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jackdawyt · 5 years ago

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ICYMI: As my last video/post for 2019, I figured we should have a reflection on Dragon Age 4’s major news updates and uncover what we know about Dragon Age 4 throughout this year and beyond! So, we can go into 2020 with the right expectations and understanding of the game’s development!

The Dread Wolf Rises:

To boot of this year - we had the most exciting announcement from The Game Awards in December - the official confirmation of the next Dragon Age project with the current given title: #TheDreadWolfRises.

The trailer, while enigmatic, showcased the next Dragon Age centring on the Solas’s plan to rise up and destroy the veil, fulfilling the Dread Wolf’s prophecy. At least that’s one interpretation of it.

The trailer seemingly was made for the fanbase of Dragon Age with the given title, because if you didn’t know what Dragon Age was, or anything about The Dread Wolf, you could totally pass up that trailer as a different game entirely. So, it was more of an ode to the fans that the next Dragon Age game is in the works.

Alongside the release of the trailer, the Dragon Age website was updated for #TheDreadWolfRises with Mark Darrah, Executive Producer & Matthew Goldman, Creative Director sharing a few words on the production of the next Dragon Age.

TLDR: Mark is excited to show more and Matthew states that this is the strongest team yet and they’re venturing forth on the most epic quest ever.

In a September blog post, Casey Hudson wrote that ‘I can confirm that indeed the Dread Wolf rises,’ alluding to the narrative and production of Dragon Age 4. Before we delve into the current development of Dragon Age 4, we’ve got to talk about the two initial iterations of Dragon Age 4.

Project Joplin:

Based on Jason Schreier’s expose’ into the past and present developments of Dragon Age 4 - the previous iteration of Dragon Age 4 was known as ‘Joplin’, like Janis Joplin.

Janis Joplin was one of the biggest female rock stars of her era, she revolutionized her genre of music for the next generation – clearly, this is something the devs were going for with the original Dragon Age 4 project – to revolutionize the Role-Playing Game genre.

The developers on Joplin were committed to avoiding the mistakes they’d made on Dragon Age: Inquisition. Veteran Mike Laidlaw was the creative director of ‘Joplin’ until the project was canned and reworked so ‘live service elements’ could be added. After the decided rework of Dragon Age 4, Mike left the studio in late 2017.

Project Joplin’s initial concept followed the next protagonist ‘playing as a group of spies in Tevinter, a large chunk of the narrative centred on heists. The goal was to focus as much as possible on choice and consequence.’

There was an emphasis on this ‘hugely reactive game, smaller in scope than Dragon Age: Inquisition but much larger in player choice, followers, reactivity, and depth.’

The developers talked about building systemic narrative mechanics, allowing the player to perform actions like persuading or extorting guards without the writers having to hand-craft every scene.

It was very ambitious and plenty of the developers were excited, stating that they put some of their best work into this project.

However, Anthem was in real trouble, and there was a concern that it might never be finished unless the studio did something drastic. EA and BioWare took that drastic action, cancelling Joplin and moving the bulk of its staff, including executive producer Mark Darrah, onto Anthem.

Project Joplin was reworked into Project Morrison with a skeleton team building the very foundations of the next Dragon Age.

Project Morrison:

The latest iteration of Dragon Age 4 that is currently in the works is known as ‘Morrison’, like ‘James Morrison’ – the lead singer of the rock band ‘The Doors’.

Jim Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock history. (Wikipedia).

Morrison is being built on Anthem’s tools and codebase of the Frostbite Engine, this will save time as Mass Effect: Andromeda, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Anthem were each built from scratch. With a pre-set already there, Morrison’s development can save a lot of time.

This new version of the fourth Dragon Age is planned with a live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue. It’s not clear how much of Joplin’s vision will shape Morrison.

Matt Goldman, art director on Dragon Age: Inquisition and then Joplin, took over as creative director for Morrison.

Many of the BioWare developers “know it’s going to change like five times in the next two years.”

Morrison will change its shape multiple times. However, “Dragon Age games shift more than other games.” So, it’s not uncanny for a Dragon Age project to undergo drastic changes in its development.

Live Service/Multiplayer:

It has been confirmed on LinkedIn that BioWare has hired a software engineer to work on a multiplayer component for Dragon Age 4, however, it’s unsure what exactly this multiplayer could look like.

Jason Schreier stated that “he heard some ideas for Morrison’s multiplayer include companions that can be controlled by multiple players via drop-in/drop-out co-op, similar to old-school BioWare RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, and quests that could change based not just on one player’s decisions, but on the choices of players across the globe.”

In 2018, Casey Hudson tweeted a statement on live service: “Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on,” he wrote on Twitter. “Story & character-focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

It’s still unclear how much of this game will focus on live-service elements and multiplayer, it could follow something as simple as Dragon Age: Inquisition’s separate multiplayer mode, or it could transform the game completely. Take note that Morrison is still early in the works and it will change multiple times until release. That is for sure.

Production:

Now we get to the tea - The past and present developments of Dragon Age 4’s new iteration.

So, Project Joplin was canned in late 2017, with Project Morrison rebooting sometime after that with an essential, small team. The rest of the Dragon Age team that worked on Joplin, went to fix Anthem during its troubled development. Even Mark Darrah, the Executive Producer of Dragon Age was shuffled to Anthem’s production. All the while, Morrison lay low in very early pre-production stages.

In 2018, the majority of the news we got on Dragon Age 4 came out in January, with Joplin’s initial codename and Anthem’s reshuffling. However, with Morrison in deep pre-production, nothing substantial - production-wise - was heard on this project until The Dread Wolf Rises teaser launched at The Game Awards eleven months later in December. Of course, this trailer was hype hype hype!

In early 2019, BioWare resumed their focus on Anthem and its release date. After Anthem was released in February 2019 - according to comicbook.com - the core Edmonton team working on Anthem, returned to work on Dragon Age 4 in full-scale development following the reworks of Morrison.

Built on Anthem’s codebase and its pre-sets of the Frostbite engine, following a very enigmatic live service model – Dragon Age 4 entered its pre-production stages with a full-team. As Casey Hudson later confirmed in September:

“We have several other big projects in the works. I wish I could tell you more about them, but they’re mostly super-secret right now. I can say however that one of our projects has a large and growing team in Edmonton working through pre-production, and based on the progress I’m seeing, I can confirm that indeed the Dread Wolf rises.”

Key processes during the pre-production stages include:

Concept Art

Storyboarding

Level Design

Mechanic Design

Around June, an IGN Greece article resurfaced again, according to said article ‘an anonymous BioWare employee had given clues Dragon Age 4. Stating that the game will be released in 2020 and that the voices of the characters are already being recorded, which indicates an advanced stage of development.’

This article initially launched in 2018 and has many rebuttals, the first being the release date.

This 2020 expected release date has been debunked because according to EA’s 2019 earnings call, the new release window for Dragon Age 4 is at least April 2022, and any time after that. Perhaps Joplin’s initial release window was 2020, and the developer may have shared that, but as far as Morrison is concerned, the project is 3 years away.

However, voice work being in the works could be plausible at this stage. Alix Wilton Reagan has teased a few seasons of her in full mocap mentioning NDA’s and #dragonage and #inquisitor, this could just Alix teasing us, or using social media to its full advantage, or it could be something Dragon Age-related.

Surely the Inquisitor will make a cameo appearance and that could justify why Alix could be doing VO?

On top of both Alix’s tease and IGN Greece’s article, very recently Jo Berry, a writer at BioWare tweeted about voice over work coming in and it being fantastic, however, they have to remove the goofy robot text to speech which is awkward and funny to listen to.

“When VO is coming in and it’s fan-tastic, but it means saying goodbye to that goofy robot text-to-speech that makes you all laugh.”

So, indeed voice work does seem to be going on for Dragon Age 4’s development at this stage.

In jest, BioWare hasn’t replied to my request for voice acting a character in Dragon Age 4, so I think because of that, we can assume that they haven’t started the majority of the main character’s voice work just yet, right?

Moving on…Throughout the months of August and September, BioWare moved to a new office space in downtown Edmonton. Once they had settled in, a few very interesting Dragon Age 4 titbits came to light.

Emily (Domino) Taylor posted a picture on Twitter, showcasing a post artboard for Dragon Age 4, as we can assume it’s Dragon Age! There’s a Grey Warden and their Griffon-friend showcased in the picture.

Griffons and Grey Warden’s confirmed for Dragon Age 4? It’s not too much of a stretch considering the drama at Weisshaupt and Last Flight’s ending, but alas, as we can see BioWare’s art division are getting ready to line up concept artwork for further production and development. Probably for 3D model creation and animation stages.

Regardless, it’s very exciting to see the start of official artwork developing for Dragon Age 4, I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how this board develops further.

Another huge titbit that was revealed with BioWare’s office move, was when the mayor of Edmonton decided to visit and congratulate BioWare at their new offices. On one of the photos the mayor and his team took, there was a shot of an HD version of Solas on a TV Screen.

I personally believe that this is a shot from Dragon Age 4 or the prototype version of Morrison showing off Solas. There’s been no confirmation of where this shot comes from, and I’ve spent an entire video dissecting it. However, my point is, I don’t think this comes from Dragon Age: Inquisition, it’s way to HD, look at his face, the fur on his outfit, the outside environment. It’s very distinct, and I believe it’s the first shot of Dragon Age 4 revealed.

I’ve not seen any rebuttals to this, and I’ve openly asked multiple times online, however, no one has come up with anything. So, even towards the end of 2019, it remains a mystery. I think this is a Dragon Age 4 shot, let me know if you think otherwise!

Around the same time, Matt Rhodes, an Art Director, posted a short story on his Instagram stating that he’s “more excited working on Dragon Age 4 than any other project so far.”

Just after BioWare moved offices, Fernando Melo, a senior producer on The Dread Wolf Rises left the studio after 12 years.

As stated on his LinkedIn profile, a lot of Fernando’s job on Dragon Age 4 surrounded “help[ing] establish the vision for the game. Guid[ing] the team through EA’s concept and early production phases. Prov[ing] out the core concept and key innovations of the game”.

He signed off with an email sent to everyone on the Dragon Age team, stating that he left at the “least disruptive timing as it would likely get.”

Considering that Fernando’s job was ensuring the pre-production stages were completed efficiently, and with his departure being at a time where it’d be least hectic for the development of Dragon Age 4, it’s safe to say that the pre-production processes are wrapping up and the team can begin to enter full production.

Fernando said that “with a great game leadership team in place, a fantastic creative vision, and some of the best devs in the world. Morrison is well underway to becoming the definitive Dragon Age experience - and I’m incredibly proud and honored to have played a part in that. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the opportunity to experience the next DA as a fan this time around.”

So, with Fernando’s send off via email, the entire Dragon Age team has moved on from the initial pre-production stages to the main development of the project with an estimated release window of any time after April 2022.

Mark Darrah Major Hints & Teases:

Now we get to the most divisive news topics - the teases from Executive Producer Mark Darrah!

Mark has actually been teasing us since the beginning of 2017, when he dropped a video of an artbook that collated a plethora of Dragon Age concept characters, with many mysterious and ominous photos showcasing potential concept art and character designs.

A logo of a wolf, on fire encased in a tower, was all we had on Dragon Age 4 at the time. However, considering Project Joplin was canned at the end of that same year, I think it’s safe to assume this work went alongside that project, whether it will remain, we’ll uncover in-time.

At E3 2018, in a video interview with Game Informer, Mark Darrah said that Dragon Age 4 was going ‘swell’ with a cheeky grin.

At Pax West 2018, Dragon Age 4 was officially confirmed again since it’s reboot in development, the Triforce Quartet played Dragon Age: Inquisition’s theme as Mark Darrah confirmed that the next instalment is in the works… again.

Towards the end of November, Mark Darrah teased the entirety of Twitter with his Dragon Age remarks. Having tweeted the single words “Dragon Age”, he had PC Gamer and many other onion articles writing up on his huge Dragon Age 4 tease.

However, to be fair, Mark dropped an image that resembles Dragon Age, only we’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

Midnight snow, rocks, forests, a completely different landscape to any of the maps in Dragon Age: Inquisition, yet very familiar with its Frostbite Engine aesthetic… is this a shot of Tevinter, more than likely taken on Mark Darrah’s phone?

Well, I think so. It doesn’t resemble any location I can recall in Dragon Age: Inquisition… But you might say “there’s snow in Tevinter, which is the opposite end of Thedas’s Equator, that doesn’t make sense lore-wise.”

Well, Mark Darrah replied to someone questioning if and why there would be snow in Tevinter, he sent them a link to this article that explains how there can be snow on the equator, meaning that Tevinter can have snow.

So, is this our second or first look of Dragon Age 4? Well, depending on if the Solas shot is viable, I’d say definitely, but I’ll let you make your own mind up on that. Speaking of Tevinter, Mark Darrah also teased that the working plot title of Dragon Age 4 is titled “Tevinter of Our Discontent”, which is a huge story reference that I’ll touch upon in a separate category.

However, back to the picture teases, and Mark Darrah also posted another photo…

A sun blinding a knight, very ominous, I don’t even know where to start with this one… I mean it could have some subliminal message about how Solas may destroy the veil, or it could have a rather obscure context that fits to Dragon Age 4’s narrative, but I honestly just don’t even know what this is…

On Dragon Age Day, Again, Mark Darrah posted another screenshot of Dragon Age 4 with everything redacted other than a pixel in the corner.

And, erm, yep. That’s super. Thanks for that, Mark.

If you’d like to see more Dragon Age 4 teases that may or may not make sense and will most likely leave you frustrated and clueless, why not give Mark Darrah a follow-on Twitter. He’s one to keep an eye out.

Story:

The next narrative surrounds the Dread Wolf rising and attempting to destroy the veil, it’ll most likely be our next protagonist’s goal to stop Solas from achieving this.

We will have a new protagonist, like every other Dragon Age game. It’s been confirmed copious times by many developers old and new that the Hero of Ferelden will never return in the future, so stop asking. And even if they did return, Patrick Weekes is in charge now.

Dragon Age 4 will be set in the Tevinter Imperium, if Trespasser’s ending wasn’t a good enough clue for you, Project Joplin was also set in Tevinter. Alternatively, according to PC Gamer, it was the newly announced Tevinter Nights book that confirmed Tevinter to be Dragon Age 4’s setting.

Mark Darrah confirmed and teased on Twitter that the working plot title of Dragon Age 4 is Tevinter of our Discontent, derived from Shakespeare’s “The Winter of our Discontent” which is the opening lines from the play - Richard III (3rd).

As a TLDR: the words lay the groundwork for the portrayal of Richard as a discontented man who is unhappy in a world that hates him. However, since his family were victorious in the war, they reign the nation once more, and so as winter dies, glorious summer is upon them.

There are plenty of references we can make to Solas and his scheme to destroy the veil, he’s woken up to a world that despises his name and people that revoke his actions as evil. He wants to correct this world and restore his ‘family’ so to speak. Perhaps, like Richard the 3rd, Solas’s glorious summer is what awaits him in the next game.

So, we have plenty of plot potential with this given title and I do have a separate video for even more thorough speculation on this topic. However, based on Shakespeare’s work being the main inspiration for Dragon Age 4’s narrative, we should expect tragedy to be one of the main themes of the plot.

According to Video Gamer, in 2017, Alexis Kennedy was writing freelance for BioWare, ‘working on a whole chunk of lore and backstory for the faction in the game that you would think of if you were thinking big old goth. You know, if you were interested in death.’

Instantly what comes to mind is Nevarra’s Mortalitasi – Death Mages that’s responsible for the mummification process of the dead in Nevarran culture. However, we’re not sure how much of his work went into the cancelled Joplin, considering the timing at which he worked on Dragon Age 4.

According to Alexis’s LinkedIn page, he worked freelance at BioWare from February – August 2017. The end of 2017 was the same time Joplin was canned, and Mike Laidlaw left the company, so there’s a huge possibility that Alexis’s work has been shelved.

Even if Alexis’s work wasn’t shelved at the time, given his recent allegations and controversy, Mark Darrah confirmed on Twitter that BioWare no longer has a working relationship with him, so his work seemingly has been scrapped.

According to Dark Horse writers Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir who’re creating the comics. In a comicbook.com interview, they shared the collaboration with the BioWare writers, it’s a case of sharing notes on where the narrative is going, and how the comics can help reach that point for Dragon Age 4’s narrative.

So, if you want to see where Dragon Age 4’s narrative may go, or which characters could turn up, read the comics as they’re pushing the narrative forward.

According to Chelsea Fariello, Assistant Animator at BioWare, it seems we could have a Mabari War Hound companion, or at least NPC in Dragon Age 4, as she stated on Twitter that she was interested in what interactions people would want to see for a dog-like creature in a video game. With the hashtag Dragon Age. Perhaps Mabari War Hound, or even a Griffon? “What interactions would people want to be able to do with a dog like creature in a video game? I need to know…for reasons… #DragonAge “

The “creature” part in that tweet is what makes me think it could be a small griffon? If it’s a Mabari then it’s just a dog, however, if it’s a small griffon then that could make sense. That’s just my hot take.

On Dragon Age Day, Arby’s expressed their interest in opening a new branch in Thedas, could we see a new type of cuisine in Tevinter? It’s hard to say, other than the fact that John Epler loves Arby’s, not Wendy’s though. Don’t mention Wendy’s!

Weekes’s Tweets:

Adding to the story category, we have plenty of tweets by Patrick Weekes that hint at future elements for Dragon Age 4.

Patrick Weekes responded to Autumn Witch when asked on Twitter ‘to pick one character from Dragon Age that has never been a companion or advisor that you would like to see as a companion in DA-4? (For the sake of this post, Lace Harding is also not available.)’

Patrick said: “Oh that’s obvious, I’d go with (Reads parenthetical) THIS IS RIGGED.”

So, Scout Harding as a Dragon Age 4 Companion teased? I freaking hope so.

Patrick Weekes posted on Twitter that they just teared up reading a scene, so unless they’re cutting onions while writing, we should expect tears to be shed in Dragon Age 4. If I were to guess, I mean Solas is walking the Din’anshiral. Which means there is only death on this journey…

Weekes was asked about non-binary lingo & representation and if the players would have the option to not identify as a male or female in the next Dragon Age. They replied saying:

“No guarantees (it’s something that is very difficult in romance languages we get translated into), but our team is always looking for better ways to let players see themselves in our games.”

Other Dragon Age Projects:

According to EA’s 2019 Earnings Call, “there are plans for not only Dragon Age 4, but other Dragon Age products too.”

At a guess, this ‘other product’ could simply be a mobile companion app to coincide with Dragon Age 4’s launch. Or it could be the rumoured tactics game that we haven’t heard about since Mark Darrah’s tease in 2017.

On top of that, at a guess, it could also be an extension to the Dragon Age Keep.

Expectations:

There’s still a couple of years yet with an expected release window at any point after April 2022. However, that doesn’t mean the news will not be coming, just look at all the tidbits I’ve uncovered from developer tweets on the side.

Not to mention that BioWare generally start the marketing phases of their upcoming games two years prior to release, so if Dragon Age 4 were to release in 2022, we could actually see something in 2020. I’m not banking on that, but just for the doubters out there, we’ll easily hear something regarding this game in 2020, whether that’s a trailer or small tweet trials of news, we’ll be sure to get something, and I’ll be sure to stay on track of that.

if you have anyone saying there’s no news for Dragon Age 4, just gently send them my way and share this video in their dm’s!

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recruitingjobsincanada · 4 years ago

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felassan · 5 years ago

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BioWare are hiring an Engine Programmer for Dragon Age (Edmonton).

excerpt from job listing follows, emphasis theirs -

What the Engine Programmer will do at BioWare:

You will work with our art, design, and programming teams to develop the technology necessary to amaze our players with industry-leading experiences using the Frostbite engine.

Who You Are:

You are highly collaborative with several years of experience developing systems for AAA console and PC video games. You love solving complex problems with creative and innovative solutions. You enjoy diving deeply into dark corners of code to find the last bits of optimization or clear out that final bug. You want to help us build the best games in the industry.

Responsibilities:

- Collaborate with artists and designers on solutions that further our games’ vision.

- Develop and enhance the core engine, pipelines, and tools on multiple hardware platforms.

- Profile and optimize our single-player and multiplayer engine including CPU, I/O, and memory.

- Mentor other developers in every phase of project development.

- Work closely with Frostbite central teams to leverage and extend Frostbite’s systems.

Requirements:

- Experience developing, debugging and optimizing systems for AAA PC and console games.

- Experience developing systems where concurrency, memory, and performance is important.

- 3+ years of professional C++ experience and a solid understanding of software design principles. [x]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #video games

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cnrecruitment · 3 years ago

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nextbrainca · 3 years ago

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Top Web Design Company Canada

One of the best web design companies in Canada is ONQANET. They are known for their complete solutions, including mobile applications and websites. Today, more people are using the internet than ever before, making it more important to have a website. Your business needs a site that represents your work, and Canadians are more than willing to spend their hard-earned money on this. To learn more about the services that ONQANET can provide, read on.

The company Eggs Media worked with developed a new website for a security company in Edmonton, Alberta. Their team provided SEO, Google Analytics, social media marketing, and custom content management. Their team also handled the client's email marketing, lead management, and order processing. They used this CMS to replace three different software programs for the client. The company, which specializes in branding, web design, and UX/UI development, has been around since 2004 and has worked with many different industries.

The company's Toronto office works closely with Havas Canada, a digital communications agency based in Montreal. Their team has been designing websites for midmarket clients since 1986.

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They recently developed responsive websites for a museum in Quebec that were informative and increased their traffic. In addition to web design, they also offer a full range of branding and PPC services. They work with midsized companies in a variety of industries.

Another great company in Canada is Eggs Media, which created a website for a body armor manufacturer. They integrated existing content and made the most recent version responsive to mobile devices.

Their team also helped the client manage their social media and email marketing campaigns, and helped them develop a mobile-friendly version of their site. The company specializes in branding and e-commerce, and their clients include businesses in the business services industry.

If you're looking for a web design company in Canada, there are a few factors to consider. First, the size of the company's team matters. If your company is small, a small team might not be the best fit. It may be better to look for a large firm.

The top Canadian web designers in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta can provide comprehensive services. You can't afford to hire an agency that is not in your area, but it can help you find the best in the business.

If you need a web design for your business, then you should look at a number of companies in the country. A good company will have talented designers and will work with you to create a site that meets your needs.

They should also be able to convert website visitors into paying customers. They should also have a variety of services and be able to meet your budget. It's essential to find a web design company that specializes in your industry, but is local to your city.

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umanologicinc · 1 year ago

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Tips - The Ultimate Guide to Hiring Software Developers Edmonton

In today's technology-driven world, hiring the right software developers is crucial for businesses of all sizes. The demand for skilled software developers is higher than ever, and finding the perfect fit for your organization can be a challenging but rewarding endeavor. To help you navigate the hiring process effectively, we've created the ultimate guide to hiring software developers.

Understanding Your Needs: The first step in hiring software developers is understanding your project's specific requirements. Are you looking for front-end or back-end developers? Do you need expertise in a particular programming language or framework? Having a clear picture of your project's needs will help you identify the skills and experience required in potential candidates.

Creating an Attractive Job Posting: A well-crafted job posting is essential for attracting top talent. Clearly define the role, responsibilities, and expectations. Highlight your company culture and any unique perks or benefits you offer. This will not only attract qualified candidates but also help potential hires align with your organization's values and goals.

Sourcing Candidates: There are various channels for sourcing software developer candidates. These include online job boards, social media, developer communities, and recruitment agencies. Consider using multiple sources to cast a wider net and reach a diverse pool of talent.

Evaluating Technical Skills: Technical skills are a crucial aspect of hiring software developers. Use coding tests, technical interviews, and code review exercises to assess a candidate's programming knowledge, problem-solving abilities, and coding proficiency. Additionally, consider their experience in relevant tools and technologies.

Assessing Soft Skills: In addition to technical skills, evaluate a candidate's soft skills. Effective communication, teamwork, adaptability, and problem-solving abilities are vital in a developer's role. These skills contribute to better collaboration and project success.

Cultural Fit: A candidate's fit with your company's culture is equally important. Ensure that they align with your organization's values and can work harmoniously with your existing team members.

Offering Competitive Compensation: Offering competitive compensation is key to attracting and retaining top software developer talent. Research industry standards and consider offering competitive salaries, bonuses, and benefits.

Onboarding and Training: Once you've hired the right software developers, invest in a robust onboarding and training program to ensure a smooth transition into your organization and provide opportunities for continuous learning and growth.

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In the quest to hire best software developers Edmonton , remember that Umano Logic is here to assist you. We understand the challenges of finding and retaining top talent in the ever-evolving tech industry. Our dedicated team of software developers for hire, equipped with the skills and experience necessary to bring your projects to life efficiently and effectively. With Umano Logic as your partner, you can trust that your software development needs are in capable hands. Don't hesitate to reach out and discover how we can collaborate to achieve your software development goals.

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isharkseoservice · 4 years ago

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Mastering Web Design With Some Simple Strategies

Most people have neither the spending plan, time nor ability to develop custom-made trips. While that is an impractical dream for numerous, all of us can use our creativity and some standard knowledge to establish a web page that is just as amazing. It takes learning a bit about how they're made, and you'll find that you can create a site quickly enough to bring in visitors to your brand-new site. Checked out through these ideas below if you desire to know more about web style.

Splash Pages: Don't utilize splash pages for your website unless needed by law, and particularly do not use a Flash intro. The majority of people just want to get to your content as quickly as possible, and don't care to look at ineffective splash pages. If you have some entertaining material that you absolutely want visitors to see, incorporate it into the homepage rather. Proper Translation: Test your website to see if the significant translation services work properly when translating your site. Some websites get lots of global visitors, and these visitors sometimes use services like BabelFish and Google Translate equate the text to their language. Particular web design problems, particularly poor server side code, can break these services. Use Team Pictures: Place personal pictures on your website to make it look better. Having individual pictures on your site makes your website appear more easy to use. Folks will be more apt to remain on your site when they eagerly anticipate viewing all your pictures. Proper Formatting: The best website communicates a great deal of information in a small amount of words. If you are long-winded, individuals will quickly get tired and find another website that is more succinct. Make sure any material is simple and pertinent to understand - papers utilize an eighth grade reading level, which is the most typical literacy level. Hire Professionals: When you're creating a website then go ahead and ask for help from someone, if you are not feeling positive in any area at all. Just be sure you don't tackle anything without understanding exactly what you're doing first. Broken Links: You need to make sure that none of your website's internal or external link work improperly or broken. When they attempt to click on something that interests them, if you have actually broken links then your visitors may get annoyed. Annoyed visitors is not something you desire due to the fact that they wind up leaving your website mad. Pop-up: Do not put pop-ups on your site. A huge part of website design is absolutely incorporating PPC ads to earn a couple of dollars, but having advertisements that pop-up and obstruct your visitors' view is just frustrating. Individuals will not wish to return to your website. Simply keep your advertisements included, appropriate and you will do fine. Alternate Web Design Tools: Free design software application is a valuable tool for rapidly establishing a site. If you believe they'll pay off in the end, investing in effective software plans like Photoshop is just worth it. With a little search effort on your part, the kinds of tools you need can be discovered, and totally free. Viruses, Bugs and Junk Files: When you're developing a website, a tidy PC is a pleased PC. Some software application will consume a lot of disk space, so having scrap files on your PC will bog you down. Besides, it's hard to stay cool and arranged if you have files strewn all over the place. Keep your system free of viruses, junk files and clutter. Font, Colors, and Text: Do not utilize too many various fonts or text colors on your web pages. Data processing or web authoring software application may provide an excessive array of specialty font styles or wacky colors, however if you use a lot of, the text on your website might become unreadable. A great practice is to use simply a couple of font styles per page and avoid extreme use of italic or vibrant text. Alt Tags on Images: Make certain you place ALT image tags during your website design. These tags are very valuable for those web surfers who view the web with images shut off, in addition to those web internet users who are aesthetically impaired. Goal Tracking Softwares: Consider using some sort of time tracking software application to help keep you focused and on job. Getting distracted is a simple method to extend the completion of any project you are dealing with and these time management products will assist keep your head in the video game, allowing you to achieve your goals on time. Custom Web Development: You need to employ a professional to help you with the web design for your website. There is some software that can help you with the fundamentals of site design however it will not assist you to be able to have your website stand out from the sea of other websites that are discovered online. A professional web design service can assist you build a healthy site. A great deal of the DIY web design programs is simple to use but do not compare with exactly what a professional can do. Web Hosting: Practice them rapidly by signing up at a totally free web hosting demo service as soon as you check out through these ideas once or two times. Once you begin dealing with a site you will realize very quickly how simple it is. 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Open source programs are excellent not just because they're complimentary for public use, however also because they're constantly updated and improved by users with a great deal of web knowledge.

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jackdawyt · 5 years ago

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As my last video/post for 2019, I figured we should have a reflection on Dragon Age 4's major news updates and uncover what we know about Dragon Age 4 throughout this year and beyond! So, we can go into 2020 with the right expectations and understanding of the game's development!

The Dread Wolf Rises:

TLDR: Mark is excited to show more and Matthew states that this is the strongest team yet and they’re venturing forth on the most epic quest ever.

Project Joplin:

Based on Jason Schreier’s expose’ into the past and present developments of Dragon Age 4 - the previous iteration of Dragon Age 4 was known as ‘Joplin’, like Janis Joplin.

There was an emphasis on this ‘hugely reactive game, smaller in scope than Dragon Age: Inquisition but much larger in player choice, followers, reactivity, and depth.’

The developers talked about building systemic narrative mechanics, allowing the player to perform actions like persuading or extorting guards without the writers having to hand-craft every scene.

It was very ambitious and plenty of the developers were excited, stating that they put some of their best work into this project.

Project Joplin was reworked into Project Morrison with a skeleton team building the very foundations of the next Dragon Age.

Project Morrison:

The latest iteration of Dragon Age 4 that is currently in the works is known as ‘Morrison’, like ‘James Morrison’ – the lead singer of the rock band ‘The Doors’.

Jim Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock history. (Wikipedia).

This new version of the fourth Dragon Age is planned with a live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue. It’s not clear how much of Joplin’s vision will shape Morrison.

Matt Goldman, art director on Dragon Age: Inquisition and then Joplin, took over as creative director for Morrison.

Many of the BioWare developers “know it’s going to change like five times in the next two years.”

Live Service/Multiplayer:

It has been confirmed on LinkedIn that BioWare has hired a software engineer to work on a multiplayer component for Dragon Age 4, however, it’s unsure what exactly this multiplayer could look like.

Production:

Now we get to the tea - The past and present developments of Dragon Age 4’s new iteration.

"We have several other big projects in the works. I wish I could tell you more about them, but they’re mostly super-secret right now. I can say however that one of our projects has a large and growing team in Edmonton working through pre-production, and based on the progress I’m seeing, I can confirm that indeed the Dread Wolf rises."

Key processes during the pre-production stages include:

Concept Art

Storyboarding

Level Design

Mechanic Design

This article initially launched in 2018 and has many rebuttals, the first being the release date.

Surely the Inquisitor will make a cameo appearance and that could justify why Alix could be doing VO?

"When VO is coming in and it's fan-tastic, but it means saying goodbye to that goofy robot text-to-speech that makes you all laugh."

So, indeed voice work does seem to be going on for Dragon Age 4’s development at this stage.

Regardless, it’s very exciting to see the start of official artwork developing for Dragon Age 4, I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how this board develops further.

Around the same time, Matt Rhodes, an Art Director, posted a short story on his Instagram stating that he’s “more excited working on Dragon Age 4 than any other project so far.”

Just after BioWare moved offices, Fernando Melo, a senior producer on The Dread Wolf Rises left the studio after 12 years.

He signed off with an email sent to everyone on the Dragon Age team, stating that he left at the “least disruptive timing as it would likely get.”

Fernando said that “with a great game leadership team in place, a fantastic creative vision, and some of the best devs in the world. Morrison is well underway to becoming the definitive Dragon Age experience - and I'm incredibly proud and honored to have played a part in that. I'll be eagerly awaiting the opportunity to experience the next DA as a fan this time around.”

Mark Darrah Major Hints & Teases:

Now we get to the most divisive news topics - the teases from Executive Producer Mark Darrah!

At E3 2018, in a video interview with Game Informer, Mark Darrah said that Dragon Age 4 was going ‘swell’ with a cheeky grin.

However, to be fair, Mark dropped an image that resembles Dragon Age, only we’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

However, back to the picture teases, and Mark Darrah also posted another photo…

On Dragon Age Day, Again, Mark Darrah posted another screenshot of Dragon Age 4 with everything redacted other than a pixel in the corner.

And, erm, yep. That’s super. Thanks for that, Mark.

Story:

The next narrative surrounds the Dread Wolf rising and attempting to destroy the veil, it’ll most likely be our next protagonist’s goal to stop Solas from achieving this.

Instantly what comes to mind is Nevarra's Mortalitasi – Death Mages that's responsible for the mummification process of the dead in Nevarran culture. However, we’re not sure how much of his work went into the cancelled Joplin, considering the timing at which he worked on Dragon Age 4.

So, if you want to see where Dragon Age 4’s narrative may go, or which characters could turn up, read the comics as they’re pushing the narrative forward.

Weekes’s Tweets:

Adding to the story category, we have plenty of tweets by Patrick Weekes that hint at future elements for Dragon Age 4.

Patrick said: “Oh that’s obvious, I’d go with (Reads parenthetical) THIS IS RIGGED.”

So, Scout Harding as a Dragon Age 4 Companion teased? I freaking hope so.

Weekes was asked about non-binary lingo & representation and if the players would have the option to not identify as a male or female in the next Dragon Age. They replied saying:

“No guarantees (it's something that is very difficult in romance languages we get translated into), but our team is always looking for better ways to let players see themselves in our games.”

Other Dragon Age Projects:

According to EA’s 2019 Earnings Call, “there are plans for not only Dragon Age 4, but other Dragon Age products too.”

On top of that, at a guess, it could also be an extension to the Dragon Age Keep.

Expectations:

if you have anyone saying there’s no news for Dragon Age 4, just gently send them my way and share this video in their dm’s!

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s4g2world · 4 years ago

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Choosing a Web Designer That's SEO-Friendly

With Internet marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) now essential components to owning a business website, most web designers are adding SEO to their arsenal of capabilities.

The concern is that most of these self-proclaimed SEO/web designers fail to fully understand the complete picture of organic SEO. The techniques to effectively optimize a website are drastically evolving. And although anyone can do keyword research and write meta tags and page copy, many website designers miss the mark with SEO via a site's back-end.

Whether you're thinking of hiring a solo designer or full-service web design company, it is imperative that your provider knows what he or she is doing if SEO is involved. In essence, respecting the SEO-friendly elements of a website is a must during the web design process.

In this article, we cover a few specific areas that web designers (or companies hiring a web designer) need to be conscious of when building a well-optimized website.

Search Friendly CMS

Many website providers design their sites around a CMS platform or content management system like WordPress or Drupal. CMS software usually includes 'plug-ins' for SEO which enable users to write custom URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions. Although these SEO elements are important to have keyword optimized per page, a search friendly CMS goes well beyond what a SEO plug-in can provide.

The real difference maker in having a SEO-friendly CMS centers on the coding structure of the website. Some web designers, although creative, will utilize very graphic intensive concepts that can diminish a site's SEO potential. Others are effective at balancing aesthetics with minimal, search-friendly coding.

Below are some considerations while utilizing a CMS for your optimized website:

Look for content management systems that use CSS style sheets (as opposed to nestled tables). This allow search engine spiders to crawl and index your site's content more efficiently.

Choose a CMS that allows you to place internal links and navigation on the site in specific areas, such as the footer or column. Some platforms and web design templates may limit where you can place links, which is huge consideration for SEO.

Stray away from CMS platforms that automatically created static URLs for each page. Always choose a CMS that allows users to write dynamic, keyword optimized URLs for each page (which is often times achievable through a plug-in).

See if the content management system allows for automatic XML sitemap creation. If it doesn't, ask you web designer if he or she will be creating and submitting the XML sitemap manually. These points you may want to consider as potential questions for your future web design team, especially if you intend on using a content management system to operate your site.

Back-End Code Structure

The process of designing a well-optimized site should focus on the back-end structure of the website's code, or HTML. This includes website elements that are visible on the page (such as the content or page copy) as well as elements that off the page (such as meta data). The way in which the code is structured, in addition to the types of code being used, can ultimately impact SEO performance.

The two primary off-page elements that hold the greatest weight for SEO is the page title and meta description. The page title and meta description should be scripted as early as possible in HTML of each page. The title in particular (which defines a page and always include a keyword reference for SEO) is most important. A website designer or developer will want to ensure that the search engine spiders hit the page title as one of the first bits of code in which it crawls.

Similarly, the on-page content of a webpage should also be presented as early as possible in the code. The body copy is the pages' bread and butter for SEO, and if this content is at the bottom of the page's back-end, the spider crawls it last (which is not the best for SEO). Skilled web designers and developers are able to use 'div' tags to show the content early in the HTML, even though a bunch of navigation links may be above the content as it's shown on the page.

These coding variables may also depend on the content management system that is being used. For this reason, it is important to have a good understanding of just how SEO-friendly your CMS is, as well as your web designer's coding capabilities.

Choose a Web Design Company Wisely

If you are seeking a web design company for both the design and SEO of your site, do not be bashful. That is, don't hesitate to ask your prospects a lot of questions. Some areas you might want to address are the provider's technical skills, such as his or her HTML coding capabilities, as well as their graphic design skills. Ask to see if they have any references and examples of well-ranking websites that they have designed and optimized in the past.

In summary, there are a number of website companies that promote SEO, and yet failed execute search engine optimization effectively. Just be sure that you come prepared when seeking these dueling services in one package.

I am an Internet marketing manager at OIC Group, Inc., a SEO friendly web design company based in Peoria, Illinois. At OIC Group, we have over ten years of experience in search engine optimization, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, custom website and CMS development, web presence optimization and management, and SEO-friendly website design. Our team would be happy address any of your questions or website needs.

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wolfliving · 7 years ago

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Twentieth-century precursors of the “smart city”

“Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” This has been said to be the most boring headline in the world.

Volume 10/11 Number 1 March 2001

What is Smart about the Smart Communities Movement? Mary Anne Moser Resources and the Environment Program University of Calgary

Introduction A Brief History of the Smart Communities Movement The Rhetorical Resonance of Smart: Thinking Machines Smart Economic Strategies Conclusion References

Introduction The Smart Communities movement is the phenomenon of villages, towns and cities getting almost ubiquitously connected to the Internet, and using the connection to involve citizens in networked activities--ranging from electronically accessed government services, telehealth and distance education to e-commerce.

These initiatives have been undertaken almost without exception as public/private partnerships whose purpose is to create a competitive advantage for regional economies. What distinguishes them from other information-economy strategies is that they depend on the citizens of that community for their success. Thus the public is implicated in a way not normally associated with economic decisions.

It is currently unclear whose interests are served in the Smart Communities movement--whether it is equally smart for the private sector partners, government funders, and members of the communities. Smart Communities initiatives are relatively new, and their impact as yet not well understood or documented.

At this juncture in time, then, it is useful to examine how the word smart may be operating in the new movement. This paper will show how the smart in Smart Communities has roots in various intellectual histories, and how these histories are connected to a pivotal role for the public in the context of Smart Communities.

It will consider the way that the term smart is a political choice of words, and how this word aligns a political wish with the potential of technologies sprung from artificial intelligence research and cybernetics models.

Although the some historical background from the U.S. will be discussed in this study, most of this discussion will focus on the Canadian experience, where Smart Communities is the term most frequently used to describe community network projects. In the United States, the term Community Networks is also widely used, sometimes almost interchangeably with Smart Communities.

However, the political and rhetorical charges of the two terms are substantially different. The term Community Networks emphasizes the grass-roots origins of the Community Networks movement. The term Smart Communities, more commonly used in Canada, has quite different origins and rhetorical force. It is this term that will be the subject of this paper.

To trace the genealogy of the word smart in this label, it is first necessary to describe what Smart Communities are, or at least what the term Smart Communities refers to. Then we can take a step back and look at the cousins of the word smart--intelligence, rationality--to help trace the roots of the term within the information society that has spawned it.

This exploration will be structured around two areas of thought, both of which offer insight into how the word smart could be understood in the Smart Communities movement. The first concerns the history of "thinking" machines, which in this case has stimulated the technological development based on artificial intelligence, and the market for technology products. The second looks at strategies to manage economic growth, which points to the role of technology in economic programs. Together these contribute to an understanding of how the word smart may be loaded in its Smart Communities usage. A Brief History of the Smart Communities Movement

The Smart Communities movement took shape over the 1990s as a strategy to broaden the base of users involved in information technology. It has been driven by two concerns: one is based on the need for skilled workers for an expanding information economy, the other has roots in reviving communities whose economic base has been destabilized by the information economy. Although related, they will be treated here in turn.

The need for skilled workers is a product of the rapid pace of development of the information economy. The knowledge workers required to maintain this economy are in short supply, as the daily headlines about "brain drain" and hiring competition among companies and universities testify.

Much of the strategizing for an information economy has followed a trajectory triggered by the now seminal work of Fritz Machlup, The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States (1962).

Machlup's study was followed fifteen years later by a nine-volume study led by Marc Porat and Michael Rubin for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Around the same time, sociologist Daniel Bell steered the issue into the realm of the social and coined the term "post-industrial society" to describe the new social framework that he saw as fundamentally altered by the centrality of information-related activities (1979).

Since the publication of these widely recognized foundational documents on the information society, over two decades of strategizing have unfolded. Most of these studies concern gaining a foothold or advantage in an information economy:

The accumulation of skills, experience and technical know-how, whether at the level of firms or of countries, takes time and is a process pertinent to long-run economic development. The heritage of technology and human capital can only increase through a snowball effect, through gradual accretion, from the local, national and international environment, to an initial kernel of knowledge (OECD 1992, 17).

The initial emphasis on scientists and engineers as the fuel for the information economy (PITAC 1999) was complemented by an understanding that the learning process is also integral to the uptake of innovation - whether it involves doctors learning telehealth skills, professors learning distance education technology, or citizens learning to access government service online. In addition to a broad base of learners and users, skilled troubleshooters are required.

A subhead for a Computing Canada article reads: "As systems and software become more complex, end users are increasing demands for technical assistance. The software support market hit $22B in '98" (Downey 2000, 14). Smart Communities represent a strategy to attract, engage and train the broad base of users identified as integral to information economy success.

The second motivation for the Smart Communities movement has come in part from the need to revitalize local economies. This revitalization first took the form of industry-driven initiatives for strengthening a region's economic base.

By 1986, the industry equivalent of a "smart community" was well under way in the form of the Teleport, a term coined in 1982 by a joint venture of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith; and Western Union Telegraph Company (Hanneman 1986, 4).

This joint venture was a combination telecommunications and real estate project that involved the construction of a satellite uplink facility surrounded by an industrial park on Staten Island. It was conceived "from the union of economic necessity and technological innovation," according to the developers (Annunziata and Catlin 1986, xxi).

They needed to "stem the migration of jobs and industry" from the New York area and therefore wanted to rebuild the economy from a technological base, but they were also concerned that the New York region might not be able to capitalize on new telecommunications technologies because its airwaves were congested. The presentation of an information technology solution to an information-age problem is one of the characteristics of the Smart Communities movement.

This first industry initiative also represented a model for the private/public partnerships that were emerging as commercially successful strategies involving information and communications technology.

These early teleports were described as "hubs of the intelligent city" (Hanneman 1986, 10), where intelligence is described as attending to and investing in telecommunications infrastructure in city planning. The wisdom of building a teleport, according to Hanneman, is that it prepares the city for an impending explosion in network traffic resulting from personal computer use and recognizes that there will be competition for network business among a highly educated citizenry that demands access.

In technical terms, the intelligent networks described the systems of computers and networks that managed the flow of information in an industrial park or city. At this time, these telecommunications projects started to differentiate cities based on their level of intelligent infrastructure.

As this differentiation took shape, intelligent cities developed different strategies to expand the use of information infrastructure out from the limited domains of high-tech industrial parks into more broadly based arenas, in particular, into commerce and education. The scope of technology-based economic strategies widened as the consequences of the information economy were felt more widely. Developments started to marry the advanced technology with the interests of civic bodies to restore health to dying cities that were suffering, in part in due to these same early industrial upstarts elsewhere. From this point onwards, the integration of intelligent networking and computing infrastructure became more colloquially described.

In 1992, the OECD identified several cities that it called "learning cities" (Thorne 1998), which were actively involved in building a skilled information economy workforce. One of these was Edmonton, Canada, cited for its coalition of school boards and post-secondary institutions aimed at mutually advancing skills in new technologies. Collaborations aimed at developing community or regional information infrastructure began to emerge in disparate locations. They also began to include organizations with more diverse interests.

Another early example was Blacksburg, Virginia, where an alliance of town officials, the local university, and private industry was exploring the potential for an "electronic village" (International Center for Communications 1997a, 2). The Blacksburg Electronic Village was one of the first communities in North America to install a broadband networking infrastructure, and has been followed by hundreds of community network projects in the U.S.

The inclusion of users in technology implementation marked a shift in strategy from revitalization for purely economic purposes to revitalization for sociopolitical reasons as well. The social needs arose when it became clear that not only were local economies being affected by information technology, the traditional social cohesion of a city appeared to be suffering, rather than flourishing, as technology became more widespread.

Some of these results were documented in 1993, when the International Center for Communications (ICC) in San Diego undertook an inaugural study into the state of the American city. It found that many major American cities were "dying, in large part because cities in themselves were losing their relevance as governing units" (International Center for Communications 1997a, 1).

The study found that telecommunications advances had displaced the geopolitical role of the city as a hub of transportation or production, and had made obsolete many of the advantages of a common physical location. People could shop anywhere, or work anywhere. This affected many parts of a city's make-up and its perceived future well-being:

Government and business leaders are concerned about losing control over their communities' economic destinies, as shifting business and population patterns are eroding their economic base. Economic and social institutions ranging from city hall to local schools are struggling as their traditional practices are proving insufficient to the rapid technological and complex social and economic challenges of the late 20th century (International Center for Communications 1997b, 1).

The answer, suggested the study, "lay in an entirely new form of civic organization" (International Center for Communications1997a, 3). It officially coined the term Smart Communities to describe a particular solution for the problems it found. These Smart Communities would "rely on the power of cooperation, shared resources and shared goals to increase their competitive ability to retain and attract people, businesses and jobs to their region" (1997a, 3).

Since 1993, numerous Smart Community initiatives have developed throughout North America and in other industrialized countries. In the Canadian context, Smart Communities refer not only to self-identified cities or towns that have adopted IT-based economic strategies but also to the Canadian government's Smart Communities campaign launched in 1999, as part of its Connecting Canadians agenda.

This federal Smart Communities project began with a call for proposals in 1999 from communities for projects to "fundamentally transform" the community by using information technology. It selected 12 proposals in the spring of 2000, one in each province and territory, and is investing $5 million in each of what will be Canada's "demonstration Smart Communities" (Industry Canada 1999).

Canada's project incorporates the findings of a 1998 study by the La Jolla Institute on exploiting high technology for knowledge-based economic growth. John Reardon, who supervised the La Jolla study, concluded:

Today, a community's strength is based on knowledge of the greater whole, on what you, me, the scientists, the academics, what we are all doing in the community. That is why a smart city focuses on institutions and alliances ... The strongest cities will be the ones best able to form alliances--to be anchored in several areas, several things they are good at" (Reardon 1999).

This "gestalt" philosophy, which views a balanced organized whole as more than the sum of its parts, is aligned with the inclusiveness required for the use of the word smart in a broadly based public context.

Because today's Smart Community initiatives require not only positive reception from, but also, active involvement of general audiences, the Smart Communities literature also marries the concerns of economists and politicians with motivational studies. The outreach process, for example, is an integral part of Smart Communities planning.

The Smart Communities Implementation Guide published by the International Center for Communications (1997b), advises that outreach be a priority from the first stages, "otherwise the project may be perceived as exclusive and the sense of broad community ownership essential to success and sustainability won't develop" (29). By mixing economic goals with motivational outreach programs, Smart Communities bring private sector concerns with information economy into the public sphere. They do this in two ways. First, they implicate the general population in the economic vitality of an information-age community by presenting reasons that the public should be technology literate. Second, they advance the responsibility of individuals in a geographic region to create the required social and economic alliances for sustainable information-age communities.

When intelligent hubs of infrastructure alone led to the unstable community situations noted above, it became clear a key contributor to sustainability was community involvement. Smart Communities therefore attempt to regain control with a user-involvement approach. When these interests in networking technology shifted from establishing industry advantages to include community balance, the vocabulary about information infrastructure also changed: intelligent shifted to learning, which shifted to smart. Smart communities needed a particular type of buy-in that relies upon a rhetorically charged term. Because of the need to appeal to a broader base of community members, the word smart served the situation better than the more elitist term intelligent. The Rhetorical Resonance of Smart: Thinking Machines

The genealogy of smart technology can be traced back to the computing science sub-discipline of artificial intelligence. Much of the early work on artificial intelligence was inspired by a desire to "create a machine on the model of man [sic], a robot that is to have its childhood, to learn language as a child does, to gain its knowledge of the world by sensing the world through its own organs, and ultimately to contemplate the whole domain of human thought" (Weizenbaum 1976, 203). Decades of debate on the ethics of this possibility have ensued.

Machine intelligence and artificial intelligence are terms used almost interchangeably to describe the higher-level data processing capabilities of computers. IBM's computer Deep Blue, which beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, is a good example of what some would call artificial intelligence, although its performance is not touted by IBM as intelligence but "a new genre of computing, one that combines the powerful parallel computers and advanced algorithms of scientific computing with the vast databases typical of business computing to make human decisions" (Schechter 1999, 13).

This new genre of research has given rise to the commercial application of intelligent-acting products and services, that is, smart technologies. Smart technologies do not necessarily embrace the same grand goals of replicating human intelligence, writ large, as does the parent discipline of computing science. Smart technologies, unlike intelligent machines, are pragmatic implementations of technology rather than intellectual pursuits. They are a manifestation of the convergence occurring in information and communications technology, a convergence that is often described as "the currents developments in broadcasting, multimedia, programme-making, virtual reality, entertainment and telecommunications" (Knight and Weedon 1995, 5).

The first smart technologies were fairly simply feedback-response technologies, clever in the sense that they appeared to predict and respond in ways a person might want them to, but technologically a departure from the artificial intelligence research that lived in universities. What distinguishes smart technologies from data-processing computers is that they integrate multimedia input and output devices. They are designed to be machines that are responsive to feedback from users or their environments, by processing input data to trigger an appropriate response.

For example, smart technology might be used to regulate home lighting in response to the traffic patterns and preferences of its inhabitants. A typical example in the medical realm is a technology that reads levels in the blood stream and maintains a desired balance by triggering the release of a needed substance. The body is made up of systems that do this all the time naturally. Smart, in this context, means responding to data in a way that is appropriate for maintaining control of the organism, and involves no intelligence in the mental processes sense. Smart technologies may also be networked so that patterns of interaction with users can be recorded in central databases. This data can then be "mined" to provide information about consumer patterns for marketing or product-development purposes. In this way, smart technologies provide intelligence to technology companies.

This is what is known as "smart technology" in a technical sense. Both the technology and the label itself are offspring of "artificial intelligence" or AI research initiated in university computer science and computer engineering departments. Because of its association with specialist practices--whether science or surveillance--the word intelligence to describe these technologies is limited in its marketplace appeal. In marketing language, the word smart appears. Smart has broader connotations, for smartness includes the notion of being quick-witted, a keen bargainer, well-groomed, fresh and bright in appearance, in good repair, stylish, even severe (Oxford Dictionary 1995).

Smart, therefore, is more user-friendly than the term intelligent, which is limited to having a quick mind, being responsive to feedback, or having data-processing capability. Smart also encompasses characteristics that can be readily learned, whereas intelligence is more limited in this way. This distinction is important because, for a user-oriented movement like Smart Communities, or for a smart technology aimed at consumers, the more inclusive and less intimating term is likely to get wider reception.

In short, the word smart in the realm of technology has quite a different meaning from that suggested by intelligent networks or Smart Communities as described above. Smart technologies refer to computational processes that may or may not involve networks, and have roots in computation rather than networking. So the technology that normally characterizes Smart Communities--which is high-speed network connections--is only tangentially related to any actual implementation of smart technology in the cybernetic, feedback-controlled sense.

However, the meaning of smart in Smart Communities picks up on the commercial successes and public interest in artificially intelligent smart machines. In other words, the network technology characterizing Smart Communities is not artificially intelligent or smart, but the inference of technological cleverness migrates through the affiliation of advanced technology alone. Smart Economic Strategies

James Beniger describes how the regulation of government and industry bureaucracies has been enabled by computer technology. In an information society, as Beniger suggests, "a society's ability to maintain control--at all levels from interpersonal to international relations--will be directly proportional to the development of its information technologies" (1986, 8-9).

Beniger's use of a biological feedback model offers considerable potential for understanding how a user-oriented strategy, such as Smart Communities, could be an effective control response to the negative effects on cities described in the first part of this paper. Although reductionist and rationalist, Beniger's model facilitates an understanding of a system whose goal is the avoidance of chaos. This model also describes a sociopolitical expression of organic control that varies in response to scale, though not to a particularly new crisis.

If the global information economy is viewed as an organic structure, then it follows that local, provincial and national governments might experience a loss of control, since they have traditionally operated in a closed system. The Smart Communities movement plays an interesting role in this context, for it partly incorporates and partly resists the globalization of marketplaces. It therefore highlights the rebalancing that is a part of the Smart Communities strategy.

As mentioned earlier, it is a strategy that both supports an information economy by encouraging trained workers, and tempers a global economy by creating geopolitical economies. On both these counts, the community citizen has been invoked. To understand how the public's role has taken on increased importance in information-age economic strategies, it is useful to follow some of the research studies undertaken to devise strategy for managing politically closed systems in a global information economy.

These studies reveal the sense of urgency pressed upon federal governments for competitive action concerning technologies, and hint at the arrival of the term smart in a community-oriented government program. For example, in 1992 the OECD, whose purpose is to facilitate "a better understanding and mastery of the relationship between technology and economic growth" concluded that technological change, and its associated economic benefits, is "fundamentally a social process" (15). Reports such as this one underscore the role of individuals and cultures of innovation, both for creating the necessary workforce but also for their role in technology implementation. The OECD report acknowledges that technologies may be selected not for their superior qualities or efficiency but may become efficient simply because they are chosen (21). In other words, if everyone uses a certain piece of software, it becomes efficient simply because everyone uses it. It is inefficient to use an incompatible type, whether or not it is a superior product.

In Canada, a 1992 report sponsored by the Economic Council of Canada was undertaken as part of a larger project to understand Canada's competitiveness and trade performance. It says that "Canada's position has been slipping relative to that of its trading partners, and that this jeopardizes future living standards" and concludes that "Canadians have not responded quickly or effectively enough to the challenges that have been taking place in international markets" (McFetridge 1992, vii).

Since then, the Government of Canada and some of the provinces have launched strategies to have Canadians respond more quickly. The federal Smart Communities program of Industry Canada is one of them. Maurice Estabrooks, a senior economist in the Canadian government's Department of Industry in the 1990s, claims that information technology offers "great opportunities for learning, education, entertainment, cultural exchange, world development, and human understanding. These are just some of the potentials of broadband intelligent multimedia telecommunications technology, and this is why governments perceive investments in advanced telecommunications infrastructures to be crucial to economic growth and competitiveness" (1995, 154-55).

Internationally, the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) responded to the impact of information and communications technology by focusing in the years 1995 to 1997 on ways it could "close the gap between North and South, between the 'included' and 'excluded,' so that everyone has equitable access to sustainable development and growth" (Howkins and Valanin 1997, xi). By the mid- to late-1990s, a focus on an inclusive user-oriented approach was becoming clear in economic strategies.

American studies, such as the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee report (PITAC 1999) underscore the need to invest in people, most notably researchers, but also highlight an increased need for research into the social and economic implications of information and communications technology. Both of these reports reveal an increasing awareness of the role of human resources in the information economy.

The kinds of reports just described often contain warnings about regional or national economies falling behind, and imply an impending loss of control. For example, the PITAC report concludes that current levels of funding for research are "seriously inadequate. Research programs intended to maintain the flow of new ideas in information technology and to train the next generation of researchers are funding only a small fraction of the research that is needed" and furthermore, that this lack of investment may prevent the research required to "protect us from catastrophic failures of the complex systems that underpin our transportation, defense, business, finance, and healthcare infrastructures" (1).

Such warnings, much like the Smart Communities strategy, suggest that information technology is required to address problems created by the technology and that, without it, chaos could ensue. Smart in this sense is directly linked to the cybernetic meaning of smart as a mechanism for control. The ideology underlying the word smart in the Smart Communities movement, then, also speaks of the "wisdom" or appropriateness of this particular economic strategy for regulating balance in the developing information economy. In particular, the smart of Smart Communities reflects interests in maintaining control of regional economies made volatile by emerging global marketplaces, through engagement of a broader public with technology.

Conclusion

One of the particular characteristics of debates about the merits and problems with information and communication technologies is the high level of uncertainty. The potential or perceived impact of information technology is deeply equivocal. Both the far left and the far right have used the decentralizing effects of information technology in their arguments, but with the goals of achieving different ends (Winner 1986, 85). It is now almost a truism that "ICTs can often produce contradictory results simultaneously: homogeneity and fragmentation, for example, or greater equality and greater inequality" (Howkins and Valinin 1997, 19).

Smart Communities, however, are unequivocally branded as an effort to reduce this uncertainty. Through the choice of the word smart, the movement--whether emerging from grass-roots collaborations or government programs--is positioned to garner widespread public support for the implementation of information technology. At the same time, it implicates this public in a strategy for control of economic forces that is rhetorically affiliated with artificial intelligence, and conceptually a product of the same cybernetic feedback-control model. References

Annunziata, Robert, and Robert Catlin. 1986. Introduction. In Teleports and the Intelligent City, ed. Andrew D. Lipman, Alan D. Sugarman and Robert F. Cushman. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin. Bell, Daniel.1979. The Social Framework of the Information Society. In The Computer Age: A Twenty-Year View, ed. Michael L. Dertouzos and Joel Moses. Cambridge: MIT Press. Beniger, James R. 1986. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Downey, Geoffrey. 2000. Outsourcing No Longer About Savings. Computing Canada 26:7, 13-15. Estabrooks, Maurice. 1995. Electronic Technology, Corporate Strategy, and World Transformation. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Hanneman, Gerhard J. 1986. Teleports: An Overview. In Teleports and the Intelligent City, ed. Andrew D. Lipman, Alan D. Sugarman and Robert F. Cushman. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin. Howkins, John and Robert Valinin, eds. 1997. Development and the Information Age. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre and United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development. IBM. 2000. Smart Home Info-Structure Wiring. http://www.can.ibm.com/smarthomes/wiring.html Industry Canada, Smart Communities: Program Guide (Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1999). Industry Canada. 1998. Smart Communities: Report of the Panel on Smart Communities. Ottawa: Government of Canada. International Center for Communications. 1997a. Smart Communities Guidebook. San Deigo: International Center for Communications at San Diego University. International Center for Communications. 1997b.. San Deigo: International Center for Communications at San Diego University. Knight, J. and A. Weedon. 1995. Editorial. Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 1, 5-8. Machlup, Fritz. 1962. The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States. New Jersey, Princeton University Press. McFetridge, D.G. 1992. Advanced Technologies in Canada: An Analysis and Recent Evidence of Their Use. Ottawa: Canada Communication Group. National Science Foundation. 1998. Economic and Social Significance of Information Technologies. In Science and Engineering Indicators--1998. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation. http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/pubsys/browser/odbrowse.pl OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 1992. Technology and the Economy: The Key Relationships. Paris: OECD. Oxford Dictionary, The Concise. 1995. Ninth Edition. Oxford: Clarendono. PITAC. 1999. Information Technology Research: Investing in our Future. President's Information Technology Advisory Committee Report to the President. Porat, Marc U., and Michael R. Rubin. 1977. The Information Economy. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. Reardon, John. 1999. In Rod Ziegler, Edmonton Journal. 29 April, H1. Schechter, Bruce. 1999. Daring to Think Deep. Think Research 2. Boston: IBM. Teletronic Communications. 1987. The Smart Subdivision: Residential Applications of IVDM Technology. Edmonton: Alberta Municipal Affairs. Thorne, Duncan. 1998. Edmonton: Smart City Campaign. Edmonton Journal, 13 November, B3. Weizenbaum, Joseph. 1976. Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation. New York: W.H. Freeman. Weizenbaum, Joseph. 1991. Computers, Tools, and Human Reason. In Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society, ed. David Crowley and Paul Heyer. New York: Longman. Winner, Langdon. 1985. Do Artifacts Have Politics? In The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got its Hum, ed. Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman. Milton Keynes, PA: Open University Press. Winner, Langdon. 1986. The Whale and The Reactor: A Search for Limits in the Age of High Technology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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betterplaceimmigration · 5 years ago

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Best employers in Canada for 2020

According to Forbes, these are the best places to work if you are in Canada

Google

If you are planning to work in IT, or Software and Services, then you can take a shot at this world-famous search engine. Having been nominated as the best place to work in Canada for three consecutive years, Google has its Canadian offices in Toronto, Montreal, Kitchener, Edmonton, and Ontario

Hydro-Québec

Hydro-Québec, one of the best places to work if you are interested in Utilities, operates out of Montreal, Quebec. The province’s public utility company is responsible for powering homes all across Quebec and is rated as the second-best place to work in the country

Cisco Systems

With headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Cisco is responsible for developing, manufacturing, and selling technology products and services. The company is hiring in many major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal

Costco Wholesale

For workers planning to become a part of the Retail and Wholesale industry, Costco is the best choice. It is situated in almost all Canadian provinces and sells wholesale merchandise to buyers who have memberships. You can pursue different career paths with Costco by working in information technology, marketing, finance, and many more

Ubisoft

Ubisoft is a video game giant and operates out of Montreal, Quebec. It boasts of nearly 16,000 employees and is the perfect place if you are into media, advertising, or video game designing. You can take up job positions in animation, quality control, or programming.

Microsoft

This multinational computer company has its headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario, and is ranked higher this year. In September 2020, the office in Mississauga will shift to downtown Toronto.

Boeing

If your interest lies in Aerospace and Defense, then you will enjoy working for Boeing in any one of these six areas: data science and analytics, business, engineering, information technology, cybersecurity, and manufacturing.

Air Transat

This airline offers competitive wages, travel benefits and social advantages to its employees.

The ninth and tenth positions were occupied by FedEx and the University of Toronto respectively.

#boeing #microsoft #cisco systems #google

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immigrationxperts-blog · 6 years ago

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Canadian Government may make the Global Talent Stream Permanent

Canadian government is planning to make the global talent stream permanent. Global Talent streams is an immigration program that incorporates two different categories. This stream in particular is famous because it enables workers to get their work permit approved within two weeks. Canadian government launched this program to ensure that innovative companies have all the manpower they require.

Global Talent Stream was initiated as a two year pilot program. Unlike many immigration pilot programs, Global Talent Stream proved to be very effective in attracting highly-skilled foreign workers. The expedited nature of the stream ensured that innovative companies can easily get approval for hiring these foreign workers.

Global Talent Stream Category A

You can apply through category A, only if a designated partner of the Global Talent Stream refers you. Designated partners ensure that only legitimate companies are able to nominate candidates for immigration to Canada. Following organizations are included in the list of designated partners:

● Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency ● BC Tech Association ● Business Development Bank of Canada ● Canadian Economic Development for Quebec Regions ● City of Hamilton's Economic Development Office ● Communitech Corporation ● Council of Canadian Innovators ● Economic Development Winnipeg ● Edmonton Economic Development ● Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario ● Genesis (Newfoundland) ● Global Affairs Canada's Trade Commissioner Service ● Government of Alberta, Alberta Labour ● Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Jobs, Trade and Technology ● Government of Manitoba, Manitoba Education and Training ● Government of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Business Inc. ● Government of Ontario, Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade – Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program ● Government of Ontario, Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade – Ontario Investment Office ● Government of Prince Edward Island, Island Investment Development Inc. ● Government of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Immigration and Career Training – Employer Services Branch ● Halifax Partnership ● ICT Association of Manitoba (ICTAM) ● Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada - Accelerated Growth Service ● Invest Ottawa ● Invest in Canada ● London Economic Development Corporation ● MaRS Discovery District ● National Research Council - Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) ● Privy Council Office, Special Projects Team ● Vancouver Economic Commission ● Venn Innovation ● Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation ● WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation

Note: A separate list of designated partners is available for Quebec. To receive the referral from a designated partner, the company must meet the following parameters:

● Must be operating in Canada ● Focuses on Innovation ● Is capable of scaling up ● Requires candidates with unique talents to grow the company ● Has narrowed down candidates that it wants to nominate for immigration

A unique and specialized position meets the following parameters:

● Minimum wage of at least $80,000 ● Advanced knowledge and skill ● Advanced Degree in area of Specialization ● Minimum 5 years experience in the field of specialization

Global Talent Stream Category B

For occupations found in the ESDC’s Global Talent Occupation List, companies need get approval through Category B. These occupations include high-skill, in-demand jobs for which talent is scarce in Canada. In this category, minimum wage required for getting approval differs according to the occupation.

Global Talent Occupations List includes:

● Engineering managers ● Architecture and science managers ● Computer and information systems managers ● Computer engineers ● Mathematicians and statisticians ● Information systems analysts and consultants ● Database analysts and data administrators ● Software engineers and designers ● Computer programmers and interactive media developers ● Web designers and developers ● Information systems testing technicians ● Producer, technical, creative and artistic director and project manager ● Digital media designers

The application fee is $1,000 for each individual nominated by a company. You can make the payment online. Companies also need to create their own Labour Market Benefits Plan. This plan will demonstrate how the company is increasing Canada’s competitiveness in innovative industries like artificial intellige, biotechnology, etc.

To know more, you can get in touch with our immigration consultants at:

Landline 0120- 6618011 0120-6618123

Mobile 7303120123 9999467676

#immigration consultant #visa consultant #immigrate to canada #migrate to canada #visa consultancy services #canada visa process #Canada pr #canada express entry programe

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konnl · 6 years ago

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Mercer Warehouse Haunt

Mark is stuck working late while everyone else is off to the building’s mixer event. The office is inside Edmonton’s famous Mercer Warehouse that is known to be haunted due to an unsettling history…

Mercer Warehouse Haunt is March’s flash fiction that brings readers into Edmonton’s Mercer Warehouse, following Mark who witnesses the supposedly true hauntings. Experience the story in written word, audio, artwork and soundscape.

Mercer Warehouse Haunt

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Office Overtime

Just one more email, I thought while hammering away at my keyboard. The night was getting on, most people had left the building. I was possibly one of the last ones at the office, well that and the Startup Edmonton space on the floor above. They often hosted events after hours for their entrepreneur community. It was pretty cool if you were going down the businessperson route. For me, even in a small studio, I didn’t have that go-getter attitude that everyone seems to have around me. All I want is to clock in, do my job, and get home. I also wasn’t a fan of the big corporate factory. So, unfortunately, I am part of a small team, which meant overtime.

Footsteps echoed from the hallway outside the office. “Mark!” came a man’s nasally voice, easily recognizable as my co-worker Gabe.

“Yeah?” I called out, still typing rapidly on my keyboard.

Gabe appeared from around the corner, his frizzy hair bouncing with each step he made.

“How’s the event upstairs?” I asked, clearly able to hear the muffled voices of the people upstairs mingling. The wooden floors weren’t that soundproof.

“Good! You should have joined. Some potential hires if we get big enough.”

“I’m sure Todd would love to hear that.” I used my trackpad and hit send on the email. Leaning back in my chair I pushed my glasses up and looked at my colleague who stared back.

“They’re wrapping up the event. Alice and I thought we could go down to Mercer Tavern for some drinks, you in?” Gabe asked.

I looked down at my computer screen to see one half of the screen had the email software open – with over two dozen unread emails from today. The other half had a word document I was working on before the blast of emails arrived at the end of the workday. As tempting as it was to go get piss-faced with my coworkers after a long shift, I knew I shouldn’t. The fact that our office was in the same building as a pub didn’t help the temptation. The Mercer Warehouse was a fantastic historical structure.

“I would love to, but I got a pile of work to do here,” I said, brushing my slicked-back hair aside. I really didn’t want to stay and work, but I knew better.

“Save it for tomorrow!” Gabe said with a toothy grin.

“You know Todd would have my head if this briefing isn’t written for the dev team. I got to get this done.”

Mercer Tavern Fun

Footsteps came from down the hall until a third person entered the room. Alice, the brunette intern we hired. Damn. That’s really the best way to describe her. I tried not to stare at her hips wrapped in a tight skirt as she walked in. I had work-place ethics.

“Mark,” Alice said. “What are you still doing here?” she asked in a playful tone.

I waved my hands at the laptop. “Just getting this work done. There’s a lot we haven’t even gotten through.”

“Told you,” Gabe said. “Mark just can’t look away from that screen.”

Alice smiled at me and shook her head. “Don’t work too late, okay?”

I smiled at her, “yeah.” As if the pub wasn’t tempting enough, I thought. I had been so wrapped up in work that I didn’t know Alice had stayed at the Start-Up Edmonton event. I’d love to get her out for a drink.

A loud thud came from upstairs, causing the three of us to jump.

“Christ,” Alice said while placing her hand on her chest.

Gabe scratched his mustache, saying, “someone has had one too many drinks up there.”

I shook my head. “That sounded like it was on this floor. Anyone else still here?”

“Not that I am aware of,” Alice said while waving her hand to create a slight breeze.

“Who knows, this place is full of sounds throughout the day. Just extra spooky at night.” Gabe said.

I unbuttoned the upper button of my shirt and exhaled, feeling whatever heatwave Alice was getting. For whatever reason, the building’s furnace decided it was a good idea to crank the floor with warmth. This place was getting close to being 100 years old, who knows what kind of quirks it has. Between the original brick walls, the wood floors, elevators, various floors, and many rooms, this place was as mysterious as when my clock-out time was going to be.

“Okay, someone blasted the heat,” Alice said waving her hand.

“Probably one of those ghosts in this building,” Gabe said.

“What?” Alice said. “There are no ghosts here.” She looked at me for confirmation.

I shrugged at her. “I have no idea about the history of this place.”

Gabe scratched his head. “I swear, it was something about a fire in this place when it was a stable. Tragic.”

“A stable?” I snorted. “This is a brick building with four floors. It doesn’t exactly look like one.”

Gabe shook his head. “Look, that is all I have been told. People talk about it all the time here.”

“I never heard of anything like that,” I said.

“Me either,” Alice said.

“Maybe it’s just small talk,” Gabe said. “Look, it’s getting way too hot here. I’m going for a cool drink.”

Alice nodded. “Maybe if you’re done early come find us downstairs,” she said before turning to leave.

“Thanks,” I said.

Gabe waved goodbye at me. “Remember to lock up when you’re done.”

“Of course. Have a drink for me!” I called out as he left the open-space office.

Gabe gave me a thumbs up as he walked out of our office and down the wooden hallway, leaving me with my work. At least I presumed I was alone on the floor – what was that thud noise? I wasn’t sure if it was worth investigating or not. Probably not. Being overworked and tired had a way of making you paranoid. Plus, I had so much work to do that I didn’t see taking a break was very optional. Maybe a piss break at some point. That is all.

Working Horse

I continued to hammer away at the keyboard, working on the creative-brief document for the development team. At this point in the day, I had probably been at work for a good twelve hours. Time seemed to pass by as an abstract concept while my eyes watched the digital alphabet glyphs pop up on the screen with each key I pressed. When did Alice and Gabe come by? An hour… or two hours ago? I honestly could not remember. I entered a trance. A mundane, work trance.

I could use that beer, I thought. The temptation of joining my co-workers at the Mercer Tavern below was rising again. Piss break.

I got up from my seat while hitting the save button. A stretch and bathroom break wouldn’t hurt anyone. I was making good progress and deserved a break. Time didn’t matter at this point. No matter how late or early I left, no one cared, as long as the work got done.

Some heavy-walker in high-heels began to stomp on the floor above.

“Jesus,” I muttered to myself while checking the time on my smartphone, it was just about midnight. The heat in the building hadn’t exactly cooled off either. Now that I wasn’t glued to my computer screen, I could focus on the temperature. I was unsure if it got hotter or if I was paying attention to it now. Regardless, I had pit-sweats now. That’d be attractive to Alice.

I walked out of our office and down the hall towards the restroom. All of the other office doors were now shut and locked – everyone else had gone home for the day. I really was the last one on this floor, possibly the building – minus the tavern below.

Another stomp came, reverbing off the empty hallway walls. The sound was more substantial than a high-heel, like a pole hitting the ground. It was close, more levelled than the ceiling.

That wasn’t the floor above, I thought, knowing well off that the Startup Edmonton event ended hours ago. It’s got to be the old pipes.

Sighing, I pushed the strange sound of my head and went for the bathroom. On this floor, it was a shared one-stall option. Sure, there were two stalls, but they were both in the hall, facing away from each other. This building tended to be forward thinking and introduced shared bathrooms. I didn’t lose my shit over it like some people. To me, when you had to go, you had to go.

Entering the bathroom, I flicked the light on, put my phone on the counter, and closed to door. Lifting the toilet lid with my foot, I undid my pant buckle and took care of business. Relief. The moment passed. Flushed. Lid dropped.

THUD!

The sound outside the bathroom caused me to jump, and I snagged my pants to keep them up.

THUD! THUD! The bathroom door pounded. Its entire shape pushed inward with each pound it made.

“Cut it out!” I called out. It had to be Gabe pulling some stupid prank.

THUD! THUD! THUD! Came the sound from behind the door again. The temperature drastically increased, and I could feel sweat dripping down my face. A snort came from out in the hall, followed by the same thudding from earlier.

“Alright! Give me a moment,” I called out. Those drunks. I buckled up my pants and washed my hands then swung the door open. The hall was empty. I flicked my wet hands and glanced down both ways of the hall to see no one.

Oneness with Mercer Warehouse

“Hello?” I called out, wiping my forehead of sweat.

Silence.

“Gabe? Alice?” I said while walking down the hall towards the staircase. This didn’t make sense. It had to be one of them pulling some joke on him. The floors needed a key to get in at this hour. It had to be someone who has access to the building.

I opened to door to the stairwell and looked up and down the steps – no one. This end of the hall was clear. I closed the door and picked up my pace and hurried down the other end of the hallway. The heat continued to rise, leaving me a soaking mess.

“This joke isn’t funny anymore!” I shouted while reaching the other end of the hall. No one. Every office was locked, as it should be. I was stumped.

“Clearly I’m working too late,” I mumbled to myself.

Despite the heat, I had to get the work done. Even though I had a laptop, I needed the files that were on the server. There was no option other than to work in this overheating environment.

Sighing, I returned to the office while airing out my shirt. I entered the office, noticing an intense grey haze that started to gloom over the space. I took a sniff to smell the subtle scent of smoke.

Smoke? Heat? It finally hit me – the building was on fire. Instantly I clued in that I had left my smartphone on the bathroom counter. Without hesitation, I rushed to leave the office to get my cellphone. Before I could make it to the office entrance, a large pile of wood collapsed in front of it, blocking me inside. Intense heat, piercing flames, and smoke shot through the cracks of the collapsed timber, forcing me to shield myself with my arm.

A whinnying sound pierced through the sounds of flames followed by an echoed thumping. The smoke thickened drastically, making it difficult to see anything other than a few feet in front of me. I coughed violently while bringing my shirt up to my face, trying to keep my head low.

Heavy trotting picked up inside the office followed by the crashing of desks and computers. I looked up to see through the haze was the silhouette of a massive steed stomping through the office.

What the…? I thought. It had to be the lack of oxygen. That was the only logical explanation.

The creature galloped towards me, knocking over my desk and sending my laptop to the ground. Flames burst from the animal’s nostrils and eye sockets like some sort of hell creature. The animal neighed while its long mane bounced with each step it made.

I jumped to the side, trying to dodge the stomping animal. The attempt was too late. The animal reached my being and moved through me like a spectral. It left a trail of flame with each step of the hoof as it trotted. My face collided into the ground, face first, causing me to skid on the wood.

This can’t be it, I thought to myself. It was the only words I could process. The rest were memories. Reminiscences that were not my own. It was as if another entity had pierced into my psyche and was filling my mind with visuals of farmers, horses, and fire. Emotions of fear, agony, and distress washed over my body. The impression of loss and confusion was all that was left. The fires around me continued to light up until there was nothing but brightness, not even the heat could be felt anymore. The whinnying sound of a horse echoed through my mind followed by a heavy thud.

The poor animal. Burned alive, I thought. The creature’s agonizing death played through my mind. The animal’s soul was communicating with me. It was trapped within these walls. The horse channelled through my being. I was this animal.

An instinctual sensation pulsated through my body, and I lifted my head up. Resting on my knees, I screeched an ear-piercing neigh as the fire began to consume my form.

Reality Check

Mark! A voice echoed my head.

“Christ, Mark!” the voice shouted once more. This time it was more distinguishable. The sound didn’t originate in my head. No. This was my co-worker. He was in the room with me. He was in the fire.

“Gabe!” I used all my strength to spring to my feet. “Get out of here!” I shouted, looking towards the hallway. The office door was wide open. There was no collapsed wood. Alice walked towards me from the doorway, wide-eyed.

A hand touched my shoulder, causing me to flinch. “Mark,” came Gabe’s voice. “What on earth are you screaming about?”

I looked over to see the man was beside me.

“What?” I asked, glancing around. The fires, the horse, the smoke – all of it was gone.

“Are you okay?” Alice asked.

“I… I don’t know,” I said while wiping my face.

“You were shouting on your knees,” Gabe said while laughing. “This briefing got you that rattled up?”

I didn’t answer, still looking around the office. Everything was left as is. The desks were upright, and the computers were on top, unharmed. How? I thought.

“You’re drenched in sweat,” Alice said. “Maybe you should take the day off tomorrow.”

“Or maybe the heat hit you,” Gabe said. “Lucky we went back up here to check on you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It had to be the heat.” Did I just shout like a horse? I thought, now feeling sheepish that my co-workers had found me in such a bizarre state. I could barely process what had just happened to me.

Sure, I could tell my co-workers that the whole floor caught fire, wood began to collapse around me, a horse-ghost appeared on the third floor, and channelled its essence through me, but that was crazy. Ghosts weren’t real. At least that is what I try to tell myself. If that were true, then what was the vision I had? What was the sensation of oneness I had with a creature I had never met before?

Maybe I would never have any answers. I could only accept what I saw and felt: the impression of an animal in agony, sharing it story with me of burning in the fire at the Mercer Warehouse.

#Alberta #Creepy Pasta #Edmonton #Horror #Paranormal #Strange

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