Results tagged “marker” from @Dexter's Blog
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
Good evening everyone, please find the long-expected press release below:
Earliest, on August 7th, 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 12th, 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
Earliest, on August 7th, 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 12th, 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
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
@Dexter
NOTE: This MovableType instance has
recently been upgraded to 4.23 Pro (DB schema 4.0067). 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.
Regarding NABPS (whose development stalled last week), I am happy to announce that I was able to work around Cristian Nicolescu's blog feed by jumping over the redirect and fetching the final targeted content -- which is, finally, well-formed XML :-)
Also, Ovidiu Lixandru's blog feed magically fixed itself (!) last week and finally (because we must have bad news as well), Răzvan-Teodor Coloja's blog feed does not show up in the aggregated output simply because his feed does not contain any time coordinates whatsoever (and, as you all know, nothing evaluates to 0 when cast to integer and 0 as a UNIX timestamp reads as "way back in the days before time begun" -- therefore his entries, even if always fetched, parsed and transformed into CFF, will always sort last and thus be clipped out of the aggregated content).
Finally, some other news: it is with great pleasure that I have found out today that project România Digitală has (after a long wait and arduos efforts) released RO.A.D. 2008! I just cannot wait to upgrade, both RO.A.D. itsef and my GPS receiver (a venerable Garmin eTrex Vista) to a shiny, brand new, Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx :-)
See you soon,
@Dexter
Regarding NABPS (whose development stalled last week), I am happy to announce that I was able to work around Cristian Nicolescu's blog feed by jumping over the redirect and fetching the final targeted content -- which is, finally, well-formed XML :-)
Also, Ovidiu Lixandru's blog feed magically fixed itself (!) last week and finally (because we must have bad news as well), Răzvan-Teodor Coloja's blog feed does not show up in the aggregated output simply because his feed does not contain any time coordinates whatsoever (and, as you all know, nothing evaluates to 0 when cast to integer and 0 as a UNIX timestamp reads as "way back in the days before time begun" -- therefore his entries, even if always fetched, parsed and transformed into CFF, will always sort last and thus be clipped out of the aggregated content).
Finally, some other news: it is with great pleasure that I have found out today that project România Digitală has (after a long wait and arduos efforts) released RO.A.D. 2008! I just cannot wait to upgrade, both RO.A.D. itsef and my GPS receiver (a venerable Garmin eTrex Vista) to a shiny, brand new, Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx :-)
See you soon,
@Dexter
Hello everyone,
This is just a short note to let you know I'm done (for the moment) with tweaking this blog's design and overall appearance (an effort which began some 3 weeks ago when I left Minimalist Blue - the default style - for something new).
Most changes are readily visible: the style sheet has changed and with it the typefaces and colors did too; the layout has shed the third column (more space for my <pre /> text!) and, finally, the sidebar has changed content as the Asset List went out and the classic Blog Roll went in :-)
Other, more subtle changes (in what the sidebar is concerned) include the RSS link which appeared alongside the original one for ATOM, extra section headers and (this used to be a big pain after the MT 4.2 upgrade, but now it's fixed :-) ) the aspect of the Tag Cloud.
Furthermore, a couple of new plugins were installed, most notably one for visitor statistics and one to also allow login (for commenting) using your Google account (in addition to those types of accounts that were already supported).
See you at the next post,
@Dexter
This is just a short note to let you know I'm done (for the moment) with tweaking this blog's design and overall appearance (an effort which began some 3 weeks ago when I left Minimalist Blue - the default style - for something new).
Most changes are readily visible: the style sheet has changed and with it the typefaces and colors did too; the layout has shed the third column (more space for my <pre /> text!) and, finally, the sidebar has changed content as the Asset List went out and the classic Blog Roll went in :-)
Other, more subtle changes (in what the sidebar is concerned) include the RSS link which appeared alongside the original one for ATOM, extra section headers and (this used to be a big pain after the MT 4.2 upgrade, but now it's fixed :-) ) the aspect of the Tag Cloud.
Furthermore, a couple of new plugins were installed, most notably one for visitor statistics and one to also allow login (for commenting) using your Google account (in addition to those types of accounts that were already supported).
See you at the next post,
@Dexter
Good evening, my dear audience.
Those of you who know me personally are aware of my demand for near-perfection when it comes to paid services -- based on the rationale that you can always directly control the delivered quality of a service whereas it is in most cases harder to do that for a finite product.
In the same vein, a certain bank with which I did business for the past 6 years just managed to miserably fail meeting my standards last Thursday, when one of its ATMs failed to physically load my card and subsequently dumped an error and turned off (with my card inside, of course).
Let me make this perfectly clear: my card was in perfect condition and it presented no physical damage whatsoever, however the card transport mechanism inside the ATM did miss a roller or two; also this was not a remote ATM but one found in a bank office, right in the middle of Bucharest. Of course, video surveillance was in place at the time but no one called (on behalf of the bank) me to ask how did my card end up halfway the loading path in that ATM. Not that day (during business hours), not the second nor even the third day -- even though that machine is checked and refilled with cash on a daily basis.
That was the last straw and I did what I think everyone should do when finding themselves at the receiving end of disappointing service: change your provider. It is the only message companies seem to understand nowadays.
As such, please be notified that, effective October 25th, the following IBAN codes (and their associated accounts) shall be discontinued:
Effective immediately, the following IBAN codes are to be used for all payments due me -- please update your billing records accordingly:
As a special courtesy regarding the possible inconvenience caused by this change on such a short notice, the following additional terms shall apply up to and until November 1st, 2008 at 00:00EEST to every and any binding contract I am involved in and that directed (at the time it was created) the peer to operate payments towards the IBAN codes that are to be discontinued:
That's about it,
See you again soon, hopefully with better news,
@Dexter
Those of you who know me personally are aware of my demand for near-perfection when it comes to paid services -- based on the rationale that you can always directly control the delivered quality of a service whereas it is in most cases harder to do that for a finite product.
In the same vein, a certain bank with which I did business for the past 6 years just managed to miserably fail meeting my standards last Thursday, when one of its ATMs failed to physically load my card and subsequently dumped an error and turned off (with my card inside, of course).
Let me make this perfectly clear: my card was in perfect condition and it presented no physical damage whatsoever, however the card transport mechanism inside the ATM did miss a roller or two; also this was not a remote ATM but one found in a bank office, right in the middle of Bucharest. Of course, video surveillance was in place at the time but no one called (on behalf of the bank) me to ask how did my card end up halfway the loading path in that ATM. Not that day (during business hours), not the second nor even the third day -- even though that machine is checked and refilled with cash on a daily basis.
That was the last straw and I did what I think everyone should do when finding themselves at the receiving end of disappointing service: change your provider. It is the only message companies seem to understand nowadays.
As such, please be notified that, effective October 25th, the following IBAN codes (and their associated accounts) shall be discontinued:
- RO54 BRDE 410S V601 0090 4100 (RON)
- RO20 BRDE 445S V587 8854 4450 (EUR)
- RO19 BRDE 445S V692 7814 4450 (USD)
Effective immediately, the following IBAN codes are to be used for all payments due me -- please update your billing records accordingly:
- RO83 INGB 5519 9999 0114 1219 (RON)
- RO30 INGB 0000 9999 0115 3119 (EUR)
As a special courtesy regarding the possible inconvenience caused by this change on such a short notice, the following additional terms shall apply up to and until November 1st, 2008 at 00:00EEST to every and any binding contract I am involved in and that directed (at the time it was created) the peer to operate payments towards the IBAN codes that are to be discontinued:
- for payments in USD that were directed to my old USD account, they are to be redirected to my new EUR account using a fixed (frozen) exchange rate of 1.5 USD for 1 EUR (which means you will pay less for the same services)
- for payments in EUR that were directed to my old EUR account, they are to be redirected to my new EUR account having 2.5% deducted from them (which means you get a 2.5% discount on the contracted services)
- for payments in RON that were directed to my old RON account, they are to be redirected to my new RON account having 5% deducted from them (which means you get a 5% discount on the contracted services).
That's about it,
See you again soon, hopefully with better news,
@Dexter
NOTE: This MovableType instance has
recently been upgraded to 4.21 Pro (DB schema 4.0067). 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.
See you at the next post,
@Dexter
See you at the next post,
@Dexter
NOTE: This MovableType instance has recently been upgraded to 4.12 (DB schema 4.0036). 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.
Without further ado, here is a sneak-preview of what I'm going to post here in the near-and-foreseeable future:
See you all very soon,
@Dexter
Without further ado, here is a sneak-preview of what I'm going to post here in the near-and-foreseeable future:
- Two Media Projects -- How People Pack More Power Than Code
- The Women in my Life -- An Anthology of Failure
- Bucharest Institute of Technology -- A Dream And A Destination
See you all very soon,
@Dexter
- Even though facts tend to prove otherwise, I am still alive, I am still connected to the Internet and I have forgotten neither the URL to this page, nor my login credentials -- time (or, rather, the lack of it) was (or is) again the culprit for my prolonged absence
- I have recently taken a bold step forward in what following one of my interests (a vivid passion actually, but as I do all things with passion, including the evil ones, I stripped the adjective off the noun) is concerned, namely photography, by upgrading my gear to a Japanese beauty: a Nikon D40x. My Japanese beauty finds herself in the company of other two outstanding instances of Japanese engineering: two zoom lenses, the 2nd generation bundled 18-55 and the VR version of the 55-200. I am planning to upgrade the bundled 18-55 with its VR cousin as soon as the latter will hit the stores and (budget permitting) to get my hands on the VR equipped 70-300 as well.
Until then, here are the first photos taken with it (hint: I need a name! After Mata Hari and Edith Piaf, who's next... what do you say?) - After a long long, almost too long time, I finally got some real good feelings and news from work and from my professional life as a whole. It would seem I am finally going down the road I actually want/wish to, which is great -- both an achievement and a feeling nevertheless
- Chances are I will get my hands on an Apple iPod (the 80GB -endowed spawn of that) before Christmas -- finally, after a long time, I shall be able to have all my music with me all the time. And I mean all of it!
- Chances are I will upgrade my GPS receiver somewhere between January and February 2008 -- thanks to RQA's (the local Garmin dealer) cool buy-back policy for older models -- the eTrex Vista will go out and a brand new GPSMAP 60CSx will go in
- I am starting to find bits and pieces of my own peace and silence again (of both mind and soul) which is another a great thing that is happening to me this year -- I can actually hear my thoughts again and I'm starting to quickly and instinctively switch whole contexts and profiles on the fly again, too. Probably owing to that, my telepathic capabilities seem to come back to their nominal values (and sometimes even exceeding those -- another reason to be happy), in all modes of operation; the same applies to my ability to instantly observe/scan and assume knowledge of complex networks -- and I'm not talking about computer networks here
- Owing to my hectic timetable lately, the Radio Andromeda project has taken a small vacation -- not to be mistaken for anything of a more permanent nature, I shall be back on air very very soon.
Sleep well,
@Dexter
Today is the first day of the ISEC 2007 event, held this year in Bucharest, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. I was assigned to participate on behalf of my employer, Provision IT Group, along with my colleagues.
This will be a live-record of the events that will take place here; while it cannot compete with a professional news coverage document, it shall have said standard as a quality target ;-)
[9:15 EEST] Our CEO, Mr. Alexandru Andriescu held the opening speech.
(later)
I've taken some pictures which I shall upload and post later on
(even later)
No, I have not forgotten about the photos, just didn't get to them yet. Will do, soon enough ;-)
@Dexter
This will be a live-record of the events that will take place here; while it cannot compete with a professional news coverage document, it shall have said standard as a quality target ;-)
[9:15 EEST] Our CEO, Mr. Alexandru Andriescu held the opening speech.
(later)
I've taken some pictures which I shall upload and post later on
(even later)
No, I have not forgotten about the photos, just didn't get to them yet. Will do, soon enough ;-)
@Dexter
This weekend was a very nice and special one, even though nothing visually detectable happened. The interesting part was on the inside, as I had a glimpse (like a bird's eye view) on my current status in life from a higher perspective; and that triggered another glimpse, this time on my future.
I feel a lot better now, about myself and about my place, my mission and my way so to speak :-) There's a lot to say about what I have seen and understood but, since it's very late on this side of the Earth, I'll keep it simple for now and promise you I shall tell the story of the facts as they occur (in practice or to my mind).
To get you started, I have to admit I have been neglecting my artistic side -- which (by my Laws) is comparable to a sin in today's religions -- so, to fix that, I hereby let you all know that I'm taking up playing the piano.
Another thing that's going to raise an eyebrow is that I will be moving away from computer science -- not in the dramatic sense, i.e. I shall not quit my job tomorrow, but I shall try to think of the computer more like of a tool rather than a purpose in itself. I shall remain, nevertheless, a power user but I strongly feel the need to gradually put an end to being the neighborhood's geek and move on to other, unexplored and uncharted areas of science or humanity.
I also have to admit the Radio Andromeda project had its share of merit for triggering this revelation in me when my expectations in what audience counts vs. programming nature were concerned were overthrown by reality -- people seemed to react a lot differently to certain subjects and/or attitudes when encountering them on the radio than in real life.
That is all for now, I shall keep you all informed as to the further developments of myself and my new state of existence,
@Dexter
I feel a lot better now, about myself and about my place, my mission and my way so to speak :-) There's a lot to say about what I have seen and understood but, since it's very late on this side of the Earth, I'll keep it simple for now and promise you I shall tell the story of the facts as they occur (in practice or to my mind).
To get you started, I have to admit I have been neglecting my artistic side -- which (by my Laws) is comparable to a sin in today's religions -- so, to fix that, I hereby let you all know that I'm taking up playing the piano.
Another thing that's going to raise an eyebrow is that I will be moving away from computer science -- not in the dramatic sense, i.e. I shall not quit my job tomorrow, but I shall try to think of the computer more like of a tool rather than a purpose in itself. I shall remain, nevertheless, a power user but I strongly feel the need to gradually put an end to being the neighborhood's geek and move on to other, unexplored and uncharted areas of science or humanity.
I also have to admit the Radio Andromeda project had its share of merit for triggering this revelation in me when my expectations in what audience counts vs. programming nature were concerned were overthrown by reality -- people seemed to react a lot differently to certain subjects and/or attitudes when encountering them on the radio than in real life.
That is all for now, I shall keep you all informed as to the further developments of myself and my new state of existence,
@Dexter
Hello everyone,
I've finally got around the fear and disgust of using a complex blogging solution and (after being disappointed by Typeface and scared off by Wordpress; in that order) installed MovableType :-)
I wish to concentrate all my writing efforts here and also to get some quick (positive) results, as a result of that.
See ya,
@Dexter
I've finally got around the fear and disgust of using a complex blogging solution and (after being disappointed by Typeface and scared off by Wordpress; in that order) installed MovableType :-)
I wish to concentrate all my writing efforts here and also to get some quick (positive) results, as a result of that.
See ya,
@Dexter
Powerplant
