Software

Redbrick

January 6, 2017 by Tectoria

Our first Tectorian of the Week for 2017 is: Redbrick!

Redbrick helps developers build better software. They are now a global name with reach in 200 countries and counting! They capped off 2016 with a bang…

On December 20th they announced the release of Shift: a new native application for desktop that helps simplify and streamline the navigation of multiple Gmail accounts.

With Shift, the company’s goal is to address the many workarounds that Gmail users commonly resort to when managing their various accounts, such as running multiple browsers simultaneously, setting up different users in Chrome, and adding email accounts and aliases to their primary Gmail account.

Click here to read the full news release.

Keep up the impressive work Redbrick!

Are You Dropping Tasks?

January 31, 2014 by Tectoria

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If you are using task or project management software you might want to consider giving Droptask a try. Free (right now) and completely visual it works very differently than your standard PM program (which are, basically, lists). The creators of Droptask, were at some point, greatly annoyed at people’s inability to clearly and easily understand what projects they were on, what was a priority and what other people were working on. At a quick glance Droptask allows you to do all of those things. It is still relatively new but they do have iOS apps available at the moment with Android support on the way. They are working on the Freemium model so a free version will always exist but a pro version is due to be released soon. Check out a full review from PC Magazine here.

No.1 for page load speed

April 19, 2013 by richardd

If you are operating a website that depends on heavy internet traffic, then the speed your pages load are pretty important. Keynote recently conducted research into page load speed at 47 online retailers. Guess what? A Victoria-based technology company was ranked No.1.

New app helps hospitals turn the page on pagers

March 4, 2013 by richardd

It was great to see Mike Ferguson and Ben Moore on the front page of one of our local newspapers recently. The duo are from SmartPager Systems – a mobile software company based in Victoria.

SmartPager is based in the DataTech Business Centre in Saanich and the firm has developed a smartphone-based app and back-end call centre software designed to replace the out-dated pager system still used by most hospital doctors.

The system launched in January. It allows users to send and receive confidential patient information, discussion and diagnoses via texts, audio messages, and images on smartphones through a cloud network. It has intelligent paging functionality including the ability to page until read and move the message to the next person in the chain if it is not answered.

SmartPager’s largest client group involves about 85 doctors working out of the Centre for Orthopedic Research and Education (CORE) in Phoenix. CORE surgeon Dr. Jason Scalise says it wasn’t hard to abandon pagers.

The reliability of paging networks is eroding daily, he says, and that standard texting between doctors and staff presents a “grey area” in terms of what is allowed under HIPAA. “The entire paging infrastructure in the U.S. is physically failing,” Scalise says from his office in Phoenix. “If a page doesn’t get through, the recipient and sender would never know.

Moore was alerted to the problems of traditional pagers while spending time at a local hospital after his newborn daughter suffered complications.

What is a hackathon?

January 24, 2013 by richardd

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD_Nd8JqMEg&w=550&h=330]

My colleague Cliff reveals what is a hackathon and reports on the AbeBooks’ Hackathon staged at the University of Victoria last year.

Web development firms Caorda and Sage to merge

November 17, 2012 by richardd

Two of Victoria’s web development firms have announced they will merge. Caorda Web Solutions is getting together with Sage Internet Solutions to create an organisation of more than 800 clients and 17 staff members.

The services offered now include web design and strategy, software development for web, mobile and Windows platforms, and hosting.

In the new organization, services for small business web design, ecommerce, online marketing and social media will be delivered under the division, Sage Web Strategy + Design, while Caorda Web Solutions will focus on application development and hosting solutions.

The good news is zero job losses and the combined team will be located at Suite 100-3550 Saanich Road.

First AGM for Vancouver Island Atlassian User Group

November 2, 2012 by richardd

The first annual general meeting of the Vancouver Island Atlassian User Group is taking place on Monday 5 November at The Moon under Water pub on Bay Street. The meeting runs from 6pm to 8pm.

The Group offers a platform for folks who use Atlassian software. Come along and network, exchange ideas and share some knowledge (and have a beer too).

Atlassian is best known for its Confluence and Jira products. There must be many Atlassian users on this Island.

Tomorrow’s developers take up AbeBooks’ Hackathon challenge

October 1, 2012 by richardd

The first AbeBooks’ Hackathon took place over the weekend at the University of Victoria. Teams of students from the computer science program took part in the contest that began at 4pm on Friday afternoon and continued for 24 hours.

The challenge was to conceive and produce an innovative application using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform, and then demo the product to a team of developers and engineers from AbeBooks.com. One group of students stayed up the entire 24 hours, working in the computer lab at UVic. Members of staff from AbeBooks were on-hand throughout the 24-hour period to lend advice and encouragement. Prizes were handed out at the conclusion.

“It was great to see the range of ideas that the teams developed; everything from sentiment analysis of tweets to predict the US presidential election and scalable real-time message distribution to a playlist recommendation system that was designed to learn what you like to listen to where,” said Tim Munro, director of engineering at AbeBooks.

It was free to participate and entrants received a copy of a book called Programming Amazon EC2 by Jurg van Vliet, a commemorative t-shirt and enjoyed a valuable learning experience with AWS.

See more photos from the event on Flickr.

Microsoft files US patent for new gaming system

September 12, 2012 by richardd

The BBC reports on a Microsoft patent in the US related to a new video gaming system that projects images of the game’s environment around a player’s room.

Microsoft’s patent suggests that current games console systems are constrained by their reliance on a single screen.

“Such displays are typically the only source of visual content, so that the media experience is bounded by the bezel of the display,” it said. “Even when focused on the display, the user may perceive architectural and decorative feature of the room the display is in… such features are typically out of context with respect to the displayed image, muting the entertainment potential.”

And what’s this got to do with the technology sector in Victoria? Earlier this year, Microsoft opened a game design studio in downtown Victoria, so I’m putting one and one together to make two. I have been told by one of the new hires that it’s an excellent place to work.