Will the Flickr Founders Return?

Recently  I learned that Stewart Butterfield — who along with his wife, Caterina Fake,  co-founded one of the most interesting and exciting startups to usher in the ‘Web 2.0′ era — has resigned from Yahoo, the current owners of that business. His letter of resignation was posted on Jon Gruber’s Daring Fireball, and I couldn’t resist reprinting it here; It’s a scream:

From: Stewart Butterfield
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 10:57 AM
To: Brad Garlinghouse
Subject: Resignation

Dear Brad,

As you know, tin is in my blood. For generations my family has worked with this most useful of metals. When I joined Yahoo back in ‘21, it was a sheet-tin concern of great momentum, growth and innovation. I knew it was the place for me.

Over the decades as the company grew and expanded, first into dyes and punches, into copper, corrugated steel, synthesized rubber, piping, milling equipment, engines, instruments, weaponry, and so on, I still felt at home, because tin was the core of the business.

After the war, as we continued to branch out in electronics, all manner of aeronautical frames, hulls and bodies, computing and tabulating machines, precision controls, and later, farther afield — real estate, brewing, consumer finance, grain processing, lighting and salty snacks - I took it in stride, for there was still a place for me.

Since the late 80s, as the general manufacturing, oil exploration & refining, logistics, and hotel & casino divisions rose to prominence, I have felt somewhat sidelined. By the time of the internet revolution and our expansions into Web Sites, I have been cast adrift. I tried to roll with the times, but nary a sheet of tin has rolled of our own production lines in over 30 years.

I don’t know what you and the other executives have planned for this company, but I know that my ability to contribute has dwindled to near-nothing, and not entirely because of my advancing age. Therefore, with a heavy heart, I recognize that it is time for me to and the company to part ways.

In my 87 years service, I’ve accomplished many feats, shared in the ups and downs, made great friends, and learned a tremendous amount (who would have thought that Electronic Mail would come to supplant the nation’s own great and venerable post!?) but there is a new generation now and it would be unfair not to give them a chance. Those that started in the make-work programs of the depression, on the GI programs in the late 40s, and even those young baby boomers need their own try, without us old ‘uns standing in the way.

So, please accept my resignation, effective July 12. And I don’t need no fancy parties or gold watches (I still have the one from ‘61 and ‘76). 1 will be spending more time with my family, tending to my small but growing alpaca herd and, of course, getting back to working with tin, my first love.

Your old tin-smithing friend and colleague,

- Stewart Butterfield

(In case you didn’t get the gag, Stewart Butterfield is 35 years old)

It’s worth noting that a Facebook group has been formed, called BringCaterinaAndStewartHome. The Web site Strutta is handling the domain http://www.BringCaterinaAndStewartHome where people are posting photos of our beautiful city and pointing out the strengths of the place, hoping to woo these two back.

Frankly, I’d like to see them return as well. They are, in a way, the prodigal son and daughter of the tech scene here.  Flickr has always been held up as The Great Vancouver Tech Success Story, and I would imagine that it has emboldened its share of startups in Yaletown and Gastown. Since I arrived shortly after they left, I always felt like I missed out on some of the joie de vivre that Ludicorp brought to Vancouver. Indeed, I even had given some thought as to showing up on their doorstep while we were making plans in Cambridge, and I remember my disappointment as I saw the photos of the good-bye party a few months before we were to make the move (Doh!).

With a letter of resignation as witty and clever as that one, and a track record unequaled by most of the techies of Vancouver, we could use a guy like that around here.

The CBC Taketh Away, the CRTC Giveth…

While I’ve been howling and gnashing my teeth about the imminent demise of Classical Music on CBC Radio 2 (and don’t tell me it’s not going away; 10AM-3PM weekdays of Beethoven’s Fifth and Vivaldi’s ‘The Seasons’ is a deathbed), for once, there’s something good to say about CBC Radio, although the CBC actually has relatively little to actually take credit for: Apparently, CBC Radio 1 has secured a license for an FM station in Vancouver from the CRTC (the Canadian Radio-télévision and Telecommunications Commission). At some point in the near future, CBC Radio 1 will be available at 88.1 FM in our area. Vancouver is a bit out of date in this regard, as much of the country already receives Radio One on both the AM and FM dial (the history of CBC Radio One is detailed on Wikipedia).

Why is this worth noting? Well, in our condo and car, we don’t get any AM signal at all. We’re on a lower floor, facing north, and there isn’t a single AM station that we can pull in, it’s all FM. As for the car, I suspect there’s just not a very good AM antenna in it.

So, while we lose music, we do gain CBC Radio 1, which is news, current events, and some very interesting and fun shows, like Quirks and Quarks, a science program, and Definitely Not the Opera, a program about pop culture. There’s no Classical Music (but then again, as of September, there won’t be any Classical Music on radio except for that sliver at lunchtime on weekdays), and a large helping of popular music, Blues, and Country (which I won’t be tuning in for, thanks) but at least I will get something else to listen to on the airwaves in terms of the spoken word without having to resort to NPR back in the US via Internet.

Still, if I had my choice, I’d gladly sacrifice Radio One reception if I could keep getting the music I love on the radio, but as I’ve sadly come to accept, that won’t be the case for very much longer. Fortunately, Internet Radio is on the horizon, and I’ve already been making plans for ways to pipe BBC Radio 3 as well as classical stations elsewhere in the world (including back in Boston, NYC, Seattle, LA and Baltimore) through the house when CBC 2 dies (for me, anyway).

Our Neighborhood Walk Score

A couple of months ago, I came across a web site that works with Google Maps to evaluate how pedestrian-friendly our address is. The more amenities (shops, restaurants, grocers, parks, libraries, fitness centers. etc.) that you can reach within a reasonable radius, the higher your ‘walk score’. Up until recently, there was a glitch in the system that kept it from doing an accurate plot of where addresses were in Canada, but after I alerted them, they’ve fixed the problem (it involved some incorrect conversion of kilometers to miles, an issue that has been known to crash Mars probes, among other things). Now, it’s spot on, and I was pleased to see that our address has a walk score of 88 out of a possible 100.

When I checked our old address, Lilac Court in Cambridge, MA, at Walk Score, we actually had a slightly higher score of 95 (again, out of 100), but that decrease by 7 points hardly feels very significant. When I lived at 2 Chester Street, also in Cambridge, the score was 91, and in undergraduate school, when I lived at 616 Straight Street in Cincinnati, my score was 72. I think my all-time low score (a 0, of course) must have been when I lived on Forest Lawn Road, just outside of Rochester, New York. The closest place to there, on foot, was a bar, well over a mile away along a road with no sidewalk.

As Walk Score points out, “Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment.” It’s probably worth adding that these days, with the price of gas being what it is, that it’s clearly good for your wallet as well.

When we first moved here and didn’t have a car, I lost a lot of weight, mainly from the amount of walking we did. We walked everywhere, both for shopping and to get to know the area. Despite not getting to see as much of Vancouver as we might have, I certainly was healthier. After nearly a year of commuting (mostly by car) to IBM, I really put on the pounds, and it’s tough to get them back off again.

Try out their site, and see how your neighborhood fares. In most cases, you’ll probably be able to predict the score, but once or twice I was surprised by either how much lower or higher the score was from what I’d thought it would be.

A Busy Saturday

9:45 AM - Apple Store Opening

We got to Pacific Centre Mall at about 9:30. There were about 50 people ahead of us in line. I found out later from John Biehler that the first guy in line had gotten there at 5:45 AM. After about 20 minutes, the line grew behind us to the end of the corner of Granville and West Georgia. After another few minutes, we moved in to the vestibule (before you get into the Mall, and waited another half our or so. Periodically, the Apple Store Staff, most of the young and about 75% of them guys, would come out and take pictures of the crowd, video them, (interview them in a few cases), and high-five them as they ran out. Finally, at right about 10:05, we were let in:

The staff were now in the store, and a line of them screamed and high-fived us as walked in the store, which was already packed. We each were given T-Shirts (very attractive black ones with Pacific Centre and the Apple Logo in small letters on the front). By comparison, the at the Apple Store opening in Boston years ago, the far more restrained East Coast New England staff merely applauded as we entered; there was no screaming or high-fiving.

We looked around and saw a lot of nice merchandise (nothing particularly extraordinary, though), talked to a few people in the crowds, and then headed out. It was fun to be part of the opening, but really, it was another Apple Store, and would certainly be a place that I visit many times in the future, so there was no need to purchase something in the throngs of people there. Sometimes the best part of an event is being able to say you were there. Besides, we had our next event to go to!

11:00 AM - Eat! Vancouver at BC Place

These photos are of the Barbecue Teams outside BC Place. Inside, we walked the aisles of the biggest food show in Canada. Your entrance fee is more than made up for in free samples to eat and take home, coupons, recipe books, bags and other goodies. Suffice it to say that we didn’t need to get lunch, and probably will have a light dinner as well. We also got lots of other free stuff, including razors, toothpaste, and tote bags. I always have fun at this show, and this year was no exception. Last year, the big product-type that everyone was pushing were all sorts of beverages. While there was still a lot of that this year, I’d have to say the big new addition was a lot more curries. Coconut curry was all the rage, and we must have tasted it at 3 or 4 different booths. Given the rising population of Asian immigrants in this town, it’s not all that surprising, but it’s making a good show even better, with more travel booths, more small family booths selling sauces and spice collections, and quite a few new vendors from Alberta and Manitoba. Canada’s ‘Queen of Maple’, Tracy Moore from Ontario was there, providing samples of some of the 77 products that she had created. (check out everythingmaple.com to see some of them).

We’re home now (and pooped!) Rather than hear Dame Evelyn Glennie (the famous deaf percussionist - yes, you read that right) play with the VSO tonight, I think we’ll try and go on Monday night.

I Get To Attend an Opening…Again

Ah yes, I remember it well: The long lines in the Cambridgeside Galleria Mall, the T-Shirts for those nearer to the front of the line, the excitement as the doors finally opened… The Apple Store opening in Cambridge, Massachusetts was one of the first ones that Apple had. We were used to the fact that although we weren’t Cupertino (or even San Francisco), Cambridge was one of the East Coast centres for Apple’s presence. After all, in the early days of Macworld Expo (and I doubt if many people who own an Apple product know this at this point), there was a West Coast Macworld Expo in San Francisco in January and an East Coast Macworld Expo in Boston, usually during the hottest week in August. It wasn’t until that fateful day when Bill Gates’s 20-foot face appeared on the screen behind Steve Jobs during his keynote (and it was hissed by the crowd) that Steve made sure that there would be no more MacWorlds in Boston.

I know, I know, there were probably other reasons, but Jobs’s annoyance at the disagreement of the Boston crowd with his strategy of having Microsoft invest in Apple during their darkest hour probably didn’t help the show. In the following year, Jobs refused to give the keynote, and the show moved to New York City. It continued on a few years there at the Javitts Center, but attendance at that venue quickly petered out. As many have pointed out, the Internet can now disperse information about products far faster and farther than any show floor could. There is now only one MacWorld Expo, each January, and it remains a San Francisco tradition.

When we moved to Vancouver, I missed that sense of being on Apple’s radar. Despite the fact that many here use the Mac (in fact, in recent years it’s increased), I found the local Certified Apple Dealers a bit ramshackle, with relatively small variety of peripherals and messy, poorly maintained display areas. My first job was working for someone who hated the Mac, and he was relieved when I didn’t insist that I use one in his small office (I would have been the only Mac user in the shop). At IBM, we all were assigned Thinkpads, of course. The consultants from Victoria often had Macs. At Blogger and smaller business events, the Mac was predominant. Nevertheless, the absence of the iPhone in Canada, the higher prices for products, and constantly hearing the rumors that Apple Hated Canada didn’t help matters.

Our days of living in a relatively less important spot in the Apple universe are about to end. On this coming Saturday morning, I hope to be in line for the opening of the first Apple store in Vancouver. We’ve been waiting for this for some time. Its going to be in the heart of downtown, at the Pacific Centre Mall (actually the previous location of Holt Renfrew, a high end Department Store, who have moved into new digs nearby). I believe that it’s only the fifth store in Canada, with the other three in Toronto and one in Laval.

To put things in a bit of perspective, another Apple store opened in Boston (across the river from Cambridge, but certainly near our old home) last week. It’s the largest Apple Store in the world, taking up three floors and sporting an all glass facade, on Boylston Street. Oh well, I guess Boston still looms larger in Apple’s realm, but at least we’re no longer off the map.