Free admission to SR&ED seminars and trade show at IT360

Attend the IT360 Trade Show, on April 7th in Toronto, along with the feature presentations and keynote compliments of CATAAlliance. IT360 is the premier event in Canada providing IT professionals with in-depth practical guidance and an array of solution-providing products and services – under one roof.

USE CODE: TS1
Your Complimentary Admission Pass (value $50) includes:

— Keynote Address @ 9:30am – 10:20am

Gary Warner, Director of Research in Computer Forensics at University of Alabama
Topic: Universal Threat Awareness
Desc: The Internet has never been more dangerous than today; eCrime in business and government continues to rise and Warner is the leading expert in Anti-Phishing and web attacks. He will discuss national and regional eCrime trends and individual case studies about resolving specific electronic crime cases. He will present best practices businesses need to know.
For more details, click here.

— Featured Presentation @ 10:50am – 11:20am

Lead by MEUK Corporation
Title: Demystifying SR&ED Tax Credits, part 1
Desc: Three steps to simplifying the SR&ED process to earn tax credits. It is very likely that your business qualifies for SR&ED (Scientific Research & Experimental Development) tax credits. The application process does not need to be onerous. This presentation will simplify the process and ease the way to earning the tax credits available to you.
More details, click here.

— Featured Presentation @ 12:50pm – 1:20pm

Lead by MEUK Corporation
Title: Demystifying SR&ED Tax Credits, part 2
Desc: Advanced presentation; Analyzing what is black vs. white vs. grey using real life case studies. This presentation will take you one step further in the process by illustrating how technological and financial issues benefit from the use of professional judgment.
More details, click here (scroll down).

— Trade show floor!

Explore, evaluate and compare solution provider products and services from key companies in security, data centres, unified communications, telephony, cloud computing, open source, and more. Learn strategic approaches to streamline infrastructure, introduce new and innovative strategies while building around current infrastructure.
See exhibitor list.

REGISTER ONLINE TODAY!
http://www.it360.ca/

Microsoft, PHP, Open Source and free food!

Information courtesy of Joey DeVilla:

Garret Serack is a Calgary native who joined Microsoft two years ago as a software developer and program manager – working exclusively on open source at the Microsoft Open Source Technology Centre in Redmond. Garret’s current role at the lab is making PHP run faster on Windows,as well as working closely with the Open Source communities on similar projects. He’s going to be in Toronto on Tuesday, May 12 at Kultura Restaurant at 5:30 p.m. for an informal session to discuss his role at the lab over appetizers and drinks.

Kultura is at 169 King St. East (just east of Jarvis).

If you want to attend, drop a line to Joey DeVilla: joey.devilla@microsoft.com

It’s Ada Lovelace Day!

It’s a special day today: Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging about women in technology. I wanted to write about Grace Hopper but then I thought there’s too much written about Granny COBOL out there already.

I’d rather write about women I know.

My mother, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and has been working full-time as a researcher, together with cooking, cleaning, mending, standing for hours in lines in grocery stores, sewing and knitting for the family of four, for as long as I remember.

My mother-in-law, who worked all her life in a Soviet-style classified IT institution and still tries to teach my kids some assembler (over the phone, from Russia).

Maya Pavlovna Zimina, who headed the summer archaeological expedition, herding myself and about 10 other unruly digging teenagers throughout our most difficult ages, from 13 to about 19 when most of us were admitted to universities and at least half of us got married. Archaeology is not exactly technology, but still, she was a great role model.

My university mates. I was in the Computer Science faculty, and, strangely enough, about 90% of the people in my year were female. It is easily explained, though: university students used to be exempt from the mandatory Army draft, but a year before I entered the University the exemption was canceled, and boys flocked to the four institutes that still granted the exemption. The University was not among them, so we got only those boys who already served in the army and those who got exempted for health reasons. About 20% of all students, in total. The few that still got to serve were plucked from our ranks within the first year, and for the next 5 years we had to study in an environment resembling a nunnery.

Elena Sergeevna Ventzel, a math professor, doctor of technology, author of widely known textbooks on probability theory, scientific papers and popular science books. She also wrote great novels under the pen-name of I.Grekova (from “Igrek”, the Russian name of the letter “Y”), full of bitter truth and of praise for the glory of life and of the woman as a creative element.

My female IT colleagues in Russia. They got used to seeing job ads starting with “A programmer wanted, male, under 35 y.o.” They got used to talking to receptionists from recruitment agencies, “Er, you know, I hold a degree with honours in computer science, and I just returned from abroad where I worked for a major IT company”, and to hearing the abrupt response, “Our client asked for a man!”, followed by hanging up. I could not deal with it. It was easier for me to immigrate to Canada and build my life and career from scratch here.

My second cousin, a P.Eng., a professor in Durham College and a mother of three.

The wife of my other second cousin, a laboratory chemist and also a mother of three.

The effervescent Sacha Chua who taught me everything I know about networking, loving one’s work and being in love with life.

… I could probably go on, but there’s only 15 minutes left to midnight. That’s all folks! Or else Ada Lovelace’s day ends before I post, and my blog turns into a pumpkin.

Toronto Girl Geek Dinner November 20th

Toronto Girl Geek Dinner #9 facilitated by Connie Crosby
November 20, 2008
Hot House Cafe (at Church & Front) at 7:00 p.m.
To register, visit http://torontogirlgeekdinners.pbwiki.com/