Perhaps automobile manufacturers should get past the marketing hype and actually market a feature that customers want and have been sociologically clamoring for the last decade - Self-driving cars.
It's called a railway train and it's been around since a few decades. A subway and a bus also does what you look for.
Now I know that the railway system in Northern America stinks, but here in Europe, you'd be surprised how good it actually is. Fast, modern, not too pricy (although I wouldn't mind a price cut).
I'm 30, I live in Hamburg, I have a small company, I travel a lot within Germany (to both big and small cities), I have a driver's license but I don't own a car. I don't expect to buy a car at least within the next five years.
Trains do everything I need for distant travels. The Hamburg tram and bus system does everything I want for local travel except when I have to transport some heavy object e.g. furniture. That's when I rent a car or ask a friend for help.
And when train, tram, subway and bus don't reach the place I want to go to, I hop on a taxi.
So far, the costs are much lower than owning a car in Germany (fuel, insurances, maintenace, etc.), but I guess that owning a car is significantly cheaper in the US, so it's tough to compare.
That's time that I can't do anything useful with...study, read, play a game, nothing.
That's exactly why I like not having a car. Leave the driving to someone else, I just work a little on my laptop or bring my pillow and rest a few hours.
market a feature that customers want and have been sociologically clamoring for the last decade
Do customers want this and did they clamor for it for the last decade? Because if they did, the bigger US cities would have a much better public transportation system, Amtrak wouldn't suck and Greyhound buses wouldn't be the poor man's ride they are today.
(I know what I talk about. I had a 8 week trip through the US on a Greyhound ticket. It was fun and the bus system isn't actually bad, but no average US citizen would want to see as an alternative to having a car.)
This "childish slander" is highly regarded among the computer science community. It has put questionable data mining or surveillance practices by companies and governments into the public limelight.
The past years' awards were widely reported by the mainstream press, explaining the nominees and winners to the average computer user (face, in post-industrial countries like the US, Canada and most of Europe today, bascially everyone in the workforce is an average computer user now) what happens with their data.
This "negative event" is basically THE best thing that critical computer scientists came up with to put their voice in the mainstream press once a year.
You should better be thankful that this event helps to give a clue to those people out there who use computers but don't think about the consequences.
The fact that Microsoft has "won" and the Linux zealots are saying "so there" is just a result of this year's German award. In 2000, the APACHE web server has won the same award - so there.
You are ignoring the spammer's logic. He got something (1000 to 2000$/month, according to those numbers) for basically doing nothing at all.
It's like telemarketing
Exactly. I still wonder why telemarketing is still so big in the US. "But it works" say the marketing people, but yet the only thing everybody agrees on is that it sucks.
The right to free speech means that the government or its officials cannot forbid citizens the freedom of expression.
It does not mean, however, that citizen A has to listen to another citizen B's speech forced upon him. Free speech also does not mean that citizen A has to allow citizen B to talk freely on A's property.
As a cinema owner, I can expell a weirdo who stands up in the middle of the film and reads from the communist manifesto. As a newspaper editor, I can decide which letter the paper publishes and which not. As an internet provider, I can decide if my mail servers filter spam or not.
And finally, the very method of spamming is illegal over here in Germany and I have successfully brought a spammer to court here (although with very little financial consequences for the spammer). It's good to see that US courts are seing the light, as well.
When one of my clients had some spammy ideas, I explained him all the reasons why he shouldn't do that, but he wasn't quite convinced. So I told him - ok, go ahead if you must, but you should really first ask with your internet provider about this.
A day later the internet provider's legal department responded to my client with a flat "we will kick you in an instant if you do that".
That helped...
(It also helps wearing my vote against spam t-shirt when explaining clients why spam is problematic...)
At my first job, with a company of 7 people, we assumed that when the ad agency did our web site they would be taking pictures of us- especially because the founders considered themselves quite good-looking. But the ad agency used stock photos- they said they ALWAYS used stock photos, and seemed surprised that we thought we'd be photographed.
Nah. They don't always use stock photos.
But they always use that excuse when they meet some extraordinary ugly clients...
We have nothing to fear from any court which follows our standards for acceptable behavior, and our standards for justice.
For a start, the US are not following its own standards for acceptable behavior and its own standards for justice in that nice little prison camp in Cuba.
I fear a super power that does not want to be accountable for its actions.
Laptops usually comes with worldwide warranties. Try getting in touch with their european support center and ask about it.
I did, as mentioned in my original question, contact FSC about this already. Fujitsu Siemens Computers Germany, I was told, only supports computers sold by Fujitsy Siemens Computers Germany. For support of a laptop bought overseas, I'd have to ship the laptop overseas.
So a minimal repair could mean having it airmailed back and forth.
As mentioned in the original question: I wish I could, but the US mail order web shops I checked with do not accept credit card payments for overseas shipping anymore. CC fraud from foreigners must have gone overboard, but somehow I really don't want to pay a four-digit figure through PayPal, as suggested by one webshop owner.
Sure. First problem is: Private transfer of money is quite expensive compared to just paying directly with a credit card - my US-based friends don't accept Mastercard. Second possible problem is: Once I purchase the laptop through a friend, his name will be on the bill, making this a private purchase and thus not tax-deductable in Germany.
And the support problems were in fact part of my original question. I'm aware that this could be a problem and that's why I'm asking others who did this what their experiences with overseas export were.
Nope. I (the guy who asked) am real and I am not associated with Fujitsu. In fact, I'm rather pissed at both Fujitsu US and Fujitsu-Siemens Germany for not exporting their machines to Europe / not importing their sister company*s machine from the US.
Programmers in America see themselves as professionals. The ones who do it on the cheap in India, don't.
I strongly doubt that. This is like saying back in the 70s that "US car workers see themselves as professionals, yet those who do it in the cheap in Japan don't." This may tickle your ego, but you evade the problem that they offer a similar or better product for a lower price.
Sure. But how is this different than the situation of the workers in, say, the computer hardware industry? Taiwanese mainboard designers are cheaper than US designers, too. Or how about steelworkers? Or even the sports shoe industry?
You and I, we already compete with the "foreign" competition in software development, just like any other worker in any other industry does.
In your original question you implied that software development is mainly a US industry. It never was, it isn't and it won't be in the future.
Exactly the same here in Germany. I've seen Siemens-Nixdorf source codes written by Indian developers in India, at an Indian daughter-company of Siemens.
Also, there are German companies outsourcing software development to the US and US companies hiring German companies to do the work for them. (We do, albeit for a very very small application and probably mostly because that American businessman is a German US-immigrant who knows us personally, but hey.)
Then, there are US companies manufacturing computers using Asian electronic parts, hiring Taiwanese engineers in Taiwan to do the electronic design.
The Microsoft keyboard I am typing on was made in Thailand, the Microsoft mouse I am using was made in China, the computer by "Apple, California" on the desk next to me was actually manufactured in the Czech republic and designed by a company based in Germany.
There are Japanese, French and German car makers who have car plants in the US, employing US workers to manufacture cars with a Japanese, French or German brand name.
There's a Coca-Cola bottling plant right next to where I live, run by a German family business for more than 40 years. They use German water, German sugar (and I presume most of the other ingredients are German too) to make a product sold under an American brand name, using advertisement controlled by their American mother-company to sell an American lifestyle.
...as a longtime observer, what has surprised you most about the current technology, in a positive (what did you never expect to happen?) and in a negative (what should never have happened?) way?
We all know the economy is going in cycles, but how cyclic is IT, in your experience? When was the last big downturn, what happened back then and what changed because of it?
Right now, most of "us" IT-workers are facing the results of "new economy" bubble and the consecutive downturn of IT.
Here in Germany, I remember that in 1991 when I finished high school, people told me not to go study computer science because back then, the career outlook was bland and many IT academics were unemployed or received low figures. Then came the internet, salaries and everything else exploded, which was nice while it lastet, yet incredibly surreal.
Right now clients are sitting on every single penny , I know highly-skilled IT workers who are nevertheless unemployed because companies stopped hiring and around us and even some of the former key players of the industry are going bust...
So, do you remember a similar economic situation in IT and how did you experience it?
I know they probably can - it just hasn't reached the critical mass this sort of thing needs to be popular.
Actual E-Mail capable cell phones have been on the German and Dutch market for only a few months now, and only by one of the smaller cell phone providers.
Now that they introduced iMode in Europe (my company wrote a little iMode-Application in Germany), the phone company E+ told us developers that Karaoke on iMode is "big" in Japan.
Now really, do Japanese folks actually sing Karaoke in subways and in pedestrial areas, walking while watching their cell phone's display? How does Karaoke on cell phone look like in actual use?
In this case, I disagree. Having a remotely similar resume like you and a master's degree in informatics with a partial focus on software engineering, there's one thing I experienced:
The only way to learn how to write software is by writing software.
Apparently, the guy who asked the original question does not have a lot of experience in software development and now asks how to bypass this learning process. My advice to him: You can't. As someone else in this thread said correctly: You can't refuse to learn the piano and demand a record deal first.
There IS NO working theory on software development. The holy grail hasn't been found yet. (There's a reason why commercial software development rarely is more organized than private hacking.)
There are a number of methods and tools that are good and helpful, but some of them come and go like fashions (remember? "OOP is going to revolutionize software development!") and some of them are highly effective for one developer and highly distractive for others (e.g. Extreme Programming).
I'd recommend that you start planning a rough outline of what you have in mind and then start coding. It's silly to expect that planning can replace experience.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps automobile manufacturers should get past the marketing hype and actually market a feature that customers want and have been sociologically clamoring for the last decade - Self-driving cars.
It's called a railway train and it's been around since a few decades. A subway and a bus also does what you look for.
Now I know that the railway system in Northern America stinks, but here in Europe, you'd be surprised how good it actually is. Fast, modern, not too pricy (although I wouldn't mind a price cut).
I'm 30, I live in Hamburg, I have a small company, I travel a lot within Germany (to both big and small cities), I have a driver's license but I don't own a car. I don't expect to buy a car at least within the next five years.
Trains do everything I need for distant travels. The Hamburg tram and bus system does everything I want for local travel except when I have to transport some heavy object e.g. furniture. That's when I rent a car or ask a friend for help.
And when train, tram, subway and bus don't reach the place I want to go to, I hop on a taxi.
So far, the costs are much lower than owning a car in Germany (fuel, insurances, maintenace, etc.), but I guess that owning a car is significantly cheaper in the US, so it's tough to compare.
That's time that I can't do anything useful with...study, read, play a game, nothing.
That's exactly why I like not having a car. Leave the driving to someone else, I just work a little on my laptop or bring my pillow and rest a few hours.
market a feature that customers want and have been sociologically clamoring for the last decade
Do customers want this and did they clamor for it for the last decade? Because if they did, the bigger US cities would have a much better public transportation system, Amtrak wouldn't suck and Greyhound buses wouldn't be the poor man's ride they are today.
(I know what I talk about. I had a 8 week trip through the US on a Greyhound ticket. It was fun and the bus system isn't actually bad, but no average US citizen would want to see as an alternative to having a car.)
This "childish slander" is highly regarded among the computer science community. It has put questionable data mining or surveillance practices by companies and governments into the public limelight.
The past years' awards were widely reported by the mainstream press, explaining the nominees and winners to the average computer user (face, in post-industrial countries like the US, Canada and most of Europe today, bascially everyone in the workforce is an average computer user now) what happens with their data.
This "negative event" is basically THE best thing that critical computer scientists came up with to put their voice in the mainstream press once a year.
You should better be thankful that this event helps to give a clue to those people out there who use computers but don't think about the consequences.
The fact that Microsoft has "won" and the Linux zealots are saying "so there" is just a result of this year's German award. In 2000, the APACHE web server has won the same award - so there.
As a follow-up to this, I just found this in Google:
6 95%40news.newsguy.com
http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=36332314.7314
Come on, get a real job.
You are ignoring the spammer's logic. He got something (1000 to 2000$/month, according to those numbers) for basically doing nothing at all.
It's like telemarketing
Exactly. I still wonder why telemarketing is still so big in the US. "But it works" say the marketing people, but yet the only thing everybody agrees on is that it sucks.
Not that I agree with spammers or their methods, but speech is speech, whether you like it or not is irrelevant.
Many spammers argue that free speech constitutes that banning spamming is a violation of protected free speech.
This is a straw argument to avoid the real issue.
First, commercial speech is not protected by the US constition in the way free speech by US citizens is.
Second, wether I like it or not is relevant.
The right to free speech means that the government or its officials cannot forbid citizens the freedom of expression.
It does not mean, however, that citizen A has to listen to another citizen B's speech forced upon him. Free speech also does not mean that citizen A has to allow citizen B to talk freely on A's property.
As a cinema owner, I can expell a weirdo who stands up in the middle of the film and reads from the communist manifesto. As a newspaper editor, I can decide which letter the paper publishes and which not. As an internet provider, I can decide if my mail servers filter spam or not.
And finally, the very method of spamming is illegal over here in Germany and I have successfully brought a spammer to court here (although with very little financial consequences for the spammer). It's good to see that US courts are seing the light, as well.
When one of my clients had some spammy ideas, I explained him all the reasons why he shouldn't do that, but he wasn't quite convinced. So I told him - ok, go ahead if you must, but you should really first ask with your internet provider about this.
A day later the internet provider's legal department responded to my client with a flat "we will kick you in an instant if you do that".
That helped...
(It also helps wearing my vote against spam t-shirt when explaining clients why spam is problematic...)
At my first job, with a company of 7 people, we assumed that when the ad agency did our web site they would be taking pictures of us- especially because the founders considered themselves quite good-looking. But the ad agency used stock photos- they said they ALWAYS used stock photos, and seemed surprised that we thought we'd be photographed.
Nah. They don't always use stock photos.
But they always use that excuse when they meet some extraordinary ugly clients...
We have nothing to fear from any court which follows our standards for acceptable behavior, and our standards for justice.
For a start, the US are not following its own standards for acceptable behavior and its own standards for justice in that nice little prison camp in Cuba.
I fear a super power that does not want to be accountable for its actions.
Laptops usually comes with worldwide warranties. Try getting in touch with their european support center and ask about it.
I did, as mentioned in my original question, contact FSC about this already. Fujitsu Siemens Computers Germany, I was told, only supports computers sold by Fujitsy Siemens Computers Germany. For support of a laptop bought overseas, I'd have to ship the laptop overseas.
So a minimal repair could mean having it airmailed back and forth.
Payment: Credit card.
As mentioned in the original question: I wish I could, but the US mail order web shops I checked with do not accept credit card payments for overseas shipping anymore. CC fraud from foreigners must have gone overboard, but somehow I really don't want to pay a four-digit figure through PayPal, as suggested by one webshop owner.
Sure. First problem is: Private transfer of money is quite expensive compared to just paying directly with a credit card - my US-based friends don't accept Mastercard. Second possible problem is: Once I purchase the laptop through a friend, his name will be on the bill, making this a private purchase and thus not tax-deductable in Germany.
And the support problems were in fact part of my original question. I'm aware that this could be a problem and that's why I'm asking others who did this what their experiences with overseas export were.
Nope. I (the guy who asked) am real and I am not associated with Fujitsu. In fact, I'm rather pissed at both Fujitsu US and Fujitsu-Siemens Germany for not exporting their machines to Europe / not importing their sister company*s machine from the US.
I was asking about the bust(s) before the dotcom bust.
Wanted to comment on that one:
Programmers in America see themselves as professionals. The ones who do it on the cheap in India, don't.
I strongly doubt that. This is like saying back in the 70s that "US car workers see themselves as professionals, yet those who do it in the cheap in Japan don't." This may tickle your ego, but you evade the problem that they offer a similar or better product for a lower price.
Sure. But how is this different than the situation of the workers in, say, the computer hardware industry? Taiwanese mainboard designers are cheaper than US designers, too. Or how about steelworkers? Or even the sports shoe industry?
You and I, we already compete with the "foreign" competition in software development, just like any other worker in any other industry does.
In your original question you implied that software development is mainly a US industry. It never was, it isn't and it won't be in the future.
Exactly the same here in Germany. I've seen Siemens-Nixdorf source codes written by Indian developers in India, at an Indian daughter-company of Siemens.
Also, there are German companies outsourcing software development to the US and US companies hiring German companies to do the work for them. (We do, albeit for a very very small application and probably mostly because that American businessman is a German US-immigrant who knows us personally, but hey.)
Then, there are US companies manufacturing computers using Asian electronic parts, hiring Taiwanese engineers in Taiwan to do the electronic design.
The Microsoft keyboard I am typing on was made in Thailand, the Microsoft mouse I am using was made in China, the computer by "Apple, California" on the desk next to me was actually manufactured in the Czech republic and designed by a company based in Germany.
There are Japanese, French and German car makers who have car plants in the US, employing US workers to manufacture cars with a Japanese, French or German brand name.
There's a Coca-Cola bottling plant right next to where I live, run by a German family business for more than 40 years. They use German water, German sugar (and I presume most of the other ingredients are German too) to make a product sold under an American brand name, using advertisement controlled by their American mother-company to sell an American lifestyle.
Big deal, it's a global economy. Your point?
Well, 33 = 100001 and that's many dozen thousands, isn't it?
...as a longtime observer, what has surprised you most about the current technology, in a positive (what did you never expect to happen?) and in a negative (what should never have happened?) way?
Being a German software developer, I don't quite get your question. Software development was never a solely US-based industry.
We all know the economy is going in cycles, but how cyclic is IT, in your experience? When was the last big downturn, what happened back then and what changed because of it?
Right now, most of "us" IT-workers are facing the results of "new economy" bubble and the consecutive downturn of IT.
Here in Germany, I remember that in 1991 when I finished high school, people told me not to go study computer science because back then, the career outlook was bland and many IT academics were unemployed or received low figures. Then came the internet, salaries and everything else exploded, which was nice while it lastet, yet incredibly surreal.
Right now clients are sitting on every single penny , I know highly-skilled IT workers who are nevertheless unemployed because companies stopped hiring and around us and even some of the former key players of the industry are going bust...
So, do you remember a similar economic situation in IT and how did you experience it?
I know they probably can - it just hasn't reached the critical mass this sort of thing needs to be popular.
Actual E-Mail capable cell phones have been on the German and Dutch market for only a few months now, and only by one of the smaller cell phone providers.
Its called MMS
No, MMS is used for still pictures. The Japanese phones are already able to send moving images, aka as picturephones.
My phone does friggin karaoke.
Now that they introduced iMode in Europe (my company wrote a little iMode-Application in Germany), the phone company E+ told us developers that Karaoke on iMode is "big" in Japan.
Now really, do Japanese folks actually sing Karaoke in subways and in pedestrial areas, walking while watching their cell phone's display? How does Karaoke on cell phone look like in actual use?
First, not coding yet is a good idea
In this case, I disagree. Having a remotely similar resume like you and a master's degree in informatics with a partial focus on software engineering, there's one thing I experienced:
The only way to learn how to write software is by writing software.
Apparently, the guy who asked the original question does not have a lot of experience in software development and now asks how to bypass this learning process. My advice to him: You can't. As someone else in this thread said correctly: You can't refuse to learn the piano and demand a record deal first.
There IS NO working theory on software development. The holy grail hasn't been found yet. (There's a reason why commercial software development rarely is more organized than private hacking.)
There are a number of methods and tools that are good and helpful, but some of them come and go like fashions (remember? "OOP is going to revolutionize software development!") and some of them are highly effective for one developer and highly distractive for others (e.g. Extreme Programming).
I'd recommend that you start planning a rough outline of what you have in mind and then start coding. It's silly to expect that planning can replace experience.
And for this one it'd be (Score:-1, Troll)
'nuff said.