My buddy Keith has already posted about this, but how could I not say anything about it. Last night the May 2008 Mozy newsletter was sent out to announce the release of Mozy for Mac, but it also contained some “interesting” additional content. It seems like Josh Coates, Mozy Founder, was in a drunken state when he whipped up the newsletter. I’ll let you read the article for yourself. It’s titled “My Oh Canada Trip”
One of the nice things about being an ugly American is that I make all sorts of ignorant and culturally insensitive remarks about other countries. And as luck would have it, I had that opportunity last week when I visited Montreal. (That’s in Canada.)
The first thing I noticed about Montreal is that it’s a very clean city - like Toronto in that respect. Oh wait - actually, the first thing I noticed was the streets were on fire and full of police and rioting citizens because I guess they won an O-KAY (that’s hockey) game. My flight got in late that night and the taxi driver had to change his routes because the streets were blocked off by police.
Other observations I had were related to confusing things like French-speaking people with the Queen of England on their money and the lack of $1 bills in their currency. Also, the whole “Canadians burned the White House down in 1814″ makes me sad inside, but I guess that was a long time ago.
Be Safe,
Josh Coates
Mozy Founder
What the crap? I’ve got to say that I am very confused by this “commentary”, and it makes Mozy look extremely un-professional. It sounds like he’s proud to be an ignorant and culturally insensitive person, way to go Josh. Would you trust this guy with your data? For the record, I switched from Mozy to JungleDisk a while ago and haven’t been happier. It’s been cheaper for the amount of data I need to store, and the JungleDisk client software is fantastic. Also, I can install it on as many computers as I want without having to pay any additional fees. JungleDisk 1, Mozy 0.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I received this email today and had exactly the same reaction! It was a little embarrassing to read. I’m an American but hopefully not THAT kind. Ugh
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
-Paying $10.08 US for my $10.00 CAD pro license for Display Fusion…forgettable.
-Losing to Canadian in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Hockey…irritating
-Having your capital burned to the ground in 1814 by the invading Canadian forces…embarrassing
-Having to pretend you’re Canadian when on vacation in Europe because you’re an “Ugly American”…annoying
-Watching the reaction of our sensitive neighbors to the north at any kind of good natured ribbing…priceless.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Don’t get me wrong, I can take a joke. I’m not as offended by this as I am confused that any company would put this in any kind of official product announcement.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Kinda funny you posted on this. Mozy used to send out these kinds of E-mails back in \’06 or \’07 and they stopped for quite a while. I used to like them mainly because they gave the company a \"human\" element I could relate to. When I first saw it in my inbox, I was actually glad they had started back but, I agree…I think Josh went a little too far on this one. I can most definitely take a joke as well but I think this one was just too negative.
I did laugh at that last line…something about the way it was worded gave me a chuckle.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I found the comments written by Dan Lewis (above) to be funnier than anything in that email, perhaps the email just crossed an invisible “tasteless line” for me.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
um..i actually don’t drink.
ditto to dan lewis.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I guess the issue with this email for me is that I am supposed to be trusting Mozy to store all of my important data. The email just comes across as being unprofessional and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If it was an email from a site like Digg or Flickr I wouldn’t have an issue, but not from a site like Mozy.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Another point of view
OK guys ,lighten up.The very first sentence gives away that this is written tongue-in-cheek.
I live in Canada and saw nothing offensive in the comments.
Also making this kind of comment has nothing to do with professionalism on the job.
Talking about offensive - the ignorant behavior of some sport fans creating havoc and going on a rampage after a hockey game or soccer match is far more offensive than poking fun at some Canadian idiosyncrasies.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:20 am
I discovered a Memopal (www.memopal.com) “cutting edge solution for online
backup”
They merged online backup, online storage and file sharing services into one product.
If you try this service you will notice that (contrary to most competitors):
- You can access your files in (true) real time with a web browser
- They really offer 250 GB (some competitors offer a fake unlimited web
space, they say “fair use”)
- You can share a file or many files with the 1-click-share functionality
- Some of your files will be uploaded very very fast (turboupload)
- The service and website are in 10 different languages
I’ve also found two useful guide to online backup on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_backup