TR Site Relaunch this weekend!

Buy 1 X Maio and re-program it with the new maps. Drive around for 3 days and then decide that the Destruction Manual is a Must read option if only to learn how to turn off that Womans Voice that's constantly telling me what to do. I hate nagging women. :D

This little unit has about a 5 inch screen that nice and bright easy to program up as required and is just held in place by a plastic clip that has a suction cap onto the windscreen and a Power take off from the cigarette lighter. Total Cost under 1 K AU and cheap to replace if required and even better the insurance company pays for it. :^0

The old system used to have a genuine Mercedes GPS mounted in the dashboard from a much latter model [b]Big Mistake there.[/b] Some nice friendly person broke a side window to get in and then proceeded to pry out the radio & GPS exit 1 dashboard and worse still they sat on the broken glass and wrecked the drivers seat as well. :(

Personally I don't clean any of my cars and as the newest one is built in 1973 they are hardly new though every one is a Classic and the Insurance reflects this most are not easily replaceable and I'm still looking for a decent 280SE which was destroyed when a fully loaded refrigerated truck rear ended us while I was stationary waiting for traffic to clear. I didn't want to drive into the side of a semi for some strange reason. That day my 28 year old son was going into hospital for Heart Surgery for some strange reason it didn't work and while he was in OR we where in the Emergence Room getting patched up. But the car did it's job excellently a total write off with the floor pan twisted to the front firewall all the seats destroyed by being bent out of shape but everyone walked away from the collision. Granted a bit battered and knocked around but no serious injuries. I think that speaks for itself really. But just to add insult to injury I wasn't allowed to move the car which was quite drivable because one of the tail lights was broken and even though all the lights worked the Police threatened to book me if I attempted to move it. Of course just then some Idiot came round the same corner and nailed the Police Car. :D

So I was held up for longer giving my statement to the police about the damage to their car and then told to move it off the main road onto one of the side streets which I wanted to do in the first place. Other than the tail light being spread all over the road I lost 1 Hub Cap and everything else stayed put exactly where it belonged. All the doors even opened & closed perfectly though the Central Locking didn't work any longer. That was in 2002 and I'm still looking for a replacement for that car.

As for the cost of parts the Genuine Merc parts are more than reasonable it's the After Market ones that are pricey so I avoid them like the plague. Oil Filters are less than $5.00 each front Brake Pads are under $30.00 and rear Pads are slightly more expensive at around $35.00. O complete tail light without bulbs is about $117.00 so over all the normal disposable parts are reasonable. It's the parts that you don't expect to replace things like Drivers Windows are very expensive about $800.00 each. Dashboards complete and ordered in from the Classic Mercedes Shop in Germany are Horrendously expensive as well [i]Glad that the Insurance Company was paying for that one[/i] it's the uncommon things that are pricey here so I try to avoid needing them. And what's funny is that as all the Mercedes belong to [b]SWMBO[/b] she washes & polishes them like she owns them and then treats them all as mobile rubbish bins so they are nice and clean on the outside and covered in real rubbish on the inside. I don't bother with decent Sound gear a $100.00 car radio CD player is good enough for my needs and some reasonable decent but inexpensive speakers fit the bill nicely. After all despite what the sales people tell you, you can not get a decent sound in a car that's being driven about so why bother wasting money? I just make sure that the CD Players can read Recorded CD's and never put an original CD in the car, so if they get stolen I'm not loosing anything that isn't easily replaced at a minimal cost and the time that [b]SWMBO[/b] watches over the computer burning the replacement CD's. :^0

The really nasty one though was the Rag Top some bright spark cut their way in and ripped out the on board GPS and Radio, it didn't matter that it was unlocked they just had to trash the Soft Top completely for some reason best known to themselves. I didn't like it anyway as [b]The Boss[/b] insisted that I buy that one for her and after that one episode she didn't want it any more so I got my way eventually. :0

About the only thing that I really get [b]Peeved Off[/b] with is the number of Bonnet Emblems that get stolen they are only about $45.00 each so they are not expensive but it's annoying to have to replace several a year. I just couldn't believe it when I walked out of the shops after replacing one only to find a young mother telling her child who was about 5 years old to [b]Pull Harder.[/b] She got really upset when I suggested that I drive over the main offender she was wanting to protect her son when I was only interested in driving over her, after all it wasn't the child's fault that his mother was a total Fool. :(

But that particular Bonnet Emblem had just been replaced and I don't think that it had even been on for an hour when I found this happening. Even the wrecked 280 had it's bonnet emblem stolen sometime between me leaving it and getting home where they had towed the car to. It's just unbelievable how many people think that it's OK to steal these things. I'm thinking about wiring one up to the output of a Coil and see them jump when they try to steal one. It would be an easy job actually as when they bend the spring loaded emblem over and break the contact the coil could discharge straight into the mounting spring. A 40,000 Volt discharge into them should stop all but the most insistent people.

Actually I do clean out the cars fairly regularly but only because I get sick & tired of having empty cans of drinks rolling around the floor and getting caught between the brake pedal and floor preventing a sudden stop. Other than that I just service them as necessary and do very little else but the engine compartment is kept clean as I detest getting covered in CRUD when I'm working on one. Other wise once the restoration is finished I don't touch them at all.

Col

It's just the niggling little things that we see as we get to have a play that become noticeable.

Col

Thanks for the ref. It's a lovely quote, isn't it? The site looks great, and you've added something that would have been on my wish list - a highlighting (or contrasting color as you have done) as a bookmark to hold my place on the board. Trying to find the way back to where you were took one trick or another, but you guys have made it simpler now. Thanks.

I do wish the "NEW"s would stand out a little more - like with red, as before - so we could scan faster to check what's new. The blue looks great, but harder to see when scanning quickly, which is what you would do, typically, when looking for new entries.

Also, I can't tell what I have already read because the links don't change to a different "read" color for me. Is that a site-thng or a setting-thing on my own computer? It also helps when scanning a discussion quickly to see what I have read (sometimes new and sometimes old) and what I have yet to get to. Thanks.

The GUI is wonderful - love the blue and the fades. Makes it easier to read and navigate. Thank you.

It is apparent that you folks have worked very hard on making improvements to the site and it is really appreciated. Thank you for all your efforts!

Edited for omissions - (i just don't care about typos anymore). :)

The steps on the mouse-over for teh Post Reply and Edit buttone, has a stage where the button completely redraws, making it almost flash on and off, results in a very annoying button press.

The 'NEW' for new posts is not easy enough, when I open a long discussion I like to scroll down VERy quickly and just lok for flashes of red, indicating new posts. The blue tone used now means navigating is slower.

I didn't noticfe the number of posts when I went to My Discussions, we used to get a summary of the title and then how many posts were there. This wa sa quick way of knowing what's new too.

We'll be addressing the "NEW" indicator and the visited link color issue very soon. Hang in there.

We tried using a soundex to find the closest matching tag. You could always force a text search by entering "amish" in the search box (it also supports all full-text boolean operators).

In any event, both internal and external reaction to the correction has been overwhelmingly negative, so we will drop the feature either tonight or tomorrow.

See, we listen to complaints.

Now, you can search for the Amish all you want:
http://search.techrepublic.com.com/index.php?c=1&q=amish&t=0

A search for "amish" yields 6 hits, only 4 of which contain said character string in either the text of the posts or the aliases of those who posted to the discussions listed in the search results.

Still, it's a vast inprovement; it's much better to have false positives than false negatives.

Ok, after my first comment, I ran across a page (which I can no longer find, naturally) that stated that GMT changed in the summer also, but of course, that goes against the very definition of "mean time", or the time when the sun is overhead (more or less). UTC is the official standard, but is commonly referred to as GMT, which is appoximately true. I believe it would be more accurate now to state that GMT has been redefined to match UTC, so my original statement is correct.

So, despite the fact that I found it on the web, we all know that 90% of what you find on the web is crap!

-Alan

get a 'Hot' string going. :D

Yes, we are going to keep looking at it in development (along with several other "suggestion" ideas). We just pulled it back for now, because it was clear that our initial implementation wasn't that good.

I found it in all the results listed here.

Yes, if I scan the [b]print[/b] display, I do find it in all 6, rather in 4 only.

Warning - Sleep deprivation may results in brain farts.

Hey guys
Where is the print tab. that was real handy to get all the posts on one page, so you dont have to open each one on its own

That would make sense to think logicaly. naaa, it's more fun to hunt for those things, it must be one of those generational things. (but, I'm getting old, because logic makes sense to me too.)

In the past, once having subscribed to a discussion, the "Notify me via e-mail when new posts are added to this thread" box at the bottom of the "Reply" screen remained checked.

Now, I see that it may or may not be checked, with no discernible pattern.

1) Re. Discussions "Posted":
..a) "Recent History" lists multiple entries for same discussion; and,
..b) "Complete History ..." is empty.

2) Re. Discussion "Started":
..a) "Recent History" goes back to APR 06; but,
..b) "Complete History ..." is empty.

3) Re. "Complete History ..."
Description read "for the last 90 days. This is neither "complete" nor adequate.

The "old" TR had problems enough with regards to being able to find one's past Discussion activity; the "new" is even worse.

We want our pasts back!

[b]SWMBO[/b] will refuse to go to the shops if I'm even within 10 miles of the place.

She refuses to allow me anywhere near the shops unless she is taking me somewhere to do something and then she makes sure that I don't do anything else [b]Like Talk to Strange Women.[/b] :D And that's only in the place that I go for something. :(

Now I'm not looking forward to tomorrow as I have to take my watch up and have a new battery fitted so that means that I'm under supervision and as it's not something that I can trust anyone else to do I just have to be there. The last time that some idiot tried to change the battery they insisted that they could replace the seal which is part of the case and after destroying the seal decided that [b]OH I Can't replace that thing what will I do now that I've wrecked a $3,000.00 Case?[/b] I only got the watch back from Switzerland a few months ago and it's stopped working so if a new battery doesn't cure the problem it's time to send it back again. The battery is much cheaper an option as a first choice than Postage to Switzerland along with the insurance. When I contacted Bulova their first response was [b]Send it Back and we'll have a look.[/b] Something less than $10.00 for a replacement battery fitted as apposed to over $150.00 in postage & insurance to be told that it has a flat battery wasn't my first choice. But if it has to go back I have a lovely new packing item for it to go in but I'll have to pull out the replaced parts from when it came back in July.

I'm more than a bit peeved about it stopping as I've only had it a few months and haven't been game to wear it often as beside the face everything has been replaced so there is effectively none of the original watch left.

Col

It is a given that the maintenance cost of both will be several orders of magnitude greater than that of acquisition.

Therefore, get the one with the lowest up-front price tag.

I like my Bulova I've had it for a very long time now and have got used to having it around. My only real problem was that I treated it as an Everyday watch which the then repairer here fought like hell over apparently he thought that as it was a Good Watch it should only be worn on Special Occasions like well [b]Never![/b] It's water resistance to 30 meters but I've never tried it at that and always remove it when I have a shower or any other times what I might get all sweaty. :D

I got it Duty Free in 1969 and it was only about 3K then. Since it's only had a few services every 2 years or so it had a new battery fitted about every 4 years a new band and then 5 years ago when the guy here had retired and no one in AU could service it I sent it to Switzerland and found out just how much I was being ripped off for parts. Here is was paying about $150.00 for a non genuine band where as the genuine ones direct from the makers only cost the equivalent of $25.00. The service 5 years ago was a major one where the case Band Face Crown Wheel and a few other bits where replaced the entire thing cost about 500 Swiss Franks.

The last time that I had to send it there the insurance company paid for it as some delusional Social Worker in the Child Welfare Industry just had to run down that Big Bad Motorcyclist to save children and broke the watch then. Not sure just how good this repair was as it's only lasted a couple of months but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt till I can get up and have a replacement battery fitted where I can stand over the guy and break his arms if he attempts to remove the seal on the back cover. :D

Over 35 years it probably cost bout 3K in repairs and is still worth well over 25K now so I don't see a problem there.

However the woman is a different kettle of fish. She started out expensive has got more expensive to maintain and things have reached a point where I'm too scared to trade her in on a new model as I'm not sure how much the new one is going to cost me. Besides she's worth her weight in Gold as she has said on several occasions now to different people about the Ducati when they mentioned that they where going to buy one but the girl fiend/wife got pregnant so they declined. Her response was why did you ever consider not buying the Ducati Women are far easier to replace, and dumping the Girl friend/wife you have to have your priorities right. :p

She's actually hard work to maintain as I'm constantly forced to drive her cars to make sure that they are OK and repair anything that breaks on them after I initially fix them up but lately because I no longer have the time to play with her play toys I've been paying someone else to do the body work. All the mechanical work is mine as I found out a long time ago that no one does a proper job while charging for the work that they haven't done. It took her 3 days to drive 1,000 K and I got all the trouble in the world over that one as first the new beaut Oil Lines kept coming off and filling the engine bay with oil then a piston broke so I had to pull an engine on the side of the road and do a Quick Dirty Rebuild overnight and then she could drive away. In the mean time the fuel filter collapsed in the car that I was driving so I only had full throttle and nothing as everything in between was blocked with bits of the fuel filter. Not a great idea on a Hot Beetle and then as she followed me the great roads tore off the muffler and I'm to this day accused of attempting to throw that muffler at her front windscreen. :^0

Now if only she would let me go to actions where there are at least 1 Vincent being placed up for Auction as well as a Gull Wing Mercedes I would quite happily buy her the Merc just to have a Vinny in the garage.

Actually I nearly started on a Gull Wind a couple of months ago as some one had a New Cylinder Head for a Gull Wing up for sale but even I thought that starting a restoration by buying a Cylinder head was way over the top. But I did give it serious consideration at the time.

Col

WitneSs the weird upper/lowecaSE LETTERS in thiS POst.

The problem 1St SURFACED UPON MY RETURN FORM THE NOTRE DAME - PENN state football game. I'd no sOONER FINIshed mapping the keySTOKE ANOMOLIEs than the problem diSsappeared. Now, for no apparent reaSON, IT's back.

The "s" KEY TOGGLEs "CAPS lock" on and off, along with generating an "s", THE "Space" bar toggleS "NUM LOCK" ON AND OFF, AND THE "UP ARROW" AND "BACKSpace arrow" perform both the intended function aS WELL As generating a "/".

All day long I've been struggling to be mindful of the need to correct my typing, but am now at the point where I'm too damned tired to bother.

Why me? I never knowingly and deliberately hurt anyone, and I'm exceedingly kind to SMALL CREATUREs. I do [b]not[/b] desERVE THIS, damn it.