Blog – Page 2 – Alexandru Diduc

Uneven braking: How to adjust hand brake

There is a common problem with the hand brake – uneven braking. It is rather easy to start looking for the problem in the brake caliper, worn pads or in the stretched brake cable. I did exactly that on my old, but warmly loved Honda Accord CB3 1991 year model. After trying all the possible solutions, I even consulted with a couple of mechanics, but they could not figure either. The solution was unbelievably simple. Here, I will show how to address the uneven braking by a mere adjustment of the cable tensions on the example of my Honda.

My car has failed car inspection with the abovementioned problem. Only the right rear wheel was locking when the hand brake was applied. I replaced the caliper, but it did not help. I tried adjustment of the brake cables, but this did not help either. The image below shows the brake cables after my attempt to adjust the brakes.

The main problem that I found is in the sequence of hand brake adjustment which is not clearly explained in the owner manual either. I found a video on Youtube that was explaining the proper sequence. If the steps are skipped, there will be no effect. The adjusted brakes will still not work.

The solution was rather simple, but requires the proper sequencing. So, here is the step-by-step guide how to adjust the brakes.

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Headphone holder – drawing and 3D printing

Working from home brings own challenges. For me, this translates in shaping the productive working environment which usually was arranged by someone somewhere. An efficient use of space on the desk surface is a part of the problem I imagine many of us struggle with.

With distance work, I noticed that I use three different types of headphones and most of the time they are laying somewhere on the table or hanging. NOT NICE! It would be great to have a designated place for them – a headphone holder. Finding one online is not a challenge and they cost starting with $25. Some are really cool too, but waiting for their arrival is more painful. Having Soldworks and 3D printer at hand, there is no excuse to producing one by myself.

So, first, drawing some basic shapes, shelling, patterning, and the model in Solidworks is ready. Since the headphone holder takes some table space, I shaped the bottom in such way that it can hold some smaller parts like a paper clip or MicroSD card. The holes on the bottom of the top part is for hanging headphones on small hooks I will print later. So, being happy with the design outcome, I go to the next step – printing.

Next are the few steps in Simplify3D to set the printing parameters. For printing, I used the white PLA material. The flat vertical surface of the top part led to some overhangs inside, but for the function, I am ready to give up some of “the pretty” for now.

After aligning the shapes in Meshmixer, they come to the Simplify3D for the positioning on the 3D printer’s bed

Simplify3D calculates the necessary paths for the printer and the concept is ready to go to the printer

…and after 32.5 hours, here is the outcome.

This is how it looks on the table:

After half a year of happy using the holder, I cannot stop wondering how I lived without it.

This article is also featured on LinkedIn.

Difference between Invention and Optimization

Recently, I was a part of Systematic Creativity and TRIZ Basics online class presented by professor Leonid Chechurin from LUT. One of the first questions in the class was to give our own definition of the difference between the invention and optimization. I found it quite interesting especially given the fact that I never thought of that. The result of my reflections are below.

Optimization – gradual change of an existing system, process or solution by upgrading or downgrading existing properties to a new optimum or, in other words, to a new expected outcome. Thus, optimization is the process of reaching a new optimum or a new balance of interests.

Invention is the process of reaching another level of novelty. Invention is a gradual or radical change of the existing solution by adding, upgrading or downgrading the existing properties until a new nonexistent level of problem resolution is found. Novelty is the distinguishing factor between these two.

These processes are different, thus, call for different mindset, expected result and tools.

What would you say about this definitions? How do you define optimization and invention?

Halo effect: difference between reports and stories

This is a part of quotes and thoughts that attracted my attention, while reading the “The Halo Effect …and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers” by Phil Rosenzweig (Free Press, 2014).

pages 15-16:

It’s useful to make the distinction between reports and stories. A report is above all responsible for providing the facts, without manipulation or interpretation. If the accounts about Lego and WH Smith are meant to be reports – which presumably they are, since they’re written by reporters – then words like stray or drift are problematic. Stories, on the other hand, are a way that people try to make sense of their lives and their experiences in the world. The test of a good story isn’t its responsibility to the facts as much as its ability to provide a satisfying explanation of events. As stories, the news accounts about Lego and WH Smith work just fine. In a few paragraphs, the reader learns of the problem (sales and profits are down), gets a plausible explanation (the company lost its direction), and learns a lesson (don’t stray, focus on the core). There’s a neat end with a clean resolution. No threads are left hanging. Readers go away satisfied.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with stories, provided we understand that’s what we have before us. More insidious, however, are stories that are dressed up to look like science. They take the form of science and claim to have the authority of science, but they miss the real rigor and logic of science. They’re better described as pseudo-science.

Halo Effect: difference between illusion and delusion

This is a part of quotes and thoughts that attracted my attention, while reading the “The Halo Effect …and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers” by Phil Rosenzweig.

Preface, p. xxi:

A longtime friend of mine, Dick Stull, explains the difference between illusion and delusion this way. When Michael Jordan appears to hang motionless in midair for a split second while on his way to a slam-dunk, that’s an illusion. Your eyes are playing tricks on you. But if you think you can lace up a pair of Nikes, grab a basketball, and be like Mike, well, that’s a delusion. You are kidding yourself. It ain’t gonna happen. The delusions I describe in this book are a bit like that – they’re promises that you can achieve great success if you just do one thing or another, but they’re fundamentally flawed. In fact, some of the biggest business blockbusters of recent years contain not one or two, but several delusions. For all their claims of scientific rigor, for all their lengthy descriptions of apparently solid and careful research, they operate mainly at the level of storytelling. They offer tales of inspiration that we find comforting and satisfying, but they’re based on shaky thinking. They’re deluded.

Halo Effect: Travel Theorem – enjoyment or learning

This is a part of quotes and thoughts that attracted my attention, while reading the “The Halo Effect …and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers” by Phil Rosenzweig.

pages xxii-xxiii:

…I want you to challenge what I write rather than accept it. One of my role models here is the late Herbert Simon, father of artificial intelligence, Nobel Prize winner in economics for his work on decision making, and professor at Carnegie Mellon University from the late 1940s until his death in 2001. In his memoirs, Models of My Life, Simon described how his service on several foreign fact-finding missions in the 1960s, often time-consuming and very costly, led him to formulate his Travel Theorem, which goes like this:

Anything that can be learned by a normal American adult on a trip to a foreign country (of less than one year’s duration) can be learned more quickly, cheaply, and easily by visiting the San Diego Public Library.

The response? Simon wrote: “People react almost violently to my Travel Theorem. I try to explain that it has nothing to do with the pleasures of travel, but only with the efficiency of travel for learning. They don’t seem to hear my explanation; they remain outraged. They point out that I seem to be traveling all the time. Why shouldn’t other people travel too? After they simmer down enough to understand the theorem, they still attack шею It takes a long time to calm their passion with reason – and usually it isn’t extinguished, but temporarily subdued. Why, they think, argue with a madman?”

Well, I think Travel Theorem is wonderful – not because I agree with it, but because it makes me think. It forces me to ask: What is the real purpose of this trip? Is it for enjoyment or for learning? If the latter, exactly what am I trying to learn, and what’s the best way to learn it? Could my time and money be better spent searching available sources rather than running off to the ends of the earth? Disagree with Simon’s Travel Theorem if you wish, but that’s not the point. The point is to force us to ask under what circumstances it’s correct and when it’s false – and that sort of critical thinking is always useful.

Business Process Re-engineering and Organizational Change

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is the process of restructuring the organizational design from the ground-up. It stresses the importance of full-scale recreation of the processes instead of numerous and often continuous optimization of sub-processes. To avoid repetition, one may have a brief introduction in the idea of BPR from the Wikipedia.

Despite of usefulness of the BPR, there were some concerns. In his revision of the Socio-Technical System theory, Clegg (2000) has proposed the 8^th principle – core processes should be integrated. The idea of the principle is that “organizations can be viewed as comprising a number of core processes that typically cut laterally across different functions. This contrasts with the more traditional view that organizations comprise sets of expertise-based specialisms that are organized vertically.” Here, Clegg also regretfully mentions the devaluation of application of the principle by the BPR approach in the context of the organizational system design.

This brings to a thought that there is more to what organizations can be than what BPR has to offer. Despite of being a useful tool, it should find its application with consideration of its limitations.

References
Clegg, C. W. (2000). Sociotechnical principles for system design. Applied Ergonomics, 31(5), 463–477.

Чем обусловленно наличие энтузиазма в рабочем коллективе

Нашел этот список на доске объявлений в городской администрации Выборга. На авторство не претендую. Классный список. Есть о чем задуматься потенциальному лидеру.

В РАБОЧЕМ КОЛЛЕКТИВЕ, ГДЕ ПРИСУТСТВУЕТ ЭНТУЗИАЗМ, ЕСТЬ:

ВРЕМЯ ДЛЯ РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЙ

Также время для продумывания дел до того, как они будут начаты.

ПОДДЕРЖА НОВАТОРСКИХ ИДЕЙ

Новой идее дается шанс, даже если ее успех стоит под вопросом.

ЗАДАЧИ

Без задач нет и идей.

Continue reading “Чем обусловленно наличие энтузиазма в рабочем коллективе”

Marketing hypocrisy: customer needs – what firms actually aim to meet

No matter what sweet marketing reasoning says (Levitt, Kotler and alike), firms do not seek a customer per se, as a human, for who customer is with his life, troubles and routine to help him (see profound discussion by Fromm 1994). These issues are left to government backed social care and church at the best. See how many customer needs are ready to be met around the globe and too few companies ready to meet them because there is no financial interest – the customer needs need to match companies’ goals. Firms seek a customer that will buy their product. It is not the customer needs that company aims to meet. Contrary, it is company goals a firm aims to meet by addressing dehumanized customer demands (Fromm 1994). In such context, customer need is of any interest as long as they allow gain opportunities. Just as companies are not interested in customers per se, customers are equally interested in companies only for the reason of a product. The correct stress and priorities changes the tune; it scatters marketing tinsel away leaving crude reality.

And the reality is plain: companies sell products, be that goods, services, know-how, even when they are dreams. Product is the finite outcome of organization’s existence. The transfer of value from firm to customer and from customer to a firm is the blood that runs through the veins of economy. All activities of a firm directly or indirectly support the goal of facilitating transaction of values – money for product. No transfer – no customer. It is “Capitalism 101.” The role of marketing is to convince the fool to trade – the rest is lyrics.

Fromm, E. (1994). Escape from Freedom (repring, r). Henry Holt and Company.

Which cars have timing chain or belt?

There is an easy way to find out if your car is driven by a timing chain or timing belt motor. If, on the side (not top) of the engine, either left or right, there is a plastic cover, your car has timing belt. If there is no plastic on the side, you have a timing chain. Here is a video that explains and shows the point.

Another way to find out is through some external sources. One good resource is the Honest John website. They made a list of timing chain driven cars. You can find the original article here – https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/chain-cam/ I repost it here in case the article disappears from the original source. By no means, this is a full list. If you know that a car with chain drive which is not mentioned in this list, please, post it in the comments with the model, engine type/size and year. I will add it to the list.

Alfa Romeo 159 and Brera 2.2 litre 4 cylinder and 3.0 litre V6 petrol engines.

Audi: 1.4TSI and 1.4TFSI (but from 2013, EA211 1.4TFSI ACT is belt cam), 1.6FSI petrol in A3, 1.8 non turbo petrol and TSI 160 in A4 B8, 2.0 litre 1,984cc 2-1PS EA888 TFSI in A3 and A4 B8, 2.7 and 3.0 V6 TDI, late V8s,

BMW: All models since 1993

Cadillac: All models Continue reading “Which cars have timing chain or belt?”