From time to time, I put aside the theoretical end of business and go out and live it first hand. 


This is a brief revue of a very interesting new car from one of the world’s great car makers, Ruf Automobile - http://www.ruf-automobile.de/. For those who don’t know about Ruf, all I need say is Alois Ruf builds Porsches the Porsche would like to build them.

My friend Jon M was in town, so a visit to Alois and Estonia Ruf seemed a great way to spend the day, you can only take so much Oktoberfest.

As luck would have it, it was one of the nastiest days of the year, weatherwise and I had mentally written off doing any testing. I was a little concerned as Jon was heading up to the ‘Ring afterwards for an appointment on track with his ‘disposable ring toy’ which is kept up there.

In any event, we were made welcome by Alois on our arrival and after explaining that Jon had quite an ‘interesting’ 930 we were handed over to Marc Bongers (http://www.amazon.ca/Porsche-Data-Book-Specifications-Statistics/dp/1844253163/sr=1-1/qid=1159455251/ref=sr_1_1/701-2788136-8551562?ie=UTF8&s=books) who looks after PR and visitors. We were shown round, much to Jon’s enjoyment as he had not visited before and has an eye open for his next car. There was the usual assortment of interesting cars in various stages of assembly and disassembly. A couple of items caught my eye, including a genuine 2.7 RSR engine which was probably worth its weight in gold and being put into a Concours car that had been damaged and is now destined for Classic racing and rallying, what a brilliant idea for a former garage queen and a supercharger.

This isn’t your normal Roots type Supercharger. It’s more like the cold side of a turbocharger. In this case it is beautifully done with integrated intercoolers and driven by a polyrip belt off the crankshaft. A centrifugal clutch disengages it below 1,500 rpm. It all wraps most neatly round the engine. Allegedly, it is extremely efficient and keeps on building power right up to the cut-out. My ears really pricked up when we were told that it has been fitted to the Cayman. I tucked that little item away in the memory bank and continued admiring yet another lovely flip flop paint job and some glorious restoration work.

Still raining we went down the road to join Alois and Estonia with their Latin American friends for lunch. As per usual I banged on about cars for far too long in front of people who really know what they are (not) talking about, they were far too polite to tell me to stow it and, I think in an attempt to get me to put a sock in it, I was asked if I would like to drive the Cayman with the Supercharger. A blur later and I was back at the garage waiting for ‘my’ Cayman.

I was warned that it didn’t have the aerokit fitted, so the downforces would be a bit light but was otherwise complete. The front aerokit will include a bigger splitter and a 997 GT3 appearance whilst at the rear, the spoiler will be larger and the appearance generally tidied up. The suspension had been lowered as well and the car had an aggressive appearance.

At this stage I have to admit that I haven’t driven a factory specification Cayman, so I can’t compare it directly. In fact, of the recent ex-factory cars the only ones I have driven are the 996 and 997 GT3 Cup, the 996 GT3 RS, and the 996 and 997 Turbos. So that’s my frame of reference.

The car started quite normally with no drama but a slight and rather pleasant edge to the exhaust thanks to a nice piece of fabrication to build a rather more free breathing exhaust system with metal catalysators. The engine pulled away cleanly as we headed down a fairly agricultural road, engine note growing as the revs piled on, no quitting with this supercharger, the engine just gets ever more urgent as revs mount, the power delivery becomes more rapid all the way up to the limiter, it feels like a very well sorted engine about a litre bigger than the Cayman’s transplanted 3.8 litre engine. I was impressed by the rate at which it builds speed, the responsiveness and the ease with which the car handles a huge hike in horsepower. For now lets just call it a ‘huge’ hike, I don’t believe its only the 440 horsepower claimed, it feels far stronger, in fact I’m on the same schedule as I am in the 997 Turbo, so that gives you an idea of just how much more this conversion gives. As I got into the car I noticed up-rated brakes and now I tested them before I need them in anger, nice linear feel with no perceptible lag before engaging, obviously they are doing a good job of coping with wet rotors.

From behind the wheel everything feels tight, the MPS2 shod wheels, not my favourite tyres if I am honest, feel solid on the road although I wouldn’t exactly describe them or the steering as talkative, we felt planted, the rear end was solid, tracking in line and not perceptibly moving around. As I began to up the work rate, the lack of aero began to assert itself so that running through corners at over 100 mph, I needed to ‘nig’ the front several times to get the tyres to bite and counteract the understeer, however at no stage did the car feel unstable doing this. The technique just felt entirely natural and appropriate for this car and much more appropriate for the chassis dynamics than suddenly backing off the throttle to kill the understeer.

Even in the rain and with variable visibility, overtaking was a breeze, the speed piling on and turning planned two car passes into whole queue manoeuvres. This car really does go down the road like a rat in a sewer. I’m impressed, the speed and handling are better than the Turbo and GT3 in the real world, although I am now feeling that it’s a bit tricky as the limit approaches, the low polar inertia will lead to the rear end coming round a bit suddenish, if you get my drift, it may not be as kind to novices as the GT3, but the whole time I’m thinking ‘what a great track tool’! And this one doesn’t yet have a LSD fitted. The options here are interesting and I look forward to trying one of Stasis Engineering’s modified units.

Hey, I want one of these, really I do, this is a real sports car, yet comfortable enough to spend the day in crossing continents. After too short a drive I stop and hand over to Jon over his protests, he too enormously enjoys his drive back. On our return I report how great we found the car and clarified a few points. Yes, the quoted 440 horsepower is extremely conservative, yes there are more options available.

What everybody thought is borne out in reality, the Cayman has a better chassis from a performance point of view than the 911. One of the problems as far as racing is concerned is that fitting a roll cage is less than straight forward. In retrospect this car impressed me as much as the 997 Turbo under whelmed me. I love this car, it handles like a dream and I’ll offer time and distance across country to GT3 and Turbo pilots with one of these to hand, run don’t walk to join the queue for one, its that good. To illustrate how different this supercharger is, I mentioned to Alois that I felt that the rev limiter should be softened, he looked surprised and said this was standard, so I pointed out that with the power growing ever more rapidly as the revs build you bounce that much harder when you do hit the limiter, but I only did it once, it was so sudden.

This car has joined a very select list of driving tools which have earned my five thumbs up accolade, amongst which are the 2006 Gallardo, this is rarefied company indeed.

For the more technically inclined, I’ve dug up some background on the supercharger. It has been developed by ASA under the guidance of CEO Christian Stöber and is described by them as a mechanically driven radial compressor. Yes, you may have seen versions fitted to Alpinas. Close examination reveals a jewel-like piece of engineering with beautifully executed twin intercoolers and revised inlet manifolds. Additional cooling requirements are taken care of by a third front mounted radiator and the supercharger’s oil supply is kept separate from that of the engine itself. The key to a long and reliable operating life is perfect balance. To this end, ASA does as much work in house as possible.

This supercharger technology certainly blurs the line between normal and forced induction as far as the driving experience goes, and a little (yellow) bird tells me that we are going to see a lot more of this technology.

The peripatetic life certainly makes computing complicated. Why?

Not so long ago it was reasonable to leave important ‘stuff’ on a secure server and access it remotely when required. Now that every other working document we open runs to a megabyte or so and that time on trains and planes is as valuable as being at your desk in terms of getting work done, its important to have all your documents with you, particularly when you are not connected or on a slowish link. These days anything under 5 Mb.sec-1 counts as slowish!

However, this creates a problem. Making sure you have the right version of what you are working on, and making sure that keeping versions in line is painless. It’s not a big problem when you only work with one computer, but it is when you have two or three machines that you work on, it becomes something of a management headache.

So I did some digging around and have managed to lash up rather a satisfying solution. But first some background. I am fortunate enough to have my own server at my friend Kate’s company Memset Ltd (http://www.memset.com/ ), coincidentally this year’s PCPro Web Host Of The Year (http://www.memset.com/news.php#bestwebhost ) well done Kate, Nick and the team. Amongst other uses, it also provides backup storage for me, which I have been ftp-ing files up to. It all works but it’s not an optimal solution. This is where things got interesting.

Firstly I installed a utility called WebDrive (http://www.webdrive.com/ ). What does this do, you may ask. Well, it lets me mount a remote Directory on my Windows XP machine as if it were a local drive. So I set up a directory (folder) in my ftp incoming file store to which I can add Folders from my PCs that I wish to securely back up and access from other machines. To my delight this works extremely well and I even have some secure transfer and locking options, I have the choice of FTP, SSH & SFTP, and WebDAV (Web-Based Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol) for transfer and blocking and can attach to FTP, SFTP, WebDAV and FrontPage servers. This is much simpler than setting up a VPN. It even has a file transfer manager that lets me back up and synchronise directories. However, I don’t use WebDrive’s synch features, which are fine, I’m just rather attached to another synch tool.

The other leg of my backup and synch strategy is called, appropriately, Good Synch (http://www.goodsync.com/ ). This specifically addresses the problems associated with keeping files stored on different computers in synch. All I can say is, thanks to a nifty algorithm, it works. The latest version of any file is always available to all the workstations I use. When a machine is started, it checks the remote data store and makes sure that it downloads any updated versions and uploads any newer versions of files, these changes become available to all the other machines which synch with the remote filestore. Goodsync works with the drives I’ve mounted using WebDrive and even if I am using a USB stick to copy files from machine to machine the smart synching works.

These tools are much easier to use than they are to describe, they have certainly made this road warrior’s life much simpler and more productive. “What’s not to like?”

Germany puzzles me, I think it puzzles the Germans too!

On the one hand it is brash, abrasive and insensitive and then something will surprise you, a waiter from 5 years ago greeting me in the street and solicitously enquiring after my well being or some such charming courtesy.

After 1945, the Germans rebuilt their nation. Along the way it feels as if they have thrown out the baby with the bath water sometimes. The upper classes, military establishment and haute bourgeoisie was discredited for not getting rid of the Fuehrer. They continued to exist but they have little influence. The predominant culture is proletarian, with interesting exceptions made for 'high' cultural events such as Opera or the symphony. Tasteless dress, cringe-making eating habits and hectoring conversational styles abound. Yet these same folk will sit peaceably quaffing their beers, cheek by jowl in a crowded beer garden with no more noise or disruption than you get from a hive full of contented bees, its very impressive and wouldn't be seen in more northern climes.

I was asked why, as a pedestrian, I nod my thanks to drivers who yield to me. My reply that it was a fundamental courtesy was met with head shaking disbelief, ' but it's your right!' I was told.....

The same people could not understand my feelings of distaste when the Berlin Police started staking out controlled crossroads and arresting people crossing without waiting for the green 'Cross' sign. I was told that the police had been criticised for poor detection and conviction rates and that as this is an easy crime to get a conviction for, it made them look more efficient. Where is the sense of balance in this?

Similarly, I recall driving into Strasbourg (in France), in a rather nice Swiss registered car. At the traffic lights, a German registered car pulled along side me and started gesturing, I rolled down the window, expecting some comment on the desirability of the car I was in, only to be harangued for having driven at over the posted speed limit, as if I didn't know that. Well they do say every German is a policeman!

More on this later

I am in the middle of starting up a new venture in the communications area, I am thinking about comms a lot.

Since I am mostly in Germany and the new venture will be organised from England, and coincidentally I am also working on Roaming Strategy for an International Mobile Network Operator, the issue of sensibly priced communications comes up all the time.

I have discovered this:

1. The MNO's have great difficulty pricing DATA roaming at affordable prices - so use WiFi hotspots when travelling (I am working on trying to get some sense into data roaming pricing, but the operators have rather fixed mindsets on this issue)

2. Despite being unhappy with the quality of my existing Vaio, bits keep falling off it and subsystems stop working and the graphics driver crashed when I use Google Earth, and its slow even though it has a Gig of memory, I shall almost certainly get a Vaio TX4 (yes its not availabe yet), rather than a Toshiba Quosmio. Why? Well firstly I don't want to lug a big computer around any more, its bad for my back and the only thing I might want acreage for is watching DVB-T and DVDs, but I don't do that on the move. So the advantages of going small are manifest:

* I won't need such a big bag, in winter it will even fit in the poacher's pocket of my overcoat.
* Battery life will be improved.
* It will fit in the room safe in hotels. This is important when travelling a lot.
* I can use it easily when travelling in trains, planes and as a passenger in cars (I use a different computer when actually driving, lol), German Intercity Expresses (ICEs) have tables, mains power and are beginning to have Wireless LANs installed. This is absolute magic - you get all your preparation and follow up work done on the way to and from your client, and you can get a good drink and snack without endangering your licence or gastro-intestinal system.
* It doesn't need its own wheelie (case with wheels for non-German residents), given the air travel shenanagans (sp.?) going on right now, the less I have to travel with the better.
* As a racing yacht and car nut I am fond of carbon fibre, a laptop with a cf frame tickles my fancy!

What am I giving up by doing this -

* It will never be as fast as larger laptops, it may not have a dual core, the fsb may be slower, the graphics compromised and the disk will be neither as big nor the access and transfers speeds as fast as is possible in larger machines. But does this matter, well not much, I don't use graphical design tools all the time, so I can tolerate less than warp speed scrolling on an infrequent basis. However its still faster than most of the computers out there.
* The maximum memory is sonmewhat limited, on the TX3 its about 1.5 Gigs, which sounds plenty now but come the end of next year....
* Some screen acreage, presently my laptop is running 1400 x 1050 which is nice for big spreadsheets and design work. The TX screen does 1366 x 768 (note to self, update spectacle prescription), but this is OK, because it will drive an external monitor at 1600 by 1200 which is 30% more information viewable at a time - if I have external screens (and keyboards, more on these in another post) at home and in my offices, its simple to plug it into a docking station with identical peripherals attached at each site. Oh and Sony have a couple of rather yummy monitors, a 20.1" and a 23" but the price of the big one is rather daunting! Also I doubt these small sizes will ever support 2 big external monitors although it will run an external at 1600 x 1200 and the native screen at 1366 x 768, which is a help when doing design stuff.
* I don't know how 'International' the warranty actually is. I've looked and it seems OK between Britain, France and Germany. But I go to the States too, and NZ and all points inbetween. My Toshiba warranty was fantastic, when I had problems I'd take it to the nearest dealer and it would be fixed while I wait (like new US keyboard in the middle of Germany). I don't get this warm feeling from Sony, also I like long warranties, so an extension is called for.
* some ports - it seems we can never have too many USB ports - well I have seen some very nice USB hubs, I have one right now with 7 ports and the option to power them off the laptop or a separate charger, which is important as I'm cutting back on the number of chargers I travel with.
* because it won't be leading the charge performance-wise, I'll probably have to upgrade it sooner than if it were bigger, well that isn't a major inconvenience, it has the same sort of benefits as spring cleaning.

I have my own server at Memset - http://www.memset.com/ - an excellent company coincidentally run by my friend Kate who keeps an interesting blog at http://www.katescomment.com/. I upload all my files there and it handles several of my email addresses. I am investigating some ftp tools to let me mount directories on my server as 'Network drives' in Windows-speak and to automatically update (read synchronise) directories.

Nothing is ever as simple as we would like, I have a 2-tier structure - server and laptop - do I need more? You bet! I need a capable PDA and decent comms between the server and laptop and internetand pda-server-internet. How best to organise this?
I am delaying talking about the comms because that is still a bit of a rats nest, so the PDA choice.

Why a PDA? Because I need something that will fit in my pocket when I am doing things like sailing or at the races (horses or motor races) or whatever, something that is small and will not be noticed that will let me check my email, organiser, news, stock market, whatever, you get the idea. Well I did a little research and came up with the XDA Exec from O2 and the Sony Ericsson P990i. So what is the problem? O2 CAN'T DO, in Germany anyway, don't ask why! I wanted the Exec because it has a more usable keyboard. So round to Ericsson for the P990i, which is smaller, doesn't have such a good keyboard, but presses most of the 'way cool' buttons, aagghhh, despite been announced an aeon ago, its still not available, it may not be available until after my nice friends at Nokia have sent me round an N92 because I am working on a DVB-H project as well. I'm not sure that its acceptable to hold a television set to my ear when talking, however!

Now lets look at the comms rats nest.

I need data and voice connectivity, fixed and mobile. Mainly in two countries but from time to time, anywhere in the world. Telemarketers quite put me off having a normal landline at home. The office landline has a pre-select toll service which makes calling most (fixed) numbers anywhere in the world reasonably priced and it doesn’t get the cold calls. Now what about a domestic, and travelling solution.

Gizmo Project, an interesting Open Source SIP-based VoIP application fits my needs extremely well. I have a call-in and call-out number in England which I can use from anywhere in the world. If I need numbers in other places and countries, I can get them for $35 per year, an entirely affordable cost. If anybody calls and I can’t take their call, their voice message is forwarded to my email inbox, I can make calls to other connected people on the internet, to landline and mobile numbers, I can even set up conferences (not tried that yet) and expect to get faxes up and running if required (like JFax, SIP lets you do this all in software).

I have invested in a decent quality headset with a proper DSP. Its from Plantronics, it folds up nicely for travel, important as I broke my last one while travelling, its called a DSP 400, its not elegant and its not Bluetooth, but it works and it is stereo. Bluetooth for these purposes does not appear to be quite ready, although I love my Jabra mobile phone headset.

VoIP is important, it lets people call me from anywhere in the world, and me call them, at affordable rates. Its one of the reasons I want a capable PDA, so I can still make VoIP calls via WiFi when travelling. This requirement opens another can of worms. The MNOs don’t like it, well tough! But it does mean a little ingenuity is called for in some cases, like switching the signalling ports because T-Mobile blocks the standard ones from your mobile, which is naughty in my book and I expect EU Commissioner Reding to slap their wrists for this, VoIP is just another form of data. Even naughtier, when T-Mobile’s sister company, T-Systems installs hotspots in hotels, they try and stop VoIP, this isn’t just bad, its immoral.

When roaming charges become more acceptable, I will forward my VoIP call in number, it’s like any other landline number as far as everybody else is concerned, to my mobile number. With VoIP on my PDA, which connects to both the UMTS/HSDPA networks and to WiFi, I am quite well covered for talking to most people, accessing what is on my server and the internet in general.

Mobile voice over GSM and SMS is still a little expensive when roaming, although getting better and will be much more affordable, ‘real soon now’ (hint, hint). I use a Vodafone SIM in Germany and a Carphonewarehouse SIM in Britain, the latter mostly for convenience, there is a nice man at Heathrow Terminal 2 who changes my money, recharges my SIM and sells me my Heathrow Express Ticket all together, what’s not to like?

When I find myself spending more time in Britain, I’ll open a postpaid account, but for now its not worth it, apart from data however.

Data is a pain, in more ways than one! Brits will be surprised to learn that they are in advance of Germany in using data and other advanced mobile services. German customers have not yet forced the MNOs to offer sensibly priced flat rate data contracts. So I am not madly keen on using my mobile phone for data when in Germany, or a UMTS/HSDPA card in the laptop for that matter.

Its different in Britain, with Voda offering a £25 flat rate for their service which can go up to 2 Mb.sec-1 presently, with much more to come in the future, it becomes attractive to take a subscription.

So that takes care of most of the mobile comms. The PDA will also have a flat rate data and voice subscription, probably Voda as well. To be on the safe side I shall get a sleek mobile handset, preferably UMTS capable, and run this off O2, I’m reluctant to go to T-Mobile, at this stage, too bossy. I wish something like the LG Chocolate or Nokia 8800 existed with UMTS capability, then I would have a small discrete mobile (called a ‘handy’ here in Germany) and a back up data connection option.

Talking of data connection options, Mobile WiMax is starting to gain traction and will probably make the MNOs wish they had never heard of UMTS. Furthermore WiMax offers network operators high speed access to fixed locations, so they can avoid paying the fixed line operators for the ‘last mile’. I’ll worry about this next time I go shopping for connectivity.

With the mobile side ‘sorted’, what about the fixed locations. Well, I must confess to having had Cisco routers in my apartments in Munich and New York for longer than I care to remember. Now that I have left New York behind me, I can try other options. The router that appeals to me is the Linksys WRVS4400N, which offers the range and speed of 802.11n (upgradeable to the final standard, but pre-release for now), a firewall, VPN capability, and, importantly for VoIP, QoS features (upgradeable to 802.11e).

It seems to have take an awful lot of words to explain something quite simple, like how best to remain connected at home and at work. I haven’t covered everything, but I feel I have done more than enough for now!

Later…..

Sorry the title is a literary joke too far.

Germany is not at all what most people imagine it to be.

A great deal of it isn't even Western European, which might be where so many of the common English speaker's misconceptions derive. I am based in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, a truly Ruritanean kingdom with fairy tale castles, mountains, lederhosen and dirndls, all at once. The churches have onion domes and school hours end at lunch time 'so mothers are discouraged from working full time' (yes, really, the relationship between church and state is strong here). It is closed on Sunday. If I don't state I am an aetheist, the tax department tithes me on my church's behalf, automatically, think about it.

Bavaria is beautiful and over the top. There are romantic hotels on tiny islands in lakes with glorious alpine views and then the is the Disney Castle of Nieuschwanstein, pilgrimage sites with the bizarre offerings of grateful supplicants, one of the finest Opera Houses in the world in the National Oper in Munich and glorious baroque and rococo architecture. Then there is the dark side, we are surrounded with Germany's dark past, from its earliest roots right up to today where the Federal Intelligence Service is being moved from Gehlen's comfortable compound in a Munich suburb to Berlin where the politicians can rein in their free-wheeling behaviour and pocket lining activities, as if, German politicians have a well deserved reputation for sleazy behaviour.

This blog is going to cover two main areas, life in contemporary Europe and business developments in the technology and financial arena. I live in the former and work in the latter.