidé de m’inscrire à Twitter et j’aimerais savoir parmi les nombreux clients Twitter pour iPhone, lequel serait le meilleur. Vous conviendrez que de trouver le meilleur est très subjectif. Le meilleur change d’une personne à l’autre, mais vous comprenez le principe. Donc, je peux bien sûr aller dans Google et tapez ma recherche. Il me fournira plusieurs liens sur plusieurs évaluations sur différents sites professionnels ou non ainsi que plusieurs sites des clients existants. Je devrais donc à ce moment faire le tri dans les sites retournés et voir lesquels semblent pertinents. Ensuite, je ne me fierais pas à un seul, mais bien à plusieurs sites, dont pour la plupart, je ne connaitrais pas les auteurs. Je ferais donc confiance à des inconnus.

Vous me direz qu’il y a le iTunes Store qui me permet de faire ça plus rapidement. Effectivement, je pourrais lister les clients Twitter pour iPhone. Encore la, j’aurais plusieurs choix et je me baserais sur des évaluations (quand il y en a) faites par des inconnus.

Pourquoi ne ferais-je pas un message sur Twitter demandant “Quel est le meilleur client Twitter pour iPhone selon vous qui me permet de faire un retweet?” par exemple? Bien sûr dans le nombre de personnes qui me suivent, il y en a au moins la moitié sinon plus que je ne connais pas en personne, mais pour l’autre moitié, leur réponse vaudra de l’or (je dis ça, mais il y a plusieurs cyberconnaissances dont je considérerais les réponses aux mêmes titres que de réelles connaissances). Je pourrais facilement sur les réponses reçues, minimiser mon nombre de clients à tester, car j’aurais moins de réponses que par Google et surtout, je pourrais peut-être en écarté certaines sachant que je n’ai pas les mêmes goûts que telle ou telle personne.

Je ne dis pas que depuis que je fais ça je n’utilise plus Google pour faire mes recherches moi-même, mais simplement que ça me permet à quelques reprises d’alléger la tâche. Twitter me rend paresseux, mais en réalité, je l’utilise plus pour la force de mon réseau, de ma communauté Twitter que pour le temps qu’il m’économise! Remarquez qu’ici j’aurais pu remplacer le terme Twitter tout au long de ce billet par celui de Facebook qui contient aussi un réseau de personne que je connais. Qui plus est, dans mon cas, exclusivement de personnes que je connais dans la vie de tous les jours, car je n’accepte que des personnes que je connais sur Facebook contrairement à Twitter ou LinkedIn qui sont des buffets à volonté!

Dans la folie de tout ceci, je crois sincèrement que Google va se diriger vers une avenue de ce genre. Ils ont commencé un peu avec Google Friends Connect (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus), mais je crois qu’ils auraient tout intérêt à amener les utilisateurs de leur moteur de recherche à former une certaine communauté. Quelque chose du genre où les premiers résultats pour une recherche seraient non pas ceux avec le plus de vote de confiance, mais ceux que ma communauté ou mon cercle d’ami(e)s aurait appréciées. Peut-être que Google est déjà en train de créer ça au moment où j’écris ces lignes…

J’étais curieux de voir si ce que je pensais sur le sujet était monnaie courante ou si le fait d’avoir la grippe me faisait sortir quelques inepties, alors voici quelques liens qui traitent du sujet:

• Does Real-Time Search Make Twitter a Google Killer? Its Fanbots Think So (BoomTown Not Quite Yet). (anglais)
• Google’s First Real Threat? Twitter. (anglais)
• If Google did Twitter search (anglais)
• Twitter destined to replace Google Search (anglais)

Veuillez prendre note que ce ne sont pas des articles qui présentent nécessairement la même opinion que moi, mais bien des articles qui traitent du sujet dont j’ai parlé ci-haut.

]]> 2009-01-29T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/iphonedevcamp-montreal/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Comme j’aime bien donner mon impression sur les événements auxquels je participe, en voici donc un autre:

Vendredi dernier avait lieu le iPhoneDevCamp Montreal. Ce fut donc ma première expérience dans une activité de type camp (à dire à l’anglaise) et qui plus est, dans un iPhoneDevCamp. On dirait qu’il y a plusieurs choses que je fais ou auquel je participe qui sont présenté comme ma première fois, mais j’ai décidé de m’impliquer un peu plus au niveau de la communauté web de Montréal. Avant de m’impliquer d’avantage comme membre d’une quelconque association ou d’organiser des événements, il me faut participer à quelques uns. De plus, la bibitte sociable que je suis adore rencontrer du nouveau monde.

Ne connaissant pas trop la formule, on me définissait toujours un camp comme une anti-conférence. Je suppose que j’étais en droit de me demander exactement ce que veut dire une anti-conférence, mais je me suis dit que je verrais bien sur place. N’ayant pas eu d’expérience de ce type avant, j’ai été un peu désappointé quand je suis arrivé sur place et que j’ai vu les grandes feuilles posés par Sylvain qui n’avaient rien de plusieurs activités auxquels j’ai participé. Ma première réflexion fut de dire qu’il y avait eu un manque au niveau de l’organisation. Je fus grandement sécurisé lorsque je compris le principe (donnez moi une chance!!!)… Un camp sa s’organise sur place avec ses participants. Le monde présentent s’ils veulent puis décident des principales questions qui seront discutés. Plus la soirée passait et plus j’adorais ce principe. C’est tellement moins rigide qu’une conférence et beaucoup plus productif, car on parle réellement de ce que la majorité veut parler. Je te rassure donc Sylvain, ça ne sera pas mon dernier événement de type camp.

Pour parler plus spécifiquement du iPhoneDevCamp, ce fut une soirée remplit d’intéressante information. Je me dirigeais vers cette soirée dans l’esprit d’apprendre, car ma très limitée (une application HelloWorld ça compte?) expérience de développement pour le iPhone ne m’aurait pas permis de réellement présenter ou m’immiscer dans des conversations trop techniques. J’ai pu tout de même argumenter sur quelques conversations, mais en tant qu’utilisateur intense que je suis.

Je dirais même que le seul point négatif, moi qui suit un chialeux de première, fut la nourriture. Il n’y avait rien de planifier, ce qui était normal si on se fit à la mentalité qui régit un camp. Le réel problème fut que personne ne se proposa (ok, ok, moi non plus je ne me suis pas proposé) pour faire la commande de pizza tel que l’organisateur l’avait demané. Alors j’ai quitté un peu plus tôt pour aller casser la croûte. Prochaine fois, il faudrait peut-être un système plus efficace et préparé d’avance. Exemple: dans l’annonce proposé à ceux qui veulent souper avant la conférence (parce que rendu à 8h00-9h00 ça commence à faire tard) amène le change juste (5$ ou 7$, bref ce qui sera estimé). Rendu sur place, ça sera plus évident de trouver quelqu’un qui voudra passer la commande, mais qui n’aurait pas voulu gérer les 20$ de tout le monde et trouver/remettre le change ensuite. De plus ça permettrait à ceux qui n’avaient pas d’argent sur eux de pouvoir manger (comme moi qui ne traine jamais d’argent papier). Bon c’est une longue constatation pour un “tout petit léger minime accro”, mais ça attaquait mon estomac!!!

Nous avons donc eu le plaisir lors de cette soirée d’avoir des conseils sur comment gérer un projet iPhone/iPod, d’être informé des grandes lignes d’une conférence de Apple sur le sujet, de connaître les problèmes que Praized (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus) ont connu dans le développement, de constater le plaisir que Mirego ont eu à développer une application dans un trip de geek (dont j’attends toujours le beta pour m’amuser et tester pour eux)… Désolé du manque de précision quant aux conférenciers ou sujet, mais je n’ai pas prit de note et comme c’est un camp, rien n’était affiché sur le site. On a aussi eu le plaisir, agrémenté de quelques bières, de discuter avec la communauté et ce fut aussi ma première expérience Qik dont je vous parlerais plus en détails dans un prochain billet. Malheureusement j’ai du quitter avant les discussions de groupes parce que je maigrissait à vue d’œil…

Pour terminer, félicitations à Praized pour l’organisation et à Mirego pour avoir commandité cet événement. Peut-être qu’à la prochaine édition, je serais plus apte à partager mes connaissances sur le développement pour iPhone/iPod!

]]> 2009-01-14T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/yulblog-prise-2/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Mercredi dernier fut mon retour au YulblogJe parle de retour, car la dernière fois où j’y suis allé](le site web précédemment référencé n’existe plus) date de mai 2007. Ce fut la dernière fois, pas parce que je n’aimais pas ça, pas parce que les blogueurs/blogueuses que je suivaient n’y allait plus/pas… Je n’y suis plus retourné pour la simple et bonne raison que j’avais fermé mon blogue (pas celui-ci, mais mon tout premier blogue personnel que je tenais depuis mai 2005). Comme Yulblog est un rassemblement de blogueur et que je ne bloguais plus, ma place n’y était plus selon ma perception, même si en réalité on m’a souvent dit que tous étaient bienvenue.

Depuis mon retour dans la bloguosphère, je n’avais pu me libérer avant celui de Janvier. Quel retour ce fut! J’ai eu beaucoup de plaisir: plusieurs conversations très intéressantes et plusieurs moments de folie!!!

Parmi les personnes avec qui j’ai eu le bonheur de jaser, de nouveaux visages ce sont ajoutés à mes connaissances: Alexandre Enkerli, Camionneuse, Caroline Allard (mère indigne), Claudia (les humeurs d’une ex pucelle), Éric Baillargeon, François Rodrigue, Isabelle Gaumont, Laurent Lasalle (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus), Panthère Rousse, Patrick Tanguay, Maxime DeBleu, Oza Meilleur et sûrement plusieurs autres que j’oublie.

Il ma aussi fait plaisir de revoir quelques personnes que je connaissais suite à différentes activités en TI: Debbie Rouleau (SekhmetDesign), Laurent Maisonnave et Michelle Blanc.

Tant de monde intéressant… J’étais vraiment surpris de voir autant de monde (il devait y avoir au minimum 40 personnes selon ce que j’ai vu) malgré la température (le monde étant de nature felluette, quelques flocons de neige peuvent empêcher bien des choses).

J’invite donc ceux que je n’ai pas rencontré à celui du 4 février. Au plaisir de prendre un verre en votre compagnie.

]]> 2009-01-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/bonne-annee-2009/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Quoi dire dans un billet de nouvelle année?

Mes souhaits ?

Bien sûre, je vous en souhaite une bonne. Quelle soit remplis de santé et de bonheur. Vous savez, ça devient presque barbant que de toujours souhaiter la santé, mais sérieusement, c’est seulement ce qu’on peut réellement souhaiter à quelqu’un. Sans ça, rien d’autres ne peut vraiment arriver.

Mes prédictions ?

Je ne suis pas devin, mais je prédis que 2009 sera une année entre 2008 et 2010. Le changement d’année n’a pas altéré mon sens de l’humour accru, vous voyez!!!

Une rétrospective de 2008 ?

Non plus, mes bons coups ainsi que mes mauvais coups restent derrière moi tout en gardant l’essentiel comme guide pour mon présent ainsi que mon futur!!!

Mes résolutions ?

Aussi! En commençant, ne disons pas mes, déjà que une c’est dur à faire une, ne parlons pas de plusieurs. Habituellement on essai de prendre LA résolution, mais oubliez ça. Ça ne donne rien de prendre de quoi de trop dur ou d’en prendre trop, on ne l’est tient pas! J’en ai pris une… une seule… celle de mieux vivre! Ouf… c’est gros non? Pas dans la mentalité avec laquelle je la prend. Ça ne veut pas dire absolument s’entrainer au gym ou mieux manger ou moins regarder de télévision… Ça veut simplement dire mieux vivre, quand je peux, quand je veux, quand je le ressent! Vous allez me dire qu’il est un peu tôt pour dire ça, mais avec ces petits trois jours qui ont osez se pointer le nez en 2009, à date, ça fonctionne… Puis ça s’applique à tout: changer une méthode de travail au bureau pour m’améliorer, moins procrastiner pour préparer des documents pour mon bénévolat, travailler plus en collaboration avec le lave-vaisselle, poussez mes passions, faire de petits projets que je traine depuis longtemps, enlever les choses négatives de ma vie…

Au risque de me répéter, je vous souhaite une merveilleuse année 2009, qu’elle soit remplit de tout ce que vous voulez et vide de tout ce dont vous ne voulez pas!!! Vivez pleinement cette nouvelle année…

Source de l’image: Didier Chapellon (le site précédamment référencé n’existe plus)

]]> 2008-12-28T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/materialiser-votre-etchpression/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Certains d’entre-vous m’ont vu écrire sur Twitter ou sur Facebook à propos d’une compagnie nommé Etchpression (le site web précédament référencé n’existe plus). Ayant enfin un logo pour mon blogue qui me plait vraiment et qui, malgré le peu de retour ici, plait bien à mon entourage, j’ai donc décidé d’aller l’encourager réellement. J’ai donc prit mon courage à deux mains le jour le plus terrible de l’année (le boxing day) pour aller magasiner. Je me suis donc dirigé, dès l’ouverture, à son kiosque du Centre Eaton avec ma clé USB contenant mon logo avec le slogan. Je vous épargnerais le fait que je me sois présenté avec mon logo vectoriel sans avoir vectorisé le texte et comme il n’avait pas la font spéciale que j’ai utilisé, question d’avoir une logo A1 à graver, j’ai du retourner chez nous pour corriger mon fichier EPS!!!

Une fois rendu sur place, j’ai donc laissé mon dernier achat techno, soit mon netbook Acer Aspire One entre les mains des experts de Etchpression. Après avoir préparé le tout et s’être assuré que le logo était bien placé pour mon appareil, il a donc osé me demander de partir moi-même la machine… Je vous avouerais qu’à ce moment, un léger stress m’envahit, mais qui fut vite surpasser par la jouissance visuel que j’avais à regarder mon propre logo se tatouer sur mon Acer. Vous pouvez donc admirez le travail sur la photo ci-haut (ne critiquez pas la qualité de l’image, mon appareil est moyen, je ne suis pas un photographe et surtout, il est bien beau ce boîtier, mais tellement dur à nettoyer et à garder sans trace!!!).

En plus de rendre vos gadgets uniques que ce soit avec votre propre image ou avec une choisit dans leur banques d’images (qu’ils semblent pouvoir vous personnaliser en plus), cela les rend plus sécuritaire. Qui osera se promener avec mon netbook une fois volé ? Ça sera plus dur de nier qu’il n’est pas le mien ou plus difficile à revendre!

Donc cette fois, je ne parle plus de cette compagnie pour seulement l’encourager, mais bien parce que j’ai vécu l’expérience Etchpression et que entre-vous et moi, ce fut une bien petite somme d’argent investit pour voir mon logo sur mon ordi. Comme dirait l’autre “Beau, bon, pas cher”.

Prochaine étape, le iPhone!!!

]]> 2008-12-24T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/joyeux-noel/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Personnellement, je fête Noël, mais je respecte les personnes de d’autres religions ou ceux qui sont athée (ou ceux qui fête le Festivus). C’est pourquoi je vous souhaite tout de même un joyeux temps des fêtes, même pour ceux qui n’y fête rien. Prenez le temps tout de même de vous reposer de l’année 2008 et de passer du bon temps en bonne compagnie. Pour ceux qui déprime souvent du à de mauvais souvenirs ou parce qu’ils sont seul: sortez, aller voir du monde, occupez-vous, bref, prenez du temps pour vous tout en vous changeant les idées.

Je ne vous souhaite pas bonne année tout de suite, car j’aurais la chance de le faire plus officiellement le 31 ou le 1er. Effectivement, je passe le temps des fête à relaxer, avancé quelques trucs personnel, voir ma famille et être avec chérie.

Encore une fois, Joyeux Noël… Ho Ho Ho!!!

Source de l’image: Tom’s Guide

]]> 2008-12-23T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/la-guignolee-du-web/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Il y a environ 2 semaines, Michelle Blanc a lancée une idée de guignolée des blogueurs. L’engouement fut-elle que l’idée prit place en très peu de temps. Comme j’avais mentionné mon intérêt sur ce projet, je tenais donc à en parler ici.

L’idée était simple, donner à ceux qui en ont plus besoin que nous en montrant la force du web ou plutôt, la force des gens sur le web. Dans un esprit de liberté, cette guignolée ne vous restreint pas à encourager un seul organisme ou une seule cause: vous êtes plutôt invité à choisir parmi 5 organismes, soit Moisson Montréal, Club des petits déjeuners du Québec, Sunyouth, Les Auberges du Coeur et Socitété de Saint-Vincent de Paul. Puis si cela ne vous suffit pas, vous pouvez donner par le service de don Desjardins qui vous offre une liste avec plus de 30 autres organismes.

Pour ma part, je vais donner au Club des petits déjeuners du Québec. Faisant du bénévolat avec des jeunes, c’est donc une cause qui me touche un peu plus.

Donc un gros merci à toute l’équipe qui a mené ce projet à terme…

Alors, qu’attendez-vous? Cliqué sur l’image pour aller sur le site de la guignolée du web et aider votre prochain!

Source de l’image: La guignolée du Web

]]> 2008-12-06T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-la-recherche-dun-logo-2ieme-partie/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

La “saga” n’est pas finie, quoique cette fois-ci, surtout en le comparant à mon premier essai, cette tentative est très réussie. Encore une fois, il ne s’agit que de mon opinion et j’aimerais avoir la vôtre.

On m’a offert de me créer un logo profesionnellement dans le billet précédent, mais je ne pensais pas investir d’argent dans mon blogue. Du moins pas pour l’instant, car ce n’est que par plaisir et ça me permet de développer mes talents de graphiste aptitudes avec Illustrator.

Voici donc le chef d’œuvre!!!

Donc ce sont trois essais plutôt semblable:

1. Le premier étant la partie principale avec du binaire qui ne veut rien dire (ça donne 21 si on passe en base 10 et rien si on passe de binaire en texte). Je ne trouvais pas de truc assez court en binaire pour lui donner une signification.
2. Le deuxième est mon préféré (bon, je veux influencer vos choix). J’ai enlevé le principe d’avoir du binaire et remplacé ça par mon petit slogan que j’affectionne particulièrement.
3. Le dernier, bien c’est juste le même que les 2 autres, mais sans le binaire et le texte (avouez que sans ma description vous n’aurez rien compris???)

Donc le principe était d’avoir deux couleurs (trois avec noir) qui vont revenir éventuellement dans mon thème. Puis les {}, bien c’est juste pour faire “programmation”. Je n’ai pas testé, mais selon moi ça va bien sortir en grayscale et bien sûr en noir et blanc.

Alors, encore une fois, soyez honnête!!!

]]> 2008-11-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-la-recherche-dun-logo/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Ça fait longtemps que je n’ai pas écris ici. Comme les dernières fois, je n’ai pas mis le projet de coté! Ce n’était juste pas dans mes priorités dernièrement.Ça fait un bout que je mijotte sur l’idée d’un logo. C’est plus ou moins définis comme idée, mais j’ai fait quelques tests. Voici ce avec quoi j’arrive pour l’instant:

Qu’en dites-vous? L’idée derrière ça était d’avoir un 2 et du binaire. L’intérieur, les trippes du 2, sont en binaire. De plus, le titre du site s’y retrouve ainsi que mon petit slogan. Bon ça peut être la version finale ou non, mais c’est une première.

Alors, j’attends vos opinions!

]]> 2008-07-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/encore-dans-le-demenagement/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Comme vous avez pu remarquer, il n’y a que des billets de type “Liens du jour” c’est temps-ci. En passant, je suis en réflexion pour trouver une manière de les garder sans qu’ils n’éclipsent les billets principaux. Effectivement, je consacre tout mon temps sur notre nouvel appartement et au bureau. Beaucoup de travaille du coté professionnel, mais aussi avec ce nouveau chez nous: défaire les boîtes, placé les meubles, nettoyer, peinturer… On nous a laissé un appartement plus ou moins intéressant, mais après quelques efforts de chérie et moi, celui-ci sera de loin plus confortable et présentable. Heureusement, le déménagement en tant que tel s’est bien passé grâce au professionnalisme de la compagnie [ConstantineauC’est pourquoi je resterais assez silencieux ici pour quelques jours encore! Soyez patient, le jour viendra où je serais plus constant dans mes billets. D’ailleurs, j’ai déjà plusieurs brouillons et d’autres idées qui mijotent.

Comme je vous avais dit, je redéfinis la nature de ce blogue à chaque fois que je l’utilise, alors je viens d’ajouter une section “Personnel” où je placerais des billets de ce genre. Il restera principalement de type technologique et professionnel, mais vous y verrez un peu plus de moi.

](https://www.constantineau.ca/ “Site web de la compagnie de déménagement Constantineau”)

Source de l’image: Gravitation

]]> 2008-06-12T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/billets-liens-du-jour/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Vous avez sûrement remarqué, ce matin très tôt j’ai fait un billet nommé “Liens du jour”. En réalité, c’est de la triche, je n’ai pas fait moi-même ce billet. Non, je n’ai pas de contributeur (humain) à mon blogue, mais c’est une job de l’application en ligne del.icio.us qui la créé automatiquement.

La plupart d’entres vous devez connaître ce service de signets en ligne. Il permet de gérer en ligne ses signets web, mais aussi de les partager avec d’autres utilisateurs et aussi de voir combien de personnes a ajouté telle ou telle page web avant vous. Habituellement je suis très frileux lorsqu’il s’agit d’utiliser des services web quand je pourrais très bien les héberger sur mon propre serveur. Je protège assez mes informations, même si souvent elles sont rendues publiques. C’est plutôt, je crois, le fait que je préfère ne pas dépendre de d’autres compagnies et ne compter que sur moi et mon hébergeur (qui est assez fiable d’ailleurs).

J’ai donc fait une exception pour mes signets, car l’application PHP que j’utilisais ne fonctionnait pas très bien et je ne trouvais rien qui ressemblait et fonctionnait aussi bien que ce service. Voilà que j’adore l’utiliser. Comme on navigue beaucoup que ce soit au niveau professionnel ou personnel, cet outil devient indispensable!

J’ai donc décidé de vous en faire part et del.icio.us offre un service qui permet de faire un billet automatique à l’heure voulu avec les liens du jour. Par ailleurs pour ajouter la gestion des tags à travers ça et pour modifier le titre du billet qui par défaut était “links for xxxx-xx-xx”, j’ai utilisé l’extension “del.icio.us daily blog post fixer” qui fonctionne à merveille. Donc à tous les soirs (à vrai dire, j’ai demandé que la job roule à minuit heure locale, mais avec sûrement toutes les demandes pour cette heure, ça sort les liens vers environ 1 h du matin) vous aurez droit à un billet contenant les liens du jour.

Vous y retrouverez aussi des liens qui n’ont rien à voir avec l’informatique. Comme je mentionnais dans un billet précédent, à chaque utilisation de ce blogue, je le redéfinis un peu. Il est vrai qu’à la base je voulais en faire un blogue strictement professionnel, mais je suis en train d’en faire un blogue professionnel à saveur aussi personnelle.

Sur ce, je vous souhaite de passer un bel été, mes billets seront presque inexistants ou du moins très courts pour les 4-5 semaines à venir, car je suis toujours aussi occupé, mais en plus je déménage avec ma douce moitié. Donc je rentre dans les boîtes sous peu!

Source de l’image: It’s a SharePoint World

]]> 2008-06-07T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/ubuntu-souris-logitech-vx-revolution/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Venons-en au coeur du billet. Je suis revenu sous Linux il y a peu de temps, alors quand j’ai un peu de temps pour relaxer, j’essaie d’améliorer mon expérience. J’ai donc voulu rendre fonctionnels les multiples boutons de ma souris Logitech VX Revolution (le site précédamment référencé n’existe plus). Ubuntu a plusieurs tutoriels très bien faits, mais celui concernant ma Logitech VX Revolution me semble un peu éparpillé. Je ne sais pas si c’est moi qui n’a pas bien compris, car il est vrai que j’étais habitué aux tutoriels de Gentoo (ayant été sous Gentoo pendant 3-4 ans avant).

Bref, voici les étapes que j’ai dû faire pour réussir le tout.

On doit tout d’abord aller prendre en note le chemin de notre souris en tapant le code suivant :

find /dev/input/by-id/ -name "*event-mouse"

Cela devrait vous retourner quelque chose du genre :

/dev/input/by-id/usb-0d3d_USBPS2-event-mouse
/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse

À ce point, prenez en note celle qui contient le mot “Logitech” dedans.

Pour pouvoir gérer les touches et leurs associés des actions, vous allez avoir besoin de deux logiciels, soit XBindKeys pour associer un bouton a une action et Xvkbd](le site web précédemment référencé n’existe plus) pour associer des touches ou combinaison de touches a une action. Pour ce faire, tapez cette commande :

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-evdev xbindkeys xvkbd

Vous allez devoir modifier les configurations de Xorg, alors pour des questions de sécurités, faites une sauvegarde de votre fichier xorg.conf:

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

Ensuite, éditons ce fichier :

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

C’est un peu à partir d’ici que je trouve qu’ils se sont compliqué la vie. Dans mon cas, la partie de ma souris dans mon xorg.conf ressemblait à ça :

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier      "Configured Mouse"


Driver          "mouse"


Option          "CorePointer"


EndSection

Modifiez la ligne “Driver” et remplacée la par ça :

Driver          "evdev"

Ensuite, à la suite de la ligne “Option”, ajoutez ce code :

Option          "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse"

Option          "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"


Option          "Emulate3Buttons" "false"


Option          "Buttons" "11"


Option          "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 9 8 6 7 13 14"


Option          "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

Où vous remplacez le “/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse” par celui que vous avez trouvé plutôt.

Ce qui vous donnera pour votre souris, quelque chose de semblable :

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier      "Configured Mouse"


Driver          "evdev"


Option          "CorePointer"


Option          "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse"


Option          "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"


Option          "Emulate3Buttons" "false"


Option          "Buttons" "11"


Option          "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 9 8 6 7 13 14"


Option          "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"


EndSection

Il ne vous reste plus qu’à ajouter une ligne dans la section “ServerLayout”:

InputDevice     "Configured mouse" "SendCoreEvents"

Ce qui me donnait dans mon cas, un “ServerLayout” comme suit :

Section "ServerLayout"

Identifier      "Default Layout"


Screen          "Default Screen"


InputDevice     "Synaptics Touchpad"


InputDevice     "Configured mouse" "SendCoreEvents"


EndSection

Bien sûr, vous pouvez modifier le nom donné par défaut “Configured Mouse” comme vous voulez (exemple: “Logitech VX Revolution”), mais vous devez vous assurer que vous utilisé le même nom dans les deux sections.

Rendu à ce point, sauvegardez votre fichier de configuration et redémarrez GDM (ou KDM si vous utilisez KDE):

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Si tout va bien, X va repartir et votre souris fonctionnera encore. Dans le cas contraire, remettez votre configuration initiale et tentez de trouver pourquoi!

Maintenant que votre souris fonctionne, voyons voir comment assigner des actions à vos touches.

Il vous suffit de créer un fichier .xbindkeysrc dans votre home :

gedit .xbindkeysrc

Puis ajoutez les actions ici. Voici ce que donne mon fichier de configuration :

# molette vers la droite -> rien encore
#
#m:0x0 + b:6

# molette vers la gauche -> rien encore
#
#m:0x0 + b:7

# zoom + -> augmentez le volume de 5%
"aumix -v +10"

m:0x0 + b:13

# zoom - -> diminuez le volume de 5%
"aumix -v -10"

m:0x0 + b:14

# Bouton latéral bas -> page suivante dans firefox
"/usr/bin/xvkbd -xsendevent -text "[Alt_L][Left]""

m:0x0 + b:8

# Bouton latéral haut -> page précédente dans firefox
"/usr/bin/xvkbd -xsendevent -text "[Alt_L][Right]""

m:0x0 + b:9

# bouton loupe -> Ouvrir firefox
"firefox"

m:0xO + c:99

Donc, la syntaxe est de mettre la commande en premier et ensuite mettre le bouton utilisé. Une fois configurez, lancez XBindKeys:

xbindkeys

Comme vous voulez que ça fonctionne chaque fois que vous vous connectez a votre compte sous Gnome, ajoutez cette application dans “Système -> Préférences -> Sessions” sous l’onglet “Programmes au démarrage”.

Voilà!

Dans mon cas, j’utilisais Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) pour faire ces modifications. En espérant que cela vous a aidé (même si c’est simplement pour clarifier le tutoriel sur Ubuntu), mais dans tous les cas, ça me fait une trace si je dois réinstaller Ubuntu éventuellement.

Source de l’image: The Consumer’s Corner (le site précédamment référencé n’existe plus)

]]> 2008-06-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/w3quebec-un-nouveau-souffle/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Il y de ça maintenant presque 3 ans, faisant un peu de web, je découvrais les normes (recommandations) du W3C. Trouvant le principe très intéressant, j’ai tenté d’en savoir plus à ce sujet. Après plusieurs recherches et lectures, je suis tombé par hasard sur un organisme qui promouvait les normes et bonnes pratiques Web au Québec, soit le W3Québec.

Je me suis donc rapidement intéressé à cet organisme. J’avais le goût d’aller au combat, d’informer le monde et contrer cet exécrable navigateur qu’est Internet Explorer. Pour moi, c’était l’ennemi à abattre, car Firefox respectait les normes et l’équivalent de Microsoft n’en faisait rien. Il devenait donc difficile de développer des applications ou sites web compatibles et selon les standards proposés. Je m’inscris donc comme membre et j’allais alors assister à 1-2 réunions tout en suivant la liste des membres, question de voir ce que je pouvais offrir, mais ce que l’organisme pouvait aussi m’offrir. Ca fait égocentrique dit comme ça, mais il y a toujours du bon à retirer de chaque chose dans la vie, alors pourquoi le laisser passer!

Après quelque temps, voyant tous ces gens en action, je ne voyais pas les résultats de tous ces efforts. Croyez moi, de ce que j’ai vu, il en avait des efforts de mis dans l’organisation, sauf que selon ma perception, les efforts étaient surtout mis dans l’accessibilité. C’est une noble cause que j’essaie de respecter dans mes divers projets personnels, mais ce qui m’intéressait était les normes proprement dites. Après 1 an, j’ai donc laissé ma carte de membre. Pourquoi me demanderez-vous? Simplement, car je n’y voyais plus d’intérêt pour moi. Puis je tiens à le redire, le monde ayant tendance à trop prendre les opinions des autres à un niveau personnel, ce n’est en rien dû au conseil d’administration ou aux membres, c’était strictement une vision personnelle!

Il y a un peu plus de 2 mois, voyant le regain d’énergie qu’avait l’organisation par rapport à la refonte du site web de l’organisme, j’ai voulu venir jeter un coup d’oeil à nouveau. J’ai donc repris ma carte de membre et j’ai assisté à une réunion d’un soir de Mars. Tous des nouveaux visages ou presque. J’ai eu le plaisir de rencontrer Benoit Piette (le site précédemment référencé n’existe plus), qui est maintenant président, Samuel Lavoie, Mathieu Chartier (le site précédemment référencé n’existe plus), Samuel Sirois et d’autres, dont les noms m’échappent. J’ai vu ce soir-là, malgré le peu de personnes présentes, une nouvelle énergie. Il y a toujours un regain d’énergie lors de nouveaux arrivés ou de nouvelles personnes en poste, mais j’ai eu comme un pressentiment positif. On veut redéfinir l’organisme pour mettre les lignes directrices plus claires et surtout focaliser sur le but premier de cet OSBL, soit promouvoir les normes (l’accessibilité étant très bien servie par d’autres organismes maintenant). C’est ce genre de questionnements et de vigueur qui me motive à assister et participer à des organismes en TI.

Peut-être que le W3QC allait agir dans les directions ou je me sentirais à l’aise de participer? Chose sûre, comme vous voyez la fréquence de mes billets présentement, je n’ai plus le temps que j’avais pour m’impliquer, mais croyez-moi, je ne reste pas loin à surveiller ce qui ce passe!

Source de l’image: W3Québec

]]> 2008-06-04T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/ajout-dune-section-contact/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Vous avez sûrement remarqué, mais il y a déjà 4 pages statiques dans mon blogue et elles sont tout inscrites comme en construction. Je viens d’ajouter du contenu dans la page de [contactUne page simple, dans le même format que toutes les pages de contacts que vous avez pu voir dans différents sites. Il y a une petite protection, rien de super technologique, mais un principe qui me plaisait bien pour valider si c’est un humain ou une machine qui m’envoie des messages.

Ça vous offre donc une page pour rentrer en communication avec moi. Bien sûre , si ce sont des messages reliés à un billet en particulier, passé par la section commentaires de celui-ci, mais sinon, pour toutes critiques sur le blogue, des questions diverses ou pour simplement jaser, ne vous gênez pas!](https://fred.dev/contact/ “Page de contact de mon blogue”)

L’ajout de cette page a été facile à faire grâce à l’extension Enhanced WordPress Contact Form qui a été traduite en français par Erwan.

Source de l’image: Mesuo (le site précédamment référencé n’existe plus)

]]> 2008-05-09T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/lancement-de-la-serie-2008-de-microsoft/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Cet événement a eu lieu il y a maintenant 1 mois, mais je vais tout de même terminer le brouillon que j’avais fait pour l’occasion. Comme je mettais le peu de temps que j’avais dans le thème et [la création de ce siteEn partant, je dois vous dire que j’étais assez content d’avoir la chance d’aller à un lancement d’envergure de Microsoft. Je ne travaille que depuis peu avec les outils de Microsoft et l’on m’avait tant parlé de ces grandioses journées à la Bill Gates. De plus, l’intérêt était encore plus grand, du fait que j’utilise quotidiennement Visual Studio et SQL Server.

Croyez-moi, ce fut une déception sur presque toute la ligne. Je suis d’un tempérament assez critique, alors ça ne surprendra personne que j’amène quelques points qui m’aient déçu, mais quand c’est presque en totalité…

L’événement se faisait au cinéma de la Banque Scotia dans le centre-ville, rien de mal dans ça : bien situé, les bancs confortables… Par contre, le mot grandiose n’était pas à l’honneur. Je ne sais pas pour les autres villes visitées, mais à Montréal, ça avait tout autant d’envergure qu’une présentation tout à fait normale. Dans toutes conférences ou présentations, que ce soit Microsoft ou non, on s’habitue à avoir dès le début une tablette à papier et un crayon pour prendre des notes: cette fois-ci, seulement le crayon. Vous me direz que ce n’est pas bien grave, que ça évite du gaspillage, sauf que quand on vient pour l’entreprise, on doit souvent prendre des notes sur les choses intéressantes pour les transmettre au reste de l’équipe qui n’a pu venir. Vous me direz que c’était à moi d’amener quelques choses pour prendre des notes, mais que voulez-vous, on nous a habitués autrement! Croyez-moi, une journée de note avec mon BlackBerry, c’est long (mon modèle ne possédant pas un clavier complet, ça devient dur à la longue).

La nourriture qu’on nous à donnée pour diner étant très moyenne. Oui, je sais, on nous l’a donné, mais quand même, il aurait fallu se forcer! Pour le diner, on avait un sandwich, une liqueur et un brownie (beaucoup trop sucré) et tout ça était dans une boite de carton. Pourquoi? On n’est pas capable de tenir trois petites choses en plus? Vraiment du gaspillage, d’autant plus qu’il n’y a pas de recyclage au cinéma. Vous allez dire que je me contredis, mais croyez-moi, j’ai de fortes tendances écologiques et le papier qu’ils donnent habituellement pour prendre des notes, lui, je l’use à la corde.

Le point, qui selon moi est le pire de tous, c’est qu’ils n’ont pas traité de SQL Server. Peut-être n’ais-je pas vu si c’était écrit à quelques parts, mais pour ma part, je l’ai su seulement quand le présentateur l’a dit. La raison, c’est que SQL Server 2008 n’est pas encore en “release”. Ok, c’est une raison plutôt valable, quoique tu peux discuter des points forts déjà implémentés, surtout que j’allais principalement pour ça! Au pire, tu retarde le lancement, même si d’un point de vue “marketing” ce c’est pas fort. Mieux, tu mets une note pour l’indiquer. Bref, grosse déception pour moi.

Du reste, si ce n’est que la présentation sur LINQ n’a pas fonctionné, c’était bien. Quoique je respecte beaucoup Christian Beauclair, qui a présenté plusieurs événements auxquels j’ai participé, un seul conférencier pour toute la journée ce n’est pas super. Moi je l’aime bien, car il connait son sujet et sait se déprendre en cas de problème, mais si quelqu’un ne l’aimait pas, la journée a dû être longue. De plus, plusieurs présentateurs nous auraient permis de connaître plus d’un type de Microsoft. Ça nous fait des références lors de certaines activités et ça augmente notre sphère de connaissances.

Pour terminer, sérieusement, la publicité de Dell et HP “camouflé” dans un vidéo pour une mise en situation, on était supposé ne pas se rendre compte que c’était ca? C’était juste drôle, sauf que j’ai eu l’impression qu’on nous prenait pour des niais. Donc en gros, pas une si mauvaise journée du point de vue technique (excluant SQL), même si je souligne grandement, voire presque juste, les mauvais côtés. Par contre, je serais mieux préparé pour le prochain lancement et surtout, je n’attendrais pas un événement inoubliable!

](https://fred.dev/ca-y-est/ “Ça y est!”)

Source de l’image: Ashbaugh Online

]]> 2008-05-05T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/ca-y-est/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

J’ai enfin terminé de mettre en ligne mon blogue avec un format qui me plait. Pas que je sois si difficile, juste que j’avais quelques critères, qui mises ensemble, devenaient complexe à combler. Bien sûr, tous les goûts sont dans la nature, alors le terme “beau” que j’utilisais dans mon billet précédentAprès plusieurs tests de thème, plusieurs modifications à droite et à gauche, j’en suis arrivé à utiliser le thème L’envie par Stéphane Dely. Bien sûr, je lui ai apporté des modifications (enlevé la dépendance au JavaScript, modifié le CSS, traduction en français…) selon ce que je voulais, mais je laisse les crédits au bas de la page pour l’auteur original, qui sans son thème, je serais encore à essayer de sortir un blogue pour à la base 2. Il y aura bien sûr d’autres mises à jour au fur et à mesure de l’utilisation.

Un grand pas en avant, alors je pourrais donc sous peu, faire le lancement officiel de mon blogue… enfin!

Source de l’image: Fenomeno.it

]]> 2008-04-22T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/simple-moderne-valide-et-beau/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Mon seul problème, c’est que je ne peux mettre beaucoup de temps sur celui-ci présentement. De plus, comme je ne veux pas faire le lancement officiel avant d’avoir enfin fini de trouver/modifier/peaufiner le thème du blogue, et cela tarde un peu.

Je voulais quelque chose de simple, mais avec une allure moderne. Quelque chose de beau et qui était valide selon les recommandations du W3C.

Soyez patient, j’ai presque terminé…

Source de l’image: AnySurfer

]]> 2008-03-25T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/a-la-base-2/ Ce billet a été initialement rédigé sur le défunt blogue À la base 2

Il y a environ trois ans, je me suis intéressé de plus près au phénomène des blogues. Les blogues techniques étant moins répandus, j’ai commencé à lire des blogues de type personnel. Après un moment, je me suis donc dit “Pourquoi pas moi ?”. C’est donc après quelques mois de lecture que je me suis lancé dans l’aventure en créant un blogue personnel. Après plus de deux ans d’écriture régulière, il y a quelques mois, j’ai officieusement mis un terme à ce blogue. Pourquoi? Plusieurs raisons, dont je vous épargnerais les détails ici.

Depuis peu, je lis un livre qui se nomme “Pourquoi bloguer, dans un contexte d’affaire ?”. On y trouve plusieurs informations très intéressantes sur les blogues d’affaires. C’est alors que je me suis dit, encore une fois, “Pourquoi pas moi ?”. J’ai donc décidé de faire un blogue professionnel, qui ne serait pas rattaché à la compagnie où je travaille actuellement et qui toucherait le domaine des TI.

Pour l’instant, je ne prévois pas parler d’un sujet d’expertise spécifique (BI, Intégration d’application, SQL, Java, .NET …), mais bien de sujets divers touchant les technologies de l’information. Je verrais au fil du temps, si mon intérêt à écrire se situe plus dans un champ quelconque.

J’ai donc cherché un nom de domaine qui me plairait et surtout, qui serait disponible. Après plusieurs idées et plusieurs tentatives de recherche de nom, alabase2.com est né. Pourquoi? Parce que l’informatique est à la base 2. L’ordinateur ne comprend que des 0 et des 1, alors je trouvais intéressant d’aller dans cette direction. J’ai donc acheté le nom de domaine et installé Wordpress chez mon hébergeur et voilà!

Bonne lecture!

Source de l’image: K3 Blogue (le site précédamment référencé n’existe plus)

]]> 2006-09-11T00:00:00Z https://fred.dev/_quotes/ Bon, j’ai terminé mon diner avec ces quotes. J’en avais plusieurs en réserves que je n’ais mise ici par manque de temps.

Je vous donne des nouvelles sous peu :)

Bonne p.m.

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