ZEDRAY

I have a bit of time off between finishing job A and starting job B, made up of a combination of unused leave, unpaid overtime and a slightly delayed starting date (see Gardening leave).

It turns out my Krankenversichern (German private medical insurance provider) will let me be off work (unemployed) for up to 4 weeks as long as they get paid every quarter (not sure of the details, so ask them yourself before quitting).

So its June, and my Düsseldorf appartment lacks a garden.  Looks like I will be forced to improvise…

I don’t know why anyone else would want to do this, but here goes.

So I am between jobs and I have to give back my Android G1 and use my old Nokia 6600 for a few weeks.  That means moving over my contacts, which turns out to be a lot easier than I expected:

1. Android G1 contacts are synchronised with my Google mail account.  So log into Gmail, then click Contacts > Export.  Export “Everyone” in “vCard format”, saving the .vcf file to your Nokia MMC card.
2. Download and install Best vCard for S60, and use it to open the .vcf file on your MMC.  Import all contacts and you’re done.

All the regular issues:

• Umlauts are corrupted, i.e. characters üöäÜÖÄß become split pairs (surrogate pairs), or Mark Münsterman becomes MÄ$nsterman.
• Contact labels are missing.  So instead of having a Business, Home and Mobile number for someone I have 3x numbers labelled “Telephone”.

Clearly there is room for a global standard for moving, updating and synching contacts between systems.  Most people I know find themselves moving between systems (Outlook, phone, webmail, Facebook, etc) and spend time maintaining their contacts, or just don’t bother at all.

The world awaits my next invention.

…I here by declare that I have not developed, sold or distributed applications or services over the Android Market and Google checkout payment system.  Please do not begin an investigation into my activities, as I am mealy a hard working bunny who only manages to file his German tax explanation forms on a semi-annual basis.  Please do not crush my dreams under weight of bureaucracy and threat of criminal prosecution.
Mark

[RANT]
It turns out that selling applications over the Android market seems to be a sure fire way of getting myself investigated by the tax man (all of them, not just the German one apparently).

Developers are required to set the sales-tax rate for the local where the customer is buying.  That means customising the correct rate for every state in the US (and individual city’s apparently), European country, province of Zanzibar, etc.  I do not happen to know the tax rate in California, and I expect that nobody would inform me if it were to change the day after I entered it manually into the Market web page.  Developers are not international tax experts, and Google have abdicated their responsibility by charging a blanket ~30% “carrier tax” without taking responsibility for Tax processing itself.

I can hear the sound of iPhone developers (who have this taken care of for them) laughing at us right now.
[/RANT]

P.S. Here’s an idea, how about Google do a *Tax* session at their Google I/O conference?

Some relevant links:
[Question: Legally, is the developer selling the app or is Android Market selling it to end user?]
[Campaign: Android Developers International & Tax Consultation]
[Question: Do I need company to sell applications?]
[MARKET QUESTION: Selling applications on the Google Market]
[MARKET QUESTION: Selling applications on the Google Market]