Disqus - Latest Comments for dbwilldo

Re: Official MINI “First Test” Contest Details

Don Burnside — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 08:29:25 -0000

You aren't thinking far enough out of the box. You should also be sure to listen to our Interview with Tom Salkowsky about it. It's a little bit more than your typical, only-made-of-right-turns test drive. [thumbsup]

Re: Woofcast 491: The F56

Don Burnside — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 22:50:41 -0000

I want to say the AUX port was available mid '02. I have it on mine.

Re: Woofcast #461

Don Burnside — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:03:15 -0000

I know, right?

Re: Breaking: MINI to Re-examine F56 Interior Design Based on MF Reader Feedback

Don Burnside — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:47:18 -0000

Nice. I really wish they would keep the 1 Series steering wheel however.

Re: Mickey Mouse sur le Scooter in New Disney Short

Don Burnside — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:27:14 -0000

Super rad!

Re: MF Review: Driving the JCW GP in the Wild

Don Burnside — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:43:20 -0000

Great write up Nathaniel! Can't wait to hear more about this from your point of view when you get back!

Re: Making Better Use of Flash

Don Burnside — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:02:56 -0000

I agree. And I think for now, this will serve my needs perfectly and save me from having to spend the extra $$$ on a good flash.

Re: The Mac Mini as a Server

Don Burnside — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:18:01 -0000

Re: online backup. They all suffer from the initial lag in the first backup. For example, I just started with Carbonite at my office. 380GB took about 3 weeks to fully populate. All the while, my normal backups continued. My point is that it will take a long time (even with Crashplan, but I like their pricing). Something you could look into that I just started looking at for backup is Amazon. Specifically their Glacier product. Pricing is very cheap and it might be accessible with an app or via FTP client. Who knows, it might work with JungleDisk, which already works with S3 and Rackspace CDNs.

Personally, I like the drobo. I just installed one in the office as part of my "build it so I can get hit by a train and the thing still works" plan. The initial unit was DOA, but the one that replaced it has been solid and running for 3 months without even needing a reboot. It replaced the Synology drive I was using, primarily for the redundancy.

I think you might also be overthinking things a little bit. Sounds like you spend more time thinking about and managing your backups then actually creating things that need to be backed up. I try to keep it simple by following the 3-2-1 system.

3 copies of each file
stored on at least 2 media types
with 1 being offsite.

Like you, I'm a SuperDuper guy to an external + Carbonite. Add in my 110GB dropbox account and I'm done.

I'm making a few other changes since the Air has become my daily driver and will remain as such for the foreseeable future. I've had to add a 1TB external USB drive, primarily for Aperture and video files, but I am currently without a backup. That's why I'm looking at Amazon Glacier.

Re: MINI Goodwood – How Would you Change it?

Don Burnside — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 13:43:18 -0000

This MINI needed to have the Rolls Royce emblem somewhere on it and included more prominently in it's name. Maybe a fancy bonnet statue or something? Maybe block letters saying Rolls Royce across the boot. Something on the outside of the car that screams that you just paid $50k for a MINI Cooper.

That's why they are still sitting on showrooms and being sold at such discounts. Lack of swagger.

Re: It’s No Longer Cool to Hate

Don Burnside — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:52:16 -0000

Thanks for stopping by you two! Appreciate the comments and glad you liked the post!

Re: Getting the Hang of Aperture

Don Burnside — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 10:55:37 -0000

I do. I have to since I only have 128GB of storage on this machine. For the time being, it is also my daily driver and increasing the HDD size is not in the budget until early next year. And, yes, it's cramped, but again, it's now my daily driver and what I have.

I didn't even think about the Flickr sharing. Sure as anything, every set that I have shared out of Aperture that has been deleted has also been removed from Flickr. That seriously sucks.

I also don't like that I can use Aperture or iPhoto, but not both. I would like iPhoto to be for my iPhone/Photo stream photos, Aperture for photos from my big camera.

Looks like it's back to the drawing board, of sorts.

Re: WordPress + Amazon S3

Don Burnside — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:22:59 -0000

Sorry I didn't. It only worked on themes of my own creation and Twenty Ten. and I wasn't able to make the navigation work 100%. It was too fiddly.

I have started creating custom gallery post types to keep photo galleries organized and using Amazon. Add a little extra styling in your functions.php to make it look a bit different if you like. Or don't. And, add a lightbox plug-in. It's almost as good.

I might revisit the gallery system at a later date.

Thanks Darren!

Re: My Default Plugin List

Don Burnside — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:39:19 -0000

My biggest concern with Feedburner is Google's lack of support. Not really a problem for the sites with words, but for the show, it's going to be a little trickier. I hate to use a plugin to build an RSS feed for iTunes, but it's looking like that will be what I have to do.

Re: Welcome to ScooterFile 2.0

Don Burnside — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:42:40 -0000

Nice job implementing the theme Nathaniel! Looks great so far!

Re: White Roof Radio #446

Don Burnside — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:57:18 -0000

Thanks Les!

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:29:54 -0000

Thanks for reporting in from across the pond! Appreciate your point of view! Also appreciate you 'doing it right'. Nicely done!

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:27:12 -0000

The change, the loss of magic, all stem from MINI and MINIUSA chasing IQS scores and not having a long term view IMO. But that is a topic for another day.

Kevin sounds like a rockstar and should be snatched up ASAP! Too bad his dealer will only call him back when he wants to spend money, which brings us back to the original point of the article.

Boom.

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:22:35 -0000

That's just sad. Sounds to me like you would be a great addition to any MINI sales team. Too bad your guys don't seem to get that. Their loss.

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 10:50:21 -0000

I'm not saying that MINI is perfect. I am saying that it is the dealers responsibility to address any issues with customers cars. MINI/MINIUSA does not deal directly with the customer. They just don't.

Sure the cars aren't perfect. Sure, carbon build up and death rattles shouldn't even happen in the first place (or any other of the issues de jour). But, when they do, the first point of contact for those issues is the MINI Dealer, not MINIUSA or MINI. At the end of the day, it is, and always will be, up to the dealer to correct any issues that one of their customers is having with their cars. Work is done by technicians under their employ, within a shop that the dealership has built and paid for (or pays a lease on).

That's the way it is. Blame MINI all you want for a problem with the cars, but don't expect them to fix the problem on a customer's car. At best, we should expect them to correct that at the production level (like they usually do) and, hopefully, issue bulletins (that they don't do enough) making it 'official'.

The entire system is broken.

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 10:38:47 -0000

Thanks Bob. That's pretty much it exactly!

But not just MINI dealers, really. The entire auto dealership world would benefit from a dose of elbow. It really is a broken system that does not favor the customer.

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 10:36:41 -0000

That's a great story Gary!

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:39:30 -0000

Everything that you say is 100% true. It really is.

Still, does not change the fact that if a dealer is going to sell a car, they also have to support a car. If the dealer really wants something corrected for a customer, there are ways to make that happen. I know it for a fact.

If you went directly to MINIUSA, beyond the 800 number (to a regional level manager or better) and still didn't get resolution, then I would be as angry as you appear to be. That said, there isn't anything that we can do to help you out here at MF/WRR. But, if wishing made it so...

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:27:06 -0000

I was hoping no one would notice. Eagle eye Mr McLauchlan! And, I know from what you speak and know they are one of the dealers that 'get it'!

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:49:25 -0000

We did discuss this in a little more detail during White Roof Radio #444.

Re: Opinion: Us vs. Them

Don Burnside — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:48:19 -0000

Everyone has angry customers. And I have yet to find any company that manufacturers anything that has a zero percent failure rate on something. If the dealers are going to be in the business of selling cars, then part of that business has to be the support of those cars. There is no work around. And I would expect the same level of service from the service department as I do from sales. If there is an issue, it should be addressed, no matter what.

But when you say KNOWN WIDESPREAD issues, does that mean a thread on NAM or MA that has 5 pages? Or something that every person that has posted or read that 5 page thread has actually brought to the attention of their service department? It's import to clarify this because, as MINI owners, we have a sense of entitlement (I have no idea where it comes from) and think that we are due special treatment because we bought into the brand. A warranty is a warranty, and when it's expired, it's expired. That's the rules. But that's not the point.

If the dealer did care (in this instance), they would do what they could to resolve the issue. I've heard of dealers giving HUGE discounts on out of warranty repairs for items that cost way more than 7 grand to customers that weren't theirs to begin with. They are out there, they just have to want to do it. The ones that don't are the ones that have angry customers that have no recourse other than to post to a 5 page thread on NAM or MA.

Sure, some of the onus needs to fall on MINI for those kinds of things. But, it is the responsibility of the dealer to bring this to the attention of MINI for further resolution. They are, after all, the direct customer of MINI.

Point this anyway you like, but the dealer sells the cars. The dealer supports the cars. It's a broken system, but it's the system that we are stuck with.