Mark Roseman's Blog

Is that a politician I smell?

With the long-expected federal by-election in Guelph (and two Quebec ridings) finally being called, the election signs are already sprouting up. This should be an entertaining few weeks as the various national party leaders and other party 'celebrities' make stops here. It'll be nice to know how much they care about our local issues... I'm sure if it were a general election and not a by-election we'd see them all out here in equal force. Ok, no cynicism here.

Matthew Hayday over at the U of G has pretty much sketched out the current landscape. Vote splitting on the left here is going to be very significant, no doubt about it, with strong candidates all around, and Guelph being one of the top ridings nationally for the Greens.

Okay, I don't really consider the Greens to be left or right, but aside from perhaps stealing the more small business oriented conservative votes, they'll steal more from the Liberals and NDP. The Green party just doesn't resonate as well with all the suburbanites in the rat race that the conservatives love to target. Well, unless the kids of those voters are as good at nagging their parents about politics as they are about buying them the latest toy, gadget or clothes. No matter how much I'd love to see the first Green parliamentarian in Canada elected in Guelph, I wouldn't be placing any bets there.

The issue of Conservative HQ yanking Brent Barr for Gloria Kovach (who besides her role as city councillor also works as a nurse manager at Homewood in Pauline's division, so I'll be nice) will probably remain the main bit of controversy, especially if the closely guarded details surrounding that 'event' ever do get out.

Of course, with a good portion of Guelph more sensibly occupying themselves with Hillside, hopefully the full court press politics won't start for another couple of days.

Indie Mac Developer Culture.

For those who enjoy social sciences research, a student from the University of Amsterdam has released Indie Fever, an undergrad thesis examining some of the culture and group practices of the independent Mac developer community. I haven't read it in detail but had a quick flip through and it does look interesting. via Brent

Joy of Old Neighborhoods

One of the many things that has worked out well for us in Guelph has been our location; we're in an older (mid-1800's) area just across the river from downtown. That makes it easy to walk to all kinds of places (shops, restaurants, bank, etc.); plus, we're walking distance from Pauline's work, and I can't really complain about the 30 second commute to my home office either. We're going to be a long way from using up the alloted kilometers on our Mini Cooper's lease, that's for sure.

What with allergies etc., most of the older houses around here wouldn't work out too well, so we were lucky to find an almost new in-fill house (this lot and the one next to us were severed off from one of the huge old mansions on the street behind us). The builder and original owners did a great job, including with the overall design so it fits into the area, e.g. nice full width front porch instead of a huge garage in front. Okay, the huge garage is in the back (the people who built own an upscale car dealership and always drove Hummers), which looks kinda funny with our Mini in it. I do have to admit the long driveway is a bit of a pain to shovel out in winter.

Summer is really great though. Sitting in my second floor home office, I'm looking out the window at a huge maple tree towering above the house (and providing some nice shade later in the day!). A far cry from the newly planted trees you find in most suburbs. Last summer we'd ripped out the lawn and planted a big garden of low hassle perennials instead. Looks way better and just sitting out on the porch some evenings and seeing the changes week to week is really nice. Needs much less water than the lawn too, especially with the drip irrigation system I put in. Even have a nice long row of vegetables growing in containers along the front of the porch.

Sheesh, I sound like I'm retired already... ok, back to work!

Basic Math.

Given the graphic nature of the new app I'm working on, there's naturally a bit more math involved. Now this is nothing complicated, just some basic equation solving and trigonometry, nothing that your average high school senior couldn't figure out. It being, ahem, a few years since I was in that position, it's taking just a wee bit longer for me than it might have then. Probably somewhat odd that I haven't needed to do much beyond simple arithmetic and some simple statistical work since I finished university.