Rhapsody TechBlog

BLOG about IBM Rhapsody. Contains technical information as well as more private travel stories.

Tag: Humor (Page 1 of 3)

10 Years of MESCONF 

April 16, 2025 / / 0 Comments

10 Years of MESCONF – Let’s Talk Models, Not B.S.

April 16, 2025 / rhapsody207 / 1 Comment / Edit

🎉 We’re celebrating 10 years of modeling, collaboration, and fresh ideas!

📅 May 22–23, 2025 | 📍 Infineon Campeon, Munich

Let’s cut to the chase: 2025 marks 10 years of MESCONF.

What started as a small prototype has grown into the go-to event for model-based systems engineering (MBSE) pros, tool nerds, process thinkers—and let’s be honest, all of us who just really like making complex stuff actually work.

Whether you’re a Systems Engineer, Architect, Tool Wizard, or just MBSE-curious, MESCONF is where the real conversations happen—with folks who know what they’re talking about, no PowerPoint fluff required.

💬 What’s on the agenda?

Classic expert talks? Yep.

Open discussion formats? You bet.

PowerPoint prison? Nope.

Pre-scripted speakers? Forget it.

The real star? Open Space.

Here’s how it works:

👉 Got a topic? Bring it.

👉 Others care? Talk about it.

👉 No hierarchy, no moderator—just smart people exchanging real-world ideas.

From SysMLv2 to traceability, simulation, tool integration, and yes—AI in modeling—Open Space is where the sparks fly.

🤖 My 2 cents this year:

I’m pitching an Open Space session on AI in modeling.

(And yes, I do say “AI” not “KI”. “KI” sounds like a technique for getting cows pregnant—no offense to the cows. 🐄💉)

On a serious note:

  • Where does AI actually help in MBSE?
  • Where is it just shiny nonsense?
  • How can we integrate smart assistance into our workflows without handing over the model to some black box?

Curious? Opinionated? Just want to argue a bit over coffee? Come join the conversation—I’d love your input.

🛠️ Why bother showing up?

Because modeling is how we wrangle complexity.

Because MBSE doesn’t have to live in an ivory tower.

And because MESCONF is one of the very few places where you’ll find open, honest, practical exchange without corporate smoke and mirrors.

🎟️ Spots are limited – sign up now:

👉 https://mesconf.de

🚀 10 years of MESCONF – let’s write the next chapter together.

See you in Munich!

Keep modeling – with Rhapsody or whatever gets the job done.

Walter van der Heiden

walter@sodiuswillert.com

Happy Modeling ( preferably with Rhapsody)!!

Walter van der Heiden email://walter@sodiuswillert.com

Code generation

October 23, 2020 / / 4 Comments

Introduction

I am a heavy FaceBook user. ( I know, I know….) One of the things FaceBook does is some kind of daily report with things that you posted exactly x years back.
I used to really like that but in this COVID times these now start to annoy me because they remind me of the travelling times I had before.
I am now officially no longer the “Travelling Modeler” but the “Stay at Home Modeler”…
Well, it is what it is. Since 2 weeks I am not even allowed to travel to the office anymore since Germany does not want to have Dutch people without being tested or quarantined.

Now I assumed my life would be a lot less stressful but nothing is more untrue, I’m now clicking myself from online meeting to online meeting with Zoom via Webex, Skype and Teams back to my own desktop.
When there is time at night, the family takes up that time. Don’t get me wrong, I love that and it’s fantastic but there is hardly time left to write a BLOG. Like I used to have in Airport Lounges and Hotel Rooms.

So I just have to take that time otherwise and I hope I will succeed in giving you the Rhapsody info you need from my home.
The main picture of this post is the view from my living room. Could be worse I think.

Conspiracy Theory

They’ve always been there but in the Netherlands it’s a hot item nowadays: Conspiracy Theories about everything but now more than ever about COVID. I am not going to discuss that here, that is where I have FaceBook for, but I want to discuss one work related “Conspiracy Theory”: People are denying Code generation. This is where I want to stand up and convince people.

Because this hits me, time after time. Why on earth would you want to use UML and SysML to just draw pictures and then write software by hand if your tool can generate the code for you???

The sad thing about people believing in Conspiracy Theories is that it is extremely hard to convince them otherwise. They always have arguments “out of the blue” mostly lacking any truth or “conveniently” bending truths.

Same with the “Anti-CGers”. All their arguments have been wiped away years ago but they keep popping up.

  • Code Generation makes code too slow/big/unreadable
    Not true. In fact, our Code generator makes smaller code than the average developer does. Certainly when projects get either large or old or both. We all have seen “old” code that is no longer understandable. certainly if the developer is a fan of “It was hard to write, it should be hard to read”.
    Generated code is also faster and perfectly readable. in fact, the consistent structure of the code makes that you can read ALL code. Also the stuff your colleagues have written. The fact that you can make changes to your state-machine and the whole code is written new, from the ground up, instead of decorated with all sorts of work-arounds is saving valuable development and testing time.
  • creating a model that is suitable for Code Generation takes longer than simply write the code.
    Not even closely true. When using Code generation from a UML model you have to create a correct model anyway. Otherwise your model is something that only you can understand. UML and SysML have a very precise semantic, if you don’t follow that,your code has nothing to do with your model.
  • Generated Code can not be certified.
    On the contrary: Certifiers love the consistency and, for all, the traceability of generated code. Yes, traceability. Automatically generated if you create the links from the requirements to your model, the code generator automatically inserts the requirements numbers and text in your code. Without an error. Since testing can be done from the model (but also in the generated code) automatically, setting up that for a certification is easy. I know, I’ve done it. Multiple times.
  • Code generators are expensive.
    Well that depends on what your perception on “expensive” is. But for less than 5k you have a UML Tool that generates code in ‘C’, ‘C++’ or ‘JAVA”, including highly optimized framework and debugger. Including a full year of support. By me. Or my colleagues. I think that is a great deal.

In times where we have less social contact between the developers of projects, using a good structured code is becoming even more important. Cooperating is hard enough, let’s cooperate on model level so the communication is much clearer. Let the Code Generator do the hard work.

The truth is that for many die-hard ‘C’ and even ‘C++’ programmers it is hard to leave their “guru-status” behind and use a code-generator that writes better, smaller, faster and more readable code.
But like with COVID: it is what it is. You will not become a “lesser Guru” by letting a code generator do the largest (and mostly boring) part of your job.
Even the best code generator needs a smart human being to operate it the right way: you.

So! Happy code generating (at home!) with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@sodiuswillert.com)

And now for something completely different….

July 8, 2020 / / 3 Comments

Prologue

Hi All! It’s been a while since I wrote. Not much travelling these days, I was in Germany in the office last week and in Stuttgart (by car) but only briefly.
Work however continues and is even more than usual.
So not much time to write BLOG entries. Soon my first vacation in 3 years (too busy building a house…) will start. I promise to write some new stuff then…

XSD

This time I want to speak about something unexpected that you can do with Rhapsody: XSD (XML Schema Definition) import/export and editing with Rhapsody.
This is an add-on Tool (of course from SodiusWillert!!) That helps you deal with the normally textual and tiresome XSD files in a nice graphical way.

I added some of the pictures and explanations from our presentation, you can download the presentation here:

sodiuswillert-rhapsody-xsdDownload
  • During design, the data exchanged throughout external interfaces of a system are described by a set of technical XSD files.
  • They have to be integrated in the UML/SysML models and types linked with the model.

Rhapsody XSD – Key Features

  • Integrate XSD types in Rhapsody
    • Import XSD files in Rhapsody
  • Make XSD Types understandable in Rhapsody
    • Simple concepts but enough expressivity
    • Complete XSD Profile and Diagram Support
  • Use Rhapsody as an XSD editor
    • XSD Previewer
    • Export XSD Rhapsody to XSD Files

If this is interesting for you, please contact me!

Happy XSD-ing with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@sodiuswillert.com)

Transylvania

April 20, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Je komt nog eens ergens

That is Dutch and means something like: “You go places”. Yes I certainly do. This time I had to be in Rumania to do a training for a customer that has a development center there.
Because everything was organized in a hurry I did not really prepare well for this trip. That is, I did the necessary things but no more than that. So I was not be able to visit the HardRock Cafe in Bucharest since that is a 5 hour drive away from Sibiu where I was located. My flights would stop in Bucharest but not long enough unfortunately.
My original plan to fly to Bucharest and take a car was not a good one, Romania does not have a concept of highways like we do. So the average speed will be under 50km/h which effectively rules out using a rental car. Also the rentals were really expensive, no idea why, cars are not really expensive in Rumania.
I also did not look up anything about the place I was about to visit..

Rumania is not _really_ Europe

They are part of the European Union, without the Euro though, they use their own currency, but that was not really noticeable. KLM did not offer flights to Sibiu on their website although I managed to find flights from AMS via OPT to SBZ (OPT = Bucharest, SBZ is Sibiu) via another website. I decided to phone with the Platinum Hotline (Hey! You have to use what you’ve got!) and they advised me to use the Air France Website and…. bingo. That was possible. The wonders of Air Travel.. KLM-Air France say they are one organization but as far as I know they are far from that.
Also going in and out I had to show my ID. Schengen??? “Never heard of”…

Looking Good, or?

Coincidentally I looked on my phone in the Air France app and I noticed that there was a message. I looked on it and it said: Your flight is cancelled, please contact the ticketing Buro.
Cool. What if I had not looked??? So phone again with the hotline. This was all done during my previous trip in a car driving from Germany to France via Switzerland… They said the last part of the trip was cancelled. This was the Tarom (Rumanian Air Company) flight from OTP-SBZ. First they told me I had to fly on another day. After i (still politely) explained them that that was a real bad idea because people would be waiting for me… They completely rebooked me to a Lufthansa flight AMS-VIE-MUC-SBZ (Yes… Vienna, Munich in that order…) Hopping through Europe like a crazy kangaroo… Also I would arrive at 1:10 am on the next day.

Later at home I phoned again and now they had a better alternative, AMS-MUC-SBZ, arriving 18:00 on the correct day. “Geht doch”…

Without Status…

I had already arranged that my XP would still be booked (important, I do not want to lose my fresh status on KLM) but I noticed that contrary to KLM (Where they really treat you well as a status passenger) Lufthansa did not know me at all…. And did not let me in their lounge nor would they give me a nice chair. They promised me a window seat on the flight from Munich. I had a seat next to the place where normally the windows are. Unfortunately not on that row….
But I arrived. And on time. The hotel was also close to the airport and the company where I had to be. Going by foot was not advised so i still used taxis but they are very cheap in Rumania. (Even when the taxi driver screws you…)

Dracula

Yes… I have to mention it… The part of Rumania where I was is Transylvania. Home of the famous Count Dracula. And Vampires and so. Luckily I do not believe in that.
Sibiu is a very nice city, definitively worth another visit!!!
My friend Jan Scholten (who has been in Rumania before) told me that Sibiu has a German speaking minority and that the town was also known as “Hermannstadt“. Since it has been the cultural capital of Europe (in 2007) a lot of Restoration took place and it looks really beautiful!

Training

This was again an example of the necessity of having a training when you start to use Rhapsody. There are so many things that you can learn very fast from an experienced person but can hardly read in a book because you cannot find the connection between all that is written.
The Rhapsody manual is 600 pages, it does not nearly cover all topics and still you find nothing unless you really know what you are looking for.
Yes, partly that is due to the fact that the Rhapsody GUI is not always as easy as it could be. But I know that people are working very, very hard to improve that. Rhapsody 8.4 will be a great step in that direction. But even if the GUI would have been perfect, it is still a lot of stuff you have to learn.

Shortcuts

Three times in a row I met people that were quite experienced in Rhapsody but still did not know the keyboard shortcuts that make life so much easier….

  • Pressing “Alt” during resizing elements on diagrams will only resize the “outer” element and leave the content of the resized element as it is. (You can do that via the normal menu as well…)
  • Pressing “Shift” when dragging up or down in a sequence diagram will shift everything under the cursor up or down. (That way you can create or fill space on a Sequence diagram)
  • You can “multi” select using Shift and/or CTRL. You can then delete multiple items but also change “common” features or Display Options.
  • In the (OK…not so really cool) Editor you can select Rhapsody Model elements with CTRL-Space. (Intellivisor) The one in Eclipse (Or VS) is better but it’s not bad at all! Saves typing!
    Have you already tried the “Mouse menu” feature? Right clicking in a diagram gives you all possible model elements for that position. You don’t have to move the mouse to the menu and back!

That’s it! Have fun modeling with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)

Pi-Day, STL & Memory

March 14, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Introduction

Today is March 14. For Europeans this is nothing special but in the US, where they reverse month and day, this day is written as 3.14. Which is the first 3 numbers of Pi.

STL

For a customer I do some modeling to help them create a super reusable application. This project is done in C++. The more I use C++. the more I like it, it is so much easier to do stuff than in C where you have to write everything out.

But here are also caveats. I used the string class without really thinking. To find out later that this triggers the compiler to use the Standard Template Library. A very fine piece of C++ art that cost you memory. Lots of memory…

I compiled the application with the Keil/ARM compiler where I could read the map file afterwards to see where the memory had gone. The application was 12k, the STL took 180k…..

So… now I understood why Rhapsody has the OMString Class included….

OMString

The problem with OMString is that IBM did not include much documentation on the use of the Class. “Read the OMString.h file”….

Functions

  • GetAt(Nr)
    Gets the character at position <Nr>
  • SetAt(Nr, Char)
    Sets string position <Nr> to <Char>
  • Empty()
    Clears an OMString set the size to 0
  • GetBuffer()
    Converts the OMString to a char *
  • IsEmpty()
    Checks if the OMString is empty
  • getSize()
  • setSize()
  • resetSize()
    get or set the size of the OMString
  • getStr()
    returns the OMString
  • getDefaultBlock
  • GetBuffer
  • ReleaseBuffer
  • GetLength
    returns the length of the OMString

Operators

  • compare functions
    • <, <=, >, >=, ==, !=
      Compare two OMStrings or a string and a character array,
    • =
      Assignment, assigns a character, a char array or an OMString to another OMString
    • []
      access the OMString as an array
    • +, +=
      Add a char, char array or an OMString to another OMString

 

Constructors

You can construct an OMString with:

  • another OMString
  • An old fashioned character array
  • a character
  • a void.

 

So you can create and use an OMString very easy:

OMString    MyString (“Moin moin”);
MyString+=” Auch Moin”);

It uses way less memory than the STL and gives you a lot of freedom with Strings.

Yo! Happy PiDay! And keep on modeling with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)

Businessman on finishing line in race for 2019

2019

January 16, 2019 / / 2 Comments

Introduction

First of all: All a Happy New Year! OK, OK… the year is already 2 weeks old… Sorry… not much time to write earlier. Anyways… please let 2019 be a year full of modeling. There will be lots of exciting things this year, new versions of tools, new versions of standards and, as usual, a lot of work. Unfortunately there will also be a lot of old stuff this year where we are still fighting with. Let me take you on a trip to memory lane.

Paths

It is 2019…. and still we are fighting with path- and filenames containing spaces and slash and or backslash.
I cannot prove what my assumption is, but I think I’m not far off the truth.

The first DOS (MS-DOS) Version did not contain directories. It was all a flat file system where there was room for a maximum of 128 files in the “root”. Since there were only floppy-disks with 360kB disk space this was not a big problem.

In the same time (Start of the 1980’s) there were other systems, one of them was CP/M. They already had directories, although very primitive. You had 26 directories (You can guess…. ‘A’-‘Z’…)

You already had UNIX at that time which was far more advanced than MS-DOS or CP/M, that had real directories. The Bell Lab guys had thought of that. You could type in paths with a ‘/’ (slash) as separator character.

I think that Bill Gates and his staff just stole the concept from Unix without really understanding the true meaning and working (As they would repeat many many times after that) and exchanged the ‘/’ with ‘\’. So no-one would notice that it was stolen (duh…) and not grasping the concept of the ‘\’ (escape character)

Spaces

Since the MS-DOS file system was an early version of FAT, the filenames were limited to 8.3, 8 characters for the filenames, 3 for the extension. Many versions later Microsoft introduced the concept of long filenames. They were “hacked” into the file system, there was a flag indicating that there was a long filename. The short filename was built up from the long name, removing characters and adding a ‘~’. So we jokingly said that the name of the company should have been changed to “Micros~1”

Nowadays most modern tools can handle decent filenames up to 256 characters and long paths. But Windows would not be Windows if it did not have a couple of unpleasant surprises. For compatibility, a lot of old (partly ancient) API calls are still part of Windows and will still work. So some older tools have “side-effects” that show up when you least expect it.

What does this have to do with Rhapsody? Well.. also Rhapsody is sometimes (indirectly) influenced by old Microsoft behavior. If you want to create a path while creating a new project you will notice that Rhapsody cannot create a directory for you directly in the root of your drive… The error message is cryptic ( “No rights to write” or something similar ) so it takes a while to figure that out. Is basically the problem with using the old (but still present) Windows API calls.

Other issues

Further, Rhapsody is mostly not the only tool involved in the development, (certainly not for Willert Customers, I will make sure they use code generation! ) mostly there are other tools. Often called via command line. And this is where the “Microsoft Moments” come up. (A Microsoft Moment: the moment you realize the world can be saved by destroying Redmond WA)
Because the command line has issues, depending on what version. We have searched and searched for inexplicable errors multiple times just to find out that on one machine Windows would not accept the “/” in a path or a space.
Let me not shout too much at Microsoft. The days of “If Microsoft ever makes something that doesn’t suck it will be a vacuum cleaner ” are behind us. Their hardware has actually always been good. And they improved a lot lately. This opposed to Apple who are definitely losing it with every new OS version.

2019

The first weeks have been quiet but 2019 already promises a lot of trips for your traveling modeler. I will be blogging! Happy modeling with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)

GroundHague day

November 2, 2018 / / 3 Comments

Yes, I know, it is originally called Groundhog Day and not GroundHague Day.
And it is officially the 2nd of February and not October 31, I know.
But I had the feeling I was reliving the same day over and over again in The Hague and that reminded of one of my favorite movies.

A couple of years ago I had something similar when I needed a Visa for India. On the first Day I went there it turned out I had not enough information. So I had to return the next day (with the same information) and then after a few hours wait I got my badly needed Visa. Just in Time, the next day was my flight…

This time I needed a China Visa. At the beginning of this year I also needed an India Visa but India had now finally reached the 21st century and switched to eVisa. So the internet and a credit card payment sufficed.

Not so for China. I could send in all information by mail but that would mean I would have to send my passport as well. That would mean I would be without passport for more than 2 weeks. That is not an option with my normal travel schedule. I found out, however, that I can have a second passport just for this reason. Good for next time.

Since I have to be there not only for the 11th AUTOSAR Open Conference but also for the MESCONF, my German colleagues offered to take care of the Visa. But that turned out to be impossible. I am still Dutch and I still live in the Netherlands.

So I used the Public Holiday in Germany to go to the China Visa Office in The Hague. By train, I am not going to drive in my country, takes ages, no parking place and a lot of stress.
The Visa Office was not, as I assumed, in the Chinese Embassy, but there is a (commercial!) office that controls the visa process. The real visa is, of course, issued by the embassy, but the process around it is handled by a third party.

It went a lot quicker than the India one, a short 5 minute wait and it was my turn. So confidence increased. Unfortunately the papers I brought were not sufficient. For Germany they were but not for the Netherlands. They did not accept any document that was not in either Chinese or English (so not the German documents I had) and they needed more documentation from China.
Now another tiny problem was that China was also already closed (They are 7 hours ahead of us) so no chance to getting the needed documents
(I needed an official document from the Commerce Chamber of China that the company I was visiting really existed….) …
So…return the next day, Phil…

The next day I had all info covered. I woke up at 4 to have more time with China, I had already mailed the list I needed the night before, received everything I needed, printed it all together with a new application form and I now hoped it was OK. So back to The Hague with the train.
And… it was, they accepted the application and I received a paper that I needed to collect my passport 6 days later…. Now that was not an option (I had to fly 2 days later)
Luckily they had an emergency procedure. But China does not work fast, they need a full day (And that is the urgent where they left you bleed for, financially that is, €200 ,-)
So… return the next day, Phil…

So the next day I went to The Hague again, now it took only 10 minutes but than I had my passport back with a fresh China Visa. The groundhog did not see his shadow and the winter was over… back home and the time can continue.

Is there any Rhapsody news? Yes there is!!! We have a new promotion movie. Called “single source of Truth”, it is very very nice.

Managing complexity, managing resources, achieving goals: Successful projects in embedded systems / software engineering need powerful, coordinated procedures, tools and competencies. The single source of truth principle is an important element in the context of model-driven engineering.

You can find it on:

Willert Website, YouTube, Vimeo

So… that’s it. Blogging in China is not easy. The Chinese government does not like google, WhatsApp, YouTube and a lot of other sites where we normally work with. So don’t be mad if you don’t see much of me next weeks.

Happy Modeling with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)

Da Boston Broker

August 24, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Introduction

This week I’m in Boston at a customer that is starting a new project. I’m helping setting it up, setting up the model and the rest of the development environment.

In the beginning of our Rhapsody days, we were always happy to tell people we were the experts in “Systems with limited resources”. Now. in fact, we still are, just because we have a lot of experience in that area. I don’t think many people know how to handle the specific requirements of modeling in small 8- or 16bit systems with kilobytes of memory and microseconds to respond.

But slowly we have been growing with our customers and we also do larger systems. This week I helped setting up a “larger” system. This a “normal” PC with Linux on it, accompanied by a couple of other boards that do small tasks (and have smaller controllers!)

The use of Linux as operating system immediately introduced one big question: how are we going to implement a framework?
Linux has processes and threads. ( See BLOG entry ) Are we using a distributed framework? Or the normal framework with Threads?
Both have advantages and disadvantages. Distributed Framework is more difficult to implement but just threads will influence the way you can use your system and will not give you all the advantages of memory protection.

We decided to use both ways with a “simple” framework and use IPC to communicate. So we would actually use multiple applications that communicate with the use of the OS.
The trouble with IPC is always that you need some base information to start the communication. You can use a “zeroconf” system like Apple’s bonjour where every client starts and assumes it is the “Master” until it finds another client that already is the master. Or you create a Master that is known by all clients.

We have chosen the last variant. A Master-broker is in the system, waiting and listening on a fixed IPC Channel. Clients report to that Channel with their name and the Master sets up the communication. The client then opens up for its local clients to publish/subscribe that it will communicate with the Master-broker that registers all clients in the complete network. C++ makes a lot of this easier.

It was real fun to set this up. Most work was spend on setting up the development environment and describing how to use it. We use GIT and Sharepoint to do that.
The compiler/IDE is Eclipse in Ubuntu Linux, we deploy code to a shared directory with Windows. IPC on Linux is done with named pipes.

We spend some time setting up the Rhapsody model so that the package structure was logical and ready for use by multiple people. The model will contain a lot of components that must be built separately. Luckily you can tell Rhapsody to “build all” (which will generate and deploy all in our case) Eclipse can also build a complete project with multiple executables. We also built some test tools to test the Broker setup.

This is what many people underestimate when starting to use MBSE. The UML Tool will not do that for you. It is a UML Tool, UML is a language, not a process nor a development environment. It is very important to spend time setting that up and documenting it. Use a central documentation tool like Confluence, Sharepoint or MediaWiki, your success depends on it!

So… just work in Boston? Nope… in my 3rd Boston visit I finally had the time to visit “Cheers”, the bar of one of my favorite TV series.
I’ll end this one with a quote from Norm:

“Can I pour you a beer, Mr. Peterson?”
“A little early isn’t it, Woody?”
“For a beer?” “No, for stupid questions.”

“Cheers!” and Happy modeling with Rhapsody

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)

Florida 5: Bahama’s

July 4, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Introduction

Preparation is everything. That is valid for everything. For modeling but also for vacation…..
Both Robert and I have never been to the Bahama’s and it seemed like a great idea to visit it. The flight was pretty cheap so we decided to just go there on an early flight and leave again in the evening. (Yes, we are the “Been there, Bought the t-shirt type tourists…)
But we did not do any other preparation…. we just went to the airport early. That was not difficult, the time zone works in our advantage.
The flight was very nice and shorter than planned. But then the first “small” issue crossed our path.
We both assumed that the Bahama’s were part of the USA. They are not… as it turned out… It is a country. With customs and borders and so… On the airport we had to fill in a Visa application form. Luckily there was nothing to do upfront.
Now the good part was that nobody gave us a hard time, everybody was extremely friendly but at first we were worried. But we got in quite quickly.
Then we wanted to check on the web where we had to go just to find out that even my super-duper cell phone plan did not cover the Bahama’s… Being online was extremely expensive so we had to stay in the airport WiFi to figure out where to go.
The speed of the WiFi was, well, very low. So I just saw that Uber would not work and that Nassau was on the opposite part of the island from the airport.
So we decided to rent a car. Hertz (my normal rental company) was out of cars but I managed to rent a car.
It was a VW Polo, Automatic and Aircon but not in a good shape. There we were confronted with preparation again.. There was a big sticker on the windshield that said “Keep Left”. But confusingly he car had a left-hand side steering wheel…
Then I realized that the Bahama’s have been English. These guys leave their marks thorough… So the road signs were exactly as in the UK and people drove left.
Not very cool with a “normal” car but I managed.
We were also not able to tell what kind of units they were using. The first sign after the airport was “45” but it took a while to figure out that they used miles or kilometers. With the state of the cars there, kilometers would not have been unlogical. So miles and not metric like the speedometer of the car. It didn’t even had the small inner “mile” indicator.

Conclusion

The Bahamas are very much worth a visit, one day is enough unless you are the sunbath type. The day was very relaxing and in the evening an hour before flying back we returned the car. At the check-in the lady told us that we were just in time. It turned out that you had to check-in an hour before when flying to the US, we had 2 minutes left… This proved again that preparation is everything. For traveling but certainly also for things like modeling. Gather all information you can get and model your application based on that.

 

Walter’s Rules #10: “Assumption is the mother of all f***-ups.”

Happy modeling with Rhapsody

Walter van der Heiden ( wvdheiden@willert.de )

 

 

020 and 8.3.1

June 18, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Helemaal niks in 020

People who know me will recognize the title at least partly. Because I was born in the best city of the Netherlands, Rotterdam, I will never pronounce the name of our capital. That city becoming capital is a capital mistake… (pun intended)
The Dutch government houses in The Hague, a beautiful city at the coast of the Northsea, so it would be logically that The Hague (Or ‘s Gravenhage as the official name is) should be the capital. Nobody really understand why it isn’t.
The rivalry between Rotterdam (010 btw) and 020 is of course very football related. “Helemaal niks in 020” is “Totally nothing in 020”. We in Rotterdam sing that if the 020 football team has another year without a prize. The 020 “fans” still think they are the best.
But OK, it is our capital and we have to live with it. And sometimes I have to visit it (I even worked there for 7 years…) since I had guests from the United States and they all want to visit that.

Tourists

So I organized that a friend of mine who happens to live here, the poor guy, would guide us around in the city. And we do that the tourist way. A walk through the center of the city and the same but then by boat. I can really recommend doing that, it’s really cool, admitted. A few visits to a terrace and a few beers. And of course to the Hard Rock Cafe. NO!!!, I did not buy a t-shirt. I will not wear that. The only HRC shirt I don’t have and never will have.

Any Rhapsody news?

Yes!! 8.3.1 is on the way, I have a beta version installed already, looks cool! AUTOSAR 4.3.1 is supported and what I like very much is the new bridges. Rhapsody can now, finally, create a small bridge in the diagram when two lines cross. Simple change but looks way better. The double click to enter stamp mode in a diagram is also really cool and saves you time when creating diagrams with a lot of similar elements. The quick navigation improved so you can switch to diagrams with a single click on an element.
The API is improved, you will not notice that much but the use is now in line with the Microsoft guidelines. There is now support for Visual Studio 2017 and.. there is a setting to let Rhapsody save in the old file format by default.
We are going to thoroughly test the new Rhapsody and I keep you informed when we release this version to all of our customers.

 

That’s it! Happy modeling with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden ( wvdheiden@willert.de )

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