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The first part of this is: You are the master... (Part one)[^]
So, what does all this mean in the modern world.
1. Start thy purse to fattening - The suggestion here is to live on only 90% of your net salary. Jim Rohn, the American business philosopher, actually suggests 70%, but as he also points out that it up to the individual. He suggests 10% into savings, 10% to charity and 10% invested. However, even if you stick the 10% in a shoe box under the bed it helps build up your savings.
2. Control thy expenditures - This is an easy one to follow. Be careful what you spend money on. Make a budget, make sure that you account for all the essential stuff. Make sure you account for fun things also, because it would be a boring life if you had nothing left for the things you enjoy doing. But don't excede your budget. The following passage from Charles Dicken's David Copperfield helps demonstrates this point:
Mr. Micawber was waiting for me within the gate, and we went up to his room (top story but one), and cried very much. He solemnly conjured me, I remember, to take warning by his fate; and to observe that if a man had twenty pounds a-year for his income, and spent nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy, but that if he spent twenty pounds one he would be miserable. After which he borrowed a shilling of me for porter, gave me a written order on Mrs. Micawber for the amount, and put away his pocket-handkerchief, and cheered up.
3. Make thy gold multiply - Such as simple rule, but apparently most people don't do anything with money they are not using - It is sitting in a bank account, but it might as well be hidden under the bed. Simply put your money in a good savings account. Check the interest rate from time to time because banks change them. Recently the Halifax were offering current accounts offering 3.04% on credit balances, but after their advertising campaign began to be forgotten they quietly reduced the interest rate down to 0.1%. Check the rate you are getting and if it is unacceptable, switch to a different bank.
4. Guard thy treasures from loss - If you are going to buy stocks and shares check them out first. How financially strong is the company? What does the person advising you gain if you buy these shares? How reliable is the person's advice? Do you trust them?
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment - Simply buy your own home. When the mortgage is paid off then your outgoings each month go down, and you can use the extra money to do things you enjoy, or re-invest it for the future.
6. Insure a future income - Quite simple: Get a pension plan together.
7. Increase thy ability to earn - This is where CodeProject comes in very handy. This is life long learning. If you keep learning, if nothing else, you keep your brain active, sharp and alert. As you learn new things you become more valuable, you can access instantly any number of facts that help you with your task, you will have seen someone else's solution to a problem you are encountering for the first time, or you will be able to fashion your own solution taking bits from solutions to a number of similar problems.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
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Earlier today I was reminded[^] of part of a book that I read a few months ago.
The book is "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason[^].
The book gives 7 rules for turning money from the master in to the slave.
1. Start thy purse to fattening
Then Arkad turned to a humble man who had declared himself an egg merchant. "If thou select one of thy baskets and put into it each morning and put into it each morning ten eggs and take out of it each evening nine eggs, what will eventually happen?"
"It will become in time overflowing."
"Why?"
"Because each day I put in one more egg than I take out."
Arkad turned to the class with a smile. "Does any man here have a lean purse?"
First they looked amused. Then they laughed. Lastly they waved their purses in jest.
"All right," he continued. "Now I shall tell the first remedy I learned to cure a lean purse. Do exactly as I have suggested for the egg merchant. For every ten coins thou placest within thy purse take out for use but nine. Thy purse will start to fatten at once and its increasing weight will feel good in thy hand and bring satisfaction to thy soul."
2. Control thy expenditures
Hearupon one of the students, wearing a robe of red and gold, arose and said "I am a free man. I believe it is my right to enjoy the good things of life. Therefore do I rebel against the slavery of a budget which determins how much I spend and for what. I feel it would take much pleasure from my life and make me little more than a pack-ass to carry a burden."
To him Arkad replied, "Who, my friend, would determine thy budget?"
"I would make it for myself," responded the protesting one.
"In that case were a pack-ass to budget his burden would he include therein jewels and rugs and heavy bars of gold? Not so. He would include hay and grain and a bag of water for the desert trail.
"The purpose of a budget is to help thy purse to fatten. It is to assist thee to realise thy most cherished desires by defending them from casual wishes. Like a bright light in a dark cave thy budget shows up the leaks from thy purse and enables thee to stop them and control thy expenditures for definite and gratifying purposes.
"This, then, is the second cure for a lean purse. Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending more than nine tenths of thy earnings
3. Make thy gold multiply
"Behold, from my humble earnings I had begotten a hoard of golden slaves, each labouring and earning more gold. As they laboured for me, so their children also laboured and their children's children until great was the income from their combined efforts.
"Gold increaseth rapidly, when making reasonable earnings as thou wilt see from the following: A farmer, when his son was born, took ten pieces of silver to a money lender and asked him to keep it on rental for his son until he became twenty years of age. The money lender did, and agreed the rental should be one-fourth of its value each four years. The farmer asked, as this sum had been set aside as belonging to his son, that the rental be added to the principal.
"When the boy had reached the age of twenty years, the farmer again went to the money lender to inquire about the silver. The money lender explained that because the sum had increased by compound interest, the original ten pieces of silver had now grown to thirty and one-half pieces.
"The farmer was well pleased and because the son did not need the coins, he left then with the money lender. When the son became fifty years of age, the father mean time having passed into the other world, the money lender paid the son in settlement one hundred and sixty-seven pieces of silver.
"Thus in fifty years had the investment multiplied itself at rental almost seventeen times.
"This then, this the third cure for a lean purse: to put each coin to labouring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse."
4. Guard thy treasures from loss
"My own investment was a tragedy to me at the time. The guarded saving of a year I did entrust to a brickmaker, name Azmur, who was travelling over the far seas and in Tyre agreed to buy for me the rare jewels of the Phoenicians. These we would sell upon his return and divide the profits. The Phoenicians were scoundrels and sold him bits of glass. My treasure was lost. Today, my training would show me at once the folly of entrusting a bricklayer to buy jewels.
"Therefore, di I advices thee from the wisdom of my experiences: be not too confident of thine own wisdom to entrusting thy treasures to possible pitfalls of investments. Better by far to consult the wisdom of those experienced in handling money for profit. Such advice is freely given for the asking and may readily possess a value equal in gold to the sum thou considerest investing. In truth, such is its actual value if it save thee from loss.
"This then is the fourth cure for a lean purse, and of great importance if it prevent thy purse from being emptied once it has become well filled. Guard thy treasure from loss by investing only where thy principal is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable, and where thou will not fail to collect a fair rental. Consult with wise men. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe investments."
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment
"Also, I say to you, my students, that the money lenders gladly consider the desires of men who seek homes and land for their families. Readily may thou borrow to pay the brickmaker and the builder for such commendable purposes, if thou can show a reasonable proportion of the necessary sum which thou thyself hath provided for the purpose.
"Then when the house be built thou canst pay the money lender with the same regularity as thou didst pay the landlord. Because each payment will reduce the indebtedness to the money lender, a few years will satisfy his loan.
"Then thy heart will be glad because thou will own in thy own right a valuable property and thy only cost will be the King's taxes.
"Thus come many blessings to the man who owneth his own house. And greatly will it reduce his cost of living, making available more of his earnings for pleasures and the gratification of his desires. This, then, is the fifth cure for a lean purse: Own thine own home
6. Insure a future income
"Because we live in our own time and not in the days which are to come, must we take advantage of those means and ways of acomplishing out purposes. Therefore do I recommend to all men, that they, by wise and well thought out methods, do provide against a lean purse in their mature years. For a lean purse to a man no longer able to earn or to a family without its head is a sore tragedy.
"This then, is the sixth cure for a lean purse. Provide in advance for the need of thy growing age and the protection of thy family.
7. Increase thy ability to earn
"The more of wisdom we know, the more we may earn. That man who seeks to learn more of his craft shall be richly rewarded. If he is an artisan, he may seek to learn the methods and the tools of those most skillful in the same line. If he laboureth at law or at healing, he may consuly and exchange knowledge with others of his calling. If he be a merchant, he may continually seek better goods that can be purchased at lower prices.
"Always do the affairs of men change and improve because keen-minded men seek greater skill that they may better serve those upon whose patronage they may depend. Therefore, I urge all men to be in the front rank of progress and not to stand still, lesr they be left behind.
"Many things come to make a man's life rich with gainful experiences.
"Thus the seventh and last remedy for a lean purse is to cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself."
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
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On the 24th September last year I wrote down what my goals were for the coming year. I recently reviewed that list to see how I was doing. I was pleasantly surprise to find that I've managed to hit most of the major ones.
Education:
* Become an MCSD
* Write more articles for Code Project
Home:
* Redecorated the "long room" and have turned it into my study.
* Redecorated the "small room" and have turned it into the guest bedroom
* Partially redecorated my bedroom.
Health:
* Walk more
The two misses
* Weight target of 75kg
* Put new flooring down in the bedroom, hall and livingroom.
In the 88 days remaining until that year is up it would be unhealthy to attempt to attain the weight goal of 75kg and I am also not going to put new flooring down. So, I am just going to try and do something every day to keep reducing my weight, and I am going to start thinking about what I actually want to do about the floor in the living room rather than keep looking at it thinking how much I dislike the carpet.
In the meantime I might come up with a new set of goals for the coming year.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Earlier this year I said that I was going to get rid of a few kilos. However, so far things haven't worked out the way I would have wanted. I did reduce my weight by about 3.5 kilos (about 7.5 pounds if you use imperial measurements) but.... well... I put some of it back on again.
Last week I decided to make a better effort and I weighed myself at 95.7kg
A few days ago I noticed that Brian Welsch[^] was in a friendly competition with Terry O'Nolley to lose some weight. I'm not really interested in joining the competition, but a side effect was that they both published their triumphs. And I thought this was a great idea.
So here, is my first Monday morning report to kind of "put it on myself" to have something to shout about.
Today I weigh: 94.600kg
Difference since start: - 1.100kg
Difference since last Week: - 1.100kg
Average change (per day): - 0.157kg
Average change (per week): - 1.100kg
Average change (per month): - 4.714kg [predicted to 21st July]
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Colin,
You're braver than I am!
Good luck - I'll check back often, and top up my motivation as well
Look at the world about you and trust to your own convictions. - Ansel Adams
Meg's World - Blog
Photography
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Megan Forbes wrote:
Good luck
Thanks.
Megan Forbes wrote:
I'll check back often, and top up my motivation as well
I'll keep reading the motivational books to find good things to write about.
Did you realise that the word motivation is composed from Motive and Action? In order to be motivated to do something you must find a motive for action. Often it is a simple thing, like feeling thirsty, that provides the motive for the action of finding something to drink. If you want to achieve something you must therefor find a motive for doing it. For instance the motive for me taking the train to work in the morning rather than take the car is that I want to spend as little on getting to and from work as possible. If the costs were the same I'd take the car because it is much easier.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Colin, you're like a library of information
As for motivation and a positive lifestyle, have I ever mentioned the benefits of photography? ( ). Seriously, photo-evangelism aside, photography forces you to concentrate on beauty. It trains your eye to look for it. As you capture it, you find you see it more and more and no longer ignore it. Very healthy
Look at the world about you and trust to your own convictions. - Ansel Adams
Meg's World - Blog
Photography
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Megan Forbes wrote:
have I ever mentioned the benefits of photography?
I think I may have heard you mention it.
Megan Forbes wrote:
photography forces you to concentrate on beauty... you find you see it more and more and no longer ignore it
I can see that - You take some very beautiful pictures. I would have to concentrate hard to work out what to take.
I was actually telling Paul at the weekend that I am saving up my Boots points to get a basic digital camera in the £100 range [I already have half the points for that] But I can see that with a proper DSLR* camera you have a much greater range because you can add all the different lenses and filters for different situations.
I'm sure I'll get a practical lesson on phtography from you sometime in the future.
I hope I've got this terminology correct - I once went out and bought "Digial Photography" magazine so I could understand what you were talking about
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
that I am saving up my Boots points to get a basic digital camera in the £100 range
w00t!
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
I'm sure I'll get a practical lesson on phtography from you sometime in the future
Anytime, anytime - does now suit you?
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
hope I've got this terminology correct - I once went out and bought "Digial Photography" magazine so I could understand what you were talking about
Brilliant! Yes, the terminology is correct. Don't worry, I'll try to contain my joy at another friend joining the ranks of photo-lovers. Passion can be tiresome for people around me...
Look at the world about you and trust to your own convictions. - Ansel Adams
Meg's World - Blog
Photography
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Megan Forbes wrote:
does now suit you?
Wouldn't a "practical" lesson mean I would have to have a camera to practice with? But, sure next time we meet up you could show me all the different features.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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I must give Terry the proper credit for initial posting his motivation and weight-loss.
They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. - Andy Warhol
Not sure if it's really Warhol, but I like the meaning just the same.
Best of luck reaching your goals!!
BW
The Biggest Loser
"Real men test online." -Lord Cookie
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brianwelsch wrote:
They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. - Andy Warhol
I agree with that. "They" would say that because "they" are looking at the changes others are making. I also see it as saying: Life is not a spectator sport - Get out there and do things.
brianwelsch wrote:
Best of luck reaching your goals
Thanks, you too.
Let the winner lose, and the loser win!
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Well, I finally managed it. Today I became a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer. And apparently I'm the first in my company to make it.
After the exam when I was walking by to my company's office passers by must have thought I was a crazy person. The exam centre and my company's office are only about 10-15 minutes walk from each other and it was a beautiful day so I was walking up the street with a gargantuan grin on my face. And I mean my grin was going from ear to ear, if my muscles had been stong enough I am quite sure my grin would have gone right past the ears and round the back of my head. What a site that would have been!
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
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congrats!!
I'll write a suicide note on a hundred dollar bill - Dire Straits
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Thanks.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Today on my way home I noticed that the sun was setting in the north, rather than in the west. It isn't something I've ever noticed this far south. I remember seeing this a few times when on holidays in the Highlands - when sometimes it would stay in twilight for an hour but never get really dark.
So, why did I call it the "Gleam in the North"? It is the title of the middle book of the Jacobite Trilogy by D.K.Broster[^]
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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At the moment I'm reading "Scoring Points -- How Tesco is winning customer loyalty" by Clive Humby & Terry Hunt with Tim Phillips[^]. It has some quite interesting (although high-level [read managerial]) ideas about sifting through customer transaction data.
Anyway, when Tesco set up their internet shopping channel (Tesco.com formerly Tesco Direct) they added a feature to help reduce the fustration of finding and selecting commonly bought items. The feature allows the customer to use, optionally, the loyalty card data to see what has been bought recently in-store and create a "My Favourites" section so you can pick those items quickly into your shopping basket.
From the book:
There was, and continues to be, a small problem with 'My Favourites'. Some customers felt uncomfortable when presented with the fact that Tesco knows exactly what they bought - It is too personal. Lanslay says:
A lot didn't have any problem, but we offered the box to give them a choice - if they didn't want us to we would not compile the list. But a bigger problem was when it revealed information that some customers might not have wanted to be revealed.
An early example was when Lansley was contacted by a Tesco Direct shopper. She had just received her 'My Favourites' list of products bought in the previous two weeks, and she was certain there was an error: The list contained condoms, which her husband can't have bought because he didn't use them. Knowing the list to be accurate, Lansley made a diplomatic decision that became informal policy afterwards: "I'm sorry" he told her. "There has been a corruption in our data. We will remove it."
"Whenever something like that comes up like this, we say we are very sorry and change it", he says. "I don't want to cause a marital rift when I can tell a white lie. Customers regard groceries as personal. The reveal a lot about you".
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Blimey, I am no privacy nutter but that is pretty bad. Reminds me of wives who demand their husbands show them their credit card statements every month.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Ian Darling wrote:
"and our loonies usually end up doing things like Monty Python."
Crikey! ain't life grand?
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Paul Watson wrote:
I am no privacy nutter but that is pretty bad
I wouldn't say so - the book gives more details than I've quoted above.
According to the book that level of data isn't kept for all that long before it is aggregated in to a more anonymous form - after all they are collecting gigabytes of data each month. From what I understand, each quarter they send out a mailing to the Clubcard holders with offers for products they buy and some tempter for things they might like to try. After that mailing has gone out the data is aggregated and the individual level scanned item data is removed.
The "My Favourites" feature only uses the previous 2 weeks worth of data because it is very expensive in computing resources to keep that online instantly accessible.
Paul Watson wrote:
Reminds me of wives who demand their husbands show them their credit card statements every month.
That doesn't sound like a very trusting relationship to me. [Just to state the blindingly obvious]
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
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Still, if that wife had been a wee bit more switched on then she would have figured it out.
Or, imagine she stumbles across this article/book and realises "They are talking about me... AND MY HUSBAND! Henry!!! I am calling the divorce lawyer you condom using git!"
BTW, Meg is doing a good job of convincing me to visit Scotland and mentioned you are the friendliest Scotsman in the highlands. I am on holiday soonish and looking for places to go.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Ian Darling wrote:
"and our loonies usually end up doing things like Monty Python."
Crikey! ain't life grand?
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Paul Watson wrote:
if that wife had been a wee bit more switched on then she would have figured it out
True... I still laugh when I think about that. Luckily that Lanslay guy was a diplomat. If I'd been fielding the call I would have probably said: "Yes that's right, they were purchaced from the Wilinghamshire store's petrol station at 10 past 6 last Friday along with fresh flowers and £25 of petrol.". To which she would reply "but that can't be, I was in Heningsham that evening and my husband was working late".
I remember doing my school project on the ATM system at the Bank of Scotland and one of the bits of information I'd picked up what the "phantom transaction" where money would just disappear from an account. I asked them about it and they said it was rare but it does happen. So I asked about other types of transaction (e.g. you could re-order your cheque book from an ATM machine) but there didn't seem to be any records of that happening. Now most ATM machines have built in CCTV so it records who is using the machine so there can be little doubt.
Paul Watson wrote:
Meg is doing a good job of convincing me to visit Scotland
Absolutely, I highly recommend it also . When are you planning on taking holidays? And if you are looking for a friendly tour guide then I'd be happy to show you around also.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
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Two blog entries in one day!
The survey[^] this past week was on optimism/pessimism. One comment that was brought up was the glass half full/empty (and even the engineers' version that it was twice as big as it needs to be) got me thinking about something Jim Rohn wrote/spoke about.
He was commenting on learning, improving, sharing, and generally becoming a better person. One of the ideas he put forward was what if you had a glass that was full of water... Can it hold any more water?
The glass is full, to the brim, with water. Can it hold more?
What do you think?
The answer is "Of course!" Absolutely it can hold more water. But for it to hold more water you've got to pour out what is already there.
If you've never read/listned to Jim Rohn then you are probably wondering what this all means.
What he was talking about was that in order for you to grow as a person you've got to pour out what you've already got. You've got to share. And the big advantage of sharing what you've learned is that repitition is the key to success. So each time you share you are repeating what you've learned. So, while the other person benefits by learning something new, you benefit also by reinforcing what you've already learned so it locks in, it is more easily accessible, you can get at it more quickly... And because you've poured out, you can now add more water to your glass from the vast ocean of knowledge that exists out there.
This is in essence one of the best things about The Code Project: everybody wins. Not that people are in competition with each other, but because they are in competition with themselves. Always improving, always getting better.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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About three weeks ago I took my car in to Kwik Fit because of a rattling that sounded like it came from the exhaust. The mechanic had a look and brought me over to see the underside of my car also. He explained that he couldn't see anything that was wrong and the entire exhaust system was gas tight. He did say that the rattling sound was probably coming from a heat shield covering the catalytic converter but that it was sturdy enough. He then gave it a good thump just to show how sturdy it was.
He advised me that there was nothing that needed doing and the best thing for me to do was mention it to the garage that was going to do the next service.
So, off I went happy that nothing was wrong with my car.
Yesterday I was out doing a bit of shopping and on my way home I was sitting in traffic waiting to get on to the Forth Road Bridge (At the moment there are road works and it typically takes an hour just to get onto the bridge because of that). Part of the route is down hill so I switch off my engine and coast slowly at about 1 or 2 miles an hour with many stop-starts. During this time I hear a more tinny rattling that sounds more serious than I have heard before.
I pull in on to a farm access to see what could be wrong. And having a look under the car I see that something is part detached and is scraping along the ground. Now, I don't know much about cars except how to drive them and I figured that I hadn't called the AA (Automobile Association) out for a couple of years and it was about time they earned the money I was paying them. So after about an hour of waiting (luckily I had a book with me) the AA turn up and rips of the remainder of the metal that was scraping on the floor.
When the guy stands up again he hands me the heat shield that the Kwik Fit mechanic had assured me was robust only three week previously. I was assured that the car was safe to drive but that I must get it repaired properly.
Earlier today I took my car back to Kwik Fit to get them to have another look. The mechanic takes me under the car to show me the underside again and explains that there was nothing needing doing. So I explained about the heat shield falling off (just in case he missed that) and he said that the manufacturers said it was alright to drive without one and they regularly pull off about half-dozen heat shields every week.
So, I said what was it there for? My car is a cheap car, where the emphasis was more on price than anything else. Why, then, would the manufacturer attach something that costs them extra money squeezing their margins or increasing the price of the car? The mechanic had no answer and just explained that he had no idea why manufacturer put them there at all.
So, at the end of all that, I have a car with no heat shield under the catalytic converter. The AA said it must be replaced, Kwik Fit said it is fine without it. Who do I believe?
Next weekend I'll be taking it to another garage to get another opinion. On the positive side, at least it gave me an hour and 45 minutes to continue reading my book. (1 hour while waiting for the AA, and 45 minutes while waiting for Kwik Fit to attend to my car)
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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The heat shield definitely needs to be replaced. They aren't put on for decoration purposes! The catalytic converter gets way hot (try touching it sometime after the car has been running a while) and putting a heat dissipater (i.e., shield) between it and the underside of the passenger compartment is only sensible.
Another thing I'd like to mention is that coasting down a hill with the engine off is illegal in some (U.S.) states. The reason is that the car (mainly the brakes) ceases to function when the engine is off.
"When I was born I was so surprised that I didn't talk for a year and a half." - Gracie Allen
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DavidCrow wrote:
putting a heat dissipater between it and the underside of the passenger compartment is only sensible
Actually the shield between the cat' and the passenger compartment is intact. It was the shield between the cat' and the road that fell off.
DavidCrow wrote:
coasting down a hill with the engine off is illegal in some (U.S.) states
Just as well I don't live in the States. I always make sure that there is always some mechanism to stop the car. A basic safety precaution for any mechanical device - Always know how to stop it. With the engine off and the disk brakes inactive (mine don't go fully inactive, although I do have to stomp on them really hard) I have two options. (1) The hand break [which is what I was using to slow down] and if that fails (2) put the car into gear and release the clutch.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
My Blog
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