So I went to our local electronics shop, which sucks regarding customer service, and – I wasn’t disappointed. After finding a responsible sales guy, this already took me two tries, he was okay-friendly and looked up the status of the headphones I wanted. Out of stock, for sure. Delivery data? Nobody knows. Awesome.

Next try: Austrian online shop of the retailer. MySQL error – 1045 : Access denied for user ‘atheas’@'localhost’ (using password: NO) (it’s still there, btw).

Ultimate try: Manufacturer’s website. Found my headphones, went to their online shop (which is on a different domain in a different web application, so I had to search for my headphones again, but that’s okay), put the headphones I wanted in the basket and clicked to checkout. Filling out my address data, I noticed that Austria wasn’t in their list of possible countries. Clearly an error, because they say they ship to the whole EU. Contacted their support stating my problem and got a reply within five minutes. Awesome. They fixed their website within some minutes, I proceeded my checkout process and was quite happy. Then I got the next email of their sales person, saying that the headphones I’ve ordered were out of stock and wouldn’t be available before end of March. Really seams that nobody wants my money.

I have to say that the sales person was really friendly and helpful – but still: How can you keep a product in your online shop and make active advertisement for it if it will not be available within the next three months? And regarding the local electronics shop: Why need I even pay for some guys who have no clue, are completely unfriendly and unhelpful?

Is there any reason why Google names Vienna, the captial of Austria, Vienne? May I suggest an adjustment?

My advice for a better way? Get some pros for each field, build them up and maybe even introduce a dedicated program for politicians. Get them to know their ressorts, put somebody with a deep knowledge of the subject in the position of secretary. For me the future of a country is too important to put somebody on top of the state who has no clue about what’s going on.

And finally, hope that it gets better.

Job Description: Lead Software Developer (Python/Django)

PopJam is a new and exciting fast-paced, well-funded web startup based in Soho, London. We’re looking for a top notch lead software engineer eager to build awesome web software used by millions of people. Founded by an Imperial College rocket scientist and the creator of the Million Dollar Homepage, we’re looking to create the next big thing in the rapidly growing content discovery space.
…
About PopJam:
* We’re backed by world-class investors
* An exceptional response to our Alpha launch with a large pool of users waiting to be invited in
* We love being on the bleeding edge of the web and web tech, and are incredibly open to new ideas and ways of thinking
* Our founders have a proven track record of making money online and know how to do it again

I would love to know what their business is about.

I’m asking because I’ve seen this photo on Flickr yesterday and he’s using a Sharpie Extra Fine Point Marker. It might be a marker I really enjoy (how strange sounds that!?)

Kernel Boot Process
Diary of a failed Startup
Who needs a Computer Science Degree when there’s Wikipedia
Programmer Insecurity
Metaclass Programming in Python

• Did you know that if you would have bought shares from Yahoo at the beginning of 1997 and sold them at the end of 1999, your gain in investment would have been about 13.000%? Even after the year 2000, you would still have a again of 700-1.000%.

• Apple (and about the same for Google): Beginning of 2005 till now: +400%

• Microsoft: 1986 – 2000: +55.000% (okay, that’s lame, 14 years).

Any tips for the next big thing?

Today I prepared a presentation for some parallel programming lecture I will be giving tomorrow and when I fired up Keynote I discovered that it wasn’t registered. I could remember that it was not possible in November but gave it another try. And, voila, it worked! Cost me some bucks but so far it really paid off.

Well, for me Flickr is Beauty. Beauty, because there are so many people who are sharing the best and most beautiful moments of their lives with thousand of others. (Whatever beauty is for each individual in detail, I say that everyone will find his own definition of beauty on Flickr.)

Photos are Beauty. But videos can be Beauty, too. I’m not talking about those ordinary YouTube clips (and for me, personally, I’m not talking about everyday photos you can find on Flickr, even some of my pictures are just bog-standard) but about special moments in the lives of people. Seconds of their life which have a special meaning because they are just beautiful.

So video on Flickr might be a good thing, to add another piece of beauty to the lives of all of us.