It took longer than planned, but we finally made it:
“The Plant“ is finally live, producing 9 kWh on a short day like today. I cannot wait to see how much it produces during a typical Italian summer day.
It may not look like much but it should be enough to cover our energy needs based on the data from last year.
Installed with the fantastic support of the local Lega Ambiente di Limbiate and the 0 tax loan from http://www.bccbarlassina.it/
We set the new Guinness World record for sirtaki dancing last month. Cool Or What?
I'm notoriously bad at dancing but we managed to break the record in the single attempt we had. The most challenging and surprisingly fun and satisfying team building I've done.
I proudly present Cocca & De
(no, it is not a new fashion brand, but two hens. I guess you have to be Italian to get the names :-)
Sydney, below, gets on with them better than I thought.
I expected to come home to find his mouth full of feathers one day but it didn't take him long to find out that they are more useful alive. As soon as he hears them sing in the morning, he takes off like a rocket to find the eggs. So far he has eaten more eggs than the rest of us...
I don't like the idea of locking in Cocca & De so today I modified the fence around their house so Sydney no longer can get inside. I guess he still gets to eat the eggs of Cocca which has the habit of laying the eggs around in the garden. De, on the other hand, is regular like a Swiss clock and lays an egg inside the house just in time for breakfast.
Hm..
Am I getting old or what?
I spend a lot of time troubleshooting web applications. My Swiss army tool of choice for all network related issues is WireShark but it falls short when it comes to analyzing SSL encrypted traffic.
FireFox takes forever to load compared to IE7 but its wide range of add-ons can be a life saver at times for developers. I am a heavy user of:
Fiddler is also able debug https but it relies on a "man-in-the-middle" approach which has some limitations.
I do not expect a great in flight service by a low cost company like www.VolareWeb.it but I do expect them to fly...
I flew with VolareWeb for my first time this summer when I booked a return flight from Milan to Athens for my summer vacation. They called me on my mobile phone two days before I was supposed to leave to tell me that my outgoing flight was cancelled. I didn't make a lot of fuss when they booked me on a flight the next day as I did not have any reservations in Greece and more than enough to do at work.
After a couple of weeks of some fantastic island hopping it was time to head back. At my last day of vacation, on my way out for dinner, I checked my mail just to prepare for my return back to reality. That "saved my life". I found a mail from VolareWeb that my booking had been updated and told me to call a free number in Italy, that cannot be called from abroad... But all my mails is on Google Apps so it didn't take me long to find the original reservation and a international phone number.
I called VolareWeb just before they closed in the evening. This is an shortened and edited transcript:
Me: I am calling from Athens. I have a flight home to Milan tomorrow morning. My reservation number is xyz.
VolareWeb: Yes. It has been cancelled. You have been booked on a flight in a few days.
Me: Sorry, but I have to be back in Milan tomorrow for several reasons.
1) I have my parents coming tomorrow afternoon to Milan and I have to be there to pick them up.
2) My brother in law just left on vacation so someone has to take care of our animals.
VolareWeb: That is not may fault. Your flight has been cancelled
Me: As I explained, I have to be back some time tomorrow. Can you book me on another flight?
VolareWeb: no.
Me: Will you cover the costs if I book another flight
VolareWeb: no
Me: Will you at last cover my extra expenses (rental car for an additional day, hotel for me, hotel for my parents, etc.)
VolareWeb: no
Me: So…. What can I do
VolareWeb: Nothing. The flight has been cancelled
End of story. A 30 min phone call with Volarweb (with outrageous roaming charges) which refused to cover any costs at all. Serious companies cover meals, hotel etc while you wait for the next flight.
The story had a happy ending though. We had already paid cash for the hotel room (to save time the next morning), but we jumped in the rental car in hunt for a travel agency and a flight home. We found our saving angel in Elena at erasinos Travel & Tours. She found a flight the next morning with Olympic Airlines and reserved it for us at no cost. The online booking system was unable to confirm our flight as it was late at night so she adviced us to drive to Athens airport to by the ticket at the Olympic Airlines counter. A couple of hours later we were back at the hotel with two very hungry and tired kids, but thanks to Elena we had tickets to go back home!
I thought the saga was over when I came home, but no. What really convinced me that VolareWeb is incompetent is the message I found on my answering machine. The day before I should have left I got this message at home: Hi. Your return flight from Athens to Milan has been cancelled. We have booked you on another flight.
Eh? I am in Athens waiting for my return flight to Milan, why are you calling me in at home? You have my mobile number, in fact you have called it before, and now you call me at my home number to tell me that my return flight is cancelled???
VolareWeb, it is official; I will never, ever, fly with you again. Leaving people on the ground without providing alternatives, helping out in any way, or covering any costs at all is bad, very bad...
The agenda is not finalized yet, but I am sure Community days 2008 will be as interesting as the past events.
I doubt I will attend the free event this year as I do not program in .NET at work. I still do some coding for fun but it is hard to justify two days away from work just for fun :-)
I will try to attend some Microsoft events to stay in touch with friends but you are more likely to see me at Python conferences in the future...
