Friday, April 08, 2016

A short history of .. my cars

Next post in the series!

It must have been ~1990 when i got the used Fiat Ritmo III 70 from my parents.
I added fog-lights, a better audio-system + remodeled the ashtray for storing audio casettes(!) and even added a tricolore-sticker at the back - the only time i got into (at least: exterior) car tuning :-).

~1992, after some years at my first job i got a Fiat Tipo 1.9 TD. Probably the most expensive car (related to income) i ever bought. The digital dashboard was definitely ahead of its time, even if Fiat was critizised for it's "Mäusekino". All in all the Tipo was a really great car from various points of view.

~ 1999 i upgraded (?) to a Fiat Brava JTD 105. The logical successor, looking back i see no other pro's. I liked it at its time, but from a distance it looks ... unreasonable.



Next deal was some kind of "rightsizing": ~2004 a Fiat Punto Classic 75 replaced the Brava.


Three years later we needed a family car and got a Renault Scenic Cdi 1.7. I sometimes moan about the regular service beeing too expensive, but beside that it's a pretty reliable & comfortable car. I plan to drive it as long as possible (cross my fingers).




(credit all images: wikipedia)

Monday, April 04, 2016

A short history of ... my PDAs and Mobiles

Over the last years i repeatedly got the idea of posting some personal historical stuff.
Might be a sign of proceeding age? :-)
Anyway, here comes the first of -probably- a row of postings:


A short history of ...my PDAs and mobiles.

It must have been ~1995 when i first stumbled upon PDAs. 
After handcrafting calenders & organizers for years i was fascinated by the idea of getting digital and some Apple Newton ads nearly conviced me buying one. 
While i was already scanning eBay for used items i got involved into networking stuff at work and bought a US robotics modem for personal use. Packed with this 56k powerhorse :-) there was some advertising material for a Palm Pilot and i immediately was convinced and got one. 
The Palm was an amazing device, it allowed (simplified) handwriten input with great detection capabilities, sync to PC, offline and later online Web browsing, RSS newsreader, IR and later Wifi&Bluetooth data transfer and a lot more. 
Various Devices served me really well as "productivity machines" until 200x.

Palm Pilot Professional

The mother of all PDAs.

Palm III

Speed & memory upgrade, modified cradle for mobile use, accu-hack, keyboard, ...

Sony Clie

High resolution screen, Audio & Video playback

Palm Tungsten T

Colors, SD-Card, Bluetooth,



~2000 i lost access to a company mobile, so i bought one privately. I somehow got into the Siemens camp and stayed there nearly until the end (of "Siemens mobile"):

Siemens S35

Small, state of the art at it's time (wap, mms)

Siemens SL55

Small, Stylish :-).

Siemens C65

My phone provider got cheap ...



~2007 i got tired of carrying two devices (PDA + mobile), so as a real palm fanboy i invested heavy money in a

Palm Treo 680

Camera, Bluetooth, TomTomGo Navigation

The Treo680 was my productivity machine during building our house. I even changed the screen myself twice after it got broken in accidents. 



Unfortunatelly Palm (the company) collapsed and i changed into the Android camp:

HTC Wildfire I

The smartphone with the best feature<->price ratio at its time

Motorola Moto G

Feature-price ratio, actual Android

Motorola Moto G II

Dual sim (got a company sim card, want to avoid carrying 2 mobiles)


And finally: beside the Siemens Phones i still own all of the devices!