Alec Saunders SquawkBox

A couple of interesting health care related items this morning.  The Fraser Institute reports that our health care system, here in Canada, is amongst the most expensive to run amongst countries that have universal health care systems.  It also reports the quality of what we get is lower, and then points out some differences between our system, and the systems of France, the UK, etc.  Canada spends the most on health care among OECD countries but ranks low on key health indicators

At the same time as the Fraser Institute published, the Globe ran this story on an Ipsos-Reid poll surveying Canadians on their satisfaction with the health care system.  Provinces, Ottawa get failing grade on health.

Salesforce.com to leverage Microsoft .Net. Offline CRM offering getting boost for mobile workers.  This is a neat example of what’s possible with .NET. According to the article, and the information on salesforce.com’s website, their CRM runs identically whether connected or disconnected, without a lot of huge offline databases.  I haven’t seen the app, but if it runs anything like Userland’s Radio (which I am using to write this blog), then that would be a very cool app indeed.  

Coast Guard divers decry federal rescue limitations.  Apparently the Coast Guard divers aren’t permitted to work on rescues involving submerged automobiles or boats.  It took the military divers, who are permitted to do this, 90 minutes to get to the scene of the overturned fishing boat in BC last week, and by then it was too late.  Why not just train and certify the Coast Guard to do the work that, in my opinion, we pay them to do?

Marketing 101: When the Product Manager Needs to Take Control. Practical advice for product managers on working with engineering teams from Scott Johnson — author of the Fuzzy Blog.  The title is a little more aggressive than the advice :)  

Girl finds gold ring inside apple