Save a car
If you’re a car passionate, or someone who values the sentimental value of certain objects please read the following article:
You may be wondering why it’s worth saving up for an old car right? This car has it’s history, it’s tweaks and it’s fun stories. It has been through a lot and it still shows signs that it can do another hundred thousand miles.
The story starts when my dad first got the car back in 1999. I can still remember the plastic covering the seats, the paint protection coating and the first trip to the Shell gas station with that car. I was only 11 back then and for me, it was like a space shuttle, it had electric windows, it had ac and it had one cool Kenwood tape player with 4 speakers + 2 tweeters.
The car has been through a lot since then, dad has been driving it from 1999 to 2006, taking our family on mountain and seaside trips, we went to Greece, Italy, Hungary and Austria with that car. After 2006 I’ve earned the right to drive it, obtaining my driver’s license. I’ve been taking trips all around the country, I’ve been using that car every single day, both winter and summer, very little mechanical faults in this passage of times. That car is the witness to my young teen adventures, my joys and my sorrows, my high-school graduation, my first freshmen year at RAU University. It helped me move from a city to another, it helped my friends move from their home to a newer home.
Even in some bad times, when a cab turned around the double continuous line and I crashed into him, or when I got rammed in the back about 2 years ago cause a driver failed to see the light changing and kept on going… Each time, I worked overtime to pay for repairs. Buying them piece by piece and replacing them with new original parts.
However, this year, in July I got the “Periodical Technical Inspection” or MOT. I can no longer afford to do all the fix-ups (I’ve got a bank loan for my house) and I’m having a hard time paying for stuff as it is. I am sure it will not pass in it’s current technical condition so that’s why I am asking for help.
Full story here: http://sephia.chipin.com/my-old-car
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Smaeb 2011 – The Low Budget Moto Convention
Personal thought: “If you want to know when a motorcycle exhibition sucks, it’s when they put the ATVs / snowmobiles / Spider 3 wheel vehicles out in front, right at the entrance…”
It has been a while since I’ve written something here, almost 9months…well today proved that I should keep on doing the reviews I do. SMAEB or “Salonul Motociclistilor, Accesoriilor, Echipamentelor Bucuresti” in raw English that is: Bucharest’s accesories, equipment and motorcycle’s convention. Over the recent years the show draws more and more people (specially bikers) from all around Romania… What I can say is that, from my past experiences and visits to both Motorcycle and Car conventions the “SMAEB” show is going downhill at alarming rates. I understand that the economic recession has everybody on a short budget but COME ON… I’m not paying 2.5 euros to get slapped in my Canon 5D 24mm wide camera lens and go “I beg your pardon, could I move on” routine every 2 minutes. To keep this short, I’ll put down my top 5 disappointments with this year’s “SMAEB” convention:
1) Location:
Usually, the conventions are held at the renowned Romexpo center, a place designed for massive exhibitions, with very good parking. This year the moved it at ROMAERO in Baneasa, the entrance being at Aerogarii Bd. Behind the facts that you’d spend around 2 hours in traffic, crossing a bridge over the the railways, this year that road is under construction, so from a nice 3 lane road to a 1 1/2 lanes. Lovely. Of course, the cops were overwhelmed by the situation and decided to do what is only natural, let the problems solve themselves. So, that’s 2 hours off my life. Besides the transition matters, the show itself was located beside an active runway, in a plane hanger (a 4 Cessna airplane hangar), with poor ventilation and terrible lighting (one place too bright another nearly pitch black). Good thing I brought my flashgun.
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Debuging Flash in Firefox – Trace made easy
This week’s tutorial is on “How to debug” Flash in Firefox. As you noticed, standard trace statement will not work outside the Flash Output panel, unless you are using some exotic Firefox tool called Firefox tracer or something like that. Either way, I recommend Firebug (get it here) for a lot of reasons, which include html and css real time editing (to fix css problems and such) and some really cool script debug and error handling, however, we will only cover the console part.
First what is the Firebug console. It’s an output panel used to debug javascript (instead of using alert(‘something’) you can use console.log(‘something’) which will print out in a very nice manner without any annoying pop-up like messages.
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How to: create your own web browser!
On the market there are 5 major browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari, with their advantages and disadvantages. My personal opinion is that Firefox provides the best platform for both development (webdesign) and displaying web pages). Now comes the question: why do I want a custom web browser? From my work experience I’ve learned that having a custom browser would have an advantage, providing extra features and tools specific to that website. Here’s some advantages:
1) Store the site locally (including database content and synchronize it whenever needed)
2) Have custom elements overlayed by air.
3) Provided better security on data (credentials) transfer.
4) Peer to Peer page sharing 
P2P-Web(tm)
Motorcycle Guide: Pick the right oil
Engine oils have been around for nearly a century, but only in recent years engine oil manufacturing and rigorous testing have made the oil itself a high tech product, being much more efficient then every before. Out on the market there are various brands of oil, from race certified engine oil to the cheap 2 parts water – 1 part oil products. Since we’re on a motorcycle section I was, forced by circumstance to write such an article to prevent further engine damage from misunderstanding of the productv A little while back, I was talking about a test drive on a Honda CBR 600 F4I, however some thoughts still remain in my head about the old motorcycle I used to own(my previous bike, the Suzuki SV 650). A little situation made me write this oil-related specific post.
Last night I received a phone call from the buyer, he seemed pretty agitated, so my first reaction was that he was some sort of trouble, like in an accident or something similar. But, thank God, it was nothing too serious…he did virtually kill my bike, but still, he was in one piece. How did he manage this performance? To completely destroy a bike in under 2 months from purchase? I’ll tell you how…
Test Ride: Honda CBR 600 F4I
It has been quite some time since I wrote about my “Suzuki SV 650 sale”. Well now, I am going to tell you how it feels to ride for a few minutes on a Honda CBR 600 F4I, but first lets take a quick look at the technical data of the bike itself.
Model aspects:
- Manufacturer: Honda
- Year: 2004
- Model: Standard deltabox sport touring motorcycle – CBR 600 F4I – US MODEL
- Engine: 599 cm³ / 36.55 inch³ – Inline four – Fuel Injected
- Transmision: O-Ring chain
- Capacity:
- FUEL: 18 l / 4.80 Gal – Unleaded Gasoline
- Weight: 180 Kg dry
First impressions are quite positive. (more…)