Going Nomadic - Update #2 I'm There by Jack Krupansky As I've written in my past few articles, I'm in the process of becoming more of a "nomadic entrepreneur" and the next stop was scheduled to be Paris. Well, I'm actually here in Paris. I'm writing this article on a notebook computer sitting on the floor of my own apartment on Rue de Turenne in Paris. Things have actually worked out fairly well. Not exactly as planned, but about as well as I had expected. I tried to set myself low expectations to avoid too many nasty surprises, and that strategy has resulted in a lot of pleasant surprises and only a few disappointments. One of my goals was to live in an environment that would force me to take a different point of view. I'm surrounded by a different culture, different language, different architecture, different everything. But at the same time, there are a lot of similarities between Paris and New York (or France and the United States.) The jostling and balancing of the similarities and differences really makes you think about things you used to take for granted. Politics, level of involvement of government in society, role of government in promulgating use of technology, historical connections between France and the U.S., and level of service to be expected from state-run utilities are just a few of the topics that float through my head on a daily basis. In the U.S., either all that is taken for granted, or thought about only rarely or separate from our daily lives. Originally I had planned on literally spending a year in Paris and Europe with few return visits to the U.S. Then I worked out arrangements with my primary U.S. client where they would pay to have me come back to visit them every six to eight weeks. Now, I plan on visiting just about once a month. A key factor in this change of plans is that air fares are much cheaper if you stay no more than thirty days. TWA had a sale and I bought three round-trip, Boston to Paris tickets for $385 each. So, in addition to being nomadic, I'm now a transatlantic "commuter". My initial trip to Paris was for free using frequent flier mileage. I flew over to Paris shortly after Labor Day and stayed only three weeks so I could return to Boston just in time to attend ENTCON East in Cape Cod. I stayed in Boston for a full three weeks, not because I wanted to, but waiting for the cheap air fares to start in mid- October. About ten days before I was scheduled to depart, I decided that I needed to decide where to stay in Paris. My friend in Vermont who runs my Internet web server has a neighbor who owns an apartment in Paris and rents it out for short-term stays. It is expensive, but cheaper than fancy hotels and not much more than mediocre hotels. My friend had stayed there and said it was really nice. So, I made the arrangements with the owners to stay there for three weeks. To get the key, all I had to do was drive down the street from my client in Waltham, Massachusetts and pick it up from their son who works at a nearby hi-tech company. It doesn't get much more convenient than that. The apartment was clean, comfortable, convenient, and reasonably priced. My priorities for the first segment of my Paris venture were to continue getting work done so I could get paid and to find an apartment for the next year so I could live fairly economically while in Europe. I achieved both goals. I have submitted invoices to my main client by email and they credited my bank account by wire transfer. Searching for an apartment was a bit frustrating, especially due to the fact that I still don't speak any French. But I finally stumbled on an agency that had someone from Scotland who I could talk to. He was able to work out all the details and even accompanied me to a bank to act as translator and to help me open a bank account. We actually closed the deal for renting the apartment at the end of the day the day before I returned to Boston. I hate doing things on such a last minute, tight schedule, but I had no control and everything worked out fine. The apartment is in a really old building in a quaint neighborhood. The rent is almost 20% less than I was paying in NYC. I did a little sightseeing during my first trip, but with work and apartment-hunting I actually never made it out of Paris. I decided that the cost of buying a really good notebook PC was outrageous and the performance was underwhelming. My client had the newest, high-end Toshiba on loan and I was not impressed, even though it had a 12.1-inch 1024x768 screen and 133 MHz Pentium. I then considered buying a cheap desktop system in Paris. But cheap in Paris is much higher than cheap in the U.S. So, I decided to keep the Panasonic notebook computer my client had loaned me awhile longer. There are a lot of things I don't like about this machine, including speed, weight, and screen size, but as a compromise, interim solution it would be the most economic way to go. And so far, after two months of being in Paris and lugging it across the Ocean three times, it's worked out fairly well. I'm glad that I chose to hang in there and stretch an old technology rather than spend lots of money on a new technology that I wouldn't have been happy with anyway. I spent my first afternoon locating stores where I could buy a power cord and RJ-11 adapter. My notebook computer, a Panasonic CF-41 75 MHz Pentium came with an auto-switching power adapter, so all I needed was a simple computer power cord which I purchased at a department store. I walked into a sleazy looking export-import store and showed them my modem card with RJ-11 connector and they instantly handed me a French phone connector that goes in-line with a French phone cord but has an RJ-11 connector tap. Back at my temporary apartment, I plugged the computer in and everything worked. I had gotten the Paris CompuServe access number before leaving the U.S.; it worked just fine. I was sending e-mail before the end of the day. I have a 28.8K PCMCIA card modem and use CompuServe's WinCIM software which gives me e-mail, file transfer, news, weather, and Internet access, including web browsing. A true- Internet service provider might be better, but they're not portable between countries and CompuServe seems to be everywhere. For $10.95 a month for up to five hours access, it's just the right deal for me. I'm writing this article less than a week before my next commute to Boston (for eight days.) I just visited the France Telecom office to arrange for them to automatically deduct my payments from my French bank account. It's very convenient. I got my first electric bill last week and it includes a form to arrange automatic payment. The only thing I can't do automatically is have money appear out of thin air into my bank account. I can use wire transfers to deposit money, but it's easier to use my Paine Webber Resource Management Account credit card to cash advance from any ATM (without any transaction fee and with very good exchange rate) and deposit the cash. I may pay my apartment rent the same way. The day of my departure from Boston, I called TWA to confirm my reservation and check for any delays. They informed me that the flight was on time, but would go to Brussels instead of Paris! It seems there was one of the periodic strikes scheduled for Paris the day of my arrival. From Brussels they took us by bus to the Paris DeGaulle airport. From there I had no trouble taking the train into Paris. I enjoyed the bus ride (about three hours), but didn't like getting into Paris so late. It was almost 5PM by the time I got to the real estate agency to pick up my key. Then I was in for a rude surprise, although I had been assured that the electricity would be left on, it was not. By the time I got back to the agency it was after 5, so I had to wait till the next day to call EDF, the electric utility. When the agency called them the next day, they said the earliest appointment was "after 1PM" on Monday, three days away. I was very upset, but there wasn't anything I could do to get earlier service. So I went three days without electricity, light, heat, or hot water. I could have used this as an excuse to stay at a nice hotel, but I decided that being frugal, if not rustic, was better. Being so upset with EDF, I was almost afraid to see what would happen when I got to the France Telecom, the telephone utility. I had heard that they would connect me within 48 hours and didn't anticipate any extreme hardship from being without phone service for two days. I got to the agency at noon and spent less than half an hour answering questions and proving that I had an apartment. They assured me my phone would be in service by the end of Sunday. I considered buying one of their nice phones, but even the cheapest one was over a hundred dollars and the one with the neat little digital answering machine was over two hundred dollars. So, I thanked them and said I'd look around. I went back to the sleazy export-import electronics store and bought a toy-like phone for 99 Francs (about $20.) I plugged the phone in, and no surprise, the line had a busy-like signal. For some strange reason, around 7PM that same day I picked up the phone and there was actually a dial tone. This was less than seven hours after placing my order. NYNEX eat your heart out! I was actually able to check my email, but the two-hour battery like of my notebook precluded doing any serious work. So, I spent Saturday wandering around and enjoying Paris. Sunday I went to the library and found a power receptacle and got about six hours work done before an inappropriately diligent staff member told me I couldn't use the power even though another staff member had said I could. I went up stairs and a different staff member located a table near another receptacle and I got another hour's work done. Monday I was prepared for the worst. I spent all morning out doing errands since I would have to spend the afternoon waiting for EDF. At about 1:15PM there was a knock on the door. It was EDF and they were there only 15 minutes after the earliest they said they would be. Within five minutes they had recorded my meter and opened the fuse box in the hallway and inserted the fuse needed to turn on my power. Although I was unhappy about the previous three days, I was quite pleased at how well the state-run utility kept their appointment. Life in Paris I haven't taken any trips outside Paris yet. I've been trying to save money, been very busy, and there is so much to see and do within Paris. I do a lot of walking and try to balance my days between working and exploring the city. The streets of Paris are very interesting, with lots of nice architecture, people, and general activity. There are way too many pastry shops in Paris, but I'm not complaining. Prices are high, but not that much worse than New York. The worst is that a simple soda costs about $4 in a restaurant. I don't cook, so I eat out every night for $20-$50. Some nights I simply go to one of the American fast food restaurants and eat for about the same in the U.S., (about $6.) I got a flier in my mail box for a take-out pizza shop which promotes itself as having the flavor of the American West. They have pizzas with names like Manhattan and Harlem. Their logo has a picture of a jackrabbit (fast delivery) and they call themselves Speed Rabbit Pizza. I'm impressed by the extent to which the French people go out of their way just to amuse me. The people are a lot friendlier than I had been led to believe and a lot of them do speak enough English that I usually I have little trouble communicating with them. There are a lot of Americans, but I try to avoid them since they are frequently fairly noisy and obnoxious. People come up to me on the streets asking directions, in French. Sometimes I can understand what they want and show them on their map (or my map.) Sometimes they seem so surprised that I don't speak French. I guess I don't look too much like a tourist and don't act obnoxious enough to be an American. Real Work on a Notebook PC I've been doing all my work (primarily software development under Windows95 using Visual C++ and my own programming language, Liana) for over four months on this Panasonic notebook PC. The main drawbacks are the small, 10.5-inch 640x480 screen, only 16 MB RAM, and only 75 MHz Pentium processor. It's so liberating not having a monstrous desktop system and monitor to tie you down. The weight (15 pounds when you add in all the accessories and fancy carrying case) is way more than I'd like, but bearable (barely) considering the mobility it gives me. Not having my hi-res, 17-inch Trinitron monitor is rather depressing, but just part of the price you pay for mobility. Slowly notebook technology is improving. I'm thinking of getting a new computer in February. You can get a 133 MHz Dell notebook for about $3,000. It has a 12.1-inch 800x600 screen. That, plus more RAM and disk would make my life a bit easier. I may be "forced" to upgrade since my client is now doing a lot of 800x600 multimedia training applications. I have two PCMCIA hard disk cards (260MB each) that I use for backup. I give these to my client to burn onto a CD-ROM for more permanent backup. I get a little anxious not having a printer sometimes, but the truth is that I've just gotten addicted to having paper and it'll just take me awhile to break the habit. A local Internet caf‚, Cyberia, has said they will let me print from a floppy for 1 Franc (about 20 cents) per page. But even with that low cost and only slight inconvenience, I still haven't found the urgent need to print even a single page in Paris. I have identified a couple other Internet cafes and service bureaus, should the need arise. I "release" software to my client by creating a big, compressed .ZIP file (over 1MB) and emailing it via CompuServe. This takes about ten minutes with a 28.8K modem. It works just fine. They occasionally send me test cases which can also be fairly large since they tend to use lots of bitmaps (for their multimedia training applications.) We have talked about switching to FTP or MIME, but I'm not terribly excited about some of this cobbled-together Internet technology and the CompuServe solution is a tried and true and very well integrated approach. Email has been very effective for communicating with my client. I can easily call them on the phone, but email has worked well enough that I haven't felt the need to use the phone. They send me bug reports and enhancement requests by email. I check them out and exchange further email until everyone is happy. I email them changes, complete files, and occasionally a full ZIP upload. I just got an email request from a customer seeking an update. Since I was going to be back in the U.S. within a week, I decided to just mail it then. But I do wish I had my FTP software distribution set up. I kept my NY phone number (the new one, which is actually a remote call forwarding line) and have it going to a NY message service which is in turn hooked up to an alphanumeric pager. When I leave the country I leave my pager with my technical contact at my main client. He sends me an email message on any day that I get any pages. I also call into the message service on some days (such as weekends.) My fax number is now forwarded to my client's fax machine. My old business center is forwarding my mail to my client. They charge $125 a month for this service. They have some sort of shady arrangement so that you can't give the post office a change of address request for their address. I decided to do this until I got a "permanent" forwarding address. A week before my second trip to Paris I rented an apartment in Nashua, New Hampshire to use as my legal residence. I switched my drivers license and even voted before heading off to Paris again. I lived in New Hampshire before moving to Colorado, so it was a little like going home. I tell people you have to love a state whose license plate says "Live Free or Die." I also say that New Hampshire has always been America as America was supposed to be. I like being a resident of New Hampshire, even though I won't be there that often. Soon I will have updated most of my address changes to New Hampshire and then I can completely drop my old business center. I mentioned in my last article how much I enjoyed throwing out all my Microsoft manuals. So far, I haven't regretted that move and have been getting by with online help and the Microsoft Developer Network CD-ROM. Actually, I continue to be amazed at how little I physically need to get my work done: the notebook PC, phone, phone wire, paper notepad, a couple of floppies, and a small stack of CD-ROMs. I've also been successful at not needing to keep boxes of paper records at my finger tips. I have less than two inches of paper here in my apartment. When I needed copies of some papers to apply for my apartment, I called my technical contact at my client and told him which boxes to look in and he was able to locate and fax me four different documents in less than half an hour. In hindsight, I should have easily been able to predict that I would have needed those documents and brought them with me. I was worried about how I would pay bills from abroad, but since my new plan calls for me to return at intervals of no more than thirty days, it's no longer a problem. The worst is that I end up paying some bills early. Just as I was about to head for the airport for my second trip to Paris, a new prospective client finally returned my call and confirmed that he still wanted to move ahead on a project. He knows I'm off to Paris, but knows he can reach me by email and phone and that I'll be back in the U.S. once a month. I'll be emailing him a license agreement in another day or so. I had been unnecessarily worried that a client would strenuously object to me being so far away. What's Next I never did get around to learning French. It is a bit inconvenient, but not a disaster. In fact, I would say that it has a negative impact on less than 10% of my day. From a purely economic point of view, it's not worth my time to spend a lot of time studying French. I bought a grammar book and a book that has facing pages in both French and English, but that's as much as I've done. I think I'll pick up a lot of words just from living in Paris. I still want to be able to make software and other files available via FTP. The missing link is Telnet or another form of remote access software so that I can organize my files and run programs on the server in Vermont from my apartment in Paris. I haven't decided whether to encrypt the files and email the keys or just change the password on the FTP site frequently. The latter may be easier. I still want to exploit the web server further and do some sort of catalog/mall for entrepreneurial types like myself. I would appreciate hearing from anyone interesting in pursuing this with me. I've been in contact with an old customer in Holland and we're trying to arrange a visit. He runs a small store specializing in software development tools. We've conversed via email a few times since I arrived. Soon I plan to make a trip to see him and his operation. I'm anxious to get his views on the Internet, the Web, Java, JavaScript, etc. His initial response to my Internet queries were the predictable: It comes up in conversations a lot, he's trying to come up to speed on the technology, he's paying someone to put up a web site, but there's no clear direction to the effort. I'm anxious to find other ways to take advantage of my geographic location. I had hoped that Paris would be good for my business as well as my personal life, but I'm still looking for opportunities. I feel the need to have business cards, but I haven't decided what to put on them or how to lay them out. In the past, I took a big company approach to the card and featured by business name and logo and my name and position very prominently, but made no mention of what the business actually did. From reading Midnight Engineering, I now know that the card is a form of advertising and should indicate what service or product your business offers. I am torn between whether to use just my web and email addresses or to include my Paris and New Hampshire "snail mail" addresses and message service and fax phone numbers. That's a lot for one little card, so maybe just the web and email addresses and my message service will be sufficient. It also forces me to come up with a very terse description of what I really do. Conclusions I've kept my expectations low and been pleasantly surprised more often than not. The change in scenery and culture has caused me to think about everything a little bit differently. After I settle in a little bit more, I'll be ready to expand my horizons. I'm thinking more about the Internet. And I'm thinking about what to do next year after Paris. I'd like to start thinking about what I'll be doing five, ten, and twenty years from now. Never once in my entire life has anyone asked me what I'd be doing that far into the future. The answer itself doesn't matter, but it's the process of considering possibilities that intrigues me intensely. At a minimum, my Paris venture has given me something interesting to talk about. People get tired about hearing about the Internet and New York just didn't have the appeal of a European city. Jack Krupansky runs a one person software business, Base Technology, which develops and markets the Liana object-oriented programming language and CodeScript scripting language interpreter and offers Windows software development consulting. He may be reached at 800-786-9505 (messages), jack@basetechnology.com on the Internet, or at http://www.basetechnology.com on the World Wide Web.