BMW doesn't like vacations

So we went on a trip for a week and a half, so the BMW 320d (yes I should specify) didn't drive for that time. When I tried to start it yesterday it had a dead battery. Luckily not dead enough for all the electronics to loose their settings, but not starting dead.

So went and borrowed a friend's (thanks Paul) jump starter. It's one of those small Lithium battery jump starters and it worked as a charm.

This got me thinking I'll have to get one of those. Some googling taught me that
- there are a lot of those out there
- they come in all different sizes (roughly 5000mAh to 20000mAh)
- most of them have additional extras like flashlight / usb charging ports / compass / ....

One thing that's really missing from most of these is the ability to charge from USB, which really hampers the power bank function of the thing. I have a nice solar panel to charge it, but can't use it.

I'll keep you posted if I find one that's USB rechargeable (and doesn't cost 150$ like the noco geniusboost)

COTE - BMW Z3 coupe

Here we go, a new COTE (Car Of The Era).

Saturday we went and got the new car, or at least the new to me car. 

It's a Z3 coupe with the M52TUB28 engine, as you guys should know from previous posts. 

Here are some pictures, which should give you an idea about the car. 

The car has dutch export plates for the moment, which are rather funny since they're just stickers glued on a plastic 

 So now comes the time where I ramble on about what "needs" to be changed / repaired / modified on the car. You've been warned.
- all bushings on the rear suspension. They aren't shot, but according to the interwebs it's a nice improvement in driving feeling and could actually prevent chassis damage in the long run
- Navigation system is much needed. I've been ogling the Parrot Asteroid RNB6. Can't wait until it is released
- Check radio reception. For the moment there is no reception. I suspect the antenna amplifier to be either defect or not powered. More digging is necessary
- Polish the windshield. There's some swirl marks in the glass.
- Gear shift knob. It's too high for the moment
- Put lights in the gear shift knob i don't have yet :-)
- Get rid of the curb rash on the left rear rim. Not much, painting and polishing should do the trick.
- replace the engine hood ground wire
- and the list goes on :-)

COTE - The end of an era

As i write this, there is an empty spot in my garage. It's been 7 years since that's happened, but it finally happened again. The celica has been sold. 

That concludes a decade of me driving a toyota celica. The first 3 years and 98.000km were driven with the one and only black celica. The last 7 years (and 200.000km) were driven with the gray, which never really truly could fill the footsteps of the black one. 

So yesterday I sold the car to two Libanese brothers, the older one paying for the car the younger one is going to drive. Given his enthausiasm for the car, and his brothers sceptism, I thinkit's going to a good home, maybe even a better home than it had with me, since for him it really is the one :-)

This also means that my COTW rants are going to have to come to an end, since I'll have to decide on what car I want to fill that empty place in the garage. For the moment I'm chasing down a BMW Z3, so keep your fingers crossed for the next post to arrive very soon. 

RANT - FOD economie Arbeidsenquete

Dear Readers, 

Some time ago I got a letter telling me that I was one of the lucky ones selected to take part in a mandatory survey. Some random person would get in touch with me in due time. 
Apparently the guy came to our place some evening around 18.00. Needless to say we weren't home, so he left a card saying that he would be back. In case I wanted to make an appointment he left a phone number. A landline number. That's alarm bell number one. 
Being a good citizen I gave the guy a call and made an appointment for saturday morning. But not before calling the FOD and asking if i could take part by phone. The nice lady told me that this was only possible for pensioners. So let's get this straight. Working people, who are all day occupied at work and have to cram their household chores in the few waking hours are supposed to waste some more time. This would be alarm bell 2 for you. 
So anyway, saturday morning, I eagerly await the FOD guy. Turns out it was an 80 year old guy. 
He installed himself and took out his laptop, on which he typed the answers to the questions. I had trouble restraining myself from taking the laptop out of his hands. 
Anyway, the questions were 
- Do you work
- Since when
- Where do you work
- How do you go to work
- What kind of work do you do
- What kind of contract do you have
- How much do you earn
- What's your highest education
That's it ... nothing more. It took about half an hour in total. Yes you read that right, half an hour for those few questions. 

I really honestly wonder why they didn't just use an online survey. So I asked them. Here's the question and the answer i got from FOD : 

Geachte heer, 

Hierbij heb ik uw mail overgemaakt aan de verantwoordelijke van de dienst arbeidskrachtenenquete van de fod economie. Hij zal u verderhelpen met uw concrete opmerkingen.

Met vriendelijke groeten,



U hebt op 14-2-2015 om 9:32:59 de volgende vraag aan ons gesteld:
Beste, 

Ik heb daarnet een enquêteur op bezoek gehad i de het kader van de arbeidsenquete. 
Deze man was van redelijke leeftijd en moest mijn antwoorden op computer intypen. Zelf ben ik programmeur. Ik hoop dat je de ironie kan appreciëren. Zelf had ik de vragenlijst nauwkeuriger en uiteraard vlugger kunnen invullen. 
Is het niet stilletjesaan tijd om dergelijke enquêtes online te doen? Dit zou enorme besparingen met zich meebrengen, zowel op gebied van tijd voor beide partijen, geld voor de FOD, en gemak bij het verwerken van de resultaten. 

Hopende dat er volgende enquête de 21ste eeuw waardig is, 
Groeten.

This is the answer I finally got on my mail. Apparently the participation rate is higher when they send people instead of going online. A slight improvement would be to send people to the xx% of people who don't reply online. Giving us good citizens a break :-)

Bij de Algemene Directie Statistiek organiseren wij al jaren enquêtes bij huishoudens via internet. Enkele voorbeelden zijn: het Reidonderzoek, de ICT-enquête over computer- en internetgebruik door huishoudens en de Adult Education Survey over levenslang leren.. 

De reden waarom wij voor de Enquête naar de Arbeidskrachten een beroep doen op interviewers die aan huis komen, heeft met kwaliteit te maken. Bij internet enquêtes neemt slechts tussen de 20% en 30% deel. Als wij de enquêtes laten afnemen door interviewers, dan stijgt de participatiegraad tot 80%. Wij hebben die kwaliteit echt wel nodig om een correcte schatting te maken van het aantal werkende, werklozen en niet beroepsactieven in België. 

Intussen hebben wij een project opgestart om na te gaan hoe we in de toekomst wel het internet kunnen gebruiken voor de Enquête naar de Arbediskrachten, zonder al te veel in te boeten op kwaliteit. 

Met vriendelijke groeten,

RANT iCoyote part 2

In my last post about iCoyote, you'll remember that I wasn't all that chuffed about how the upgrade worked.

In the last couple of bugfixes, some of the bugs got fixed. So I now have, or should i say had a working program. The last update broke it again. When I stepped in my car the other morning after an update the program would just crash. It took me a clear data / force stop / reinstall / wait a day / reinstall / clear data / .... you get the idea before the damned thing would start again. 

Bear in mind that I recently paid 90€ to renew my licence. I must be erred but I expect an expensive piece of software to just work. Especially since it's a rather simple program. Face it, it's a database with a front end on evey smartphone. hardly rocket science. 

Anyway, it worked again, but the interface is crap. Let me specify that for you, the text prompts are a real mess. It all starts with the first startup, where it gives you the choise of what country you're in. I'll ignore the fact that a GPS enabled program has to ask this for now. So you chose your country and then you can chose your language. Here the trouble starts, not all languages are available. I live in Belgium, so the official languages are French, Dutch and German. Two of which are available, yes you read that right, there is no English to choose from even if my phone is set up completely in english. Ok, let's just select dutch shall we. 

That's where it get's really funky. None of the prompts are proper Dutch. The best ones are google-translated from French, some are in German and some are just not translated. 

I'll see if I can get you some screenshots in the next couple of commutes.

Here not a prompt, but a rather funky average. Mind you, all the prompts are in English.

 The text says "radar gemiddelde snelheid" which is a direct google translate from French. The voice prompt uses the official Dutch "trajectcontrole"

 Here we have a couple of typical google translates. Oh and you guessed it, "Nein"and "Ja" aren't Dutch either. In this case German is used, in another case (no screenshot) it's in French.

This is a funky one, not a clue what a "Rijdende mobiele" is, but somehow I got warned about it.

COTW BMW Z3 coupe 2.8

Those following this site might have a déjà vue, but bear with me. I'll tell you how I came by this car  ... again.

I decided that I really want to replace the celica with something else. I've been driving celicas for the last 10 years and covered 300kkm in them. Time to move on.

Soooo I want rwd (shouldn't come as a shock to you guys) I also wanted it to be cheap, i.e. if something goes wrong with the car, I don't want to have to go back to driving a lesser car. So the Porsche is out of the question. This leaves us with the MX5 and the S2000. 

There's a world of difference between the two of them, but in the end it boils down to one is cheap and modifiable the other one is a finished product at a higher price. So MX5 it is. 

That explains that for the last couple of weeks I've been looking for my ideal MX5, which is a black on black 1.8l with aircon. Of course this being the one I want, makes it about a rare as they get. 

In my wanderings along car sale sites I've recently came across a Z3 coupe 2.8, which made realise I still love that car. So I wandered off in another direction and did some more research on the car. 

You'll remember, or you can just click my previous post, that I wanted to change a lot of parts on it. Well it seems the latest 2.8, which was introduced in 1999, already has double vanos. I only need to make sure the engine is a M52TUB28 instead of a M52B28. There you have it, some motivation to accept a 2.8 in my life other than the tax advantage compared to the 3.0, the fact that they are easier to find and they look gorgeous. 

Anyway, I'm off searching for some cars :-)

Beemer was thirsty

Yesterday the beemer was very thirsty.

She told me the range was 0kms. Where the 4 dashes are, there used to be a number indicating how many kms I can still drive. But she was still running as you can see on the tach.

And when filling her up, I put in 62,32l, whereas the tank capacity is 63l

Guess driving LPG this long has made me less sensitive to the fuel needs of a car. In the Celica there's always fuel or gas just a press of a button away.