Next week geeks all around Vancouver are banding together to help spread said geekyness and techy freedom for a pretty neat cause.

The Gastown tech community is organizing a “Free Geek” Hardware Drive. On Friday, Dec 7th, participating Gastown tech business will donate their old, unneeded hardware to Free Geek, a non-profit that “helps the needy get nerdy.”[Strutta]

Photo credit: mussels on Flickr

For a list of what they accept, see Jordan’s post on the Strutta blog. Very cool indeed.

First there was Bar, Demo, Drunk, Facebook, Mobile and now Transit can be added to the list of cool camps and why not, eh? It’s a great opportunity to share your opinions while mingling with other local like-minded geeks of various degrees.

Mashups, schedules, design, politics, business, seats, routes, maps, outings, and general conveyance enjoyment are all on the table cause this is an “un-conference” meaning you show up and pitch what you wanna talk about an/or vote on other peeps’ presentations. [Feasthouse]

Photo credit: jmv on Flickr

This event is brought to us by some of my favourite local transit bloggers: Paul, Karen, Roland, and Jason.

I love to write about transit as I’m a long-time commuter in Vancouver and other cities around North America (you may have even caught one of my transit posts), so I’m very much looking forward to attending this event.

Update: See Karen in the Vancouver Courier, talking about TransitCamp – nice job!

Photo credit: Roland on Flickr

By now we all know pretty much that Facebook is one HUGE a social networking tool to be reckoned with.

As of late November 2007, the website has the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with 55 million active members (including non-collegiate members) worldwide, with membership expected to surpass 60 million users by the end of the year.

From September 2006 to September 2007 the site’s traffic ranking increased from 60th to 7th, according to Alexa. It is the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 60 million photos uploaded weekly. [wiki]

A humega part of Facebook is the ability to add applications. Love ’em or hate ’em, all those crazy thing are there to stay. Applications allow you to keep up to date with the latest events and transit schedules while encouraging friends to rate you, let you know you’re hot, send you “gifts”, turn you into a zombie and challenge you at games. As you may or may not know, Vancouver’s a big part of the Facebook movement, next time you add an application it might very well be something locally designed, developed and created.

Photo credit: Megan Cole on Flickr

To celebrate Techcouver‘s advancements on the world Facebook stage the folks who brought us the first Vancouver Facebook Developer (& Designer) Garage are unveiling the following:

Tell us about your Facebook application: We’ve decided to reward and encourage excellence in Facebook application design and development by hosting the “Best of the West 2007 Awards” – the world’s first Facebook application awards – at the upcoming second Vancouver Facebook Developer (& Designer) Garage and the first in the new year in late January 2008.! [Best of the West]

Here’s what you need to qualify and nominate your app:

For a refresher of the first event, check out the official live blog that I wrote shortly before coming down with laryngitis. Luckily organizers assure me that the next event will be throat virus free.

Photo credit: kk+ on Flickr

If you or someone you know and love (or just kinda like) has developed a Facebook application that’s the bee’s knee – let us know by nominating them. They’ll then be added to “The Wall” and be subject to random reviews by bloggers, such as yours truly.

So, say you made something with an artist’s music and tour dates on it and your name rhymes with Wuane Storey – that kinda thing – submit it and have the opportunity for recognition of internet-famous proportions.

The Vancouver Facebook Developer (& Designer) Garage is the brainchild of the Vancouver Facebook Developers Group and organized by Gerald Bauer.

To this day my most popular Miss604 Poll has been the one regarding a patio smoking ban in Vancouver. Well the Provincial government was pretty busy yesterday hammering out the details of a new smoking regulations that are to be in effect March 31, 2008.

The provincial government has released the rules that will govern its tough new anti-smoking policy, which includes a ban on smoking in all indoor public spaces and puffing near doorways.

Smokers will have to stay three metres away from doors and windows.

There will also be *no* smoking in common areas of apartments and condominiums, nor in work washrooms and lunch rooms. [News1130]

Wow – harsh eh? However, this new 3 metre rule will not apply to restaurants, bars/pubs, coffee shops, casinos and bingo halls and you will still be able to get a “smoking” hotel room.

Photo credit: Sean Orr on Flickr

So basically you can still sit on the patio at Shenanigans and have a puff but don’t do it outside Lululemon.

Come to think of it, what “indoor public space” are we allowed to smoke in now? Not the library… not Metrotown… hmm… so this seems more like a “don’t smoke outside your office building door” kinda regulation. That, and we may need a wider Robson Street sidewalk.

It doesn’t seem that harsh at all, really. Now if they were to ban all smoking in public spaces, indoor and out, then I’d have something more interesting to report (and celebrate).

Update: I just read the official release from the Province of BC which touches on advertising. This ban will also include:

– Tobacco sales in public buildings including: hospitals and health facilities, universities and colleges, athletic and recreational facilities, and provincial government buildings;
– Display of tobacco products in all places where tobacco is sold that are accessible to youth under 19; and
– Tobacco ads that hang from the ceiling, countertop tobacco displays, self-serve tobacco displays and outdoor tobacco signs.

Today at 10:30am PT we’ll all find out if our mascot for the 2010 Olympic games will be a bear, a marmot, or another freakin’ orca of some kind. The unveiling will take place in Surrey at Sullivan Heights Secondary… more specifically the adjacent Bell Centre for the Performing Arts.

I already blogged about past mascots and some possibilities, although I hadn’t yet heard about “Tokey”, the herbal leaf. The mascot’s purpose will be to personify the “spirit” of the games, say PR folks, however I’m more inclined to believe it’s for the purpose of making more money selling trinkets and souvenirs.

Stay tuned/check back to find out what they unveil this morning.

Update: Apparently there was someone in a skunk costume outside city hall this morning, however on morning radio shows “Tammy the Syringe” was an early favourite.

Update: The “ceremony” will take place from 10:30am to 11:05am so I’m anticipating the mascot won’t be unveiled until… 11:04…?

Update: There are THREE mascots as John reports to me over chat… and one appears to be a “happy looking sasquatch that plays hockey”.

Updates: The one source for video and photos of the reveal, Vancouver2010.com, is apparently down for “scheduled maintenance”… nice timing eh?

From The Province: The mascots are a Spirit Bear, a Sasquatch and a thunderbird, plus a sidekick that’s a marmot. “The Spirit Bear is somewhat like one of three mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which organizers are calling a sea bear based on native legend.”

From CKNW: The animal creatures are a sea bear named Miga, a Sasquatch named Quatchi and Sumi, and a mythical thunderbird spirit. They also have a sidekick named Muk-Muk who’s a marmot.

From CTV:

From CBC: Live-action shots of the mascots in person and a few more descriptions.

“The three creatures’ sidekick is Mukmuk, a rare Vancouver Island marmot. While not officially a mascot, Mukmuk enjoys surprising his friends by popping up on occasion. Mukmuk’s name comes from the Squamish word for food — muckamuck — because he loves to eat.”

From Vancouver2010: “Meet the Mascots” video is now up. Aww, Quatchi and Miga meet up at the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park.

Some reactions from the blogosphere:

From Now Public: “I’ve been talking to a few friends and their reactions have been mixed. Some of the comments I’ve heard are: * Sumi sounds like “Sue Me!” * They look like Japanase cartoon characters * Quatchi reminds me of the Kokanee Sasquatch * A fat sasquatch, a one-eyed teddy and a green alien looking thing! * looks like they were designed by a big committee and crammed all the ideas in, and rejected none.”

Photo credit: Darren Barefoot on Flickr

And I’ll probably be commanded to take the following video down soon… but enjoy for now (I’m still waiting for the “web linking policy” page to appear on the official site.

Click To Play

Update: November 28, 2007 – Merchandise goes on sale this morning at The Bay.

A little while ago local blogfather and marketing sensei Darren Barefoot approached John and me (along with a handful of other lucky social medialites) to see if we wanted to test drive a Brother printer.

It’s no secret that if you want to give us free things in exchange for reviews, blog posts, our thoughts and feelings, then we’re totally game.

Here are the specs for this hefty piece of printing machinery.

Technical name: MFC-9440CN
Plain English name: Colour Laser Multi-Function Centre Beast

It should be pretty fun to discover what this sucker can do so we’ll see how much use we can get out of it. Scanning and printing wedding photos, finally, is at the top of my list.