None of those threads deal with services that serve international customers.
Oft-mentioned services like Chargify, CheddarGetter and Spreedly have limited international support. Often it's difficult to determine the extent of the support, and I have been searching through support forums to find out what I need.
CheddarGetter, for example, supports "all currencies" (their claim) and a number of international gateways and merchant accounts, but does not offer any languages other than English. So they didn't think that one through.
Recurly has several languages, but does not offer any template system for their hosted payment pages, so no custom translation is possible. (None of the other services I have mentioned support templating, either.)
My experience, from dealing with 5-6 different SaaS billing vendors, is that it's as though globalization hasn't happened yet. All the current SaaS billing vendors are US companies who have no clue about the rest of the world.
There are international-friendly non-SaaS vendors, but they have web pages built from stock photos of soulless, snappily-dressed consultants (eg., http://www.wirecard.com/) and the only way to sign up is to call them and talk to a sales person.
They did. It is said on this very blog: http://damienkatz.net/2009/12/relaxed_inc.html :
I, Jan, and Chris are building a startup around Apache CouchDB and Redpoint Ventures has invested $2 million. Pretty cool huh?
Good point. The last time I was updating my cover letter, I invented the following workflow:
-copy/paste in the last email template I had used
-start editing sections that are relevant (intro, relevant experience, why I am interested in this position)
-read the entire email as a whole, look for inconsistencies
-touch up any sections that don't make sense, or are weak
-walk away for an hour, do something else
-come back, read it over again, tidy up any sentences, or add any gems I had come up with.
-optionally have a friend read it.
By the end of the process I usually had changed at least 50% of the format, and found that my cover letter was rapidly evolving, until I found out what worked. Sharing cover letters with friends in the industry also helped to root out some weak sections that I hadn't seen myself.
The main disadvantage of this method is that if you're not careful when reading, you can miss a reference to company name you had previously applied to, or include the wrong url. Always, always, always double check any links, names, or other identifying language.
"I am going to make an appointment with a psychologist"
Make the appointment tomorrow morning! The people here not advocating seeking professional help, are the same people who have never received help. Trust me, seeing a psychologist is the single best thing you can do. If you had a physical illness, this type of question would not even be asked, mental health problems are just as serious and should be treated that way.
Also if it doesn't work out with the first psychologist, don't get discouraged. Just make another appointment, and find one that fits your style. Dude, lots of people have been in your position, but the ones that are happy today are the ones who treated it as seriously as they treat all other aspects of their health.
Good luck,
Edit: as much as it is good to talk about this with friends and family, they really don't have the tools to help you overcome this. People think you just need to cheer up, or pat you on the back. Happiness is journey, for some its easy and for some it takes time and effort.
Your advice to try several psychologists reveals why people treat mental health problems differently.
Because their practice is based on the scientific method, competent doctors are interchangeable - they measure the established diagnostic criteria and prescribe the standard treatment. Psychologists do not use the scientific method (for the most part). The illnesses are poorly defined, the treatments even worse, and there are few established standards.
Now, that's not to say the op shouldn't go to one. It might be useful. I'm just disputing the idea of parity between doctors and psychologists.
I have received professional help myself. I would not necessarily recommend it--I've been in a similar situation and it did next to nothing for me. I wouldn't necessarily recommend against it, either--I'm just not "advocating" it, in your words.
point noted, I just thing like most things in life you have to find something that suits you. But I would recommend that if you don't have a pleasant experience the first time out switch doctors. I think sometimes people forget that not all care is the same, and your health is your responsibility. So find someone that fits you, instead of sticking with someone even though you are feeling that you are not getting anything out of it, or quitting altogether.
I am quite surprised that I don't see Roy Fielding's "Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures" on this list (aka his REST PHD paper). I have not read many dissertation, in fact i think this is the only one, but I found it very approachable.
Any one of those mentioned in your question are bad. If it's all of them it's still bad. No matter what meaning of the word "is" that you choose it's bad. That's kind of the point of the article really.
Fine print:
"The Bitsource conducted an independent, third-party performance analysis of Rackspace CloudServers and Amazon EC2 on behalf of Rackspace Inc. The results were not influenced in any way by Rackspace Inc. as presented using the methods in this analysis."
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=948036
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=526517
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=432284