The way I see it, you buy the kit and take it to a professional who is going to charge somewhere between $1000 and $3000 to install it. That's a lot more onerous than the buying a pre-colored car right off the lot, but many people already opt to have their car wrapped anyway. It's a wait and see game to see what installers like that would want - the pre-cut package or just buy the material directly from them.
The real downside to wraps from my perspective is that they don't last as long as a regular paint job. After 4 or 5 years you'll see damage and need to get it re-done if you care about the look. And if the underlying plastic is scuffed up, the plastic panel will need to be repaired before the new wrap will go on smoothly.
Geography and prevailing winds have conspired to make certain regions devoid of rain, even many that are right next to the ocean. Competition over resources like water are behind a lot of human misery. The more potential solutions for obtaining fresh water, the better.
Also, a bet in these markets can be used to alter outcomes. That problem is caused by journalists reporting on market activity. It is treated (or percieved by readers) as if it reflects popular sentiment. Not only is it possible, it's actually relatively cheap to do things like corner the market, which in some cases is a lot less expensive than, say, a national TV ad campaign or running a scientific poll. Link to an older article: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/dont-trust-the-politi...
I was thinking that Japan and Switzerland likely have good rail networks because the buildable land is severely constrained by geography. In those cases mountains, and connected only by thin linear corridors (valleys and near coastlines). Look at this map of Japan: The green areas aren't just natural areas, they are too mountainous to build cities.
In other places with large, flat expanses, human civilization spreads out to an extent that expensive railroads just can't serve the needs/desires of people. You could artificiallly constrain it, but you know what? People in general just don't like being told what to do.
Of course, it's a serious issue, but I love the sense of humor here, buried deep down:
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If any of our liberated code is found to infringe on the original license, we'll provide a full refund and relocate our corporate headquarters to international waters.
*This has never happened because it legally cannot happen. Trust us.
I just listened to a fantastic multi-hour Acquired (https://www.acquired.fm/) podcast episode on Google and AI that talks about the history of Google and AI and all the ways they have been using it since 2012. It's really fascinating. You can forgive them for not focusing on Reader or any of their other properties when you realize they were pulling in hundreds of billions of dollars of value by making big bets in AI and incorporating it into their core business.
I concur that the icons aren't just decoration. I have sat down many times in a foreign country at a computer with localized settings and felt quite helpless to do even trivial things.
I'm going through this decision right now. I agree, you are building a product with an unproven market and lots of time to grow organically, maybe you do want to start small and scrappy. Build something you can easily throw away and start over with. Build something that gets you to market as quickly as possible so you can pivot.
OTOH, If you are trying to sell the idea to investors and large companies that you are a serious player and have a plan and know-how to grow and scale your service quickly, maybe you do want to show that you have the design chops and ability to actually scale your product. Take a look and ask yourself, "Does my business model only work if it scales up dramatically, far beyond the capacity of a single database?" If the answer is "yes", start with a scalable architecture to save the 100+ person-years and endless gnashing of teeth it will take to untangle your monolith (been there.)
Square's Atlanta office nearly doubled in size in 2018 and is still hiring for multiple positions. We have back end, full-stack, and front end engineering teams in the office building features for our Point of Sale systems as well as backend services that power our payments platform.
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What we do:
Develop and support the systems that power Square’s products and third party products. Develop and support routing and gateway support between Square’s products and payment processors in the US and abroad.
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Why it's cool:
Our Atlanta office has a history of working on mission critical projects. Infrastructure used throughout Square is designed and developed here. Day-to-day we use Java, Go, Ruby, Javascript, and Objective-C. We deploy our solutions to our own data centers and to the cloud. Our work environment includes lots of Silicon Valley style perks, plus all the advantages of working in a smaller office where everyone knows each other. Our office is located in Midtown, close to Georgia Tech’s campus. Square’s products are widely used by the general public, so you’ll be building features that are used by millions of people.
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Who we're looking for:
Engineers familiar with Java, Go, or Ruby or another high level OO language.
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If this matches your background and interests, we'd love to talk to you -- email zundel+hn@squareup.com.
If you are a new or recent graduate, please apply directly on our career page at the link above for the "Software Engineer New Grad (All Locations)" position. If you are looking for an internship, please apply directly on our career page at the link above for the "Software Engineer Intern (All Locations)" position.
The real downside to wraps from my perspective is that they don't last as long as a regular paint job. After 4 or 5 years you'll see damage and need to get it re-done if you care about the look. And if the underlying plastic is scuffed up, the plastic panel will need to be repaired before the new wrap will go on smoothly.