Snow Job in September

In response to Adena Schutzberg's update on the acquisition and release of the Mentor Software CS-MAP reprojection library as open source, Ted Florence, of Avenza Systems writes:

While we (Avenza) did for a time use Safe's FME Objects (which uses CS-Maps) in one of our products we have recently pulled it completely in favour of the Blue Marble file format and co-ordinate conversion products (GeoTranslate and GeoCalc). The major reason for this was our dis-satisfaction with the CS-Maps co-ordinate engine which underlies FME.

In investigating and researching our needs, we found that opposite to your comments, most organizations are actually using Blue Marble and not Mentor and that more and more have been leaving Mentor over the last few years. Almost every major oil company and defense contractor I can think of uses Blue Marble.

What he does not write is that Avenza Systems is not his only affiliation. The corporate register of the State of Maine indicates that Florence is also the President and sole Director of Blue Marble Geographics. What an interesting coincidence! Perhaps like Victor Kiam, he liked Blue Marble's reprojection library so much be bought the company! Regardless, he should declare his interest when making comments like the one he put on Adena's article.