It's different here

Aside from all the obvious things and the blinding sunshine, I've noticed a difference in perception of distance and time here. It probably doesn't apply to everyone, but it conveniently links into my account of how my sister-in-law shook up our Sunday afternoon by offering to drive us to Las Vegas.

For me, and I'm sure many in the UK, a spontaneous trip could be to the supermarket or maybe to visit a local beauty spot, friend or shopping center- where local is usually taken to mean less than an hours drive. A spontaneous trip for me definately wouldn't be a 4+ hour trek across glorious, iconic, barren desert under blinding sunshine and in heat which I've really only heard other people talk about. In the UK it takes me about 4 hours to get to London, but unless it's a business trip it's the kind of journey I start thinking about taking weeks in advance.

So it's safe to say I was surprised, not to mention a little aprehensive- sitting in the back of a car for 4 hours may be better than driving for 4 hours, but it's still not something I'd usually do on a whim. As usual, once my initial reaction died down it and my wife's enthusiasm had registered, I was all for it.

First things first, I loved the drive- I'd never seen real life tumbleweeds or dust devils before. The harsh desert landscape and the endlessly straight road hazily stretching off to the horizon couldn't be more different than the cuddly green mountains and winding country roads that surrounded me in England. Home is home, but the scenery here is different and totally awe inspiring.

As for Vegas, well, while I'm a little too old and a lot too geeky for the rock-n-roll, lost weekend Las Vegas experience, in the short time we spent with him, the ups and downs of my sister-in-law's over (or under?) medicated travelling companion added more Fear and Loathing flavour than I would ever need. Essentially, the trip was just a great opportunity to spend some quality time with Bea, just walking around, shopping, playing, eating, replacing some souvenirs we had lost in the flood. We flew there for a few days when we were here a couple of years ago and had a great time, so this was just a very brief refresher. It was nice to just be there without feeling like we had to see anything or make good use of all the time.

Now, anyone who's still with me might remember that this blog is supposed to be about my software company, and that might lead them to wonder if I had a point for this post. I did, but only that thinking about Las Vegas reminded me of an article (almost a manifesto!) by Eric Sink, Tenets of Transparency. It might seem like an obscure connection, but one of the major points I took from that and Eric's earlier article on Micro-ISVs, was removing obstacles. Trying to make it as easy as possible for anyone who might want to be a customer to become a customer, removing things like unnecessary registration or crippled features for trials and complicated, error prone activation methods to control licensing. All of our trial software is and always has been 100% fully functional, but we did used to ask for an email address on our download page- not anymore.

The reason Las Vegas reminded me of all this is because from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave, there are no obstacles to whatever it is you're there to do. It's like the whole town gets together to make sure every visitor is treated like a customer wherever they go.