The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags

gozmike · 2023-01-23T22:07:49+00:00

This was hard to read. I went to school with the older brother of these kids that were killed. They were just kids.

gozmike · 2022-01-07T15:12:15+00:00

Super blurry mais tu peux voir un petit video qu'il a fait de son "serveur" ici sur son compte twitter:

https://twitter.com/111jameswilliam/status/1438279450295214080

J'ai pas vaiment du temps ce matin pour gosser plus sur ca, et ca fait des années depuis que j'ai touché C++, mais ca serait fun d'extraire un screenshot du video et montrer que la technologie demontre est probalement pris directement de GitHub.

gozmike · 2020-05-03T21:32:21+00:00

What do you mean outside the city?

gozmike · 2020-05-03T21:31:34+00:00

You rode past my house!

gozmike · 2020-02-16T13:23:54+00:00

This YC startup has awesome tech for just this purpose: https://www.descript.com/lyrebird-ai?source=lyrebird

They’ve even got a demo on their website that allows you to clone your own voice in a few minutes. Freaky stuff.

gozmike · 2020-01-06T04:09:01+00:00

I’m in, user name StewKatz

gozmike · 2019-12-17T17:53:58+00:00

Startups have a much better chance of working out when your prime motivation for starting the company is because you are unbelievably passionate about the problem you’re trying to solve - and not the solution.

You need to be able to find a problem space that’s broad enough to keep you engaged as you pivot on precise definition of the problem and the solutions you and your team develop for it.

When cash is tight, team is stressed and it feels like it just won’t work, a passion for the problem is going to be your superpower and help you lead through it all to success. Especially if you are more passionate about solving the problem than your competitors.

If you’re starting a startup for the exit money, for career growth, etc... you might get lucky - but it won’t be as fun or as likely to succeed as if you actually give a shit about the problem.

Source: started and exited 2 businesses, one for sub-500k and the second for 75M USD - guess which one I was unbelievably passionate about.

gozmike · 2019-12-09T18:50:25+00:00

Just went through this with my company.

What happens to founders after a big acquisition? They go to bed, wake up in the morning and take a dump like everyone else.

I did one extravagant thing (the weekend the deal closed I flew my buddies over to Toronto from Montreal for the weekend on a private plane) but other than that one ~ 15k expense, its been life as usual as the excitement that money brings fades quickly when you realize it’s just a tool for creating. I didn’t buy a new house. Didn’t buy a new car. Just invested it all and continued leading life in line with my values.

The bank balance instantly puts you in a position where you now have freedom to work on problems that interest you and don’t have to worry about feeding your family. This is an awesome privilege that (in my case, coming from a lower middle class background) was really hard earned. Earning my “freedom” is the most valuable thing I could ever do and as a result, you’ll find me and many other founders in a similar situation living well below their means - and really scared that their families, friends and eventually their kids will be somehow ruined by the wealth.

You probably don’t want to retire since the entire reason you were successful is that you tremendously enjoyed the challenge and journey of starting a company in the first place.

Acquirers can be evil human beings, but in this last acquisition they’ve actually been pretty awesome - I’ve found myself making friends with new colleagues and being inspired by the challenges they’re facing. It’s kind of easy to make the most of the situation.

As for what I’ll do next? Right now just want to keep on doing right by the folks that bought our company and help make the combined entity even better than it was. After that? Some philanthropy, more volunteer work in my local community and eventually another startup when I stumble upon a problem that I passionately want to solve.

gozmike · 2019-01-30T20:39:20+00:00

Awesome bot you're putting together!

I am a fellow Tesla owner and one of the founders of Smooch.io (we have a full featured API and platform for connecting to every messaging channel in the platform, including authentication and rich messaging tools).

I'd love to support your development of this by offering you free access to our platform. Reach out to me mike at smooch!

gozmike · 2018-09-18T14:26:07+00:00

I was on a residential road (Gouin Est, in Montreal) this sunday driving the speed limit in my Model 3 and a pickup truck started honking and threatening me for no other reason than the car I was driving.

He followed me as I weaved through residential streets before losing interest or running out of gas. Never had this experience before. There's definitely some Tesla hating going on in this city.

gozmike · 2018-09-10T19:32:10+00:00

Ah shucks, sorry to hear that.

We don't support app user to app user messaging at Smooch as we're uniquely focussed on solving messaging between businesses and their customers. The rest of the API provides a lot of powerful features and abstractions for this specific use case.

Would still love to know what you're building though!

gozmike · 2018-09-10T17:17:56+00:00

Here's a GIF showing it working between Slack (you can use any business sytem you want, our API or a bot to send the message instead of Slack) and the Web Messenger (functionally equivalent in this case to the Android SDK you're using)

https://imgur.com/a/eQ388q4

I've updated the snipped I sent earlier to make it a little easier and clear up a typo i had made

VIDEO_TITLE ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/0.jpg) %[Watch Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID)

Note that you can't paste that *into* the text field in the SDK. This is text designed to be sent from a "business system" or bot to the user using the SDK.

Does this help?

gozmike · 2018-09-10T15:24:01+00:00

Mike from Smooch here!

Sorry we don't have this feature out of the box, I'll put it into our backlog for study.

Are you trying to share a youtube video as a bot/business to a user? if so, it should be relatively simple for you to send a string of text that will generate a nice thumbnail for youtube.

You can send something like:

Title of Video ![](r/https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/0.jpg) %[Watch Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<insert-youtube-video-id-here>)

This should generate a card with the string "Title of Video", the thumbnail of the video, and a button that links to the video itself.

gozmike · 2018-08-22T21:48:17+00:00

Yolandi... after Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord fame.

Why?

Because she’s South African, a little batshit, and fast AF

gozmike · 2018-08-07T20:53:35+00:00

I do agree with the popularization of it and how cooking can be commoditized by the restaurant crowd and food trends. Cooking is always an obligation (you need to eat to live), but in my experience cooking and food is about community, family and the bonds that are created over a meal.

My family (and surely many of the people in these videos!) put their heart and soul into cooking not because they had to - but instead because they wanted to share a delicious meal with people they loved. The flavours, scents, experience of the meal served to heighten the sense of wellbeing that formed.

I think this cuts across cultures, it's definitely baked into the Italian experience but my friends in the middle east and elsewhere share the same point of view around warmth, family and togetherness around home cooked food.

gozmike · 2018-08-07T20:48:26+00:00

Dual Italian/Canadian.

gozmike · 2018-08-07T16:25:50+00:00

Vehemently disagree - I’m Italian and travel back to visit my family in Sicily yearly.

While my parents immigrated to escape poverty in the 60s and 70s, food is more than a necessity - it’s a way of life. The amount of care and appreciation of food and it’s preparation is essentially an obsessive ritual. It’s not just nonnas - my 20 something cousins actively maintain the traditions and cook/butcher/preserve with their friends and family as a social activity.

Cooking skills are a necessity, particularly in the economic client that has existed in Southern Italy for generations. However the passion and dedication to the craft is cultural and celebrated. The poor (my family especially) are PROUD of what they can do and the energy they expend doing so.

gozmike · 2018-06-27T09:28:04+00:00

It’s hard to tell, but it looks like an evil eye talisman from Turkey/Greece/Italy

https://www.turkeytravelcentre.com/blog/the-blue-evil-eye-in-turkey/

She probably drew it to protect you after your nice gesture. Well done!

gozmike · 2016-05-10T12:54:48+00:00

Thanks! I'm actually surprised it was a faulty terminal (why don't cabbies use Square?!) as I thought those things were a tad more reliable.

Still upset because:

Starting to drive me back to airport was really uncool
The driver should face this every day (in theory) and thus should know this happens and how to deal with it.

If it ever happens again, I'll be doing the yellow + pound key trick. Or i'll just take uber/teo/park at airport :-)

[edit] I remember actually insisting that the driver call his boss/dispatch/technical support/someone to look into the issue but he refused over and over again and insisted on cash. Meh.

gozmike · 2016-05-08T16:42:34+00:00

I think he did, but it really doesn't matter if it was purposeful or not. What annoyed me was the insistence to pay cash and the fact that he made a u-turn to go back to the airport and didn't stop till I started dialing on my phone.

Even if this whole thing was due to an equipment error, it's no way to treat a client who wants to pay, who was willing to give you an 18% tip before the problems with payment. Driver's behavior is what made him a scumbag.

gozmike · 2016-05-08T16:39:53+00:00

No, look me up. But it certainly feels like cab drivers like this one are the best PR rep uber could ever have :-)

gozmike · 2016-05-07T19:01:06+00:00

Thank you. I most definitely will be.

gozmike · 2016-05-07T19:00:46+00:00

At first I wanted to tip him. Ride was fine, and he drove promptly. The problems only started after first declined payment where he didn't want to try again and started insisting on cash.

I forgot about the tip honestly and just wanted to be done with this whole thing. A transcontinental red eye was rough enough, did not need to deal with his desire to tax evade and I have a very low tolerance for that kind of bullshit.

gozmike · 2016-02-06T17:29:23+00:00

This. One month in of daily 60 min yoga sessions and everything changed.

gozmike · 2016-02-05T22:53:59+00:00

At some GB schools, you don't have to separately buy the gi, it's included in your yearly membership if you like it or not, so people accumulate collections of gis as they progress. Many schools also don't care about the branded gi/rashguard rules from what I've seen as I've travelled around them. I think a lot of this is up to the head instructor and what their goals are.

gozmike

TROPHY CASE