42 below!

Posted on by Ian C.

Many readers will know about 42, the ultimate answer – some may even know how thrilled I was when we bought our first (and so far only) home in USA and it was number 42!
So when MickyD on MINI2 sent me a link to this site, after being surprised by the content I was doubly entertained by the product name, “42 below”.

Before you click on the link, be warned that “those of a sensitive disposition (and those that don’t like “toilet humour”) will probably think it’s all in rather poor taste!

If you totally fail to figure why MickyD sent the link to me, then here are some clues:

Before
After

Thanks to MickyD!

The “all new” MINI Peabody

Posted on by Ian C.

Headed over to MINI Peabody at lunchtime to meet Richard, also met Chris – both having service work done … MINI Peabody had their parking lot resurfaced this past Monday, so everywhere is smooth now, with no potholes anywhere – it would make for a great auto-x track! Also, the upstairs “owners lounge” is now finished and fully ready for use, offering satellite TV, wireless internet access, as well as the essentials like coffee!

Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC

I also noticed that the convertible MINI rear window failure still occurs …

Where is NorthAmericanMotoring?

Posted on by Ian C.

Although MINI2 is my most frequently visited (MINI related) web site, NAM (NorthAmericanMotoring) comes nicely second – both sites specialise in different areas, at least from my perspective.
The NE regional forum on MINI2 is very active & fun, and most of the MINI events I go to are planned there.
NorthAmericanMotoring seems to focus more on performance mods (engine/suspension/etc) and also has some good discussions on upgrading stereo systems – more indepth than the similar discussions on MINI2.

But since the weekend, I have been unable to access NAM – it seems to be a routing or firewall problem within “theplanet” that hosts it:
C:Documents and SettingsOwner>tracert http://www.northamericanmotoring.com
Tracing route to http://www.northamericanmotoring.com [69.93.166.248] over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 37 ms 14 ms 10 ms
…
6 21 ms 19 ms * unk-426d0e99.adelphiacom.net [66.109.14.153]
7 18 ms 19 ms * p1-00-00-00.a0.cdp00.adelphiacom.net [66.109.1.46]
8 25 ms 24 ms * p3-02-00-00.r0.nyc90.adelphiacom.net [66.109.1.21]
9 60 ms 65 ms 67 ms p3-02-00-00.c1.chi75.adelphiacom.net [66.109.0.101]
10 84 ms 83 ms 87 ms p3-01-01-00.c1.dfw91.adelphiacom.net [66.109.0.66]
11 85 ms 84 ms 84 ms g1-03-02-00.p0.dfw91.adelphiacom.net [66.109.3.78]
12 85 ms 99 ms 83 ms eq-dallas-1000M.theplanet.com [206.223.118.3]
13 133 ms 83 ms 88 ms dist-vlan31.dsr3-2.dllstx3.theplanet.com [70.85.127.30]
14 87 ms 86 ms 84 ms dist-vlan21.dsr1-1.dllstx2.theplanet.com [70.85.127.67]
15 89 ms 85 ms 83 ms car4-1-v2.dllstx2.theplanet.com [12.96.160.49]
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
…
Trace complete.

I tried contacting “theplanet” and they very unhelpfully suggested I contact the website(!); luckily I was able to contact Mark Ferguson (who runs NAM) – he very quickly replied and confirmed that I am not the only person having issues and he also believes the problem is within “theplanet”.
So hopefully the issues will be identified and resolved soon; meantime I’ll have to check NAM from the office 😉