Rocky Smolin
rockysmolin at bchacc.com
Wed Dec 4 22:44:05 CST 2013
In the lower 48 it's pretty much a curse word. Our own Muslim President is a socialist. (These are the end days, you know.) R P.S. How much more of this do you thin the moderator is going to put up with. There is, you know, a perfectly good forum for all this mental chicken-choking. Come join us - on OT! -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Christian Andersen Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 8:11 PM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Way OT but I love you people so I'mposingthequestion. Whats wrong with being a socialist? I find it rather bizarre how that word is thrown around as a slur and usually to mean something more like communism and/or fascism. - Hans On Dec 4, 2013, at 1:32 PM, Rocky Smolin <rockysmolin at bchacc.com> wrote: > Sorry - small s socialist. Or socialistic. > > Don't be offended. It's only my personal observation based on my > anecdotal experience. I have found confirmation among other people > down here. But that doesn't mean anything. Not a large enough sample > to draw a statistical conclusion. > > R > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Peter > Brawley > Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 11:42 AM > To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues > Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Way OT but I love you people so I'm > posingthequestion. > > > On 2013-12-04 11:15 AM, Rocky Smolin wrote: >> Arthur: >> >> Here's my observations about Canada vs. the U.S. when you're trying >> to do >> business: >> >> All the time I was marketing my software in Canada I sold only one >> system there in spite of many leads and much conversation. I found >> that Canadians will study the smallest decision to death and in the >> end decide not to make a decision. They seem very bureaucratic - and >> very unwilling to take risks, even small ones. >> >> Whereas, the typical American company will tend to fit the resources >> needed to make a decision to the size of the product or service being >> considered, make a decision and get on with the job. >> >> Cultural difference I assume, mediated I think by the more Socialist >> orientation of Canada's political culture - which tends to dissociate >> one's activities from the efficiency or profitability of those >> activities and evaluate them more along the lines of whether or not >> they have satisfied some standard operating procedure. > > Why the capital-S in 'socialist'? > > Over the 25 years or so that Arthur & I have been selling software > tools & books, Canadian sales have always been way less than the 9% of > US sales you'd expect simply from the 10-1 population ratio. That's > been so whether sales were based in Canada or in the US. Canadian > sales of our current book have been just 3% of the US total. > > Ditto for free, open source downloads. > > Why would being a bit more socialist, cautious, communitarian, > cooperative, traditional & loyalist than USAmericans discourage > Canadians from downloading free software? > > Why would being a bit more socialist, communitarian, cooperative, > traditional & loyalist than USAmericans discourage Canadians from > buying books? On the whole, Canadians read more than USAmericans, not less. > Your explanation for your Canadian sales failures doesn't hold water. > > Here's a plausible alternative: your sales pitch didn't persuade quite > well enough, but rather than just shut you out, your polite Canadian > interlocutors thought to give you another chance. > >> >> My product cost in the neighborhood of $3500 and after two >> conversations with a Canadian company I usually took them off my >> follow-up list. And never completed the RFPs they would send with 5 >> pages of questions > obviously >> crafted by a mainframe systems analyst, 80% of which was irrelevant >> to my product. Because I knew that the evaluators were more >> interested in satisfying their superiors that they had done a >> thorough job than actually finding a product that would solve their problem. >> >> My conclusion is that Canada has oil, coal, timber, and other natural >> resources which support its people at a level of affluence that >> allows > them >> the luxury of this mindset. >> >> Generalizations, I know, > > More like non sequiturs. > > PB > > ----- > >> but based on 30 years of trying to conclude any transaction with a >> Canadian company. Perhaps you are running into the > same >> thing. >> >> Rocky >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com >> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur >> Fuller >> Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 8:22 AM >> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues >> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Way OT but I love you people so I'm posing >> thequestion. >> >> Jim, >> >> I can only speak from personal experience, and that is not much evidence. >> But something strange has happened to me in the past year. A bit of >> back-story first. I am 66 years old and have previously declared >> myself semi-retired. I love in Canada. My last three contracts have >> all been with firms in the USA. Granted that the USA comprises about >> 90% of the continental economy, this is hardly a position on which to >> bet. But the point I am trying to make here is that I have way better >> luck with > obtaining >> contracts with American firms than Canadian. I cannot explain why that is. >> One of the last three derive from a book I wrote about MySQL. The >> other > two >> happened because of my involvement in AccessD and DbaSQL. >> >> You should understand that this is not a complaint.I just find it >> interesting that Americans are interested in hiring me but Canadians >> are not. I have no idea why this is the case. >> >> >> On Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 10:55 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen < >> hans.andersen at phulse.com> wrote: >> >>> From a radio show I was listening to, I think they said that Norways >>> government has a policy of selling all the natural gas and oil and >>> putting all the profits into social system and also into a nice big >>> fat bank account, so that they can use the money wisely in the future. >>> They didn't want to suffer the "Resource curse" that many countries >>> seem to suffer when they suddenly strike rich. >>> >>> Wikipedia has a good article about it: >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse >>> >>> - Hans >>> >>> >>> On Dec 3, 2013, at 7:00 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote: >>> >>>> It is interesting to note that Norway, a country who actually >>>> products >>> and subsequently sells oil has the highest car fuel prices while >>> Saudi Arabia has the lowest? >>>> Jim >>>> >>>> ----- Original Message ----- >>>> From: "Hans-Christian Andersen" <hans.andersen at phulse.com> >>>> To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" < >>> dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com> >>>> Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 2:32:36 PM >>>> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Way OT but I love you people so I'm posing >>> the question. >>>> I'm only surprised Denmark wasn't among the top 3 most expensive >>> countries. >>>> We're number 5! We're number 5! (or 6, if you buy Diesel) >>>> >>>> - Hans >>>> >>>> >>>> On Dec 3, 2013, at 1:59 PM, Jon Tydda <jon at tydda.plus.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Well I'm stunned. You've managed to find somewhere that petrol is >>>>> more expensive than the UK! >>>>> >>>>> I found this site: http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/ which has >>>>> some >>> nice >>>>> comparisons in Euros and the local currency... so I'm paying about >>> double >>>>> what people in the US are paying. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Jon >>>>> >>>>> -----Original Message----- >>>>> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com >>>>> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of >>> Salakhetdinov >>>>> Shamil >>>>> Sent: 02 December 2013 22:21 >>>>> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues >>>>> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Way OT but I love you people so I'm posing >>>>> the question. >>>>> >>>>> Hi Jim -- >>>>> >>>>> I have been in the the East-South Italy Salento region this summer >>>>> - I >>> can't >>>>> say prices somehow differ (/are lower than) from Paris or >>>>> Amsterdam or >>> Ghent >>>>> or Brussels, where I have been last year November. And gasoline is >>>>> very expensive - 1.7x EURO in Italy ( http://www.energy.eu/ ) ), >>>>> even here >>> in >>>>> Russia it's now "just" ~1USD+/liter. Well, ordinary everyday good >>>>> wine >>> costs >>>>> in Italy are low (up to 3EURO per 0.7l bottle) as well as prices >>>>> for >>> some >>>>> Italian local fruits and vegetables but that's it AFAIHF. >>>>> >>>>> Thank you. >>>>> >>>>> -- Shamil >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Monday, December 2, 2013 12:25 PM -07:00 from Jim Lawrence >>>>> <accessd at shaw.ca>: >>>>>> Italy would definitely be a good place to go...considering >>>>>> Italians >>> have >>>>> been running things for around 3000 years, first the Roman Empire >>>>> and >>> then >>>>> the Roman Catholic church...so they have hordes of culture from >>> everywhere. >>>>> Then there is a bit of a recession going on in the country so the >>>>> prices might also be excellent. >>>>>> ...And anyone that can build the Ferrari, Maserati and >>>>>> Lamborghini to >>> name >>>>> a few... >>>>>> Jim >>>>> <<< skipped >>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> dba-Tech mailing list >>>>> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >>>>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >>>>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> dba-Tech mailing list >>>>> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >>>>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >>>>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> dba-Tech mailing list >>>> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >>>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >>>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> dba-Tech mailing list >>>> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >>>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >>>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >>> _______________________________________________ >>> dba-Tech mailing list >>> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >>> >> >> >> -- >> Arthur >> _______________________________________________ >> dba-Tech mailing list >> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >> >> _______________________________________________ >> dba-Tech mailing list >> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >> > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com