Author: Marco

Car care – AC clean and spare tyre stow

The AC clean is a very important procedure to get a good air quality inside a vehicle, it can avoid nasty bugs like Legionella developing . It is a very easy procedure, any DIYer should be able to do it with good results and saving some good money (really dont understand how some shops charge over 50 euros for this…). So, what you need:

  • AC cleaner product – i use the 1z klima-cleaner due to very good reviews online – you can get it at a paint shop or car parts shop .
  • Philips screwdriver
  • New cabin filter with charcoal element (if outside big cities get the simple no need of the charcoal).

So first, gain access to the cabin filter and remove it. The Golf 4 is very easy, lift rain rubber seal, remove the screws that hold the filter cover (located in engine bay in front of passenger seat), press clips of the filter frame and pull out. With the old filter out of the way, clean everything up (dust, leaves, cigar butts…).


© Volksbloggin

Now comes the very hard part (not), shake the AC cleaner can and insert the hose that comes with it all the way down the AC system thru the openings revealed by the filter remotion. Use half of the can there, the other half use evenly in the air vents. Remember, AC off and air blower off, open the vents and select in the dash the corresponding air direction as you deliver the product in each vents/section. After the can is empty, put the new filter in place (installation is the reverse of the removal). Then, open the windows and let AC pump air for 10 minutes with nobody inside. You can now enjoy the fresh air inside your car, so go buy something pretty to yourself with the money you have just saved.

I also cleaned up the mess that was the spare tyre compartment. I had a flat (a big rupture at tyre wall) and needed to change the tyre at the highway shoulder, so the wrecked tyre had lots of debris attached to it, brake dust, road dust, bits of tyre rubber, etc that were laid up to the spare tyre compartment. Everything normal, i just don’t understand why when afterward you get the car to the tyre shop they couldn’t care less about that mess, and don’t even pass up with a rag… what a pigs… so unless you want to carry at the trunk brake dust, bits of burned rubber in decomposition and other things that are not good to your health, its up to you to clean up, its very easy and need simple tools:

  • Portable vacuum cleaner
  • Water
  • Nivea lotion

Remove the spare tyre, wash it up with water. Let it dry. Vacuum all the shit of the tyre compartment and clean up with a rag. When the tyre has dried apply a coating of Nivea lotion to the rubber, better more than less. Check and inflate if needed. Now you can store the spare tyre and rest assured that will serve you good in case of need.

About the fuel prices

The fuel prices in the latest weeks are going up, and up, and by now at the pump we are paying around 1.50 euros for 1 liter/gas and 1.30 for diesel and everybody complains because they are too high. Well, i think that the prices should be much higher (50% or more), and that the price difference between gas,diesel and LPG is pathetic (this can be a complete new subject for a complete new post one of these days).

So, why? The last time i checked i’m not masochist, and my daily commute of 50 kilometers would indeed become more expensive. But there is rationale to tax more and get the prices higher, for starter to maintain a stable price for a period of years. Let’s say the price is set a 2 euro/liter, this would be the price for 10 years or a legislature or a relevant time frame. The extra tax collected when the oil prices are runing low, would be used to mantain the price when the oil price goes skyrocket. This would take the fuel prices uncertainty out of equation, for entrepreneurs doing business plans, for big companies, for small companies, for families budgets, for individuals. This would push the adoption of new oil free technologies. This would punish much more consumers who make non-eco choices. This would also reduce unnecessary trips (aka Passeio dos Tristes), and reduce overall average driving speeds and style to more normal values (yes, going 140km/h+ at 50cm of the front vehicle bumper and flashing ligths is only considered normal here and in Morocco…), hence reducing accidents and road mortality.

About the adoption of new technologies, remember that the true kick-start of the industrial revolution, was not the steam engine invention, but the end of the slavery, that dried up a tremendous free work force source and pushed the adoption of the new technology. This is the human way of doing things, when pushed we tend to find a way (a better way) and move forward.

As JFK challenged a country to put some guys in the moon, back in the 60’s, and this is the inspiration for it:

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

I believe this generation should accept the challenge of shift from oil to clean energy resources, by the end of this decade, not because its easy, but because its hard. Is the right thing to do, for us, for the environment, for our long term wealth, health and safety.

Why i hate SOAP

I hate SOAP (not the washing product, but the Simple Object Access Protocol). In theory is very good, a xml document, the WSDL, makes the description of the service, with the valid (and expected) data types, operations and bindings. You just load this WSDL thing in your client, and voilá, you should now automagically have a full feature client to the service, right? Wrong….

Everytime i need to (have to) use a SOAP webservice, there is always something, some tweak, some unexpexted problem to solve. Or is the WSDL format, or is the protocol version, or there is some kind of obscure authentication to do, or encryption, or something with the namespaces in the request, or something…. So, the expected 5 minutes to go, usually turns more into 50 minutes to go, with a lot of traces, network dumps and the works.

Now comes the plain dumbness. Maybe 50% or more of the operations are quite simple, you pass a couple of values and get a simple data back (like a number or a string), and 90% or more of the operations, the request is quite simple, some strings and numbers acting as filters, and the response is a structured data. So, in all this situations you were much better off with a simple REST interface with GET/POSTs to a JSON response. Light, simple and elegant.

Not with this over bloated protocol, with all the tweaks, versions, revisions and recommendations, messy client/servers, excessive formality. You can grasp how bad it is, simply by looking at a typical SOAP session (request/response), there you find that most of the bytes that are going back and forth are not the actual data, but the SOAP envelope, body, header, xml tags, etc….  its like you are working for the protocol and not the other way around.

No surprise it was developed by Microsoft….

Ensitel – What the fuck?

Quick digest:

  1. Customer gets a phone from Ensitel.
  2. Phone is faulty and client goes to Ensitel to exchange phone.
  3. Customer is sent to Nokia to make exchange because at Ensitel there is no available phone.
  4. At Nokia customer can get a repair but not a new phone.
  5. Back to Ensitel, a new phone comes up, but the exchange is denied because the faulty phone is scratched on the phone (Ensitel can see the scratch, customer can’t).
  6. Customer wants to return the phone and get the money back.
  7. Customer is again denied to a scratch in the battery cover.
  8. Customer goes into legal action against Ensitel.
  9. The case customer Vs Ensitel goes to trial after several months and expenses.
  10. At trial at a Consumer Center, the judge/referee orders the customer to deliver the phone to Ensitel to repair.
  11. Customer ignores trial delivers phone directly at Nokia to repair.
  12. Customer writes about this situation at own blog.
  13. Ensitel starts legal action, against customer to remove blog posts about Ensitel.
  14. Customer writes yet another post about the legal action.
  15. A big reaction starts in the social networks, condemning Ensitel behavior.
  16. Eventually it breaks out to mainstream mass media, tv, radio, newspapers.
  17. Ensitel makes heavy threats to sue customer.
  18. Customer starts a donation campaign to pay legal expenses.

So, as by now, this novel is not yet closed… and further developments are to be expected.

Who are the parties involved?

Ensitel: a company member of Avenir Telecom, a French based multinational, a corporation quoted in the stock market. So, this is what i call a company without a face. A bunch of guys in suits, members of a board of directors, CEO, CFO, etc… all focus in pushing the delivery of results to the stockholders and themselves.

Maria João Nogueira: an individual person, that works on the SAPO Blogs team. She has a wide audience blog and is wife of E. Pinto (SAPO CTO or senior tech something). So definitely not some lame blogger.

The Good

The customer resistance, against the big corporation, the juridic system. Never broked her spirit. How many of us, have been abused by big corporations, that can get away just because they can, and it takes too much time or effort to fight.

The Bad

Of course the juridic system and consumer protection system. Its simply unreasonable. The customer must must fight with the same weapons than a big corporation that is in a very upper hand. Its expected that the consumer, rules out first all the extra judicial mechanisms, then you should hire a lawyer and sue the corporation in a consumer center. Then if the corporation doesn’t accept you should go to common court….The corporation “burns” some hours of some legal services contract, and the consumer a large amount of time and money.

In the end, after months (sometimes years) it doesn’t solves anything,

The Ugly

Ensitel behavior. First its quite obvious that there are superior orders to deny or delay a phone exchange. Then it shields behind the inefficient portuguese consumer protection. Afterwards, when the customer tells the world about it in a blog (ok, one with a large audience), it “burns” some more legal contract hours in a legal action to force the customer to remove the blog posts. If, there is no limits to plain stupidity when the bomb blows up and the hype in the social networks build ups and crosses to above the line, they don’t do any kind of damage control, some rather lame announces on their own Facebook page. Hello!! Is there anybody with a brain in the house?

The cherry on top of the cake is the very strong menaces to the customer.


© Expresso

I already have made a symbolic donation, because i identify myself in this fight against big corporations and know in first hand how hard it is to play in a field that is so much leaned to one side. The Ensitel reputation is down the mud, specially online (see here too).

Anyway, the key point will be at the end the court decision, that should answer both of these questions. Is there any special limitation in the personal online publication of facts and opinions? If one publishes negative content about some corporation, can one be liable of brand depreciation? If yes, to what extension?

So let us just wait and see.

Update
as this post was still a draft, Ensitel as dropped the legal action against Maria João Nogueira, so we will not have a legal decision. For sure, this or other evil corporation will mess up bad again, and an angry customer will publish the story online. In other situation, with much less hype probably the final outcome wouldn’t be the same…

Ultramarathon Man

Just finished reading Dean Karnazes – Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner – and what an excellent and inspirational book it is. What it skips about training and nutrition delivers back in double in pure emotion. It makes my mind spin, just to think how can one run for 320Kms……

Some appetizers:

«If you can’t run, then walk. And if you can’t walk, then crawl.  Do what you have to do.  Just keep moving forward and never, ever give up.»

«Some seek the comfort of their therapist’s office, other head for the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I chose running as my therapy…»

«If it comes easy, if it doesn’t require extraordinary effort, you’re not pushing hard enough: It’s supposed to hurt like hell.»

«I’d  also come to recognize that the simplicity of running was quite liberating.  Modern man has virtually everything one could desire, but too often we’re still not fulfilled.  “Things” don’t bring happiness.  Some of my finest moments came while running down the open road, little more than a pair of shoes and shorts to my name.  A runner doesn’t need much.»

«The real battle was inside my head.»

«Life is a not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “WOW!! What a ride!”»

«Most dreams die a slow death.  They’re conceived in a moment of passion, with the prospect of endless possibility, but often languish and are not pursued with the same heartfelt intensity as when first born.  Slowly, subtly, a dream becomes elusive and ephemeral.  People who’ve lost their own dreams become pessimists and cynics.  They feel like the time and devotion spent on chasing their dreams were wasted.  The emotional scars last forever.»

Some seek the comfort of their therapist’s office, other head for the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I chose running as my therapy…