I Went to Germany and Came Back with a Car: Day 3

Off to Vienna we go!

The morning arrived quickly, overcast and damp. The helpful folks at the front door offered to retrieve my car from parking but I declined. I've had more than one bad valet experience back in the U.S. When I pulled the bright blue rocket up, the doorman took one look at it and offered to drive me anywhere I wanted. We all had a good laugh and it was a great way to start the morning. 

We hit the road and let the car warm up nicely through the lower speeds through Munich and out to the autobahn. It stayed overcast and chilly so there was no need to push anything too fast. After a while though, we settled in with the flow of traffic. In the unlimited sections, actual speeds varied from about 100 kmh to around 170 kmh. And, every once in awhile, a Porsche or other high end vehicle would rocket by like we were standing still.

To break up the trip we stopped at Salzburg. We stopped at one of the gas stations before the Austrian border to pickup the Vignette. If you haven't driven in Austria before, in order to drive on the highways/roadways you need to purchase and display a toll sticker. 

It was a great little town with some real charm. Unfortunately, being Sunday most of the town was closed. Still, we managed to take a few pictures of the area. There was this crazy artwork in one of the courtyards:

Though that might look like Obama, I don't think it was meant as a political statement.

The architecture was really something in Salzburg.


The Austrian autobahn is very similar to the German one. Large sections of it were "unlimited" to the national speed limit of 130 kph. However, the locals don't seem to abide to that much so it is pretty easy to get used to driving very fast. The car handled well throughout - no surprises, at all. Wind noise does tend to pickup quite a bit north of 95 mph though. The 1 series isn't exactly an aerodynamic beast after all. Managed about 23.5 mpg throughout this section of the trip and I was quite pleased at that.

After Salzburg, we headed onto Vienna. I stopped for gas most of the way there and paid a little less than Germany. I definitely noted quite quickly that gas alongside the motorways is not the cheapest source of gas. However, it was still cheaper than Germany.

We reached Austria as it got dark. Once again, the Nav was indispensable - a strange, dark city at night was not easy to navigate into and the Nav's helpful voice and maps made a huge difference.

iDrive note: We setup the iDrive to have the split screen view so that is shows the map plus the current street you are on, what you should do now and what you should do next. It was very helpful for planning ahead. It also will tell you visually, which lanes to be in once you are in this mode.

Once we reached Vienna, the car stayed put for another day, but I'll leave this entry with a couple more pictures of Vienna. It's a really great city.

St Stephans Church


Austrian Parliament






Last edited by former; 11-09-2008 at 08:44 PM.

I Went to Germany and Came Back with a Car: Day 2, Part 3

I returned back to the Welt to pick up my car and in only a few moments it was pulled up in front. Time to go pick up my traveling companion at the Munich airport. Thankfully, during the car setup process, Matt had programmed the Nav for the airport already. Yes, the Nav does work in Europe as they load the European maps while you are there.

Off we went and even with the Nav's help I made an immediate wrong turn. Overall, driving in Europe is pretty similar in terms of the rules and signs and so forth. However, there are certain styles of roads there that are just different enough to cause confusion or hesitation. It would take some time to get comfortable with them - but, in the meantime, the Nav was great about re-routing.

Back on track, I hit the Autobahn after a short tour on local streets. Traffic around Munich can certainly be fairly thick, but it was pretty sparse being a late Saturday afternoon and headed toward the airport. Typical speed limits seemed to be generally in the 120/KPH area - sometimes faster or slower. However, within about 8 miles I hit an unrestricted zone.

Any new car really needs some break-in. Tires are new and tend to be a bit more slippery. Brakes need some time to acclimate and rub off that manufacturing sheen and certainly the engine shouldn't be flogged either. That said, BMW has higher limits that, say domestic manufacturers, when it comes to break-in. They prefer you merely keep it under 100MPH/4000RPM for the first 1,200 or so miles.  That's a laughably high limit when purchased in the States, but in Germany is actually seems pretty restrictive.

Therefore, it is more than a little odd to be driving 95 miles per hour on your car's maiden voyage. Completely legally and even on the slow side compared to other traffic - completely without drama. I left plenty of room around me at all times due to the aforementioned tire and brake conditions, but had no problems whatsoever. Traveling that fast got me over the airport pretty quickly and after a minor bit of hunting around successfully collected my companion.

Programmed the Nav for the hotel and started back to town. On the way back, we stopped for gas since if you noticed from the earlier pictures of the instrument panel, you only get about 5 gallons of gas. Though people have accused BMW of being cheap, apparently this steps from a legal limit of fueling cars in enclosed buildings. But, I digress. Europe uses a different octane rating system than we do here, but I selected the best stuff I could find: Super 100. Filling up the tank ran about 68 Euro or about 100 bucks at the conversion rate. Not cheap.

The Nav faithfully took us back to the hotel with no issues. It was rapidly becoming clear it was going to be a life saver. I previously had a BMW with the first gen iDrive and that thing was clunky and difficult to use. While the 2009 version still isn't perfect, it is MUCH easier to use that the old one and the Navigation is top notch. I think it would be very hard to drive in Europe without a nav unit. And it seems the natives agree - I cannot tell you how many people had nav units stuck to the windshields of their cars. They are ever-present.

The hotel parking wasn't cheap but it was off the street. It was also somewhat snug. The 1 series is pretty small though and fits almost anywhere. The tight spaces made the fold in mirrors more of a necessity and less of a luxury. And with that, Day 2 was over. Tomorrow... Vienna.

I Went to Germany and Came Back with a Car: Day 2, Part 2

Delivery complete. I now take the "victory" lap around the delivery ring and head out of the Welt. It's a privilege relatively few folks get to experience and yet it is relatively anti-climactic. Down the ramp and out the door... ready to roll! Nah, not so fast.

Instead, I hand the car back over to the Welt valet staff only moments after I've taken possession. And, being no fan of valets, you'd think I'd be concerned. But heck, if you can't trust BMW of Germany with it, who can you!? Besides, unlike in the states, the vast majority of Europeans know how to drive stick.

Before I hit the road, I have time to visit the BMW museum. Admission is "free" since you've just bought a car (as is the valet service and a factory tour if you so choose). Since you've come all the way, might as well go to one or both.

I Went to Germany and Came Back with a Car: Day 2, Part 1

Day 2 and Day 3 have been combined since the point of this journey into the past is focused on the car pickup. Apologies for some of the photos, they were primarily taken with an iPhone 3G.

After arrival, the next day was spent seeing the sights in Munich. I won't relate all the typical sights, but it was a pretty dense day of walking, taking photos and figuring out where everything was. The day passed quickly and I turned in early - both for the next day's event and because of some residual jet lag.

Friday morning was spent seeing the last few sights that I had missed the previous day and shopping for a few souvenirs. Though the delivery appointment wasn't until 3:40PM, my excitement got the better of me and I left for the Welt around 1PM. I'm glad I did too - the station at Marienplatz confused the heck out of me. The ticket kiosks which were translated into English at the airport were not so much in the city itself. And even the location of the U3 platform was not completely obvious to me. I felt like a complete dope - but like most men refused to ask for help and eventually figured it out on my own.

Worst Way to Get a Job: Apply

It's been about a decade since I last had to look for a job.  And, my oh my has it changed.

At the time Dice and Monster were the (relatively) new hotness and when you applied there, you generally got a response pretty quickly. Nowadays, Monster is a brutal train wreck of excess. I haven't looked at Dice lately and LinkedIn and Indeed.com have sprung up out of nowhere.

There are a massive number of jobs out there. For example, on Indeed if you search for "Los Angeles", you get over 60,000 listings. That's a lot of jobs. Unfortunately, I've found that applying for them is the equivalent of printing out your resume and putting it in the shredder. Actually, that would be more fun.

Social Networking Qualms

While I'm no fan of the consumer web sites that purport to help you get and stay connected, I have been spending a lot of time on LinkedIn. I've probably made mention of the forums there and other features in a post here and there. 

However, all social networking sites are primarily a function in expanding your network, sharing information with them and so forth. This has given rise to the term "Super Conductor" which is considered as anyone with over 500 to 1,000 connections. Opinions vary on the number, but I really have to question why it's an issue of numbers at all. Where is the metric of quality?

Wh-wh-wh-Windows 8?

It's not controversial to say that Windows 8 has not won the hearts and minds in the technology community. In fact, recently, Windows 8 and Microsoft were blamed for the slide in PC sales. While I personally think there are plenty of other reasons for said slide, IDC isn't exactly nobody in the tech business so people will take note.

I am a pretty technically savvy person so my concerns and needs do not exactly mirror that of a more every day consumer. Nonetheless, people like me buy a lot of computers, advise others what to buy and often support those systems at home and in our business. What we think does matter beyond what our ownership or market presence bespeaks.

Let's start with a few key issues. These arise from my use of Windows 8 over the course of the last month on my HP ENVY dv6 laptop. It is not touch enabled so this represents the vast majority of desktop and laptop computers in existence today was well as most new units shipped for the foreseeable future.

How Much of Your Life Is on Your Computer?

Or on your various devices? Do you have an app from your bank that remembers your username and password? Or your web browser? What about electronic copies of your credit card, bank statements, tax returns, social security, etc.? Our devices are increasingly mobile and increasingly powerful  the perfect target for identity thieves.

Identity theft is going nowhere but up. 2012 was a banner year for thieves making lots of money by pretending to be you. If they swipe your phone or your laptop they can re-write your life in short order. The financial toll is estimated at more than $50 billion annually by one organization. But that's nothing to say about how much disruption and time and effort it is going to cost you. 

Closer to home, recently my in-law's laptop was stolen. As with most thefts of this type, it's relatively impossible to recover anything. He ran his household from it which meant it contained an extremely complete picture of their financial life. Wisely, they assumed the worst and started to proactively contain any potential damage by cancelling or changing accounts and setting locks and monitors.

There is simply no way to eliminate theft or simply never lose a device - they are just too pervasive now and yet also in high demand. As our use of technology evolves, we need to get smarter about it. Here are three pretty universal recommendations for reducing the impact on your life when the inevitable happens.

The Coffee Shop as the New Office?

Once upon a time, I used to begin my day with a can of Coke or a stop at McDonalds to get the even better fountain version. I didn't like coffee ass it tasted too thin, insubstantial for my tastes. Certainly, that was true versus the syrupy sweetness of coke. 

Eventually, my tastebuds matured a bit and that degree of sweetness became sickeningly sweet - especially so early in the morning. I moved onto coffee but then found the sweet spot in the latte. The blend of milk and espresso really gets it done for me. Unfortunately, they aren't cheap and you can really only get them at the local coffee shop. Perhaps I should say "shops" as the coffee wars continue to rage with Starbucks versus everyone else in a bid to seemingly achieve a coffee shop on every corner.

This growing ubiquity has led a trend of folks hanging out at the coffee shop as a social and work destination. Nowadays, the coffee shop is being hailed as a melting pot of creativity and caffeine by a variety of folks with recommendations to make it a normal working location. 

Performance Anxiety

It's been a few weeks since the HP ENVY dv6 joined the team. I've constructed a report card of sorts that puts some of my thoughts together to get to just how well this model performs. To some degree it should be noted that this laptop has dual graphics cards and advanced power management. That has the effect of really making it act like two very different laptops based on whether it is plugged in or not.
Power
Lets start with battery life. I have been very pleased on how well this unit performs even with just the 6 cell battery. It runs for a few hours with the regular battery and about another hour with the Long Life 9-Cell Notebook Battery. Overall, I would consider this very good. My last laptop had such poor battery from the built-in battery that I had to essentially permanently add a supplemental battery and always carry it around. No such issues with this one. I have been using the 9-cell battery quite a bit more because since it is larger it provides a more comfortable typing angle and also provides better bottom ventilation. This thing can run warm if you're getting into some extended game time.

Performance Under the New Regime

If you've been following my recent adventures in networking you know that I recently transitioned over to an entirely new router from a new vendor. Some of the things that Asus emphasized with this unit was speed and range. Both were important to me since I'm running on a FiOS connection that provides 75Mb downstream and 35Mb upstream. I certainly want to be able to use as much of that pipe as I can.

It's text book that if you want to see the results of a change you need to take a baseline. I also wanted to see the difference across devices. Speedtest.net provided performance information used below. I should note that I also run multiple tests on each device to ensure that no single result was out of a reasonable range.

Network Overhaul

I have just over a dozen network connected devices in the place not including any roaming devices from friends or family. I'm expecting this number to only grow over time. Having a capable traffic cop in the house is a pretty high high on my list of home technology issues. For an extended period I have had issues on my network wherein my computer refused to perform appropriately on my Linksys (Cisco) equipment. While most things are connected directly to the router and mostly via WiFi, I still have several devices that connect via wired Ethernet.

The "fix" for my issue was to connect my desktop computer directly to the vendor supplied router and everything else was behind the Cisco network. This caused a lot of problems with media sharing and similar activities since computers on different networks won't talk to each other without fairly creative and complex configurations. For a while now, it seems Linksys has been producing far more retail products than updating the firmware on the stuff they have already have. As a result, even though I was running on a mid- to upper-market Linksys E3200 High-Performance Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router, fixes, improvements, etc. were very scarce.

I didn't really relish replacing the router since it was fairly new still and seemed to work ok with every other device I had. But, replacing my Alienware beast was inconceivable at best (and no, there are no open slots for another network card/USB networking is hokey.) Unfortunately, with as much stuff as I've been doing on the home network, something had to give. 

Luckily, a gift card came my way. While it wouldn't cover the cost of a new router, it would take the sting out. Not as much as I thought, given the unit I ended up going with, but it was something.

Almost as Fast as Retail

As I'm working on a post about the recent changes to my network, it occurred to me that I needed to mention the order process. Don't worry - it'll be quick.

At 5:07 PM PT, I ordered the new router from Amazon with the free 2-day Prime shipping option.. Obviously, that is 7 minutes past the typical close of business. Additionally, the day of order was a Thursday. I was a little surprised when the order summary displayed with an estimated day of arrival is Saturday. Last I checked, Saturday delivery was certainly available for an extra fee even to Prime members. No matter, I'll cheerfully accept a free upgrade!

Friday arrived the next morning and I had an early-ish appointment to make. As I left the house, I was blown away to see an Amazon box at my front door. Best as I can determine, that box landed sometime around 8:30AM PT. Folks, do the math... that's just over 12 hours from order to door! Amazon is becoming increasingly efficient with its distribution network. It is keeping, if not raising, the pressure on retail establishments with abilities like this. 

Being able to get products in your hands that quickly to their Prime customers will continue to attract and retain customers. Even now, it is hard to me to order from other sites knowing I would have to pay shipping when I don't at Amazon. This ups the ante to ask me why I should bother hitting a local retail store.

Keep an eye on them folks. The juggernaut is alive and well.

Selection Complete and the Verdict Is In...Kinda

The last post was all about how I selected the HP ENVY dv6 laptop. The question now is: Did I make the right choice? To some degree its a silly question as this isn't a comparison. I do not have two laptops side by side to compare to the road not taken. Therefore, the ENVY will be reviewed on it's own merits.

Purchasing
The ordering process is pretty simple and was done at the HP Home and Small Office store. It's easy enough to select a pre-built unit or custom to order. I obviously did the latter based on how needlessly geeky I am sometimes. It's just your typical order wizard with a next, next type process.

Hand over your credit card info and the process is underway. Now, there were a couple of oddities in the process. I did not automatically receive an order confirmation email but rather a "we received your order request, please stand by" type message. For some reason there is some sort of 24 hour processing window. I'm not sure if that's typical of all custom requests or not. However, I did receive that order confirmation email late that night with a suggested ship date of 6 days later (7 days from date of order) with about a 3 day shipment period as the unit was being assembled in China. It actually arrived a day earlier than promised which was great because I wanted to take it on a trip coming up shortly.

Selection Season: Laptop Search

For the last dozen or so years, a laptop has been a constant companion of mine. Whether it was used as my main workstation or my roaming travel companion, it was always there. However, said laptop was always provided by my employer. It was a business laptop and all that entails - or rather, doesn't. It usually had good processing power, mediocre graphics processing ability and was dull, dull, dull.

When I became a free agent earlier this year, I began considering whether I needed a laptop or not without the likelihood for regular travel. Given my knack for all things digital I eventually got around to "yes." I would have gotten there more quickly since my iPad can do a lot. Toward the end of my MBA classes, not only was I reading the text on the iPad, but using it for both handwritten and typed notes with the addition of the small Apple Bluetooth keyboard. However, for heavier applications, spreadsheets and document creation, it still lacks the the kind of flexibility and power of the typical laptop.

With that, the search was underway. I was willing to consider virtually any mainstream names such as Dell and HP. I looked at Lenovo as well as Apple, Asus, Alienware and Toshiba. No, Sony was never an option. While I like their designs and style, I've had issues with reliability and serviceability with them in the past.

To make matters worse, I'm a picky bugger. I didn't want to assemble a field of 64 ala the NCAA, but I did have some pretty specific needs and wants. First up, the screen. It's the thing that I'm staring at all the time, and I want it to be top-notch - very high resolution (1920 x 1080). Size was less important so while I wouldn't have minded a 14" screen, I wasn't able to find any manufacturer that made one with that resolution. Or at least, none that fit my other needs. I had to compromise on a 15.6" screen to get that resolution - but then, not all manufacturers offered that either. 

Job Hunting and the Efficacy of the Modern Resume

Since I'm back on the job hunt again after a 10 year stint at my last company, it's been interesting to be on the applicant side of the equation. Over the past decade, I was involved in hiring dozens of people which equates to well over a thousand resumes that crossed my desk. I was the hiring manager for some of the positions, part of a hiring team for others or perhaps the one-over manager.
In other cases, I wasn't involved at all but was pulled into a quick interview to help get a good feel for the candidates if there was question as to fit or multiple similar candidates.

Thinking back to the process, I remember a massive time commitment required to get together a good job description, work with human resources or recruiting to begin the process, review the resumes, perform a phone screen and then schedule and conduct one or more in person interviews.

Roomba the Grand Pooba

My need to reclaim free time and avoid the drudgery of housework continued after the Litter Robot and the Mint joined my household. While the mint helped to keep my tile and wood fresh, I'm not a huge fan of the vacuum. The house has a very good unit - a Dyson DC41 Animal Bagless Vacuum Cleaner. It's a great unit for sucking up all the animal hair and stuff. The canister is easy to empty and so forth. But, you still have to run it and I feel like there is better stuff to do with my time.

Enter the Roomba
Roomba is probably one of the better known automatic vacuums on the market. It certainly has been around the longest as it goes back to about 2002. They've evolved over several generations and now represent some of the most effective units on the market.

The unit I chose was the iRobot Roomba 770 Vacuum Cleaning Robot for Pets and Allergies and picked it up from Amazon. The first thing you need to be aware of is that these things are NOT cheap. If you aren't the type of person to consider a Dyson (also at the top of the market in terms of prices) just stop reading. It's probably a waste of your time. Luckily, I had a sizable credit at Amazon since I had traded in a pile of old text books. That managed to take a lot of the sting out of the purchase.

Psychopathy in Leadership

I've been finding LinkedIn to be more and more helpful to my business career over the past few months. The email updates and articles they put in front of me via email as well on the web site have been consistently topical, insightful and in some cases quite actionable.

I have also joined a series of groups, many of which have their own forums. While my backlog of business books grows, I do manage to find time to intake these snippets of information. Just yesterday, I stumbled across the Harvard Business Review forum which had an interesting discussion on how to handle a "bad boss." While the discussion was started months ago, these types of discussions aren't particularly time sensitive - they are still worth a read. Clearly, there are many detail-oriented folks in the forums as the discussion was quite rich with many "It depends" type answers (which tend to be the most insightful and helpful.)

The most interesting contributions probably came from Dr. Brian Monger.