A story about Vienna. (an interactive narrative infographic)(patrick-wied.at)
patrick-wied.at
A story about Vienna. (an interactive narrative infographic)
http://www.patrick-wied.at/projects/a-story-about-vienna/#apps4austria=1/
17 comments
I'm originally from Vienna (now living in SF) and I wouldn't really recommend to live there. The Viennese people all praise how well there city works, but if you've lived in another place for a while you quickly notice all the things going terribly wrong there.
To bring a few counter-points to the praises listed on the web site:
You want to work at a startup? Great! But don't go to Vienna then. There are a few startups, but most of them finance themselves via part-time consulting work, as the chances of getting "real" investments are quite low. And almost all of the successful ones that I know move to places like London or Berlin as soon as possible.
Salaries are low. And I mean low. If you're used to salaries at places like SF you're probably paying more for your apartment in those places than what you're net income in Vienna would be. And forget about stock options, even at the so called "startups" there they are quite rare.
It feels like almost everyone smokes in Vienna. If you're ever going to a restaurant or a bar, even if it's only a brief visit, be prepared to wash all of your clothing afterwards. There are practically no laws protecting non-smokers, although those are nowadays standard in most other modern cities.
It rains almost all the time. There are something like 2 months of summer and 2 months of winter. The remainder of the time is cloudy rainy weather. So yes, there would be a few nice places where you could do stuff outside, but only during the short summer time. And don't expect any clean parks where you just can lie down and enjoy the sun (like in SF). Most of the city parks are dirty. And most people don't clean up after their dogs, so you wouldn't want to lie down in those parks anyway.
To bring a few counter-points to the praises listed on the web site:
You want to work at a startup? Great! But don't go to Vienna then. There are a few startups, but most of them finance themselves via part-time consulting work, as the chances of getting "real" investments are quite low. And almost all of the successful ones that I know move to places like London or Berlin as soon as possible.
Salaries are low. And I mean low. If you're used to salaries at places like SF you're probably paying more for your apartment in those places than what you're net income in Vienna would be. And forget about stock options, even at the so called "startups" there they are quite rare.
It feels like almost everyone smokes in Vienna. If you're ever going to a restaurant or a bar, even if it's only a brief visit, be prepared to wash all of your clothing afterwards. There are practically no laws protecting non-smokers, although those are nowadays standard in most other modern cities.
It rains almost all the time. There are something like 2 months of summer and 2 months of winter. The remainder of the time is cloudy rainy weather. So yes, there would be a few nice places where you could do stuff outside, but only during the short summer time. And don't expect any clean parks where you just can lie down and enjoy the sun (like in SF). Most of the city parks are dirty. And most people don't clean up after their dogs, so you wouldn't want to lie down in those parks anyway.
Salaries aren't that low... the standard entry level right now is about $42K USD, keep in mind that includes the mandatory Austria 5 weeks of paid vacation. Also when calculating an offer it's important to note that you're usually quoted a monthly amount which is paid 14 times per year. (Two months you receive a double payment, before the summer for vacation spending and before Christmas for christmas spending)
"If the world ends, I move to Vienna. Everything happens 10 years later there." Karl Kraus
It's called First World Problems :)
Lagging a lot on a i7 Macbook Pro Retina with 16 Gbs of RAM in Chrome. It is a bit better in Safari, but still not smooth.
Wow. When I ran OS X Leopard on this 17" MacBook Pro w/4GB RAM, all the fancy pages posted on HN used to peg my cores at 100% and made the fans roar like jet engines. Now I'm running Slackware Linux (64 bit) on it, and this page is running as smooth as butter in Firefox 19.0.2. It's nice to be at the other end of the spectrum, for once. It runs almost as smoothly in Chrome, but with a little more jitter during the transitions and a bit more CPU usage. Not so nice in Opera, which is struggling to get all the pieces working and kind of ruins the experience.
I opened it on 2011 27'' iMac (16 GB RAM, 2.7 GHz Core i5, AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB) in Firefox 19.0.2 and everything was smooth, and CPU was barely used at all. I'm not sure why your Macbook which should be a faster machine is sweating on that page?
Mine too -- same config. Love the resolution, but the 2D performance has been disappointing from the start. I upgrade my MBP every year, and hoping that we see some improvement this year in the graphics handling.
that's probably due to a few big graphics on the website. does anyone have suggestions how to handle that (except using less graphic intensive graphics) ??
I've heard good things from other Australians about Vienna of late, and you've probably convinced me to drop by before or after OHM2013 in August. Few tips for internationalisation purposes...
Germanisms: citybike, public barbecuing.
Style: US would typically (over)use exclamations! Like, There's loads to do in Vienna! (and BBQ) AU would be Mate, there's shit-loads to do in Vienna! (and have a barbie or BBQ) NZ would be Vienna's wicked chur bro! (or BBQ). OK well, those last two might be taking it a bit far. But you can de-formalize(/Germanify) a little ;)
Best wishes from China... AU/DE/NZ guy of partly-German/Prussian descent.
Germanisms: citybike, public barbecuing.
Style: US would typically (over)use exclamations! Like, There's loads to do in Vienna! (and BBQ) AU would be Mate, there's shit-loads to do in Vienna! (and have a barbie or BBQ) NZ would be Vienna's wicked chur bro! (or BBQ). OK well, those last two might be taking it a bit far. But you can de-formalize(/Germanify) a little ;)
Best wishes from China... AU/DE/NZ guy of partly-German/Prussian descent.
Regarding your statement: "I've heard good things from other Australians about Vienna of late" I kindly contribute from the middle of Europe the following poster:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saltation/2836300591/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saltation/2836300591/
Thanks for this, sent it around to my coworkers who got a kick out of it. (I work in a firm in Linz)
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We are austrians, not australians btw..
He's saying that he's Australian, and he's heard from other of his countrymen that Vienna is kind of alright. :)
(Don't we, we get equally worried when people mix it up.)
(Don't we, we get equally worried when people mix it up.)
Melbourne, Australia has also been voted the world's most livable city too :P
i've visited vienna twice now. once in november, once in june. vienna is a vibrant, gorgeous and exciting city. the arts, culture, everything is fantastic, and the people are friendly and charming. one of my favorite museums - the belvedere - is there, and the gardens near that are also gorgeous.
i can't wait to go back to visit. i would say go in the summer, the winter (at least the week i was there) was dreary. i also love the cold war history of vienna, so that was exciting.
thanks for sharing.
i can't wait to go back to visit. i would say go in the summer, the winter (at least the week i was there) was dreary. i also love the cold war history of vienna, so that was exciting.
thanks for sharing.
>and the people are friendly and charming.
hmmm, must be another city
hmmm, must be another city
haha that's true. viennese people love to be grumpy :D
Nice city, but with 114% of the population being smokers...
I love Europe, but for being so developed, it's amazing how many places there people still think smoking is 'cool,' and 'a symbol of freedom.'
I do like Vienna, but I think I'd choose Hamburg if I had to choose a city in the German-speaking world. Or Berlin - only slightly less cosmopolitan, but the tech start-up scene is kind of happening, and the cost of living is cheaper.
I love Europe, but for being so developed, it's amazing how many places there people still think smoking is 'cool,' and 'a symbol of freedom.'
I do like Vienna, but I think I'd choose Hamburg if I had to choose a city in the German-speaking world. Or Berlin - only slightly less cosmopolitan, but the tech start-up scene is kind of happening, and the cost of living is cheaper.
Depends on the country: they banned smoking indoors in Italy a while back, and at least in the part of the country I live in, people have always respected that ban (I was a bit surprised). In Austria, when we left, they still let people smoke anywhere and everywhere, pretty much - the only places where it was banned in Innsbruck, where we lived, were McDonalds and Ikea. My wife went out with our baby daughter for cake and coffee with a friend one afternoon, to a pastry shop, and came back reeking of smoke, because some other patrons sat down and started chain smoking. It made my blood boil.
That said, Vienna struck me as a very nice city - very livable for its size, although the climate leaves a lot to be desired.
That said, Vienna struck me as a very nice city - very livable for its size, although the climate leaves a lot to be desired.
That's a huge problem in Austria, coming here from Canada I was shocked that you could still smoke everywhere here. I rarely go out to bars or cafes here due to the fact that I then have to change clothes and shower in order to get rid of the smell of smoke.
I agree. I'm Australian, and I'm so used to the very hard line on smoking (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_packets_in_Australia) that the European attitude is really annoying, and I'm very surprised when I openly see ads for cigarettes and even vending machines.
It's probably something I'll never understand, since (to me) it is an obviously bad idea to inhale the carcinogenic burnt residue of some paper and leaves which has well-known, major long-term health impacts as well as compelling you to continue doing so, and to pay for the privilege (not to mention the damage done to others, and the smell all through ones clothes, etc.). Eurgh, the big cigarette companies (and their ad agencies/publicity departments) are some of the scum of the Earth.
It's probably something I'll never understand, since (to me) it is an obviously bad idea to inhale the carcinogenic burnt residue of some paper and leaves which has well-known, major long-term health impacts as well as compelling you to continue doing so, and to pay for the privilege (not to mention the damage done to others, and the smell all through ones clothes, etc.). Eurgh, the big cigarette companies (and their ad agencies/publicity departments) are some of the scum of the Earth.
Being from Germany I have to agree with the smoking aspect. I'm a non smoker and after spending a few months in the US and returning back home, I was quite surprised how few people in the States smoked and how often you smell cigarettes in Germany. It was very irritating that I didn't have this annoying odor for quite some time in my nose.
worth mentioning hackerspaces / tech-coworking in vienna:
https://metalab.at/ http://www.sektor5.at/ http://vienna.the-hub.net/
https://metalab.at/ http://www.sektor5.at/ http://vienna.the-hub.net/
The metalab people are very cool. They hooked me up with some LEDs when I needed them on short notice. When I visited they were printing a new battery cover for an old hand-held gaming device with their 3D printer (and this was a few years back).
Small nitpick: I doubt Vienna's got 20+ universities as the infographic would suggest. It's far more likely what you meant is "faculty buildings" or something to that extent.
I would also venture a guess that most of those belong to a single University of Vienna.
I would also venture a guess that most of those belong to a single University of Vienna.
I assume the citation from the 20 is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Austria...
There still seem to be a lot more listed on the map. http://i.imgur.com/T9GxbPV.jpg
Even for a city as cool as Vienna, that many universities looks unrealistic.
Even for a city as cool as Vienna, that many universities looks unrealistic.
I assumed that it was just British English ... British seems to just use "university" for any higher learning degree program, whereas Americans use "university" only for schools with grad programs as well as undergrad.
http://grammarist.com/usage/college-university/
http://grammarist.com/usage/college-university/
Neat, but honestly I had hoped for some more than just a story; i.e. history. Vienna's history is incredibly rich! How can that simply be ignored. People don't talk about the Holy Roman Empire anymore!
Perhaps Austrians are still coping with 1866.
Perhaps Austrians are still coping with 1866.
in case anyone has issues with displaying it, here are some screens about how it should look like:
http://www.data.gv.at/anwendungen/a-story-about-vienna/
the project is also hosted on github, if anyone is interested in looking at the code: https://github.com/pa7/a-story-about-vienna/
the project is also hosted on github, if anyone is interested in looking at the code: https://github.com/pa7/a-story-about-vienna/
Vienna is a very nice city to live in. Yet, it is not exactly a technology hub, so probably not a destination of preference for the HN crowd.
i and a lot of other people are actively working on the technology part, i.e.: http://www.viennajs.org/ meetup, https://www.facebook.com/RailsGirlsVienna, http://events.jquery.org/2013/eu/ (happened a few weeks ago, but will happen again next year), https://metalab.at/, http://www.gdg-vienna.at/, ....
said that, if you want to live in vienna and are an experienced dev. send me a tweet, we will hook you up with a job in no time
said that, if you want to live in vienna and are an experienced dev. send me a tweet, we will hook you up with a job in no time
Hey, I am the original developer of ZeroMQ and I happen to live in Bratislava. If you are organising meet-ups in Vienna and want me to give a talk or something, just shout.
Technology sector in Austria in general is booming, coming here as a Canadian fresh out of school, after under 6 months of German schooling I was able to land two job offers in under a week. I'm in Linz which is an industry city but from what I've heard it's mostly the same all over.
What would you suggest for a general developer meetup? I'm in Linz and was thinking about coming up and seeing Metalab and going to a developer meetup. Any good events coming up you would recommend?
well, i organize viennajs.org, but well you should be into JS (or we will convince you, last wednesday of every month), there is the web performance meetup http://web-performance.meetup.com/members/at/vienna/ it's about pretty much any language & performance, there is http://www.meetup.com/Vienna-Perl-Mongers/ well perl. gdg http://www.gdg-vienna.at/ has some new organizes, so i don't know what they have in mind, also python, symphony and ux are meeting at meetalab https://metalab.at/calendar/
from your blog i see you are into php and flash, well, come by to the viennajs meetup and lets talk about html5.
from your blog i see you are into php and flash, well, come by to the viennajs meetup and lets talk about html5.
Heh, php and flash is what I use for my hobby gamedev. I'm a Java developer. (Hides from the Java and Flash hate). I've worked with js before, html5 is definitely interesting, I'll have to come to a meetup and let you lure me to the cool side.
The parallax effect on the final page was a nice touch.
This makes me want to visit Austria (and Vienna in particular) sometime soon.
This makes me want to visit Austria (and Vienna in particular) sometime soon.
This thing needs some max-width action. It looks completely broken on my 27" iMac.
Very slow and laggy..couldn't even read the text content properly.
what do you mean with couldn't even read the text content properly? did you try to read it while scrolling?
Public Transport was just a city map for me?
sorry that's a known issue (sometimes when the page takes too long to load, the pins get positioned wrongly. that's because the data is from an Open Government Data plattform and they use another projection to save the data).
but this is how it should look like: http://www.data.gv.at/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/storyvienna...
Facebook sharing function seems broken...
With that said there are Tons of positive stuff happening all around .
And almost all of Europe is Amazingly beautiful