Month: September 2005

Categories
Cars

IAA (Intl. Motor Show)

I’ve been to the IAA in Frankfurt yesterday. The trip was organized by the VDI, the association of German engineers, and sponsored by ZF, a well-known maker of auto parts, especially transmissions, steerings, and axles. I went there with Mona’s father. She couldn’t attend herself, because she needs to learn for her written exam next week.

As always — I’ve been there for the third time already — it was a very thrilling experience, but at the end of the day you also know what you have accomplished kilometer-wise. 😉

Some photos I’ve taken are available from my photo gallery.

As you still might remember from one of my previous posts, I look into buying me a Skoda Octavia, but I will only buy a diesel model that comes equipped with a diesel particle filter (DPF.) So this was my first question when I arrived at the Skoda stand. The hostess seemed to be quite well informed, and she told me that the Octavia with the 2.0 litre diesel engine will be equipped with a DPF starting in November, and the smaller 1.9 litre engine will be available with a DPF in January, 2006. The charge will be 565 EUR.

I hope that Skoda will finally make it. Until then, I will keep my old car and continue to commute by train. 🙂

Categories
Toys

Vodafone Mobile Connect Card

Some days ago, I got myself another toy — our Vodafone Mobile Connect Card. That’s a UMTS/GPRS CardBus (PCMCIA) card for laptops.

I use it on my way between my home and the office, while I sit in the train. I can surf the Internet, read mail, or chat with my friends. I also have a VPN client installed, that, together with an RSA SecurID token, I can use to connect to the office network, to access files or my company e-mail.

The great thing is that our UMTS network is already pretty well developped, so that I have a bandwidth available that is almost comparable to that of a DSL line. And even in places where we don’t have UMTS coverage, I can use our 2.5G network (GPRS over GSM) to surf with a somewhat limited speed.

Based on the experience I’ve made during the last few days, I can absolutely recommend our MCC card to any mobile “road-warriors.”

Categories
Toys

Samsung Z500 UMTS

I’ve got myself a brand-new toy — a Samsung Z500 UMTS mobile phone. I ordered it because I liked its compact size and light weight, as well as its stylish outlook.

Samsung Z500 UMTS

So far I haven’t found anything I dislike. The phone seems to be very robust, and the GUI is very intuitive. I can’t yet comment on the qualities of the phone when it comes to video calls, because here at my residence our UMTS network is very weak, so that the phone constantly books into the GSM network.

What I like specially much is that the phone has a TransFlash slot, which my Motorola E1000 also has. I will buy myself a 512 MB TransFlash card which should allow me to carry >100 songs with me — the phone has an MP3 player built into it.

Stay tuned for more infos to be available shortly.

Categories
Family

Family reunion ;-)

Yesterday, we met with my “cousin” Brigitte from Florida and her husband, Lyle. “We” meaning Mona, her parents, and I. I put the word “cousin” in double quotes because she’s not really a cousin of mine, but the daughter of my dad’s cousin.

I’ve already visited her twice in Riverview, which is in Hillsborough County, about 15 mls. from Tampa. Last time (in Oct. 2004) I brought Mona with me. Mona’a dad promised Brigitte to invite them to a coffee, probably to thank them for inviting Mona to their home. We met at 6 PM in Cologne, just in front of the cathedral, and because it was already so late, we went into genuine Cologne pubs instead, the Früh and the Gaffel’s.

We had a great evening, enjoying the Kölsch beer and some fine meals. It was some 25 years since Lyle last was in Cologne, and he is a great lover of Kölsch beer, so he couldn’t get enough of it. 🙂

Anyway, Brigitte and Lyle will fly back to Florida on Saturday. But it won’t take long until we meet again — remember that I wrote earlier that we’re gonna fly to Florida in late September, so it’s only a few weeks until then… 🙂