Archive | November 6, 2009

Canadian Business Barometer October 2009

November 6, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

CFIB’s Business Barometer® Index dropped to 67.0 in October, from 68.7 a month earlier.   Measured on a scale between 0 and 100,  an index level above 50 means owners expecting their business’ performance to be stronger in the next year outnumber those expecting weaker performance.  According to past results, index levels normally range between 65 and 75 when the economy is growing.

The full October 2009 report is available for download.

ref: Business Barometer: National small business optimism dips slightly in October

Business, Canada, Economy, Trends
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H1N1 Useful Links

November 6, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

Maggie_with_fever

Ottawa H1N1 Vaccination Clinics

Public Health Canada – H1N1 Website

Public Health Canada – Deaths Associated with H1N1 flu virus in Canada

Interactive Map of H1N1 Cases Across Canada

United States CDC H1N1 Information and FAQ

United States CDC H1N1 Update

Map of H1N1 cases around the world

Canada, General Interest, Government, Ottawa, Public Health, Trends, United States, US
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Latest Employment Stats for October

November 6, 2009 by Brian Hurley 0 Comments

Region Unemployment Rate
Ottawa 5.2%
Gatineau 5.9%
Ontario 9.3%
Canada 8.6%
U.S. 10.2% (26 year high) / 17.5% (including underemployed)

The Globe and Mail has this interactive webpage that gives numbers by city and province:

octoberrates

BMO publishes employment reports for the US and Canada.

Stats Canada Labour Force Survey Nov 6, 2009 provides some insights in the job types and associated impacts:

Employment by class of worker and industry (based on NAICS)
September 2009 October 2009 September to October 2009 October 2008 to October 2009
Seasonally adjusted
thousands % change
Class of worker
Employees 14,110.5 14,039.8 -0.5 -3.5
Self-employed 2,727.5 2,755.0 1.0 3.9
Public/private sector employees
Public 3,433.0 3,407.4 -0.7 -1.6
Private 10,677.5 10,632.3 -0.4 -4.1
All industries 16,838.0 16,794.8 -0.3 -2.3
Goods-producing sector 3,714.6 3,708.3 -0.2 -8.2
Agriculture 319.5 321.9 0.8 -1.3
Natural resources 313.0 301.7 -3.6 -11.0
Utilities 150.3 149.9 -0.3 0.9
Construction 1,166.8 1,178.0 1.0 -5.8
Manufacturing 1,765.0 1,756.8 -0.5 -11.0
Services-producing sector 13,123.4 13,086.4 -0.3 -0.5
Trade 2,662.9 2,632.1 -1.2 -1.7
Transportation and warehousing 797.7 819.9 2.8 -5.8
Finance, insurance, real estate and leasing 1,121.1 1,118.0 -0.3 4.4
Professional, scientific and technical services 1,199.8 1,196.9 -0.2 -0.6
Business, building and other support services 645.8 639.0 -1.1 -4.6
Educational services 1,188.4 1,196.5 0.7 -1.0
Health care and social assistance 1,946.8 1,955.1 0.4 1.7
Information, culture and recreation 791.5 785.1 -0.8 4.8
Accommodation and food services 1,032.0 1,034.5 0.2 -2.9
Other services 805.4 785.5 -2.5 2.5
Public administration 932.0 923.8 -0.9 -3.1
Business, Canada, depression 2.0, Economy, General Interest, Jobs, Ottawa, Stats Canada, Trends, Unemployment, United States, US
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Automated Testing Tools for iPhone

November 6, 2009 by Brian Hurley 3 Comments

I recently asked some friends for their insights into automated testing tools for iPhone.   Based on the feedback (special thanks to Kevin Burr!) and some research, it turns out there are a few expensive commercial services/tools and some emerging and very interesting open source applications, including:

DeviceAnywhere (commercial)

Cucumber (open source)

A good overview of integrating Cucumber with the iPhone -

Here is a video of Cucumber driving an iPhone application -

Google Toolbox for Mac (open source)

UIspec (open source)

Some good blogs with current information on iPhone GUI testing include:

Best practices, Creative Class, Ecosystems, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Open Source, Trends
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GUI Mock Up Tools for iPhone

November 6, 2009 by Brian Hurley 1 Comment

I posted some information back in August about GUI mock-up tools.  Since then, I have tried a variety of tools, including the hosted Protoshare and the multi-platform desktop application Balsamiq Mockups.    In the end I selected Balsamiq Mockups as the preferred tool to use.

The following shows an example of the type of prototyping that Balsamiq Mockups can deliver.  It also provides the ability to automate the navigation to more easily show the flow and intended behavior of the application.

The following video provides a good overview of the tool and its features:

The reasons for selecting Balsamiq Mockups:

To make it easy to share the mock-up files within the team, we also decided to use dropbox.com.    Dropbox allows seamless sharing of files with a team, provides backups of the files, allows multiple computer access…

Updates:

This blog entry has some good pointers to various templates and stencils that are useful for doing iPhone mockups – http://iphoneized.com/2009/03/roundup-iphone-stencils-graphics-templates/, as well as additional insights into iPhone mockup tools (both computer and pen and paper!) – http://iphoneized.com/2009/11/21-prototyping-mockup-wireframing-tools-iphone-app-development/

Best practices, Computing, Creative Class, Ecosystems, Entreprenuerism, General Interest, Information Technology, Innovation, Local Start-ups, New Media, Ottawa, Ottawa Start-ups, Silicon Valley, Technology, Trends, US
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