After driving foreign cars for years we decided to give the Ford Fusion a try after hearing good things about it. Wow, we honestly were impressed, the price was great so we bought it. It drives nicely, European-like handling, has an interior that surprised us for a domestic, and the 4cyl gets great mileage for a car of this size. If the Fusion is any indication of Ford's direction, the Fiesta could be a hit. I know everyone on Slashdot automatically beats on domestics (I was there!), but really, they seem to be really trying. Plus since Ford didn't beg for any bailout money, that makes us feel even better about our choice. Way to go Ford, it was nice to be able to include a domestic on our shopping list.
I'm not sure why this is so surprising. People make blanket judgements about manufacturers based on country of origin all the time. Sometimes it's due to perceived reputation, other times the argument is about loyalty. I find it ironic though, how many of these "I'll never buy a Chinese laptop" people will later happily drive to work in their foreign car. Perception is often out of step with reality. Chinese quality (for all things) seems to be considered lower, German manufacturing (like VW) gets more credit than their J.D. Power ratings suggest, while the perception of domestic autos is much lower than deserved, especially given huge improvements made in recent models. The only way to beat this is to deliver and keep proving everyone wrong (i.e. the revitalized Nissan). If Lenovo does this, they'll be fine.
I bought an ThinkPad T series recently from Lenovo. The price was heavily discounted and actually about equal to a similarly equipped Dell. I prefer the ThinkPad keyboard (if you've never used one you won't understand), my previous ThinkPad's were all well built, and the TrackPoint is the only mouse substitute I can stand for more than 10 seconds. That and the fact that it's a nice laptop for running Linux on.... No quality differences noted thus far!
I've been very happy with my paid Yahoo! account, and since I joined when it first came out I actually have a nice userid. As I travel and work on multiple computers it's incredibly useful to have all my email available from anywhere. Plus, I can download my POP mail into Yahoo!, the SPAM filtering has been quite accurate lately, and the interface is very usable. Now with a 2GB quota and the elimination of the big adverts, at $20/year it's an amazing service for a great price. This weekend I'm going to slap together a little archive/encrypt/e-mail backup script and suddenly I've got instant backup service for all my computers. Sure Gmail might be free, but it's not here yet, and why go through the hassle of changing my email address everywhere just to save a couple of bucks? -Steve
I live in Windsor, ON and work in Dearborn, MI (a suburb of Detroit). My round trip commute is 54km/34mi or about an hour per day. I've had the opportunity to work in both countries, and I've noticed a few differences:
- There is definitely more career opportunity in the U.S. It also seems easier to shine (not just *my* opinion), probably because with such a vast economy, there is plenty of opportunity to hire some real duds.:)
- You'll almost definitely make more money in the U.S. I enjoy the best of both worlds, paid in U.S. dollars, yet live in lower-cost Canada. Taxes are higher in Canada, but housing, utilities and food is somewhat lower.
- U.S. medical coverage is wonderful, as long as you have insurance. The Canadian system is actually quite good, except for certain types of procedures where there are unacceptably long waits. (I love having medical coverage in both countries.) Yes you pay for the Canadian system in terms of taxes, but don't lose sight of all the co-pays and hidden fees that come with most U.S. insurance programs. A coworker of mine recently had an extended stay in a U.S. hospital, and all those little fees added up to over $1000 USD.
- Culturally, I notice a few small differences in general, but most of the people I work with in the U.S. are wonderful, equally nice as the folks I've worked with in Canada. Canadians in general seem to be a bit more polite (seems hard to get a "you're welcome" out of many Americans), and Americans are definitely more confident and aggressive (which probabaly explains their business success). But most of the stereotypes mentioned here are just wrong in my opinion.
Work in Canada or the U.S.? It's really a matter of personal taste. You can't lose, as long as you work hard and find a nice place to work, I think you'll live very comfortably in either country.
By the way - those who said it's difficult to work in Canada are wrong. Computer folks under NAFTA have plenty of ways to obtain employment in either country.
I don't understand why so many here are so quick to bash US auto manufacturers. All of them are working on alternative fuel cars as well. For example, no one seems to have mentioned the Ford Escape HEV, which will be available next year.
Slashdot Mirror
Highway 401 from Tilbury to Windsor is cement. This isn't true for all of Canada.
After driving foreign cars for years we decided to give the Ford Fusion a try after hearing good things about it. Wow, we honestly were impressed, the price was great so we bought it. It drives nicely, European-like handling, has an interior that surprised us for a domestic, and the 4cyl gets great mileage for a car of this size. If the Fusion is any indication of Ford's direction, the Fiesta could be a hit. I know everyone on Slashdot automatically beats on domestics (I was there!), but really, they seem to be really trying. Plus since Ford didn't beg for any bailout money, that makes us feel even better about our choice. Way to go Ford, it was nice to be able to include a domestic on our shopping list.
I'm not sure why this is so surprising. People make blanket judgements about manufacturers based on country of origin all the time. Sometimes it's due to perceived reputation, other times the argument is about loyalty. I find it ironic though, how many of these "I'll never buy a Chinese laptop" people will later happily drive to work in their foreign car. Perception is often out of step with reality. Chinese quality (for all things) seems to be considered lower, German manufacturing (like VW) gets more credit than their J.D. Power ratings suggest, while the perception of domestic autos is much lower than deserved, especially given huge improvements made in recent models. The only way to beat this is to deliver and keep proving everyone wrong (i.e. the revitalized Nissan). If Lenovo does this, they'll be fine.
I bought an ThinkPad T series recently from Lenovo. The price was heavily discounted and actually about equal to a similarly equipped Dell. I prefer the ThinkPad keyboard (if you've never used one you won't understand), my previous ThinkPad's were all well built, and the TrackPoint is the only mouse substitute I can stand for more than 10 seconds. That and the fact that it's a nice laptop for running Linux on.... No quality differences noted thus far!
I've been very happy with my paid Yahoo! account, and since I joined when it first came out I actually have a nice userid. As I travel and work on multiple computers it's incredibly useful to have all my email available from anywhere. Plus, I can download my POP mail into Yahoo!, the SPAM filtering has been quite accurate lately, and the interface is very usable. Now with a 2GB quota and the elimination of the big adverts, at $20/year it's an amazing service for a great price. This weekend I'm going to slap together a little archive/encrypt/e-mail backup script and suddenly I've got instant backup service for all my computers. Sure Gmail might be free, but it's not here yet, and why go through the hassle of changing my email address everywhere just to save a couple of bucks?
-Steve
I live in Windsor, ON and work in Dearborn, MI (a suburb of Detroit). My round trip commute is 54km/34mi or about an hour per day. I've had the opportunity to work in both countries, and I've noticed a few differences:
:)
- There is definitely more career opportunity in the U.S. It also seems easier to shine (not just *my* opinion), probably because with such a vast economy, there is plenty of opportunity to hire some real duds.
- You'll almost definitely make more money in the U.S. I enjoy the best of both worlds, paid in U.S. dollars, yet live in lower-cost Canada. Taxes are higher in Canada, but housing, utilities and food is somewhat lower.
- U.S. medical coverage is wonderful, as long as you have insurance. The Canadian system is actually quite good, except for certain types of procedures where there are unacceptably long waits. (I love having medical coverage in both countries.) Yes you pay for the Canadian system in terms of taxes, but don't lose sight of all the co-pays and hidden fees that come with most U.S. insurance programs. A coworker of mine recently had an extended stay in a U.S. hospital, and all those little fees added up to over $1000 USD.
- Culturally, I notice a few small differences in general, but most of the people I work with in the U.S. are wonderful, equally nice as the folks I've worked with in Canada. Canadians in general seem to be a bit more polite (seems hard to get a "you're welcome" out of many Americans), and Americans are definitely more confident and aggressive (which probabaly explains their business success). But most of the stereotypes mentioned here are just wrong in my opinion.
Work in Canada or the U.S.? It's really a matter of personal taste. You can't lose, as long as you work hard and find a nice place to work, I think you'll live very comfortably in either country.
By the way - those who said it's difficult to work in Canada are wrong. Computer folks under NAFTA have plenty of ways to obtain employment in either country.
-Steve-
Of course Canada produces more spam per capita than the U.S...
We have to send out two e-mails for every spam, one in English and one in French.
I don't understand why so many here are so quick to bash US auto manufacturers. All of them are working on alternative fuel cars as well. For example, no one seems to have mentioned the Ford Escape HEV, which will be available next year.
Check out: www.hybridford.com