CatchUp Edition 3
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I was really looking forward to bacon with my pancakes...
hmmm... baconware...?
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Lots of interesting reading
BTW, for those who wonder about the new version of Photoscan, the problem with axes not aligned with the SU axes is now solved. No more problems with Sun/shadows and orbiting
Regarding the unusually high price, $999, it is expensive for a SU plugin, but it is pretty cheap for a photogrammetry program. The only(?) currently freely available competitor today, Photomodeler, costs almost twice as much here in Norway (cheaper in US/Canada though - I had a friend in Canada buy it for me...) for the base version. With Scanner module (similar to Image-based surface matching in PhotoScan) it would cost $2600 in USA, and ~$4300 here (incl 25% VAT & freight from Denmark) -
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@bjornkn said:
...costs almost twice as much here in Norway...
grumble mumble ..Norwegian taxes... grumble
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Well, it isn't only the taxes...
If you get a box shipped from abroad you'll have to pay the VAT anyway on top of the price...
Like so many companies do, including Adobe, Autodesk, Maxon, Realviz etc, Eos (who makes Photomodeler) thinks that Norwegians (and other Europeans) are so much more wealthy (or stupid?) than Americans and Canadians that they can charge us much more for the same piece of software, even when downloaded from the same server
Even Realviz, the French company that made ImageModeler, which was bought by Autodesk, used to charge much more from Europeans than from USA/Canada. I had a dispute with them because I found a webshop in US that sold it to me for the US price. As all packages were shipped from Realviz/France anyway they "spotted" me, but after a few emails I ended up paying the US price anyway.
AFAIK SketchUp is still the same price worldwide? And so is PhotoScan - which is great -
@bjornkn said:
AFAIK SketchUp is still the same price worldwide?
Not if you buy it from a local reseller. They have to charge the same, local taxes then. See here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?hl=en&tid=496b43593f40b5ca
Ah and another thing: here we are forced to buy in Euros. And somehow the exchange rate is not the same according to the SU Web Store than in the bank (meaning we pay more). Good that when I bought Pro, I could still buy in $.
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If you buy from Google.com direct they'll charge VAT if your address is within the EU based on the Irish rate [Google's EU HQ is in Dublin]... unless you have a local EU VAT reference code when it's deducted and you have to pay it direct to your own revenue office if applicable - talk about complicated
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@thomthom said:
Aye!!!
I burned my bacon! Cursed you SCF!! 
Burnt bacon is awesome! Since starting the Atkins diet, I've been feasting on bacon and 3 eggs for breakfast everyday! For 6 months!!
Porridge is now a treat, and no longer a type of "torture"!
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@unknownuser said:
I've been feasting on bacon and 3 eggs for breakfast everyday
Heart attack waiting to happen mate.
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Don't encourage him Pete or we'll have 'Mountains out of Muesli'
You should try the Windows 7 diet Tom. Your so busy getting things done on PCs that you forget to eat/snack/get fat. Whilst on Mac you afraid to touch them so you sit and admire while munching Jammy Dodgers.
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@tig said:
If you buy from Google.com direct they'll charge VAT if your address is within the EU based on the Irish rate [Google's EU HQ is in Dublin]... unless you have a local EU VAT reference code when it's deducted and you have to pay it direct to your own revenue office if applicable - talk about complicated
Lucky that we're not a member in EU then
We're supposed to pay VAT when buying downloadable software abroad, but I doubt that many people contact the tax collector and asks if they can pay BTW, as a company/freelancer you get the VAT back anyway, but you're still supposed to pay it in the first place!But the price for SU is the same all over the world, isn't it still?
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@bjornkn said:
BTW, as a company/freelancer you get the VAT back anyway, but you're still supposed to pay it in the first place!
Here I can opt out of this whole VAT thing. I cannot reclaim VAT but I do not even have to charge (so basically can be 20% more competitive than others charging VAT). This is up to about € 20,000 turnover a year only though.
@bjornkn said:
But the price for SU is the same all over the world, isn't it still?
Well, yes, apart from these regional VAT issues, I guess so.
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@unknownuser said:
You should try the Windows 7 diet Tom. Your so busy getting things done on PCs that you forget to eat/snack/get fat. Whilst on Mac you afraid to touch them so you sit and admire while munching Jammy Dodgers.
mmm.
those jammy dodgers are looking good**off to search the yellow pages for a local supplier.
..oh. props on issue3
i like how fast you guys are getting these things out. -
@gaieus said:
Here I can opt out of this whole VAT thing. I cannot reclaim VAT but I do not even have to charge (so basically can be 20% more competitive than others charging VAT). This is up to about € 20,000 turnover a year only though.
Well, as most of my clients can deduct the VAT I have to charge it doesn't usually matter
The limit here when you start having to charge (and deduct) VAT is around $10000 annually I believe. But once you're in it's hard to get out again We have 25% VAT BTW -
@unknownuser said:
..oh. props on issue3
i like how fast you guys are getting these things out.Thanks Jeff, and judging by the conversation happening here I might do an article on VAT for the next edition
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@bjornkn said:
Well, as most of my clients can deduct the VAT I have to charge it doesn't usually matter
For the last year and a half I have done paid work almost exclusively for museums and similar, gov. bodies who cannot reclaim VAT here. So I am still fine (although wish to make more than that € 20,000 with this job)
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Great Job on the issue guys...!
Always a fun read and really informative. -
Is it just me or are there a lot of images missing in this issue? For example, the cable article has 8 steps in the centre and nothing either side. Also other articles have blank areas amongst the Text that look to me as needing images. I am using an iPad but I don't see these issues in the precious releases.
Thank you for any help provided.
Manfred -
Hi Manfred,
It doesn't work on iPad as it's interactive PDF. But I've you go to issuu.com you can view it online on your iPad.
Rich
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Hi everyone,
There is some pretty impressive work in all of the CatchUps and it's looking very good.
I'm writing a design critique, and since I don't have time to twitter or Facebook, is this the appropriate place to put the critique when it is done?There are some strange things happening when I try to navigate around in the newsletter.
In 3 I don't get the PDF control at the page bottom, I get a little hand with an arrow in it. Is this the "new" interactivity that I thought I saw mentioned? My mouse is so sensitive (maybe I can change a setting) that if I touch the scroll wheel it jumps to the next or next several pages. If I click, and somehow it reads a double click I keep getting thrown into the "redirect" to an advertisers page. 
All in all, I'm not sure if it's the newsletter or the fact that I just installed Adobe Reader 10.1.0 on my OS X 10.5.8. Any comments?
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