I wonder what he could have accomplished with the resources we have today. He was so far ahead of his time and accomplished so much - I wonder how he managed to find time for everything. We owe him a lot.
If only BB would create a phone with a keyboard and touch screen, they would really have a killer phone. I love the Palm Pre hardware, but am not sure I want to jump OS's yet.
Ok, it may not be a perfect, or even a close to perfect parallel, but it does get the point across. I for one am guilty of spending way to much time running around doing stuff instead of stopping and spending time processing what really matters. A mental "defrag" if you will.
"* Both are premium products at premium prices, designed against disposability. A BMW motorcycle and an Apple computer will typically outlast 2-3 of the average competitor's products, while costing about 1.5x as much."
I disagree with this. While the design of the a macbook is nicer than any other laptop I can think of, I had to replace the motherboard, optical drive, wrist rest, LCD panel, trackpad, and webcam before it was three years old. Granted I did use it extensively, but I don't think that my usage would have destroyed a Dell latitude or Lenovo Thinkpad any quicker. In fact, I am expecting my current Dell E6500 to last longer than may macbook did.
My original macbookpro is still alive and well and withstood very heavy use. Granted, I needed to replace the battery a few times, originally because mine was within the serial # range of defective batteries, but each time those changes were covered by my warranty. The computer is now almost four years old.
I suspect that you can find someone with an anecdote describing a perfectly functioning mac and one that exploded. The same such anecdotes likely also exist for people running Thinkpads, Latitudes, et al.
When it come to anecdotes... I've got a powerbook and an ibook both still alive and kicking after close to 5 years and apart from the battery that I had to replace, they haven't had any problems (despite using them a lot)...
On the other hand my 2 years old macbook is starting to make some strange sound (the fan probably needs to be changed)...
I think that anecdotes are only that and in my experience once you have a problem with a laptop it's usually going to be more than one problem...
Could someone explain why you would want to retweet? I am not a regular user of twitter, but it would seem to me that retweeting just adds to the noise. Aren't you supposed to tweet original stuff, or is it all about trying to get a topic to trend?
Retweeting is bridging the graph with an enticing edge to follow. If Twitter was a purely social network (without the information flow), the practice would reduce to name-dropping.
Often retweets contains links to things that matter, or ideas that should be spread, or funny things. It's the same reason people quote and link on blogs etc.
retweets are a community attempt to make up for the fact that "favoriting" something on twitter is largely ignored and hidden and isn't (or at least wasn't traditionally) something easily accessible from the website or as part of someone's regular list of tweets. Favorites are more accessible now to other people, but they don't have the prominence that they should have.
You retweet because you want to say what someone else said.
With my startup, our stories are retweeted 50-100 times a day. They're retweeted because our followers want to share the news they got from us with their own followers.
This place is beautiful, I love people who aren't afraid to be practical, even when it isn't popular. The view overlooking the trees must be breath taking. I'd love to visit the place.
I wonder if you would end up with tax issues when doing this? As a US citizen would I pay tax abroad, or in the US, how difficult would it be to get the requisite visa, and most importantly, how many idea spots have fiber internet?
The US is one of very few countries in the world that taxes their citizens who live abroad.
So yes, technically you'd be subject to pay income tax in both the US and the country you live in, but it is likely that there is a tax treaty with the host country that will let you deduct any local income taxes paid from your US taxes.
In practice, this means that you will pay only one income tax (but file two returns).
You do not have to pay income tax if you spend less than 30 days in the US that calendar year. You do have to pay any self-employment tax, however. The rules are extremely complex and I highly advise consulting someone who understands them.
You do not have to pay income tax if you spend less than 30 days in the US that calendar year.
Careful with tax advice from the Internet, folks. idlewords is talking about passing the Physical Presence Test for the Foreign Earned Income Exemption. If you quality for the FEIE via either the physical presence test or the bona-fide residence test (see the IRS docs, they are fairly easy to understand), you get to exempt the first X of your income from the income tax. X is in the $80k range this year, check your friendly local IRS website.
Regardless of the FEIE, your income is not exempt from self-employment taxes, as idlewords said. Additionally, it has to be EARNED income, a distinction which has VERY IMPORTANT CONSEQUENCES for people here who are intending to sell their startup at some point. To oversimplify, earned income is the portion of your profit you gain in return for services rendered, but it excludes the return on invested capital -- including IP. So if you end up selling your business for $500,000, it is highly likely that large portions of that are not earned income, and will be taxed from the first dollar in the US.
Taxes are a minor headache for me every year, and this year my business gets to start filing with Japan, too. Yaaaaaay, more fun.
As far as I can tell - having moved to Austria and acquired a tax specialist - this is backwards.
The US gets first dibs. At least they do in my situation. Then the full amount I pay to the US in tax (100%) is removed from the taxes I owe in Austria.
Simple example: Austria says I owe 20,000 euros. US says I owe $15,000. I pay the US $15,000. My tax burden in Austria is now approximately 20,000 - 10,000 euros (ballpark currency exchange) = 10,000. (This is assuming you crest theearned income waiver for expats, which is about $85,000 USD now.)
Basically, though, you have to hire a tax specialist. There's no way to manage it simply. And tax specialists with international experience are hard to find, but if you're coming from the US you'll have an easier time than if you're coming from a smaller country. Your best bet would be to contact one of the larger international firms, e.g. Deloit. I had to search for 9 mos to find one, myself.
(As an aside, I'm outraged that I have to pay US taxes at all.)
The world is a big place, the answers to your questions depend entirely on your circumstances. Visas depend on the country. As a general rule, US and EU citizens can stay for 60-90 days at a time without hassle in many countries. There are many tax consequences to living abroad - hire an accountant or else spend a pleasant few evenings on the IRS website to find out more.
"If you meet certain requirements, you may qualify for the foreign earned income and foreign housing exclusions and the foreign housing deduction.
If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude from income up to $87,600 of your foreign earnings. In addition, you can exclude or deduct certain foreign housing amounts."
It's much more complicated than this but that's the jist of it.
