@Dexter's Blog

Press release: I'm leaving

2010-09-04T10:40:14Z

(This is a loose translation of the Romanian version here. The Romanian version shall take precedence when- and wherever the particular literary and semantic renditions disagree)

Good morning, honoured guests: acquaintances, close friends, members of the press and faithful readers of this blog.

I have called this press conference to put an end to the rumors and speculations regarding my alleged departure, the more so as the situation has just cleared up for me as well.

Following a recruitment process which began de jure in August 2006 and de facto in April 2010, I have been offered a Site Reliability Engineer position with Google Ireland, Ltd., effective Monday, September 13^th, 2010.

Subject to the speed at which paperwork formalities in which I am involved progress (on both the Romanian and Irish side), I shall leave Romania sometime during the next week, Thursday or Saturday, via an Aer Lingus flight departing from OTP.

The little time left until then will be taken up by departure preparations, but, in spite of that, I will free up my schedule for anyone wishing to see or talk to me before I leave. Just drop me a note proposing a place and a time and I shall be there.

Moving on to administrativia, I wish to bring the following to your attention:

I will hand my motorcycle over to my brother, Adrian. So, if you happen to see B-11-RVW ridden by someone else, wearing different equipment/decals than mine, do not be alerted as it has not been stolen :-)
my personal e-mail address (aforementioned) remains valid indefinitely.
my personal phone number of 226-01 (Vodafone) remains valid indefinitely. At first, I will resort to the roaming service to keep it available and I'll then look into a technical solution to porting it.
my personal VoIP phone number (NetMaster) remains valid indefinitely. At first, it will be directly assigned to my VoIP client and I'll then switch back to the present topology, where it is assigned to a PBX.
atlas.linux360.ro shall follow me to Ireland and will be unavailable begining next week and until it will be installed at the new location and connected to the Internet. Also, along with the change of jurisdiction, the acces method to some of its services will be changed, namely those that might arise the unwanted interest of local authorities (most probably, I will switch from HTTP to HTTPS, from anonymous to authenticated acces and from direct connections to dial-in VPN -- either way, you will be notified of such changes and provided with new access instructions). In the same vein, some services may be resource-limited owing to the small(er) bandwidth available at the new location.

The press release ends here, I will now take your questions.

@Dexter

Upgrading to MT5: the last straw

2010-07-04T23:35:56Z

Hello everyone, it feels so good to be back :-)

I've finally fixed my MovableType instance after the upgrade to the 5.x series botched it up, mainly because of major incompatibilities with 4.x plugins. Other "interesting" things about MovableType are that it still does not support mod_perl 2.0 and that it shoves the Zemanta thingie up my throat without asking first.

Unfortunately for Six Apart (MT's developer), I am a programmer and I just cannot stand poorly designed code, especially in what is supposed to be a "successful commercial product, leading by excellence" ...

So, if I wrote NABPS ("New Aggregator Because Planet Sucks"), I'll just start writing NBCMTS ("New Blogger 'Cause MT Sucks") -- and, yes, you are all welcome to come up with a better name for it :D

I think I'll use many of the good things that MT4 had (e.g. templates) but I'll reimplement them in a very streamlined, fast and (most important of all) usable way -- the same thing I did with NABPS some time ago.

Stay tuned for the first ChangeLog entries ;-)

Good night,
@Dexter

My first 1200 miles: the story

2010-01-06T00:00:00Z

Good evening everyone and welcome to a new issue of the motorcycling saga I have started this summer :-)

As 2009 is almost over now and over the past few months I have experienced many facets of motorcycling, both good and bad, I though I would share them all with you such that anyone reading this may get the wisdom and information they may crave regarding the subject at hand.

I'll start with some dry statistics first: I have been a licensed motorcyclist for the past three months and one week. In that amount of time I have ridden my motorcycle for almost 1200 miles (~1900 km) around the country and around my city of residence. I have found out it makes about 55 MPG (~4 l/100 km) when riding cross-country (moderate front wind or strong lateral wind, 60 mph (100 km/h) cruise speed) and about 30 MPG (~8 l/100 km) when riding in the city (cold starts, using only the first three gears and a top speed of 30 mph (50 km/h)).

Overall, the blue-and-white Yamaha Virago XV535 I proudly own and ride handles very well, both at speed and while negotiating tight turns in the parking lot. Power control is also very smooth and pleasant, with enough kick available for screaming take offs if need be (stray dogs in the road is a very good example of a circumstance mandating such a maneuver).

Vibrations and noise are both within reasonable limits, at least up to 115 km/h (as tested). Driving in both warm and cold weather is comfortable and, finally, even if the XV535 is regarded as the junior in the Chopper/Cruiser genre, it still makes you feel good because you are riding a chrome beast puffing around in the neighborhood at midnight :-)

Moving on, the equipment stood up to my expectations, despite the bad critique received from the audience. The jacket and pants do not let any (and I mean absolutely any) wind go through them which makes things very comfortable, even for long distances. I had a couple opportunities to test their waterproofing and it proved to be exemplar: not a single drop of rain reached me even though I had been riding through light rain for the past hour. Finally, it is easy to add extra layers of insulating clothing underneath it to make it warmer in colder days.

Speaking of cold days, stubborn as I am, I kept riding my motorcycle way up into mid December until it started snowing -- I had no trouble whatsoever starting her up in the cold mornings (it would seem Yuasa makes good batteries ;) ), getting her warm and then riding the ~2 mile distance to work. Its air-cooled engine is a pleasure to straddle in a chilly morning as it gets hot very quickly and keeps your knees and legs warm, despite the weather (I even remember one rainy morning when I actually managed to keep myself dry on the inside of my legs, while the rain only got a bite on me on the outside).

Moving on to the helmet, it stood up to its reputation: no problems with it whatsoever, even if it was probably the cheapest thing I could get at that time -- it is the only piece of equipment I plan to change for the next season and that solely because of its looks and flaky mechanics (it's a flip-up design with integrated sun screen).

I made a couple of longer trips this fall, one to the Chopper Academy (Calaraşi Chapter) 2009 meeting and the other to the city of Tulcea -- the motorcycle proved comfortable and a smooth ride in both, combining more power than I could handle (read: ample headroom) with a steady and calm ride: so much so that I could safely admire the landscape while riding, even on rough ground.

If I were to change anything on my Virago in an attempt to make it better for long rides, I would either choose to always wear a large backpack or replace/modify the saddle to something resembling the one on the Kawasaki EN500 -- a backrest is a blessing after some ~200 miles of non-stop riding.

Unfortunately, winter came over and forced me to stop riding until it had passed ... leaving me alone with the craving for another day in the saddle, riding a country road somewhere in the middle of a green field.

It has also left me with enough time to make plans for the next season :-) So, for the spring (read: as soon as the roads become usable again), I'm planning to have the following done on my motorcycle:

basic technical check (the compulsory one is scheduled for May, so it's a good idea to prepare in advance ;-) ) -- that means an oil change (filter included), brake liquid change and bleeding, carb synching and valve freeplay adjustment; if need be, cable oiling and adjustment will be added
extended technical check (depending on my mechanic's recommendations) -- that would mean a fork oil change, final gear oil change and the greasing/repacking of various bearings
tire change (they are both worn out: the back one probably beyond the safety limit and the front one probably just touching the "accident waiting to happen" limit)
helmet change -- either a ProBiker KX4 (metallic blue) or a Shark Evoline
turn signal auto-canceling circuit fix -- it presently does not work, I'm suspecting the reed switch in the odometer is broken or there is a faulty contact somewhere along the wires
front light change -- either switch to the original optical design of the twin lights (one for the dipped beam and the other for the high beam) or replace it altogether with a single headlamp (following the original Virago design). Finding a second hand headlamp from an European Virago would help a lot here (hint! hint!)
front light enhancement (budget permitting) -- install a headlight bar with two identical lamps (on the outside), the right one configured as a second dipped beam for foggy conditions, sporting a selective yellow lamp (yes, I'll have to find a way to get yellow out of an H7 -- stay tuned :D ) while the left one will be configured as a second high beam for pitch dark conditions (or special ops/patrol/escort missions), fitted with either a high-efficiency, cold-white H4 or with a fancy D4R HID lamp. Of course, this will pull in a new switch and extra wiring.
cockpit instrumentation enhancement (budget permitting) -- add a real time clock, an air temperature gauge, a voltmeter and an oil temperature gauge
power consumption enhancement (budget permitting) -- replace all four blinker bulbs and the two tail/brake light bulbs with LED counterparts. I only want to replace the bulb, not the entire lighting enclosure as I want to conserve the looks and only improve the engineering behind ;-) Of course, this may require some fiddling with the original Virago blinker relay should it throw a fit when it'll feel some 90% of its load vanished :D

Finally, coming back to philosophy (i.e. regarding motorcycling as a way of life), David L. Hough was right in every word he wrote in his books. I had the chance to test that first hand in a couple of nice and ... not so nice situations, the latter of which brought about the wreckage of my windshield and original Virago headlamp :( and the former of which taught me the importance of keeping it rubber-side down :)

I'll be back soon with more stories, I just can't wait for the snow to melt and to be in the saddle again :-)

Good night,
@Dexter

Motorcycle riding: the story

2009-09-06T09:05:11Z

Hello everyone,

As promised in my previous post, here is the whole story of me getting both licensed to ride a motorcycle on the road and the motorcycle itself. But first, I know some of you are craving some photos so here is the first batch, along with a promise to take and upload better ones soon.

The saga starts somewhere at the beginning of June 2009, when I took the decision to follow classes for a driver's license. It is as of yet unclear what caused or influenced this decision but there are speculations that a certain change (to the better) in my personal life is the culprit.

I chose this school for my driver training because it was close to where I live (a 20 minute walk) and because it looked the most trustworthy of all driving schools in this area. I submitted my application on Monday, June 15^th; got scheduled for the psychology test the next day and I attended the first driving law theory class the third day, Wednesday, June 17^th. The first motorcycle riding class was held on Thursday and the first car driving class the next Monday.

According to local laws, the psychology test must be taken (and passed) before any driving school attendance. Following that, the theory course must then be completed before any actual driving/riding takes place and only after completing that last part are you allowed to submit you application for the government-administered driving license examination.
As you all know, laws are treated as advisories here so the school only enforced the amount of time that had to pass from the date the psychology test was passed to the day they would sign your file and thus allow you to submit your application to the authorities.

Moving on to the schooling itself, the law theory classes were a good idea and I attended about three weeks of them (and since the classes were held three times a week, that would sum up to about 9 2-hour classes). Unfortunately, the local view about laws is that you will obey them if you are made sufficiently aware of their content (and not their meaning and/or applicability). On the same note, the theory exam contains 20 multiple-choice questions for future riders (26 for future drivers) which can have one, two or even all three correct answers and it's light years away from being at least psychometrically correct, let alone well balanced, normalized and entropy-masked.
The questions cover what you would expect: signs and markings, right-of-way, speed limits, highway driving; what you would less expect: preventive driving, ecological driving, automotive mechanics; and even what you would not expect: detailed aspects from the text of the law itself.

The law theory class consisted of us solving sets of 26 questions (picked from the same database that the formal examination draws them from), checking our results and then the instructor explaining the correct answer for any and all questions that we've messed up. It is a good method for gaining enough knowledge (read: experience with question-type fingerprinting) to pass the exam but it has nothing to do with learning and understanding the law itself (not that there would be enough meaning in any local law to warrant understanding it).

Moving on to the driving and riding classes which were also held three times a week. Driving was on Monday, Wednesday and Friday whereas riding was on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. As you probably know, local laws mandate that the practical examination for a future rider consists of performing a fixed choreography in a closed court within 4 minutes and without making more than 3 mistakes. As opposed to that, the practical examination for a future driver consists of driving a car in live traffic, following live navigation orders from the exam judge.
Because of that, practical training for the two disciplines follows differing paths and methods, rendering both training efforts insufficient and incomplete -- something which is not readily obvious unless you do what I did and take up both riding and driving classes. The reason for drawing that conclusion is that operating a device is one area of interest while using a device in a context driven by usage laws and populated by other users is a totally different thing.

So, if you are to take up driving classes, you are going to end up knowing how are you supposed to drive a car in traffic, obeying all rules -- but being unable to drive the car itself proficiently and master driving itself as a skill; while if you are going to take up riding classes, you are going to master controlling the motorcycle -- but you will remain totally unprepared for riding in in the wild, on the open road and unforgiving weather.

Moving on to the more hand-on part of the classes, the driving part was held on Citroen C1s which (both the vendor and my instructor) called "a car". I really beg to differ on that ... but it was enough of a car for me to learn driving. The riding part was held on a pack of Suzuki, three GN250 (yes, there is a typo in the first post, claiming they were "GZ" 250s), one GN125 and one Marauder 250. Even though not exactly right for all people, the attitude of the riding instructor was perfect for my way of learning new things: after making sure we mastered "how not to drop the motorcycle", he left us to roam freely around the court, practicing the exam choreography in whichever order we felt comfortable with, giving us a chance to discover the art behind motorcycle riding ourselves.

It is at this point that [om3ga] (or Sixx as he signs his posts now) suggested David L. Hough's books as compulsory reading, which I have read one-per-night and which I hold directly responsible for me understanding (and learning how to apply!) enough motorcycle physics to pass the practical exam with no sweat. My thanks and gratitude go to both of you!

Moving further, after completing all paperwork for the final examination (which included a thorough-wannabe medical examination), I have submitted my application on August 11th. The dialogue with the clerk remains a landmark of local flavor:

Clerk: "So, which exam to you want to take first? Riding or driving?"
Me: (large grin) "Riding first, please!"
Clerk: (after typing at the computer) "Soooooo, we have riding examination on the 26^th and driving examination on the 19^th!"

The theory exam can be taken at any time from the day you submitted your application (inclusive) until the day of the practical examination (exclusive) so I came back the next day and did them both. The results were no surprise: I passed the riding part and failed the driving one.

I decided I shall put driving on the back burner and concentrate on riding and so, on the 26^th, I took and passed the practical examination. I got my license the next day and so I was now legally a motorcyclist :-)

That's about it for now. I'm sure I must have missed some details -- please ask and I shall answer.

@Dexter

Motorcycle riding: epilogue

2009-08-26T19:52:11Z

Good evening everyone, please find the long-expected press release below:

Earliest, on August 7^th, I have bought my jacket (ProBiker Liberty) and gloves (ProBiker PRX-5 Black) from this shop, a local distributor of this vendor. Since the trousers (ProBiker Concorde II), boots (ProBiker Louis'70) and socks (ProBiker) were not on their stock at that time, I have placed a special order for them which was subsequently delivered on August 18th. The helmet is an anonymous Venom matt-black flip-up that I got from my former trainer (for sentimental reasons) and will probably get replaced when outgrown by either a ProBiker KX4 or a Shark EvoLine -- time will tell.

Earlier, on August 12^th, I have passed the theoretical exam for the motorcycle riding license with a score of 17 out of 20 (barely, as 16 results in a failing grade).

Today, at around 10:45EEST, I have passed the practical exam for the motorcycle riding license (category "A" driving license as the local terminology calls it) :-) This allows me to drive a self-powered two-wheeled vehicle on any public road, irrespective of displacement, weight and power.

Later, at about 12:30EEST, my registration request for a motorcycle has been accepted by the local authorities and even later, at about 19:10EEST, I have been issued a number plate and registration certificate.

The motorcycle is a blue and white 1997 Yamaha Virago XV535 which I bought a few days ago and the number plate is B-11-RVW. The motorcycle is still parked at the previous owner's location, somewhere in the small city of Otopeni so I have to find the nerve to go and ride it back home :-)

That is all for now and I hope it answers most of your questions :-) I shall write the full story too because I think it would be useful for others wanting to follow in my footsteps and I shall also post pictures as soon as I take them. Please allow until this weekend for those two to happen.

Have a good night everyone,
@Dexter

Somebody's WordPress did it again

2009-07-22T06:12:06Z

As previously mentioned, NABPS is quite strict about the XML flavor it is fed via RSS and ATOM. And, again, as I've previously mentioned, WordPress (as a framework) seems to be very much into creating problems, mainly due to its design.

This time it's Emil Chericheş instance's turn to show its dark side to us all:

rendering his feed unparsable and thus missing from the aggregator content.

@Dexter

Riding & driving classes: the saga continues

2009-07-05T20:05:20Z

Good evening everyone,

Moving on with the story, I've attended 7 motorcycle riding classes and 5 car driving classes up to now. I've never written anything about how my driving class is going for the simple reason that my focus (preference and passion) is mainly on (for) riding; nevertheless, there may be some of you out there wanting to know so here goes.

The driving class is held on a pool of Citroën C1s which, funny as it may look, seems to have been a wise choice because it handles very well and is very forgiving with the lack of skills usually found in a beginner.
The particular car I'm taking my class on has a clicky 2^nd gear (it shifts smoothly into it while at rest but it produces an audible metallic click when shifting while rolling, even if the clutch is fully depressed), a stubborn 1^st gear (again, smooth shifting when at rest but needs quite a push on the lever when moving) and a phantom clutch (there are two traction peaks within the pedal travel instead of just one).
Moving on to the good side, the servo-assisted steering has a very responsive and sturdy feel both while at speed and when creeping through back alleys. Strangely though, it feels like a motorcycle's handlebar when hitting potholes in the pavement al low speed :-) Another good feature is the servo-assisted brake which works smoothly in a linearly progressive way both when at speed and while coasting -- a very good thing for a beginner which tends to slam it every so often :-D

And what about me? Oh well, as I've mentioned previously, I'm not that much into driving as I am into riding. I'm making visible progress, I'm learning and I shall get my (car driver) license but my focus will remain with motorcycles and riding.

Speaking of which ...

I learned how to lean the motorcycle in a controllable fashion while taking a turn, much like I had been able to do with my bicycle before
I learned how to apply gentle throttle while taking a turn to stabilize the motorcycle's posture and trajectory
I learned how to prop it up its center stand without hurting anyone (myself, bystanders and motorcycle included)
I learned how to push it around without straddling it, without dropping it (or making a mess out of my arms in an attempt to keep it from falling) and without the help of the engine (it may sound funny but it's a mandatory examination item, just as propping it up/taking it off the center stand)
I started practicing riding in zigzag through a string of traffic cones spaced 2m apart (another mandatory part of the examination). It works, but I need some more practice to iron out any hesitation while shifting my weight from one side to the other
I started practicing quick stops ;-)

And, last but not the least, I've found a good place to shop for equipment & apparel :-)

Finally, I would like to quote David L. Hough, the author of (among many others) More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride, as he found the perfect way to describe the attitude of a good motorcyclist: "Motorcyclists, like pilots, put the priority on avoiding accidents rather than attempting to survive accidents. The energy is focused on doing everything right, rather than surviving the crash.". This also helps me with explaining my choice to various people concerned with the risks involved :-) ... and this will also help me explain my future choice (I expect it to happen next year, from February onwards -- but I'm not sure of my budget yet) of taking classes for a PPL+IR license.

That's all for tonight,
Sleep well and ride safe,
@Dexter

Motorcycle school: impressions after day 3

2009-06-23T21:21:42Z

Moving on with the series, the 3^rd day at motorcycle school went as follows:

the bad throttle on the GZ125 magically fixed itself over weekend, I had the smoothest ride with it in the beginning of the class
feeling confident with the GZ125, I quickly switched motorcycles and took the GZ250 out for a ride. It was a lot better this time, no jerks, no surprises, not even on the sandy parts of the riding court's concrete floor. At first, the extra weight of the GZ250 felt scary as it seemed harder to move from side to side, but as I set myself in motion it actually felt much more stable and even easier to control (less prone to "it doesn't go where I want it to" surprises) than the GZ125
also, the 250cm³ engine behaves differently (i.e. better) in that it has enough power to move the motorcycle steadily forward while at idle without strange sudden changes in rpm. Moreover, it keeps that steadiness while opening the throttle, making it a lot easier for me to control the overall speed of the motorcycle and to apply power when needed (e.g. when riding up a bump). I wonder how a 535cm³ feels like ...
the front brake behaves just like sixx commented a few days ago, thanks again for pointing out the engineering details that escaped me.

That's all for now,
See you all soon,
@Dexter

What's your deepest fear?

2009-06-20T20:24:30Z

(An apology to all of you out there that may be thinking I'm flooding the aggregator -- no I am not. Even if NABPS was written by me, it is a public service and I back it with the full extent of my respect and support, no less than for any other public service.
It just so happens that I feel joyful and inspired -- to write -- lately; that only happens to me for two reasons: when I'm hurt beyond tears and when I'm very very happy. We'll find out which was it by the end of next week ...)

I've just watched Coach Carter on TV, liked it and found the following piece of dialogue very valuable and inspiring for my way of life. It would seem somebody up there insisted on having me watch and hear that tonight, not a minute later, not a day earlier. Interesting ...

Anyway, here is the quote:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

It is the very reason for which I insist on going on my way and on enchanting others with my old-fashioned and "different" way, for I deeply believe world-wide change starts with a single person -- just as a 1000 step trip starts with the first.

I'll keep on shining, even if it (temporarily) blinds the weak,
@Dexter

Motorcycle school: impressions after day 2

2009-06-20T10:48:50Z

As promised, here is what happened in day two at the riding school:

Unquestionable evidence to the fact that CyberDyne 7s do have at least one background process dedicated to continuous self-improvement, balance was not an issue anymore :-) Neither when moving slowly, nor while speeding and not even while taking a turn or stopping (needless to say, the "right foot on the pedal, firmly!" difficulty disappeared as well)
Having my mind offloaded by all those, I could concentrate on other things such as making the physics work to your advantage when taking a turn, working with (as opposed to against :-)) the motorcycle when riding on and off a bump in the ground and coping with a bad throttle:
Probably owing to its age (bad/sticky cable) and the colder air (different combustion behaviour) this morning, the GZ125's throttle behaved in a very devilish, 2-stroke-like, quite erratic way. It was bad, but I was a lot more relaxed and self-confident than in the first lesson so I could take my time with it such that I never managed to stall (or completely stop) the engine, nor choke it by opening the throttle abruptly while at low rpm and under torque. I have to say it was a very interesting experience (riding with a bad throttle, that is) from which I learned a lot about how the engine reacts when faced with sudden changes in torque and throttle gauge; I think it has helped me understand a lot more than if everything had worked fine, as I now know what to expect from an erratic engine and how to persuade it, nicely, to go my way ;-)
Since everything was going so well, I was just about to ask the trainer if I could switch motorcycles (I must have my rematch with the GZ250 after what she did to me in the first class!) OR if I could try the second gear as well :-) but I quickly realized I should not hurry things up, even if my mind is quite restless about it :-) So, at the next class, on Monday morning, I'll try and do both.

Moving to issues of a more tangible nature, I have done some research in what the motorcycle itself is concerned and hit a dense wall: the utter stupidity of Romanian dealers :-( I still have some to check out the next week, but the situation is quite grim, as I have previously mentioned when replying to a comment here.

Anyway, here is my shortlist, sorted in decreasing order of preference (all are 2009 model):

Kawasaki Ninja 250R, MSRP: 4000USD

Yamaha V Star 250, MSRP: 3800USD
Honda Rebel 250, MSRP: 4000USD
Yamaha YBR250, MSRP: 4300EUR (seems to be EU-only)
Suzuki GZ250, MSRP: 3800USD
Suzuki TU250X, MSRP: 3800USD
Kawasaki Eliminator 125, MSRP: 2800USD

Out of all those, the only two which you can actually buy here are the first and the last -- such a shame! Does anyone reading this have any hint on that? Are there any distributors (located anywhere within the country) that I may have missed? Is there any hope? Please also bear in mind that I have not risen the question of why does a 4000USD motorcycle cost 4700EUR here, as I am willing to accept that as one of the many faces of everyday reality when living here.

The second-best option (if no dealers are to be found here that are willing to sell one of the cited models) would be to ship it by special order from Germany ...

@Dexter

Motorcycle school: impressions after day 1

2009-06-19T08:22:38Z

Following up on my previous post, I'll let you all in on what I've learned after the first day of hands-on motorcycle training :-)

Forget all you've learned (and taught your mind and body to do) while riding a bicycle -- the motorcycle physics are mostly the other way around
Static equilibrium is harder to achieve than dynamic equilibrium -- it is even harder to persuade your mind to drive your muscles the way it needs to do so to achieve that
While it's very easy to drive a bicycle slowly, it's harder to do so with a motorcycle -- in that the bicycle part comes naturally but the motorcycle part is an acquired skill
While you would dismount your bicycle and stand next to it as a "safe posture", you would firmly mount (straddle) the motorcycle, putting most of your weight on the saddle and keeping your legs on the ground for balance. It's a bit counter-intuitive but quite essential as the motorcycle is some 10 times heavier than the bicycle ...
The bicycle is lighter than you, therefore you control it and it will go where you want it to. The motorcycle is heavier than you, therefore you have to persuade it to go where you want it to. It's always a good idea to know you motorcycle very very well, in what it's physics are concerned, at the very least
The motorcycle's engine is always more powerful than what your legs used to be on the bicycle AND it's something you do not control with your mind, but rather with the throttle -- a lot of kinky things happen because of that. As such, knowing (or getting used to) the way your motorcycle behaves in real life situations is quite important
There is a huge difference between 125cm³ and 250cm³! While I could get to a point of common understanding with the former at both low and medium rpm, both when driving straight and while taking a turn; it was nearly impossible to cooperate in a fully deterministic way with the latter, at least not in the first half hour or so. I don't even want to imagine how something like 1400cm³ feels like :-) Not yet, at least :-D
Stepping on the brake pedal with your right foot while you are moving, riding on something, is a very mind-boggling experience :-) especially when you've ridden a bicycle for years before. Speaking about brakes, it is a very good idea to assume the front brake does not exist, to simply erase it from the landscape :-D just to be on the safe side.

I just loved it and the next lesson is on Saturday morning, from 9:00EEST onwards. I'll be sure to follow up with thoughts and things I've learned after each one :-)
Finally, for completeness, the motorcycles used at the class are Suzuki GZ125 and GZ250s.

Until next time,
@Dexter

Adding 26 horse power to 2 wheels, chain and pedals

2009-06-07T20:27:52Z

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

After giving much thought and careful consideration to the issue at hand, I have decided to get a driver's license. Let it be known beforehand that this is a personal decision and it has nothing to do with the various recommendations and even imperatives I had been receiving on the subject matter over the past few years.

Given the fact that I have been involved for a long time with the technical aspects of both cars and motorcycles, I have also decided to take up classes and, subsequently, sign up for examination in both areas of driving skill certification. This will result in a (what the local law calls) "category A and B" driver's license (where A is the designation for riding motorcycles and B is for driving cars).

Given the fact that bearing a driver's license without putting it to good use is meaningless (and, on one hand, Cyberdyne 7s, finite state machines as we are, don't grok "meaningless", do we?; on the other, driving a company car for business does not count as good use), a decision had to be made regarding the vehicle to be acquired for use after completing all legal requirements to do so. A lot of input and study has gone into making this decision, personal preference and throwing a dice included, but I have now made my mind up: it is going to a motorcycle, namely the Kawasaki Ninja 250R.

At just under 5000EUR (taxes included) from local distributors, it is quite affordable given its performance figures, quality of design and manufacture and the fact that I won't have to worry about finding a parking spot for it (which is quite an acute problem here these days).

Projecting the course of events (and my cashflow), I expect to have completed all legal requirements (and thus earned my driver's licence) by the middle of July, so I would say I'd move in for the buy by August 1^st.

Up to then, I welcome all and any comments on the matter, including advice from people who own or have owned such a beast, people who would like me to change my mind :-), people who know which helmets/jackets/pants/boots/gloves are best when used with such a bike and so on. Let them pour in, I need every bit of information, insight and advice I can get, thank you :-)

Have a nice day tomorrow,
@Dexter

NABPS dodging not well formed XML

2009-05-21T06:42:42Z

Dear users of NABPS (be that content providers, i.e. blog owners, or content consumers, i.e. feed readers),

Please, kindly be notified that this feed aggregator is only able to process RSS2.0 and ATOM feeds that are, XML-wise, well formed. If your feed is not well formed, it will not pass into the CFF cache and, subsequently, neither into the SFS cache, to the output drivers and in the final output (be that HTML, RSS or ATOM). The net effect of this is that your content will not show up in the aggregator, even though NABPS will fetch it as dictated by If-Modified-Since and Last-Modified headers.

Please note that the two most common causes encountered for an otherwise working feed going not well formed are:

lack of cooperation between the content generator (blog software) and the web server, in effect making the web server believe the feed is updated more or less often (or not at all) than it actually is; in some cases NABPS has even been fed empty or truncated feeds due to the above
lack of cooperation between the templating engine used on the generating site and the strict nature of XML dialects (most sites generate their feeds from a custom template, processed the same way as the HTML-generating ones) -- many if not all of the things that are allowed or even acceptable in HTML are not tolerated in XML so please check your templates and, most importantly, your feed (i.e. the end result of said processing). Over time, NABPS has been fed countless cases of feeds containing PHP debugging output (or even warnings or errors) interspersed with XML, not to mention the almost everyday case when an otherwise well-formed feed comes in with trailing garbage of the aforementioned kind.

Anticipating the FAQ: no I shall not attempt to relax NABPS' XML parser in any way that would make it susceptible of accepting a not well-formed feed as valid. Standards must be obeyed, to the letter.

One, mandatory, example: Alexandru Burlacu's feed ends with the following (closing rss tag shown for clarity):

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: nothing to repeat at offset 14 in /var/www/alex.burlacu.blogsite.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/wassup/wassup.php on line 2782

(later edit, on the same day, at 15:02EEST)
It seems the above problem has been fixed shortly after my post -- thank you for your timely reaction. This is not the first time things get fixed after being reported so I'll make sure I do that every time I'll be coming across something strange, in what NABPS' content sources are concerned.
Further on, I have added Tudor Damian's feed to the list as I found its contents as being of interest to the community.

I hope this helps everyone involved,
@Dexter

Heartbeat (4)

2009-03-06T09:14:04Z

NOTE: This MovableType instance has recently been upgraded to 4.24 Pro (DB schema 4.0068). Should any problems arise and/or be noticed in relation with the operation of this site, please do not hesitate to bring them to my attention for a due fix.

@Dexter

NABPS now integrated with the front page

2009-02-01T21:14:43Z

Hello everyone,

This is just a short note to let you know I've written a planet info block driver for NABPS and as such you can now see its status summary on the front page.

The code audit in what XML parsing semantics are concerned (i.e. making sure my code interprets the source feeds exactly the way the standard DTDs meant it) is due this Wednesday night; packing, signing, legal clean-up and documenting will probably take another evening or so (at the current load figure) so all in all I expect to release NABPS v1.0 somewhere during this Friday, probably Friday evening :-)

(later edit at 00:11EET on Tuesday, February 3^rd, 2009)
Mr. Alexandru Popescu's blog feed has just lent me a very nice example of a "thing that needs fixing in NABPS" as that particular feed is output as a very strange case of ATOM-in-RSS2.0 which, even if well formed and well documented in the appropriate DTDs, is not handled properly by NABPS resulting in a post entry with, apparently, no content.

I've fixed the problem temporarily by switching to the native-ATOM version of the above and will be investigating the issue to its full extent (and, hopefully, resolution) during the XML code audit.

Apart from that, upcoming events include the opening of a new production studio for Radio Andromeda and the launch of my personal site (as I am now self-employed).
Also, a new issue of Since you have asked is almost due as I've received some very interesting questions over the past few weeks -- will probably be posting it on Monday evening.

That's all for now,
Stay tuned,
@Dexter