dilly.ca

Dilly's Albums: Kanye West

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:53:00 -0700

Welcome back! Review #3 on the list of DIlly’s albums marks the first time that a hip-hop is reviewed. I wish I could’ve started out with a better album to review, but hey that’s the luck of the draw.

Today’s review for Dilly’s Albums is…

Kanye West - Graduation

Review: #3

Released: 2007

Wikipedia Synopsis: (Full article)

Graduation is the third studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2005 to 2007 at Chung King Studios and Sony Music Studios in New York City and at Chalice Studios and The Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. It was primarily produced by West and DJ Toomp, and features guest contributions from artists including Mos Def, Dwele, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, and Chris Martin of Coldplay. The album’s cover artwork was designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

Discovery: I had both of Kanye’s first two albums in my collection. Only natural to give this one a listen and add it. There was also a lot of hype at the time as this album release coincided with 50 Cent’s Curtis (an album that was added and then quickly dropped from my collection).

Ranking: Kanye’s first three albums are currently in rotation in my iTunes collection. Out of those three, I would have to say this ranks last.

Rating: 2 stars

Favorites: Can’t Tell Me Nothing, Everything I Am, Homecoming

I’m a big fan of Kanye’s first two albums, however I find that this album strays away from the higher standards that he had for his first two albums.

When Kanye West first hit the scene he really interested me. Being a protege of Jay-Z instantly made me interested, and the fact that he was in a car crash and dropped some tracks with his mouth wired shut (that didn’t sound like crap) was impressive. On his first two albums Kanye did a good job of mixing hip-hop and dance style tracks that flowed well together.

On Graduation, Kanye definitely moved towards the more dance-style tracks. He drew a lot of inspiration from bands such as U2 to do more “anthemic, inspirational music”. Kanye produced most of this album and included a lot of synth in many of the tracks which I’m really not a big fan of. Also a gratuitous use of auto-tune on some of the tracks didn’t impress me.

All this said, Graduation did receive the Grammy for Best Rap Album. But we all know that music awards in this day in age are stupid and pointless.

The albums first single, Stronger, is a remix/mashup/whatever of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. The song got massive airplay and was a staple in many bars and clubs. Because of this, I grew tired of it quickly. To be honest, I didn’t find it to be different enough from the Daft Punk track. Mostly it just seems like he’s rapping over the same track. Lame, in my opinion.

This album also contains probably the worst hip-hop song in my library, Drunk and Hot Girls. The content of the song is exactly what the title says, Kanye rapping about Drunk and Hot Girls. What’s worse is that this track features Mos Def. Considering some of the awesome songs they’ve collaborated on in the past, this was a huge let down.

The album does have it’s bright spots. Can’t Tell Me Nothing is an awesome track over a classic Kanye hip-hop beat. In the retrospecitve track Everything I Am, Kanye raps:

Damn, here we go again / Everything I’m not made me everything I am

Kanye also collaborates with Chris Martin of Coldplay on the track Homecoming. I’m not a fan of Coldplay at all but I am a big fan of this track.

In general, I just find this album boring. Aside from a few tracks mentioned above it doesn’t really flow well. Considering how well his first albums flowed (including skits, intros, etc. that you find in most rap albums), Graduation seemed like a thrown-together piece of work after Kanye spent a week in a studio with a synthesizer and a bunch of old records to mix up.

I’m looking forward to having either of his first two albums show up for review as I believe they are much, much better offerings than Graduation. If you’re considering adding some Kanye West to your collection, try his rookie and sophomore albums before testing this one.

Dylan

Atlassian Events!

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:04:00 -0700

Last week was a full week of extra-curricular events at the Atlassian office in San Francisco. One of the great things about working for this company is that there always seems to be something fun that part of (or the entire team) is taking part in.

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

About 20 members of the Atlassian team participated in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. The event is a 5KM race in downtown San Francisco that is geared specifically to corporate teams in the Bay Area. Check out the photo of our team below!

This isn’t the first time Atlassian has entered the race, as I believe we’ve participated a few years past. Last year we actually one the Best T-Shirt Competition but unfortunately did not this year. That being said I love our shirts! Not only is it another great shirt to add to my growing Atlassian wardobe, but they’re also made from organic cotton and printed with earth-friendly ink. Win!

It was a cloudy evening for the race but that didn’t stop nearly 6500+ people from participating. Teams from larger companies like Genentech, VMware and SalesForce definitely dwarfed our small Atlassian team. The race started and finished just south of the Embarcadero, completing a loop around AT&T Park. I was excited to finally be able to check out McCovey Cove where the San Francisco Giants infamous Splash Hits into the water occur.

It was an awesome race and I’m looking forward to next years event!

Atlassian EOFY Event - The Go Game

The following day was our EOFY (End of Financial Year) event which was kept a secret to the entire staff. The only things we received were some really cool Atlassian windbreakers and instructions to meet up at Washington Square Park by 1:00 PM.

What ensued was an epic Amazing Race style competition between the entire staff! We were split into 8 different colored teams and proceeded to explore North Beach for clues, challenges and contests to try to come out on top of the competition. And guess what, our team did! See a picture of team yellow (cleverly named The Golden Showers) below:

The event was put on by The Go Game, a company that specializes in team building events such as the one we had that day. It was organized really well, with each team needing to take photos/videos and complete challenges via mobile phones. At the end of the event all teams met up at the Bocce Cafe and photos and videos were voted on to determine the winner.

Personally it was a great way for me to explore a part of the city that I have yet to see. I would recommend this activity to any company that’s looking to have a great team building exercise that’s also super fun at the same time!

Shameless Plug

I’ve mentioned this in a few other posts as well, but Atlassian is hiring! We’re trying to ramp up our San Francisco team as we’ve got lots of work ahead of us in the next few years, and lots of capital to back our awesome plan! If these events seem like something you’d like to do as part of your work then why not submit your resume!?

Dylan

Dilly's Albums: Them Crooked Vultures

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:37:25 -0700

It’s a tad overdue but I’m back with another album review! And this album is the first in my series in reviews that comes from a “supergroup”. We’ll head to Wikipedia for a definition:

In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe “a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups.”

(Side note: I never knew Journey was considered a supergroup! I guess you learn something new every day.)

Anyways, onto the review! The next review in Dilly’s Albums is…

Them Crooked Vultures (self-titled)

Review: #2

Wikipedia Synopsis: (Full article)

Them Crooked Vultures is the debut studio album by rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures that was released on November 16, 2009. The first single from the album, “New Fang”, was released on October 26, 2009, followed by “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” on November 3. The album debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200, selling 70,000 units in the US in its first week.

Discovery: I was really excited to hear this album as I’ve listened to the Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl) for most of my music-listening life and I’ve also enjoyed Queens of the Stone Age (Josh Homme). Adding this album to my collection seemed natural.

Ranking: This is the one and only Them Crooked Vultures album at time of writing, so it ranks at the top! And at the bottom.

Rating: 4 Stars

Favorites: No One Loves Me (& Neither Do I), Elephants, Scumbag Blues, Gunman

Them Crooked Vultures is a supergroup made up of Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). When this group was first announced I was pretty stoked. I’ve never been a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but to have Grohl and Homme team up again would be awesome (Dave Grohl laid down the drum tracks for Queens of the Stone Age’s album Songs for the Deaf).

One reason why this album rocks is Dave Grohl’s drumming. The guy can lay down some seriously complex beats and it’s clear that his time as the front-man for the Foo Fighters hasn’t caused him to lose his skills on the skins. Also nice to hear him on the backing vocals as well.

On the album’s second track Josh Homme states:

Give me a reason why the mind’s a terrible thing to waste / … / Ignorance is bliss until they take your bliss away

I think the track is a stab at those people who question the bands serious party hard attitude. I had the pleasure of seeing QotSA a few years back and Homme was seriously intoxicated by the end of the night. Still, it was a kickass show!

The one thing that I’m curious about is the dynamic of the band. John Paul Jones is at least 20+ years older than his counterparts in the band. Clearly he hasn’t lost a step since rocking with Led Zeppelin as Them Crooked Vultures have toured extensively through Europe and have played several shows in the US and Canada.

The first half of the album strings together really well, in my opinion. Considering the caliber of the members of the band and the albums they have put out in the past, I wouldn’t expect anything less.

On the downside though, I find this album to sound much like a Queens of the Stone Age album. With Homme’s haunting voice over the signature heavy, distorted guitar riffs, my guess is that the average listener would have a tough time distinguishing between the two bands. And because of this, I find that I get bored of the album by the 7th or 8th track of 13. With such a dynamic group of talented musicians I was really hoping for something that would be a bit more groundbreaking.

As an aside, during the recording process of this album Dave Grohl clearly had a caffeine addiction. Seriously one of the most hilarious guys in rock and roll today, in my opinion. Take a look at the video below entitled “FRESH POTS!” (link here):

Them Crooked Vultures is an album that will fit into your iTunes library if you’re a fan of any of the bands the members have previously been enlisted in. However, I’m really looking forward to their sophomore album (if they decide to make one) to hopefully find a sound of their own. These guys are also on my list to see live at some point.

Dylan

Canadian Post-Dinner Snack

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:08:00 -0700

Two of the most delicious things I’ve been missing since I left Canada:

Caesar - Much like a Bloody Mary here in the US but made with Clamato juice. Garnished with celery, lime and olives.
Hawkins Cheezies - The most delicious snack food ever made, and unfortunately they’re only available in Canada. Cheetos can’t compare!

Yum!

Dylan

Atlassian Closes $60 Million Investment

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:25:23 -0700

Many of my techie friends may have come across this, but for those who have not… well we had some big news this week at Atlassian! We closed a $60 Million investment from Accel Partners. This is a huge step for our company and is the largest-ever single investment that Accel has made in a software company (greater than some big names including Facebook, Macromedia/Flash and Dropbox).

Press Release Here

Blog Post from Co-Founder Mike Cannon-Brookes Here

Tech Crunch Article Here

In true Atlassian form, of course we had to celebrate the news. This week the entire SF staff spent an evening at Slide in downtown San Francisco. Usually this bar has a slide that you can enter from, but I guess it was closed off for our group. Probably a good thing!

Indeed these are exciting times to be working for Atlassian. I’m really pumped at the opportunities that we have over the coming months and years. Looking to join our group? We have plenty of job openings and are looking to expand. Come and join the fun!

(oh, and the graphic above is from an article on TheNextWeb and I found it particularly humorous!)

Dylan

July 4th!

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:08:48 -0700

Happy Independence Day!

It’s great to be living in a country that dedicates an entire day to celebrating Will Smith’s triumph over those pesky aliens (not legal aliens, like myself!). Anyways…

This is my first Independence Day since I’ve moved to the USA and I’m pretty excited to enjoy the beautiful weather and join in on the festivities. Oh, and having the day off tomorrow is pretty awesome as well! I spent the morning running around my hilly neighbourhood to work up a thirst for the afternoon. There’s lots to do in San Francisco today, which gets topped off this evening with a fairly large fireworks show by Pier 39 by the San Francisco waterfront.

And to my Canadian friends back home, I have not forgotten about Canada Day! On Thursday I made sure to wear my Canadian (Gold Medal) Hockey Jersey to work:

It was also nice to have some people wish me a “Happy Canada Day”, while many others questioned “What’s Canada Day?”. It’s definiately a sign of how most Canadians are aware of US culture, but it doesn’t exactly work the other way around. Maybe next year I’ll have organize some festivities at the office!

To everyone in the US, enjoy your long weekend!

Dylan

Dilly's Albums: Rise Against

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:54:00 -0700

Could it be fate? It must be fate! As I set out on starting to review the albums in my collection I was curious what my first review would be. My worry was that the random selection would draw an album from my collection that I wasn’t fond of, and I would lose motivation to carry on with this project.

Well my friends, I’m happy to say that isn’t the case. In fact, as luck would happen I’ve drawn my most listened to album in my collection (as per iTunes play count)! The first album to be reviewed is…

Rise Against - The Sufferer and the Witness

Review: #1

Released: 2006

Wikipedia Synopsis: (Full article)

The Sufferer & the Witness is the fourth album by American punk rock band Rise Against. The album was released on July 4, 2006. It was their second release on major label Geffen Records, following 2004’s Siren Song of the Counter Culture. It sold 48,000 copies in its first week, debuting at #10 on the Billboard 200. The album has been ceritified gold by the RIAA and platinum by the CRIA.

Discovery: I’ve been a huge Rise Against fan for many years so it was only natural to add this album to my collection. Bonus points that made me excited for this album was that the first single was filmed in Vancouver, BC.

Ranking: Rise Against has 5 studio albums at the time of writing. Because they are one of my favorite bands it’s really difficult to rank the albums, but this one ranks somewhere in the middle.

Rating: 4 stars

Favorites: Chamber The Cartridge, Bricks, Drones, Survive

I remember very distinctly when I added this album to my library. I was heading up Vancouver Island for a Maylong weekend camping trip and I was in search of some fresh tunes. I was excited to get the album the night before and proceeded to listen to it twice on the drive up, multiple times on my iPod by the campfire (completely ignoring the social-ness of camping) and on the drive back home.

The album explodes open with Chamber the Cartridge, arguably one of my favorite Rise Against songs of all time. In fact it’s the highest played track in my iTunes library with 103 plays, and likely countless more on my iPod and in my vehicle. In the song, Tim McIlrath questions:

Can we be saved, has the damage all be done? / Is it to late to reverse what we’ve be become?

The Sufferer and the Witness is arguably the album that propelled Rise Against into mainstream rock. Ready to Fall was a massive radio hit, and Prayer of the Refugee got the Guitar Hero status. It used to be one of my favorites, unfortunately I find myself skipping it. Regardless, the album has a great flow from beginning to end.

On Bricks, which is the albums fastest (and shortest track), McIlrath sings:

We’re setting our fires to light the way / We’re burning it all to begin again / With hope in our hearts / And bricks in our hands / We sing for change

The album closer, Survive, is a motivating tune that simply states:

How we survive, is what makes us who we are.

I’ve always found this album to be very inspiring lyrically. Whenever I was going through tough times I could throw this album on and it would begin to turn my perspective around.

As mentioned in the intro this is one of the top played albums in my library, up there with Thrice’s Artist in the Ambulance and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Stadium Arcadium. I really wanted to give this album five stars, I really did. But with a few floundering tracks like I mentioned above I had to drop it to 4 stars. I also didn’t want to start my review blogs with a 5 star review, that would be setting the bar way too high! Still this album is definitely worth adding to your collection.

That’s all for my first review, be sure to keep checking in as we journey through Dilly’s Albums!

Dylan

Dilly's Albums

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:56:26 -0700

In the interest of generating more content for my blog, I’ve decided to start doing random album reviews pulled from my iTunes library. This series of entries will simply be called Dilly’s Albums and will cycle through my vast collection of tunes.

I’m a big music nerd and this is the best way for me to dust off some of those old albums in my collection and also continue to keep dilly.ca fresh. I’ve got a few friends that follow this pattern in their blog and it works quite well, so I’m totally going to steal the idea!

The run-down on the process is as follows:

I’ve installed the Play Random Album 2.0 script in my iTunes directory. (By the way, be sure to check out Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes for many many more handy iTunes scripts)
Every few weeks I’ll fire up this script to grab a random album from my iTunes directory. No skipping!
Listen to the full album, hopefully in one sitting. At most, the album must be listened to in two sittings. This will likely be stretched for multi-disc albums.
Whip up a review and post it here!

For consistency each review will have the following format:

Name - The album name.
Release - The year the album was released.
Wikipedia - The synopsis of the album, copied from it’s Wikipedia article.
Discovery - How I happened to come across this particular album.
Ranking - How the album ranks in comparisons to the Artist’s other albums.
Rating - My rating on a scale of five (more on this below).
Favorites - A few of my favorite tracks from the albume
And then of course, the actual review.

Once the review is complete each album will receive a personal rating. The rating scale is as follows:

Five Stars - This album is golden and should be purchased/downloaded immediately!
Four Stars - Solid album that can easily be listened to more than once. Might have a few tracks that aren’t the greatest, but all in all a good offering.
Three Stars - Average album that likely has some flaws that keep it out of my regular rotation.
Two Stars - A few good tracks but mostly unintersting or crappy material. On the cusp of being removed from iTunes.
One Star - Garbage the Cat. Any album that receives a one star review will promptly be removed from my library!

I’m hoping to tackle an album every two weeks, and with about 30GB of music in my collection right now I don’t expect to run out of material anytime soon. Of course I’d welcome suggestions on how to improve this review system, so feel free to let me know.

So stay tuned and be sure to check out my next post for the first review in Dilly’s Albums!

Dylan

HTC Incredible & iPad Review

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:28:00 -0700

I’ve managed to snag some pretty sweet geek toys since I’ve moved down to the US. One of the nice perks of living in Silicon Valley is you’ve got access to lots of new technologies and also some great competition from wireless providers.

Two new gadgets that I’ve picked up down here are the HTC Incredible and the Apple iPad.

HTC Incredible

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, I’ve recently made the switch from the iPhone to an Android-based device. This was a tough call for me as I absolutely loved my iPhone 3G… so much so that I was one of the first in line at the Fido store when it was released in Canada a few years ago. That being said I was eager to pickup a phone here in the US and knowing that there would be a long list of people wanting to get the iPhone 4, I bit the bullet and picked up the HTC Incredible from Verizon.

The phone itself is a beautiful device feels less like an iPod and more like a cell phone, which took a bit of getting used to at first. One feature I really like is the vibration feedback the phone gives when typing, unlocking and using other functions. HTC Sense is a nice addition to the phone as well which gives it multiple screens in a fashion that resembles Spaces/Expose on OS X.

The HTC Incredible’s screen isn’t as wide as the iPhone’s screen, which I’ve found to take a bit of getting used to especially with fat thumbs. However, the OLED screen is a huge improvement from that of the iPhone 3G. Images are very crisp and the user experience is very snappy and responsive. It comes packed with a 8 megapixel camera with flash (a huge jump from older iPhone versions).

The only downside I see with the hardware is the battery life. This is a known issue with the HTC Incredible and has been reported by multiple users. That being said I regularly charge my phone every night and I’ve never had a problem.

The phone is currently running Android 2.1 which I believe to be a MUCH better phone operating system than iOS. The fact that it’s open source is a big win for me, I’ve been able to install apps that are outside of the Android Marketplace which is more that can be said about the iPhone. All this without having to jailbreak (or rooting) the phone. Widgets are a neat tool as well and allow you to customize the UI of the phone by adding photos, application links and other neat functionality without having to launch an app.

Speaking of apps, some of my favorites on Android include:

Google Voice - Integrates perfectly with the phone. Free calls and text messages to Canada is an added benefit.
Mint - View your bank accounts and access your budget items. Widget support is awesome as well.
Dropbox - Access your files on the go, plain and simple.
RunKeeper - This was a requirement for me before moving to Android. I use RunKeeper almost every day. The Android version has less features than that of the iPhone but I’m guessing this will change in the future.
RememberTheMilk - For managing tasks on the go. I like the Android version much better than the iPhone.
OurGroceries - Excellent app for tracking your shopping lists.
BART Rider - Up-to-date BART schedules.

The only downside I see with this phone is the music player. It’s sufficient, but it’s obviously not as smooth as the iPhone’s iPod interface.

All in all, I’m really happy that I’ve made the switch from the iPhone to HTC Incredible. The biggest feature for me has been the Google Voice integration. I may have jumped ship on the iPhone, but I am still an Apple fanboy at heart…

Apple iPad

I finally gave into the hype and picked up an iPad this week. Not surprisingly, it was ridiculously hard to find one of these in San Francisco. Apple stores sell out of these by lunch time and Best Buy only gets a new shipments in a few times a week and sell out quickly.

My initial questions around purchasing an iPad were around WiFi vs. 3G and what size to pickup. In the end, I ended up going with the 16GB WiFi version, for a number of reasons:

I primarily plan on using the iPad at home and at the office, both obviously have available WiFi connections.
In the odd time that I need to get it connected when I’m out and about, I plan on rooting my Incredible and setting it up as a WiFi hotspot.
I don’t plan on storing a lot of content on the device, so 16GB should be plenty for Apps and a few videos at a time.

The iPad is truly a slick device. I had played with one briefly in the past but it’s not until I had a few evenings with it and being able to customize it that I realized how impressive it really is. It’s blazingly fast, which is a nice improvement over the slowness I was having with my old iPhone. The display is amazingly crisp and is awesome for viewing videos and photos.

Another thing I was really impressed with was the battery life of the iPad. I’ve been using it extensively over the past few days and I haven’t seen it drop below 50%.

I’ve only had the device for less than a week, but a few of my favorite apps so far include (all are free by the way):

iBooks - Awesome for downloading e-books. Text looks crisp and is easy to read.
Twitterrific - Awesome Twitter client for the iPad, crashes less than TweetDeck.
IM+ Lite - Great application for connecting to your IM services. Has Twitter integration built in as well and allows you to browse while staying connected.
FeeddlerRSS - Great app for syncing with your Google Reader account.
Dropbox - What can I say, access all your files from your iPad.

I also picked up a Griffin Jumper neoprene sleeve for my iPad, which I’m really happy with. It provides 100% coverage of the device and is also sturdy enough if I drop it from a few feet.

The only downside I can see with the device at this point is lack of multitasking (which should be coming in the Fall), and no Flash support (lame!).

Conclusion

All in all I’m really happy to have the best of both worlds here. I’m stoked to be using an Android phone and I’m excited to try Android 2.2 (Froyo). As well, I’m glad that I’m totally not ditching my Apple roots and have a cool Apple toy to play with.

How about you, do you have an iPad or Android device? Any cool apps that I should try out? Let’s hear ‘em!

Dylan

Atlassian Summit 2010

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:32:22 -0700

Wow, what a party!

One of the most exciting parts of my moving to San Francisco was my ability to take part in Atlassian Summit 2010. Last year I attended as a customer and this year I was absolutely honoured to attend this year as an Atlassian employee.

This years event was a total success. Over 550 customers, partners and Atlassian attended this year which was almost double the number of last years event. It was held on 3 floors of the beautiful Intercontinental Hotel in downtown San Francisco. There were countless presentations, talks, product demos and interactions with customers.

Prior to the event some of the Atlassian staff from the US, Europe, Australia and Brazil gathered at Ocean Beach for an amazing bonfire by sunset. The weather quickly turned cold and I was the only guy wearing shorts and sandals, guess you can tell I’m Canadian!

Wednesday started off with Atlassian Starter Day which I was able to watch the entirety of. It was an opportunity for customers to watch presentations by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Glenn Kelman of Redfin, Steve Ginsberg of Pandora and many others. The day was packed with great talks and really resonated with me considering I’ve spent pretty much all of my professional career working at start-up companies.

In the evening was the Summit Reception, where customers are partners would register and meet over free drinks and browse the partner pavilion. It was a great introduction to the event and also an awesome opportunity to interact with customers from across the globe. I was able to meet people from Australia, Norway, the UK and even Canada!

That night was the second incarnation of the infamous Firewater Party. Last year the guys from Appfire threw an amazing party and this year they totally outdid themselves. They managed to score the Presidential Suite in the hotel, which was fully decked with snacks, booze, entertainment and wicked good times. Big props to them putting on another great event!

During the next evening was the Atlassian Summit Bash, held at Jillian’s Pub. Atlassian rented the whole bar and supplied all you can eat burgers, fries and fajitas! Of course there was an open bar, in addition to billiards, poker and a Rock Band tournament. This was a great opportunity to meet customers and partners in a casual environment. Needless to say there were some ill people at the office the next day!

On Thursday I had the opportunity to staff the AtlasBar. This was Atlassian’s homage to Apple’s Genius Bar, which provides the opportunity for customers to ask questions to the experts on our various products. It was cool to get feedback from real customers and help solve their problems. I remember asking questions as a customer last year, so it was great to be on the other side!

There’s a pile of photos online from the 3 days, just take a look on Flickr for the #atlassian tag.

For those who may have missed it, we have posted every single presentation online for your viewing pleasure. I highly recommend checking out the Keynote embedded below to get an idea of what’s in store for Atlassian in the coming year:

Looking forward to seeing you at Atlassian Summit 2011!

Dylan

A Month in SF

Mon, 31 May 2010 11:07:15 -0700

Phew, and what a crazy month it has been! My initial plan to post every week was obviously not followed. But now that my beloved Canucks are out of the playoffs, and the greatest TV show ever has finally come to a close, I’m hoping to have more time to provide updates via blogging.

Moving In

Not long after I arrived in SF, I was lucky enough to snag an awesome apartment in the Glen Park area. This is a tad south of the city, but close enough to make it to the center of San Francisco in about 30 minutes by walking/BART. The area is rich in culture, a blend of Hispanic and Chinese really shows the diversity of this city. The apartment itself is not far from Mission Street, which has an amazing array of food markets, restaurants and bars. I’m about a 10 minute walk from the grocery store which is really handy, and there are plenty of shops within 2-5 minutes that will sell a cold case of beer for cheap.

Over the weekend I came across the Broken Record, which is a local pub about 15 minutes away. While it does seem like a dive (heck, the Yelp listing names it as a dive bar), the people were very friendly and the food was delicious. This is a whiskey bar, and while I’m not a big whiskey drinker the locals told me I will be shortly. Pretty cool stuff!

Transportation

As mentioned above my new place is quite close to the Glen Park BART station, which makes it easy to explore the city. However, my main mode of transport these days is by bicycle. I invested a few hundred dollars in some commuter bike gear (portable pump, night lights, bag, etc.) and so long as you stay away from the hills, San Francisco is an easy city to navigate. I can usually get to work in about 15 minutes. In addition, over the weekend I did a bike ride to Golden Gate Park in about 45 minutes. From there it’s an amazing ride back home long Ocean Beach on the west coast of the city, following the Pacific Ocean.

There are times that a vehicle would be handy though, like making a trip out to IKEA in Oakland to load up on some funiture. Enter Zipcar! Zipcar is an awesome car-sharing program with many locations in San Francisco. Basically, you go online to reserve a vehicle for a set amount of time, and pay about $9/hour. This covers the car rental, gas and insurance. I paid about $25 total to rent a car for a few hours, head out to IKEA, load it up and bring it back. I don’t plan to use the service that often but it’s really handy to have in case you need to drive somewhere.

Life @ Atlassian

It’s been a busy first month working for Atlassian and getting ramped up with the team. I love our office located in the Mission District, it’s easy to get to and there’s an unlimited supply of restaurants to check out during lunch time. The team has been amazingly supportive and it’s been exciting to meet new people and hear their stories.

We’ve also had some amazing events, from Kayaking in Sausalito to a company picnic on Dolores Park. Too much fun I tell ya!

June is going to be a busy month for us, as the 2nd Annual Atlassian Summit will be taking place on June 9 - June 11. Last year I attended as a customer, this year I’ll be attending as an employee. I’m booked to work Starter Day, as well as the AtlasBar which will be an awesome experience. What more, there will be lots of good times had with the Welcome Reception, Firewater After-party and Summit Bash. And the best news of all is that this years event is sold-out. I’m excited to have a blast with our awesome customers and get a better understanding of how they use our products!

Events

Of course there’s lots of do in San Francisco. As mentioned in my previous post I’m a big concert fan so I’ve been trying to get to as many live events as I could. A quick recap of what I’ve seen so far:

Jakob Dylan at the Regency Ballroom - An amazing venue with some awesome tunes.
Jeff Garlin at Cobb’s Comedy Club - My first real comedy show, Jeff was hilarious!
San Francisco Giants vs. Arizona Diamond Backs - Explored AT&T Park and got to see the Giants come out with a win!
Mardi Gras - An awesome display of culture in the Mission District with food, music and dancing

Next up on the plate is Thrice this week back at the Regency Ballroom. I’ve also got The Black Keys lined up for the fall, as well I’ll be heading back to Cobb’s to see Tracy Morgan later in the summer.

That’s all for now!

Dylan

The End Absolutely amazing - that’s basically how I...

Tue, 25 May 2010 18:02:14 -0700

The End

Absolutely amazing - that’s basically how I describe the final chapter of LOST. An emotional closure to the most amazing TV series ever was exactly what I was looking for. I laughed. I cried. I was completely satisfied with the ending, yet the show will live on and open to interpretation as to what exactly happened. And that is what makes this TV show just so damn special.

In the end, Lost taught is that it is not the destination, but the journey of life and the people that you enjoy it with along the way. This was particularly hard for me to digest on Sunday, being away from many of my family and friends. But that being said, it made me realize how lucky I am to have such awesome people in my life.

What I was really excited about was that the show ended on it’s own accord. The producers ended Lost exactly the way they wanted, and not because the network thought it was necessary to end the show. Because of this, I’m happy with the final outcome.

I won’t go into a full diagnosis and recap of this episode, simply because it can’t be dissected with only one viewing. The amount of content in The End was simply mind boggling. And while it didn’t touch on much of the mythology of the show as many had hoped, it was the most character-driven episode in 6 years. In the end, Lost wasn’t about some silly island. It was about the characters and how they bonded through their journey.

I think this quote from Christian Shephard basically sums up the series:

This is a place that you all made together so you could find one another. The most important time of your life was when you were with these people. That’s why you are all here. No one does it alone Jack. You needed all of them and they needed you.

There’s a lot of criticism for the finale, if the producers simply patched something together. I call bullshit, but I do like this quote from Miles Straum that they may have thrown in just to address that:

I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I believe in duct tape.

And now as I try to find something to fill the void that is Tuesday night, I look back on this epic story and how it has changed me and brought me closer to the people I care about. How many TV shows can you say that have done that?

Thank you LOST!

Dylan

San Francisco - Week #1

Sat, 08 May 2010 10:55:00 -0700

As I sit down to do my laundry at a wireless-enabled laundromat (awesome!), I thought I’d whip up a blog post on my first week in the good ol’ US-of-A. Starting with my journey from Canada.

TN Visa - No Problems

One thing I was really stressing out about on my way out of Canada was getting my TN Visa. I had all my proper documentation, but I’ve heard horror stories of people getting to their point-of-entry and being denied. If you do this, basically all your stuff gets flown down to the US but you have to stay in Canada.

Thankfully, I had lawyers take care of most of my documents. I was through secondary screening in about 30 minutes, which is pretty short compared to the 2-3 hours I was expecting. As a bonus, the Vancouver Canucks were en-route to Chicago as I was clearing customs, so getting to chat with a bunch of them was a very surreal experience. At that point, I hit up the airport bar, had one last caesar and (temporarily) said good-bye to Canada!

If anyone is going to be applying for their TN Visa in the future, be sure to ping me and I’ll give you more details.

San Francisco

I’ve been staying in our corporate housing, which is located on the corner of Turk and Fillmore. Pretty easy access to groceries, laundry, etc. which makes my life easy. Especially considering I don’t have a vehicle (not even a bike!) down here. Public transit is super easy in San Fran, the bus system (Muni) and rapid transit (BART) is very easy to navigate. I found myself showing up early to view apartments and appointments, as I’d give myself an hour to get somewhere and I’d be there in 20 minutes.

The city itself is very beautiful, for a big city. I would compare it more to Victoria than Vancouver in terms of culture. Very laid back atmosphere. Most of the people are super friendly and are willing to give you directions and opinions on places to eat, etc.

US-only Websites

Two sites that I’ve really utilized here that aren’t available in Canada are Hulu and Mint. Hulu is an online TV site that allows you to legally watch many shows from NBC, ABC, and other major networks. This has been a life-saver when it comes to catching up on the final season of LOST, as well as episodes of The Office and 30 Rock.

Mint is a financial tracking software that I’ve started using. It’s similar to Yodlee (which is available in Canada), but has a much nicer interface and is more feature-rich. Only time will tell if this is a tool that I will continue using, depending on how much money it saves me!

Cellular Connectivity

I took my Fido iPhone 3G down with me, as I knew I’d be receiving phone calls to my Canada number as I closed out all my services out there. I was also able to get a travel pack that allowed me to do some voice and data roaming in the US. For about $45 CAD, I was able to get 70 minutes and a pro-rated data rate of $1/MB (trust me, that’s cheap). I’m still very frugal when using my 3G data, and trying my best to find wireless networks where possible.

My initial plan was to keep my iPhone 3G until the new iPhone is released next month and switch to AT&T. However, the AT&T network is very saturated in the Bay Area, with many dropped calls and slow connections. Because of this, I’ve switched to the brand spankin’ new HTC Incredible from Verizon. This is an Android powered phone which is something I’m really excited about. As well, Verizon was the ONLY carrier that would do a Canadian credit check when opening a new account. Because of this, I didn’t have to put a $500 deposit down on a new phone. How sweet is that? Suck it, AT&T!

I’ve also been hooked up with a Google Voice account, which I’m stoked to try out. I’m planning on only having one phone line, but I’m hoping I can use the account to text message people in Canada without having to pay 20 cents per message. We’ll see how that goes.

Food

Well I haven’t really had time to check out any restaurants in San Francisco yet, I’ve got a couple of food experiences to share.

First, the KFC Double Down. I had countless messages on Facebook, text messages, etc. from my Canadian pals to try out this monstrosity of a sandwich. Basically, it’s a chicken sandwich, where the bread is replaced by two deep-fried chicken breasts. I’ve got a Flickr set created with my pictures, and I must say that after this beast once, I’ll never have it again!

Also, as this was my first week working for Atlassian, we went out for a welcome lunch yesterday with the support team. We went to an amazing mexican restaurant called Puerto Alegre, in the heart of the Mission District. Awesome chips, amazing fajitas and margaritas by the pitcher. It’s going to be tough to beat that place!

Concerts

As I’m a huge fan of live music, I couldn’t go my first week in San Francisco without going to a live show. I was lucky enough to catch The Hold Steady at The Fillmore. The band was louder and harder than I expected, and also played quite a bit more old stuff than I was planning on. Still an awesome first show to bring me into the city.

The Fillmore is an amazing venue with tons of history. Very similar to the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. They have photos all over the lobby of bands that have played in the past, including Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Cypress Hill. The venue only held a few thousand people, so these bands played this place before they were very popular. I’m really looking forward to the next show I get to attend there.

The shear magnitude of acts that come through San Francisco is amazing. Later this month I’m hoping to get to Nas/Damien Marley, as well as Thrice.

Well, my laundry is done so it’s time to split. Hopefully I’ll be keeping this blog updated with my adventures through this amazing city!

dilly

I’ve finally arrived in my new home, San Francisco! Gotta...

Sun, 02 May 2010 23:11:41 -0700

I’ve finally arrived in my new home, San Francisco! Gotta love this place!

Super Mario Galaxy 2 looks like it’s going to be sweet!

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:04:56 -0700

Super Mario Galaxy 2 looks like it’s going to be sweet!

Conan O’Brien In Vancouver!

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:24:52 -0800

Conan O’Brien In Vancouver!

Congratulations Team Canada on winning gold in Men’s...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:54:00 -0800

Congratulations Team Canada on winning gold in Men’s Hockey, and for crushing the previous olympic record! 14 gold medals baby!

"Goaltender Roberto Luongo preserved the victory by deflecting away a shot from his Vancouver..."

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:34:23 -0800

“Goaltender Roberto Luongo preserved the victory by deflecting away a shot from his Vancouver Canucks’ teammate Pavol Demitra - who looked as if he were facing a wide-open net - in the dying seconds, enabling Canada to emerge with a heart-stopping 3-2 victory and a date with the Americans in Sunday’s gold-medal game.”

- CTVOlympics.ca - Video here!

Case Study - Moving to JIRA Studio at GenoLogics

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:55:18 -0800

Case Study - Moving to JIRA Studio at GenoLogics:

For the second-half of 2009 I spent most of my time at work organizing our migration to JIRA Studio. I had the pleasure of participating in a case study today and thought I’d share it!

Tumblr moved to dilly.ca

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:26:22 -0800

I’ve pulled the trigger and moved by dilly.ca domain over to Tumblr, abandoning my old ~~Wordpress~~ blog. However, my old blog is still available at blog.dilly.ca. Unless I feel the need to move back, I’ll be getting rid of that URL in the future.

I don’t think any RSS feeds need to be updated, adding http://dilly.ca in Google Reader seems to work for me.

I’m also planning on using the Facebook connection feature to add my posts there as well.