Mark Roseman's Blog

This is scary.

Only about a third of Americans believe that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is a scientific theory that has been well supported by the evidence, while just as many say that it is just one of many theories and has not been supported by the evidence. The rest say they don't know enough to say. Forty-five percent of Americans also believe that God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago. A third of Americans are biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word. (via Dan Gillmor)

More Stupidity.

Another bad day with Pauline's work today. I'm pretty sure it's crossed the line. What a terribly wasted opportunity.

Updating Browser URL in Flash.

As Jon Udell points out, this is useful. One of the drawbacks that I've always thought Flash has for something like doing a Wiki is that its hard to bookmark an individual page, since normally things are happening in the Flash application (i.e. visiting different pages), but the URL doesn't change. This shows how you can actually update the URL as well. Very very good to know.

The True Story of Audion.

This one is making the rounds of the Mac developers. Good behind-the-scenes story of a neat Mac software company, and their experiences with their products, flirtations with buyouts and other deals, etc. Very cool to read, and I'm glad it was actually written up and shared.

Smaller Companies, Better Service.

Not to say that all small companies provide better service (they certainly don't) or that all big companies provide poor service (just had a great experience getting my iSight repaired by Apple), but one of the things I like best about doing CourseForum and ProjectForum is being able to spend a bit of time to work with people to explain how the product could help them. And of course, being a lot closer to the product can make that easier. In the big companies, it's more likely the big sales guys, who only really have time for the really big accounts, with all the scraps being farmed out to resellers, who can't provide that level of engagement. For me anyway, the smaller company thing is a comfortable niche. Of course, the smaller company experience doesn't scale well! :-)

Part of an email that I liked from one potential customer:

I really appreciate discussing this with someone who is so clear and well informed on what they sell. I did read the why we left freebie Wiki page, good reasons that already had my alarm bells ringing. Not impossible to overcome, but you do offer something at a reasonable price that helps take away the pain.

Day to day.

Glad CF/PF 4.0 is out, that's at least one monkey off my back. Trying to line up the things for 4.1 now, as well as get back to some of the broader matters to be dealt with. Should be a bit busy and stressful the next while though (still), with some relatives coming tomorrow (staying until Monday), and Pauline's work stuff still being ridiculously messy - let's just say I have some sympathies with the Ontario health minister who suggested there are some things that could be improved in terms of how hospitals are organized and do their work!

Canadian Foreign Policy.

I've started reading Jennifer Welsh's "At Home in the World", which is another of those books looking at what Canada's role in the world should be. So far I've been finding it refreshing, suggesting approaches that are both confident and mature (not the usual words one would describe the tone of discourse we're confronted with on a daily basis). In other words, a nice departure from the simplistic, or the "how should we suck up to the USA, since they're so dominant". A nice thread running through it is looking at things in a balanced way, beyond only the economic perspective (the all too dominant approach). Will hopefully post more about the book when I'm finished.

Currency Woes.

One real concern for a lot of American citizens should be the current US economic policy, with more tax cuts on the way despite the astonishingly high deficit (one might almost want to look elsewhere for a modern democracy that is deficit-free...). The world financial markets are certainly having their way with the US dollar. Despite last month being the best ever for CourseForum and ProjectForum sales, it was a bit hard looking at how much was "lost" because of exchange rates compared with, say, six months ago. But, assuming sales volumes keep growing as they have, I don't foresee an immediate need to raise prices, so everyone outside the USA gets a bit of a bargain for the time being.

First Snow!

Not that it will last or anything... but in keeping with the theme of this blog for the last little while, I now predict the rate of queries from Americans about moving to Canada will begin to slow...

U. of Waterloo tops Maclean's university ranking.