This bar is owned by the same people as The Java House and the Red Room.

The bar is located at 296 Brunswick Avenue right off Spadina and Bloor.  This bar unlike most bars, however, has the main entrance located in a back alley, not on the main street.

There is sufficient seating, both patio (no roof, but umbrellas), and indoor seating area. Since the patio area was packed, we opted to sit inside, so this review will only touch on that part of the bar. The decor is very different from most bars in the hip Toronto. Seating is mostly old cushioned chairs, or sofa’s. Tables are old and scrabbled with graffiti, adding more to the bar’s hippy atmosphere.

The staff is nice, albeit a bit slow at time – no wonder though, the bar was packed most of the night. Prices for drinks are reasonable, pitcher prices varying between $12.75 to $19.

Washroom facilities are filthy, but that’s what you get with mostly under thirty clientele. In summary, this bar has to be one of the must-go-to spots in Toronto, so if you haven’t been there yet, head over – who cares if it’s monday…

The same night we went to the Green Room, I was outdrank, passed out asleep on the Eglinton bus, and woke up in farmland Missisauga at 5 am. Has to be one of the most shocking experiences for a while… Damn you, Green Room! We will meet again…

Funhaus – 571 Queen St. W – This bar was printed on the listing of specials on a page I found on Facebook. One thing that kind of sucked is that the listing was 3-4 years outdated. Funhaus has since turned into a club, moved, and has been shut down. Instead at this location stands a bar with no name on the sign, that offers pretty good specials. Shots of Jagger and other delights were only $3, and pitchers of Amsterdam Blonde and Labatt 50 were only $10 + taxes.

The atmosphere is grungy / 80′s punk, with simplistic aged decor. The crowd seems to be late twenties to early thirties. Music fit the mood perfectly sounding alike to Faux Femmes – Blister in the sun. The patio was, no offense bar owner, a joke. It was three grungy dirty chairs standing around the fences, and a graffiti ridden fence on the perimeter.  Very lo-fi, very punk – and with a couple of beers the perfect atmosphere to just kick back and talk about old times.

Ein-Stein – 229 College Street – The regular hang-out for Ryerson and U of T (University of Toronto) students, this bar is located in the basement of a building close to Spadina and College. Decor seems nice with limited patio seating. I phoned my friend beforehand to verify whether the specials were still on. He recommended to ask for a stein (750ml) of house beer which costs only $7. Interior decor is reminiscent of the faux ‘funhaus’ bar previously described. Grungy and without imagination.

Upon asking for a stein of house, we found out that they were sold out of house beer. Not a problem I thought, asking about the pitcher for $10 (I think) special, and… They are sold out of that too. Needless to say in a city where bars and bars with specials are plenty, this wasn’t worth the stay and we continued on our beer-fueled journey.

Bistro – 422 College St. – Yet again a bar located in the basement. Special on the door stated pitchers of screwdrivers and other mixers for $9 (to my recollection, not exactly) and a variety of pitchers for approximately $10. This place also conveniently sells cigarettes. Upon completing the descent down the stairs and into the bar, the first thing I noticed was the lack of proper seating. The bar is cozy, and  yet grungy, and it’s tight tight tight. Almost no legroom. Luckily there is a patio.

Bartender responded a bit rudely upon hearing me ask whether pitchers of screwdrivers were the price indicated on the door, “It was never $8.50, it’s $12.50.” Nevertheless we ordered a pitcher of screwdrivers and went up to the patio. The crowd seemed to be mostly early to middle twenties. The patio is pretty small, but an open roof patio, so smoking is permitted. The atmosphere wasn’t bad in general. The order took around ten minutes to be brang to us. The screwdrivers were nice, and still cheaper than most bars around, but I did expect a bigger amount. It was a mini-pitcher, resulting in three glasses of screwdrivers once poured. In general a nice place.

I think that about sums up the bars for yesterday night. There are plenty good bars in Toronto with specials especially around King and Spadina, and College and Bathurst. A notable mention must go to Brant’s House.

Brant’s House – 1 Brant St. – A spacious bar with dark decor. We didn’t go here yesterday but it is located next to my work so I have been here a couple of times. On Thursdays the special consists of $3 beers and $3 for almost any drink. The staff is nice, and the seating is sufficient.

For those who live in Toronto, have you been to these bars? Do you have any bars around downtown that offer good specials that you can share?

Video-sharing website YouTube has removed hundreds of pornographic videos which were uploaded in what is believed to be a planned attack.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8061979.stm

I strongly believe content should be filtered more vehemently. What do you think?

As I’m starting to develop for the web, I’m noticing that having a document between the client and myself that clearly lays out what they want would be very helpful for both parties. After reading some of Joel’s advice, doing anything without a spec is a headache, unless of course your billing hourly

1. In those that have had experience, what is a good way to extract all the information possible from the client about what they want their website to do and how it looks? Good ways to avoid feature creep?
2. What web specific requirements should I be aware of? (graphic design perhaps)
3. What do you use to write your specs in?
4. Any thing else one should know?

Thanks!

by SeanDowney

And of course my reply:

Depends on the goal of the web-site. If it is a site to market a new product being released by the client, it is easier to narrow down the spec, if it’s a general site, then it’s a lot of back and forth.

Outline the following:

• What is the goal of the site / re-design.
• What is the expected raise in customer base?
• What is the customer retainment goal?
• What is the target demographic?
• Outline from the start all the interactive elements – flash / movies / games.
• Outline the IA, sit down with the client and outline all the sections they want. Think up of how to organize it and bring it back to them.
• Get all changes in writing.
• Do all spec preparation before starting development to avoid last minute changes.

Some general pointers

• Be polite, but don’t be too easy-going. If the client is asking for something impossible, let them know that in a polite way. Don’t say YOU can’t do it, say it is not possible to accomplish that in the allotted time and budget.
• Avoid making comparisons between your ideas and big name company websites. Don’t say your search function will be like Google, because you set a certain kind of standard for your program that the user is used to.
• Follow standards in whatever area of work you are. This will make sure that the code is not only easy to maintain later but also avoid the chances of bugs.
• Stress accessibility to yourself and the client, it is a big a thing.

More stuff:

• Do not be afraid to voice your opinion. Of course, the client has the money and the decision at hand whether to work with you – so be polite. But don’t be a push-over, you have been in the industry and you know how it works, so let them know what will work and what won’t.
• If the client stumbles on your technical explanations, don’t assume they are stupid, they are just in another industry.
• Steer the client away from cliches and buzz words. Avoid throwing words like ‘ajax’ and ‘web 2.0′ around, unless you have the exact functionality in mind.
• Make sure to plan everything before you start work as I have said above. If the site is interactive, you have to make sure everything meshes together. When the site is thought up piece by piece, trust me it is noticeable.

Some users have suggested paper prototyping, What are some of your tips?

When I was a bit younger, I procrastinated knowing that my failure to do work right now, will result in worse quality of work later due to rushing through it. Nowadays it seems I have become more oblivious to how much I slack off. I always finish stuff on the deadline or a bit before, but the amount of stress I have to endure due to watching one too many videos beginning of the week, is starting to seem not worth it.

So I started thinking, how does one improve themselves and stop being the sore thumb on the corporate hand? I am no doctor by any means, but these are the things I observed:

• Turn your MSN client (or any instant messaging client for that matter) to ‘Appear Offline.’ Nothing is worse than starting to get into work and suddenly having a friend send you ‘omg wtf funniest video eva !111′
• On that note, do not click links you get from friends or colleagues, unless they are work related. In fact save them untill the end of day / your break / once you meet the deadline and enjoy the laughter then. Don’t get me wrong taking breaks is all good, but make sure that you aren’t getting paid 90% of your salary to watch youtube and read wired.com
• Take your breaks at set times. Or at least attempt to, we all know meetings get in the way of breaks.
• Wake up earlier, after going to sleep on time. I can’t stress this enough, coming in to work at 11 puts your body and mind in the weekend mode, don’t let that happen to you.

That’s my few pointers, do any of you have any tips?

Me + webcam

Professional

I have worked at TD Bank as a web-developer ( CSS / jS / HTML / ASP Classic ) for around a year and a half, after which I have pursued an opportunity closer to home at an web-marketing agency called Henderson Bas. Here I work as an interface developer (CSS / JS / HTML) and once in a while do some back-end projects.

I have been programming since I was six years old, obviously quite simplistic applications in Visual Basic, but never the less.

Personal

I enjoy any kind of artistic outlet, but my forte is music. I have spent countless hours perfecting my songs, and playing with bands. The experience is unrepeatable by any other means.

I have been with my girlfriend, Camille, for three years, and going strong.

I live in Toronto, and I am 20.

That’s all there is I think.