Vancouver

SuperHappyDevHouse Vancouver Tonight

Peter Stathakos — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:04:08 GMT

I'm a bit late in posting this but check out the SuperHappyDevHouse Vancouver Edition tonight at Bryght headquarters. I'm not sure I can make it but if you're in Vancouver and up for some geek out fun, check it out... Nice gang those Bryght guys.

More info here.

Photo on Beyond Robson

Peter Stathakos — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:45:00 GMT

A picture of Chipis' was selected for today's photo feature on the blog Beyond Robson, which is a totally cool honour. You can check out the page here, the original photo is this one:

If you're living in or visiting Vancouver Beyond Robson is a great resource for all the goings on around town, upcoming events, restaurant reviews and all sorts of fun stuff. Check it out and stuff.

Re-poofed

Peter Stathakos — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:19:00 GMT

So it looks like the dome on BC place has been repaired and inflated once again.

Here are some before and after shots that I took recently.

Shades Of The Big O(we)

Peter Stathakos — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 06:18:00 GMT

In the ongoing effort to beef up Vancouver's image as a world class Olympic city it seems like the BC Place Stadium has taken a page out of the book of Montreal's Olympic Stadium and collapsed part of it's roof. Yup, I guess that all the recent wind, rain and snow have taken their toll on the roof and a 40 foot long hole has opened up. From the Vancouver Sun's coverage:

The roof is held up by air pressure, so even a tiny tear in the fabric could cause the roof to collapse.

...

There are two layers of fabric with a four-foot space between them.

When it snows, like today, hot air is pumped between these layers to melt 12 centimetres of snow per hour.
The total thickness of each layer of roofing material is only 1/30 inch (0.85 millimetres).
Electric-powered fans keep the air pressure inside the stadium at a higher level than the air outside. There are no beams in the roof -- extra air pressure is the only thing that supported the roof.
If the fans were turned off and the doors shut, it would take four to six hours to deflate the roof -- but spectators today said the roof collapsed within minutes.

The roof on Montreal's stadium has been a nightmare since it was installed in 1982, costing more and more for the already overpriced piece of junk. I still don't know why Montrealers don't put the thing out of it's misery and tear it down. Now with the Expos gone and the Alouettes playing elsewhere what else is it good for? A boat show once a year? Pfffft.

As for BC Place, it certainly seems to be utilized much better and will probably recover from this incident. I hope it's not a sign of things to come though...

Vancouver Snow

Peter Stathakos — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 14:01:00 GMT

It's been snowing for almost two days here in Vancouver, it's really starting to feel like Montreal. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold too, so that should bring back lots of memories. Anyway, there's a bunch of photos on the flickr feed if you're interested...

Body Worlds in Vancouver

Peter Stathakos — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:22:00 GMT

The Body Worlds 3 exhibit is here in Vancouver until January 2007 at Science World or World Of Science or big silver golf ball or whatever they're calling it nowadays.

I remember seeing exhibits by Dr. Gunther von Hagens on TV a long time ago, probably on one of those "Believe it or Not" type shows. I thought it was really cool, if a little creepy then, I guess I'm going to find out.

We really want to go see this exhibit, it should be awesome. I'm not so sure however about what this volunteers link is all about. I wonder if these "volunteers" knew what they were getting themselves into :-D

Worldchanging Tour: Vancouver

Peter Stathakos — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 05:10:00 GMT

Speaking of upcoming stuff in Vancouver, this Sunday is the Worldchanging Tour: Vancouver event. Meet great people and learn about how we can change our world to make it sustainable and a better place for all.

November 5th: VANCOUVER
at Workspace
6:00-8:30pm
400 – 21 Water St.
Vancouver BC, V6B 1A1

More details and RSVP information here.

Vancouver Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival

Peter Stathakos — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 04:49:00 GMT

I have been fairly busy for the past week, spending most of the time playing tourist and showing my parents around the city. Always fun and we got to see some new places and restaurants we never went to before.

So, I'm a bit late posting this but the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival is still on until Sunday. We were thinking of attending this event, provided we're not too tired to get out of bed on time. It sounds like a fun time, check it out if you're so inclined.

Bruce Eriksen Heritage Walking Tour
When: Saturday, November 4, 10:30am
Where: Carnegie Centre front steps, Main and Hastings

Oh, and there's lots of other events going on throughout the weekend, all the details are on the website.

Web Developer Express at BCIT

Peter Stathakos — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 01:08:00 GMT

If you're into .NET and looking for something to do tonight may I suggest the following:

Application Development With Visual Web Developer Express Edition by Michael Liu and Sergio Aquino
Date and Time:
November 1, 2006 - 7:00 PM
Welcome Time - 6:30 PM

Location:
BCIT - Building SE-6 Room 233 - Telus Theatre
3700 Willingdon Avenue
Burnaby, BC

Always a good time and there's usually free pizza and soda too.

Trying Out Zooomr

Peter Stathakos — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:43:00 GMT

Update: Added the link to the free Zooomr pro accounts for bloggers.

I just uploaded a bunch of new pictures to the Flickr feed last night, mostly of stuff we did this summer like the Abbotsford Air Show and the Vancouver Zoo.

The cool thing is that a new photo sharing site Zooomr is giving away free one year pro accounts to bloggers, so I'm giving it a shot. I'll try to post all upcoming pictures to both our Flickr and Zooomr feeds and see what works better. So far, one thing I notice is that Zooomr is a little bit faster, but we'll see what happens once I hammer it with a thousand photos or so...

Vancouver Zoo 2006 Hosted on Zooomr